All Member Open Forum

For prioritizing corrective maintenance work, we currently select 0-2 weeks (schedule break-in), 2-7 weeks (expedited), and so on, based on typical Oil & Gas consequence & likelihood criteria. Within SAP work requests, the system will populate a "required end date" (RED) based on the latest date in the selected priority period- i.e. select expedited and the system will populate an RED of 7 weeks from today.

We are experiencing RED manipulation (which is a process issue) where the user manually populates a date much earlier in the period. Does anyone have any data to suggest the impacts of performing maintenance in a 2-4 week period vs a 4-8 week period? We are trying to build a case of introducing another priority category (2-4 weeks) in order to understand the impact of short-term work and its frequency. This data is difficult to extract- i.e. We require data analytics to determine when the RED is manually entered vs allowing the system configuration.

Industry generally agrees that reactive maintenance is significantly more expensive than proactive…however, can anyone offer their experience regarding better categorization of short-term work? i.e.- As you can see, setting an RED of 15 days (in reality a break-in) vs 7 weeks (where we can utilize normal Planning, Scheduling, & Execution process) within the "expedited" category seems to large a period. Sorting the work orders by priority leads to skewed data- i.e. The perception is that our expedited work orders were requested to be completed within 7 weeks while in reality, many were manipulated to between 2-4 weeks.

Consider the following constraints:

1- we do not want to introduce SAP configuration that does not allow manual RED manipulation (due to instances where it is warranted)

2- introducing a new priority sounds simple, however, it requires significant SAP & related system impact studies to avoid an unwanted consequence

3- we know that the date manipulation results in increased material delivery costs, pressure on P&S, execution resources and related increased inefficiency, not to mention the increased safety exposure with less planful, reactive work…question is…how significant?

Bottom line- Looking for any input/experiences to evaluate the worthiness of this change vs the risk we are exposed to…and the effort it will take to facilitate.

Hi Abrar,

I think that going from 0-2 weeks (break-in) to 2-7 weeks is a big jump. A lot of major O&G companies use a similar system and several I have worked in had very similar time categories: immediate, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and beyond.

How many priorities do you have? Instead of adding in a priority category, you could 'simply' rename one of the longer-term priorities to add in a shorter-term priority.

And what is your process for assigning these priorities? Do you use a risk assessment that is jointly done between Ops and Maintenance? If not I would strongly recommend that as part of any changes you make.

You might want to consider only allowing a small group of people to manually assign a "Required End Date" - that way you can force some more control but still have the flexibility where required.

Hello Erik,

How is the risk assessment done between Ops and Maintenance? Is it similar to FMEA's RPN? I am considering updating our facility's mobile equipment criticality ratings as a joint effort between Ops and Maintenance but I'm not sure the best way to proceed. Our equipment has many components with different criticality ratings, but they haven't been updated for some time. We have ample data on downtime and the associated component but I'm not sure how to tie priority (for example: electric shovel 1st, hydraulic shovel 2nd) into the downtime data. 

Thank you,

Tatiana

Hi Tatiana, what I have used myself for many years and now teach to our clients is the use of a risk assessment matrix for new maintenance work requests: 

Thanks, EriK! We do have 6 priorities in the system and a well-developed corrective maintenance prioritization tool based on the risk matrix to support decision making. The issue is the manipulation of the dates and I'll take into consideration your advice around who should change the REDs. 

Hello Abrar!!, I assume you are already using FMEA and condition monitoring with instruments and the 5 senses, as this will significantly reduce reactive maintenance and emergencies.

One possible solution proposal would be to perform a data analysis to determine the impact of manipulation of Required End Dates (RED) and establish new maintenance work prioritization criteria that appropriately categorize short-term work. This could involve creating a new priority category of 2-4 weeks, which would help to avoid costly reactive work. Additionally, the possibility of conducting impact studies on the SAP system and company resources should be considered before implementing any changes to the work prioritization system. Training users on proper SAP system usage to avoid manual manipulation of Required End Dates could also be considered.

Thanks, Edgar! We are already working on the data analysis side to validate our assumptions and it isn't easy to get this change data from SAP. We also have suggesstions to introduce new priorities.