What Constitutes World

8/2/2019 What Constitutes World

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What Constitutes World-Class Reliability

and Maintenance?

I have received many calls asking, "How can you tell if an organization is a world class

reliability and maintenance organization or not?"

How well the systems and practices discussed in this column are being used indicate to me how

far a plant has to go to become "world-class maintenance and reliability. I would suggest

reading this column with a group of operations and maintenance employees that includes both

management and craftspeople.

More articles about Best Practices

Best PerformersCurrent best practice-an educational journey

Reliability and Maintenance Management Current Best Practices 1Reliability and Maintenance Management Current Best Practices 2

Novozyme wins maintenance excellence using IDCON philosophy

On a scale of zero to ten, rate your plant's use of the following systems and practices, with tenmeaning that you are so good that it would probably not pay off to do more improvements in this

area. A five indicates that you feel you do a good job, while a zero means that your performance

is a disaster.

1. We specify, design, and buy assets based on Life Cycle Cost (LCC) instead of lowest cost tobuy. This means that decisions on what to buy are based on costs to buy and costs to own an

asset over its economical life, instead of buying assets solely on purchase price. A world-classorganization has maintenance professionals involved very early in a project. These professionals

know how to perform reliability and maintainability analyses of systems and components.

As a result, complete bills of materials, training manuals, and detailed drawings are deliveredaccording to your documented maintenance standards. Also, guards allow easy inspections on

the run, components requiring frequent maintenance are easily accessible, and so forth.

2. We, as a management team, are focusing on the same results. Operations, engineering,

maintenance, and stores are working toward the same goal. Your organization is jointly focusing

on reliability performance, not on cutting costs until it sees what results it gets. This means thatyour whole organization's most important goal is competitiveness through manufacturingreliability and cost, rather than focusing only on maintenance costs and perceived maintenance

downtime.

As a result, your Overall Production Efficiency continuously increases, and, consequently, total

manufacturing costs decrease. This is very important, because increasing product throughput to
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sales generates three to 20 times more revenue in a normal market when compared with cutting

costs for work done to generate the needed reliability for increasing product throughput.

3. We have developed and documented a reliability and maintenance policy that includes a three-

to five-year improvement plan. This policy is communicated to all employees. This means that

you have described all essential reliability and maintenance elements, their key performanceindicators, why these are important, how people are being recognized when improving toward

goals, the importance of reliability for plant competitiveness, and so forth.

As a result, your employees are well informed and motivated to do their part to continuously

improve toward the same goals. People know which product line to prioritize because they knowwhat the market demands. Work priorities are not based on emotions. Instead, they are based on

what is best for the plant. There is a certainty of direction and a good understanding of what the

future holds.

4. Craftspeople have a high level of skills and front line supervision adjusts its management style

accordingly. This means that front line supervisors, team leaders, or coordinators do not need tospend much time instructing people. Instead, they support them through good planning and

scheduling of work, identifying individual training needs, organizing this training, coaching root

cause failure analysis, and other empowering tasks.

As a result, you have a thinking and problem solving organization instead of a reactive one.People are enthusiastic about what they do. Their griping level is very low, and 10% to 30% of

all maintenance hours, including crafts people's hours, are used on problem solving and

implementation of improvements.

5. Maintenance crafts people's work is limited by their skills, not by rigid craft lines. This means

that you might have only one mechanical craft that includes welders, pipe fitters, machinists,

millwrights, etc., and another craft for electricians and instrumentation. However, to have this ona piece of paper is not worth anything. Your people are being trained to use all necessary skills

and supervisors are assigning work in a way that reflects your multi skills or multi craft work

practices. At the same time, while you have work flexibility (horizontal skills), you still havevertical skills in areas such as hydraulics and electronics and other areas requiring specialists.

As a result, you find it very easy to plan and schedule work because it involves less people to do

a job that crosses over between traditional craft lines. Your craftspeople's job satisfaction is also

higher after the initial frustration created by the change you might have to go through to

Note: This column is a continuation of the January P&P maintenance column by Christer

Idhammar. In that column, Mr. Idhammar asked readers to evaluate how well their mills had

implemented the systems and practices required to become a "world-class" facility.In this column, I continue discussing the systems and practices that indicate to me that a mill is

"world-class." To evaluate how far your mill has to go to achieve this designation, I would

suggest reading this column with a group of operations and maintenance employees that includesboth management and craftspeople.



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Reliability and Maintenance Management Current Best Practices 1

Reliability and Maintenance Management Current Best Practices 2Novozyme wins maintenance excellence using IDCON philosophy

On a scale of zero to ten, rate your mill's use of the following systems and practices, with ten

meaning that you are so good that it would probably not pay off to do more improvements in thisarea. A five indicates that you feel you do a good job, while a zero means that your performance

is a disaster.

6. Our level of planning and scheduling is high. Whatever you call your maintenance program,

and whatever improvement initiatives you implement, you will find that planning and scheduling

are at the hub of cost-effective maintenance practices. Even programs like reliability centered

maintenance (RCM), total productive maintenance (TPM), reliability based maintenance (RBM),or other three-letter acronyms for maintenance programs will soon discover this fact.

Before you rate how well you think you plan and schedule, it is necessary to understand the

basics of these concepts. First of all, planning can be described as all work you do in order toprepare for a job. These preparations include the final scope of work, safety requirements, major

steps of work, important clearances, spare parts needed and secured as available for when the job

is scheduled, special tools, scaffolding, skills required, time needed to do the job, and so forth.Secondly, scheduling means to decide when the job will be done and who will do it.

The following are some effective guidelines for planning and scheduling. When evaluating how

well your mill plans and schedules, examine how well you follow these practices:

A. Planning is done before scheduling.B. Planning and scheduling are done before execution of the work.

C. Scheduling is done for the work that needs to be done. Then, you find and assign the rightpeople to do the work.

D. When executing a planned and scheduled job, people are not interrupted to do other work.

E. A job is not finished before you have documented why the job had to be done.F. You later find the root cause of any identified problems.

If you implement the above planning and scheduling practices, your results will show less use of

outside contractors, less unscheduled overtime, increased overall equipment efficiency (OEE),less unscheduled downtime, and more free time to perform root cause failure analysis.

7. We correctly prioritize work. To prioritize work correctly, you must realize the consequencesof not doing the work before a given time. Consequences include environmentaldamage/personal injury, high costs for lost production, and/or maintenance and asset

deterioration.

In a plant with multiple product lines, it is necessary, at any given time, to know which line is themost important to keep running in order to deliver to the customer on time. It is also important to

know what the added value is for the product. In addition, it should be very difficult to add a job

to a closed schedule at your mill. As a result, you will have very few changes in your


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weekly/daily and shutdown maintenance schedules. Disciplined priorities will also lead to

correctly performing planning and scheduling tasks.

8. Preventive Maintenance/Essential Care and Condition Monitoring (PM/ECCM) content is

right. To have the right content in your PM/ECCM program, you must base it on the

consequences of not preventing the failure as mentioned in the previous section. Also, theconsequence of a failure must be more "expensive" than the cost of trying to prevent it.

The right content also includes using the right methods for basic inspections and condition

monitoring. This means that you do not have "check," "inspect," or such as the only descriptionsof inspections in your PM/ECCM program. Your methods and descriptions must be more

precise.

Most of your PM/ECCM should be done while equipment is operating. Very little should be

done while equipment is not operating due to inspections, fixed-time maintenance overhauls and

replacements, or other such tasks. Also, PM/ECCM frequencies should be based on failure

developing time and failure distribution, according to results-oriented maintenance teachings.

As a result, your PM/ECCM program will be very cost-effective. Also, you will do lessPM/ECCM than before you implemented the above principles.

Note: This column is a continuation of the January and February P&P maintenance columns by

Christer Idhammar. In these columns, Mr. Idhammar asked readers to evaluate how well their

mills had implemented the systems and practices required to become a "world-class" facility.


Best Performers

Current best practice-an educational journey



In this column, I continue discussing the systems and practices that indicate to me that a mill is

"world class." To evaluate how far your mill has to go to achieve this designation, I wouldsuggest reading this column with a group of operations and maintenance employees that includes

both management and craftspeople.

On a scale of zero to ten, rate your mill's use of the following systems and practices, with ten

meaning that you are so good that it would probably not pay off to do more improvements in this


is a disaster.

9. PM/ECCM execution IS 100%. If you have the right content in your preventive

maintenance/essential care and condition monitoring (PM/ECCM) program, there is no reason tohave less than 100% completion of the PM/ECCM you have implemented. Operators should be

trained in essential care and inspections of equipment and should perform most of these activities

when it is practical to do so.As a result, you will have very few, if any, unplanned and unscheduled maintenance events.


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More than half of the work you do during your shutdowns and in weekly/daily schedules will be

as a result of your PM/ECCM program. This, in turn, will give you an opportunity to plan andthen schedule more work. Also, a good PM/ECCM program is a prerequisite to good planning

and scheduling of maintenance and, consequently, to increased overall equipment efficiency.

10. 85% of spare parts and materials are delivered to the job site. If planning and scheduling aredone correctly, the spare parts store will be in a position to effectively deliver spare parts and

materials to the job site or to designated areas. Or, it will at least stage spare parts in, or close to,

the store area. As a result, you will have very few people going to the store to get parts or waitingat the store window to get what they need.

11. Service level is 97% for the spare parts store. To maintain a necessary level of trust in yourstore system, the service level-getting the right part when you need it-must be very close to 97%.

If it goes much below that level, people will loose trust in your store, and to survive, they will

start building their own stores without the knowledge of the store's management. This could lead

to the store's management falling under the false impression that they are doing very well in their

efforts to reduce the store's inventory, causing them to continue their current practices. This willeventually lead to less trust in the store's ability to deliver what is needed when it is needed. As a

result of good and cost-effective management of the spare parts store, you will see that the store'sinventory value is decreasing with maintaining the service level. Also, there will be no unknown

and undocumented store items in maintenance areas, offices, etc.

12. The technical database is 95% correct. The technical database should always be up to date.

Equipment, loop, or electrical circuit identity should be the only thing needed to find and request

or purchase spare parts or other information.

As a result, no time is wasted in searching for store items or other information.

Note: This column is a continuation of the January, February, and March P&P maintenance

columns by Christer Idhammar. In these columns, Mr. Idhammar asked readers to evaluate howwell their mills had implemented the systems and practices required to become a "world-class"

facility.






"world class." To evaluate how far your mill has to go to achieve this designation, I would

suggest reading this column with a group of operations and maintenance employees that includesboth management and craftspeople.

On a scale of zero to ten, rate your mill's use of the following systems and practices, with tenmeaning that you are so good that it would probably not pay off to do more improvements in this


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is a disaster.

15. The very basics of maintenance are instituted. I have mentioned many times before in this

series of columns that the only major difference between the best performers and others is that

the best performers implement what others only talk about.Best performers continuously work on improving the very basics of maintenance while others

often overlook them. Some of the maintenance basics that I will discuss in this column include:

Detailed cleaning of components

Lubrication

Alignment

Balancing

Filtration Operations practices.

CLEANING OF COMPONENTS. Detailed cleaning of components and equipment is often ano mans land, because everybody agrees that it is important, but nobody wants to do it. In a

world-class reliability and maintenance organization, components and equipment are cleaned indetail. Such an organization realizes that good inspections cannot be done without this level of

cleaning and that cleaning also extends the life of components. For example, the life of electric

motors (electric life) varies between five months for a dirty motor and over 20 years for a cleanmotor.

LUBRICATION. Best performers also work on continuously improving lubrication. Their

lubricatorsbecause they do believe they need skilled lubricatorsare trained in componentwear criteria and required lubrication.

Good lubrication must include such work as improving the choice of lubricant, method of

lubrication, filtration of oil, cooling systems, prevention of water content, and removal of watercontent. There are many examples of how this work results in significant life extension, lower

lubrication costs, and increased production throughput.

ALIGNMENT AND BALANCING. Best performers have, and adhere to, alignment standards

of, for example, 0.002 in. or less parallel misalignment for an 8-in. to 10-in. diameter coupling

running at 1,500 rpm in most installations. Precision alignment and balancing of rotaryassemblies results in reduced levels of vibration, longer component life, lower costs, and

increased equipment reliability. On average, a world-class value is 0.1 in./sec or lower. Several

experts in this area have shown a strong correlation between low vibration level and high

reliability and increased production throughput.

FILTRATION. Another maintenance basic is filtration of hydraulic fluids, lubrication systems,

and seal water for mechanical seals. In most cases, standard filters are not good enough. If youuse filters that filter out particles smaller than 5 microns (0.0002 in.), you will have much fewer

problems with leaking hydraulics, bearings, and mechanical seals. For example, hydraulics will

not leak, bearing life will be extended by up to four times, and the average life of mechanical


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seals will be over eight years.

OPERATIONS PRACTICES. Best performers teach the operators essential care and inspection

of components and equipment. This includes how to start up and shut down processes and

equipment without causing any damage. In many mills, it is not uncommon that equipment fails

because a steam system was started up too fast, causing equipment failures because of waterhammer and thermal stresses, mechanical seal failure because pumps were started up before seal

water was turned on to the seals, and so forth.

Note: This column is a continuation of the January, February, March and April P&P

maintenance columns by Christer Idhammar. In these columns, Mr. Idhammar asked readers toevaluate how well their mills had implemented the systems and practices required to become a

"world-class" facility.


Best Performers

Current best practice-an educational journeyReliability and Maintenance Management Current Best Practices 1




"world class. To evaluate how far your mill has to go to achieve this designation, I would

suggest reading this column with a group of operations and maintenance employees that includes


On a scale of zero to ten, rate your mills use of the following systems and practices, with ten

meaning that you are so good that it would probably not pay off to do more improvements in thisarea. A five indicates that you feel you do a good job, while a zero means that your performance

is a disaster.

Many readers of this column have e-mailed me with questions about how many evaluation points

there will ultimately be in this series of articles. There could be no end to how long this list might

become, but I do, however, intend to keep it at 20 points. I am also very encouraged to hear thatso many mills are using this list to do a self-analysis of their maintenance performance; one day I

hope to receive those results.

Many other questions that I have received concerned a typical evaluation average. Perhaps this

question is coming up because you find that your mills ratings are low. We have done over 250

similar evaluations in mills worldwide and the average in most mills is between 4 and 5. Bestmills rank above 6, and very few are above 7.

Hopefully, this gives you some encouragement. If you rated yourselves above 6, you are eithervery good, or you might be overly optimistic or unaware of your actual performance. Remember

that we demanded no fewer than 50% craftspeople to participate in the evaluations that resulted

in the above averages. If only management does the evaluation, ratings tend to be higher.


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14. Safety standards are very high. Without having enough statistical data to make this a proven

fact, I am convinced that there is a strong relationship between good maintenance practices and a

mills safety performance.

The average OIR (OSHA Incident Rate = incidents per 200,000 working hours) for the U.S. pulp

and paper industry is about 8.5, though below 2 is considered good. Even given the fact that OIRreporting disciplines differ between mills, a mill with a low rating is doing something different

than the average mill. Three things they do better are maintenance prevention, preventivemaintenance, and planning and scheduling.

15. Front-line supervision supervises many crafts (see point 4 in the January P&P maintenancecolumn). A good organization needs good supervisors. However, the role and management style

of a supervisor must change with the skill level of their craftspeople. To be effective, systems

and procedures must be instituted to support the supervisor and the team of craftspeople.

If your mills craftspeople have a high level of skills, they do not need detailed technical

instruction. Instead, they need support in the form of priorities, planning, and scheduling. Bothcraftspeople and supervisors must realize that people skills are more important than technical

skills.

As a result, your mill will see good teamwork, motivated people, and high working morale.

People will also have more time to work on problem solving and to eliminate sources of failure.

16. Individual training plans are developed and used. As a result of a crafts skills analysis, yourmill will have individual training plans for each craftsperson and supervisor. Your training is

then very focused and cost-effective. You measure training by increased skill levels, not by the

number of training hours. In addition, your mill very rarely lacks the skills to do a proficient job.

17. Root cause failure analysis. Your mill has established a reliability group as task forces or as aseparate function. You know which problems you should work on, by priority, and you are

continuously designing out problems. Key people are trained in FMEA (Failure Mode and EffectAnalysis) methodologies and are using these skills to solve operations, as well as equipment,

problems.

In a bigger maintenance organization, you have a separate reliability group. Because problems

are a combination of equipment, operations, people, and other factors, this group might not

report to operations or maintenance, but to the mill manager or independent engineeringmanager.

As a result, your mill has continuously fewer problems. You do not discuss increasing yourpreventive maintenance efforts, but instead you decrease (optimize) predictive maintenance.

Note: This column is a continuation of the January, February, March and April and May P&Pmaintenance columns by Christer Idhammar. In these columns, Mr. Idhammar asked readers to

evaluate how well their mills had implemented the systems and practices required to become a

"world-class" facility.


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Best Performers

Current best practice-an educational journey

Reliability and Maintenance Management Current Best Practices 1Reliability and Maintenance Management Current Best Practices 2



world class. To evaluate how far your mill has to go to achieve this designation, I wouldsuggest reading this column with a group of operations and maintenance employees that includes


On a scale of zero to ten, rate your mills use of the following systems and practices, with tenmeaning that you are so good that it would probably not pay off to do more improvements in this

area. A five indicates that you feel you do a good job, while a zero means that your performanceis a disaster.

18. Use of time. This column includes a table that describes the typical, good, and world-classdistribution and use of time in a maintenance department. If you take some time to study the

figures in the table and compare them to how your maintenance department honestly uses its

time, you might be in for a surprise. Before you do this, however, it is necessary to go throughthe definitions for the categories of work used in the table.

Daily and weekly work means all work you can do independently, whether or not the process is

in operation.

Shutdown is all work that requires the process to be down in order to do a safe job.

Only planned work is all work executed after it has been planned, though it has not been

scheduled. In a pulp mill with a continuous digester, or for a paper machine and other processesthat are difficult to start and stop, this category of work is less common than in a packaging or

finishing area where there are many minor stops and it is easy to stop and start equipment.

However, it is still very cost-effective to use this category where applicable.

Only scheduled work is all work executed as scheduled before it has been planned. You can say

that you have turned the planning and scheduling process upside down. If you do it correctly,however, you plan before you schedule.

Break in work is all work that is added to the schedule after it was closed. Closing time for aschedule is recommended to be about 19 hours in advance of execution for daily and weekly

work. Closing time is about one week for shorter shutdowns (10 to 12 hours) and four weeks for

a longer shutdown (over five days).

CATEGORY TYPICALGOODWORLD-

CLASS


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Shutdown:Planned and

scheduled work

55% 80% 90%

Shutdown:Only planned

work

2 5 5

Shutdown:

Only scheduledwork

20 < 10 0

Shutdown:

Break work23 < 5 < 3

Daily and

weekly:Planned and

scheduled work

15 60 65

Daily andweekly:

Only planned

work

5 7 10

Daily andweekly:

Only scheduled

work

30 < 10 < 3

Daily andweekly:

Break in work

50 < 20 2

Daily and

weekly:Thinking and

solving

problems

0 5 > 20

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