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  • 1.  MTTR and technician travel time – discussion

    Posted 2 days ago
    I would like to open a discussion regarding the definition and measurement of MTTR (Mean Time To Repair).
    According to the SMRP Best Practices, page 83, MTTR starts when the technician arrives at the equipment and ends when the asset is restored to an operable condition. Based on this definition, technician travel time is not included in MTTR.
    From a technical perspective, this approach makes sense when MTTR is used to assess maintainability, understood as an intrinsic characteristic of the asset. Including delays related to logistics, distance, access, or organizational constraints-factors external to the equipment-could distort the true evaluation of maintainability.
    In practice, however, many organizations include travel time within MTTR to better reflect perceived downtime, especially in large plants, mining operations, or geographically dispersed assets.
    I'd be interested to hear the group's perspective:
    • Do you exclude technician travel time when MTTR is used specifically for maintainability analysis?
    • Do you track travel or response time as a separate metric, keeping MTTR aligned with SMRP guidance?
    • How do you handle this definition when MTTR is used for benchmarking or contractual KPIs?
    Looking forward to your insights and practical experiences.



  • 2.  RE: MTTR and technician travel time – discussion

    Posted yesterday
    image
    Hi Luis, 
    I think from SMRP Best Practices, travel time is already included as per attached photo.
    Thanks


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    Ahmed Mohamed Helmy Khattab
    Almanzala
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: MTTR and technician travel time – discussion

    Posted 4 hours ago

    Hi Ahmed, thank you for sharing the diagram.

    Beyond the visual representation, the key point is the purpose of MTTR and the system property being evaluated.

    The diagram explicitly separates the "Get maintenance technician on site" phase from diagnosis and repair activities. If the intention were to include response or travel time within MTTR, the logical starting point would have been something like "call to maintenance." This separation clearly suggests that organizational response time is distinguished from technical repair time.

    From a maintainability and inherent availability (Ai) perspective, MTTR starts when the technician arrives on site and ends when the asset is restored, in line with SMRP Best Practices and the classical maintainability approach.

    For this reason, it is clearer to:

    • Define MTTR from technician arrival to restoration,

    • Measure travel and response times as separate indicators, and

    • Use complementary metrics when the objective is to represent total downtime or service performance.

    Looking forward to other perspectives.



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    Luis Valencia Morón
    Gerente General
    Asset Healt Management E.I.R.L.
    Lima
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: MTTR and technician travel time – discussion

    Posted 3 hours ago

    Hi Luis,

    I think I got your point, and I am sharing same concern with you.

    MTTR must reflect just repair activities (starts from arriving to the equipment to end of repair), as other time (like travel time) is already included in MDT (mean down time), so traveling could be traced in another KPI.

    and current MTTR is also includes time to travel to stores to get any required spares (which not typically an inherent maintainability factor).

    I reviewed Ramesh Gulati's maintenance and reliability best practices book, and found that he only takes actual repair time into consideration

    "MTTR is the average time to repair assets. It is pure repair time (called by some wrench time)." Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices

    So, I think we have three distinct terms that need more clarification from SMRP

    Wrench time (I think no confusion with it - only actual work is considered).

    MTTR (what to include in the metric and what to exclude).

    MDT (I think no confusion with it - All downtimes are considered).

    Thanks Luis for escalating this point, I think we need some clarification about it.

    Best Regards

    Ahmed



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    Ahmed Mohamed Helmy Khattab
    Almanzala
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    Original Message


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