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What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

  • 1.  What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 11-21-2023 05:52 AM

    Dear Sirs,

    Greetings for the day! The impetus for cost reduction is a constant reality and the maintenance function is faced with increasing pressures for cost reduction. In this context, what are some of the strategies that can be undertaken for reduction of the maintenance costs without compromising reliability & safety?

    Regards,

    Srihari



    ------------------------------
    Srihari R,
    Manager-Asset Management
    Thyssenkrupp Industries India Ltd
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 11-22-2023 09:04 AM

    Maintenance does not control most maintenance costs or lost production, which are typically  due to defects induced upstream of maintenance through poor design (insufficient design for ease of operation or maintenance), poor procurement (focusing on price vs. total cost of ownership), stores (focusing on inventory reduction vs. parts availability), operation (poor operating, startup, shutdown, changeover, and shift consistency practices).  Yes, maintenance does need to have precision practices, excellence in PM and planning and scheduling.  However, if the total number of defects overwhelm the ability of the maintenance function to apply excellence in maintenance practices, and the system will fail, inducing higher maintenance costs, and coincidentally lower production.   What is needed is a production and maintenance partnership, along with collaboration among the functional groups focused on defect elimination.  Work in a collaborative manner and defects will be reduced, maintenance costs will decline, and production will improve.  



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    Ron Moore
    Managing Partner
    The RM Group, Inc.
    Knoxville, TN 37934
    Tel: 865-675-7647
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 11-22-2023 09:16 AM

    This sounds like a test question. A challenge reliability engineers are always up against. I must say it is important to point out, and stand by, that appropriate and well executed strategies will reduce long term maintenance cost over time. Without understanding the changes you may have the opposite effect and increase cost in another area.  When in this situation a few ideas come to mind.

    Is your foundational execution of maintenance including work processes like planning and scheduling and resource allocation optimized? No change will be effective without focus here.

    Are you performing effective precision maintenance? When maintenance is performed could it be leading to additional failures? Ensuring proper training and tools are utilized when performing maintenance is essential.

    Look at your existing time based maintenance actions. Have you assessed the risk (failure modes/mechanism) that these time based maintenance efforts are addressing? Without fully understanding the risk your actions are mitigating you will not be efficient with your resources. I have found when examining time based maintenance plans you will find at least a few strategies that are doing nothing to help with the failures you are seeing or would expect to see with that particular asset's and use case. 

    Are you spending maintenance dollars repairing repeat failures? Building a robust RCA culture will reduce repeat failures which can have a major impact on spend and uptime.

    Where is the most money being spent? Some basic Perato and bad actor analysis could lead you to a big win. There is that old saying "don't be penny-wise and pound foolish".

    It would be great to hear where you are focusing these efforts. 



    ------------------------------
    Jesse Day
    Sr. Reliability Engineer
    Wacker Polysilicon
    Charleston TN
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 11-22-2023 11:13 AM
    Hi,

    Maintenace costs usually attributed to several cost factors:
    • Labour 
    • Equipment (Capex)
    • Integration Costs
    • Quality of condition monitoring data
    I ran into a very interesting solution that helps dramatically reduce several of these factors.  https://tractian.com/en
    The beauty of their solution is that they give you the sensors for free, there is no integration with IT department because they transmit all the data via a 5G gateway and they only charge you for the condition monotiling data. 
    What really stood out to me was the quality of the analysis they perform. Since they have thousands of sensors out there, they can identify vibration patterns using AI and they really give you the prescriptive advice that lowers the maintenance cost and prevents costly downtime. If you want more information feel free to email me directly.

    Happy Thanksgiving. 

    Alex Aharonov

    408-476-8163

     




    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 11-22-2023 11:23 PM

    Thank you for your insightful responses!

    1) The maintenance budgeting exercise is being done on an annual basis. We are working towards a zero based budgeting- there is a tendency to take the previous year figure and truncate the value in the budgeting exercise. The zero based budgeting will try to address this issue.

    2) Due to pressure on the costs, instances were observed wherein workarounds were made, since the original spares were not available on time. This has led to expensive repairs during the course of operations over  a period of time.

    3) Criticality analysis for the plant has been done. The asset ranking has been done based on the most critical,critical and non critical equipment's. All the needed spares are being ordered with priority being given to the most critical and critical equipment's.

    4) The PM program is more of a time based system- we are in the process of doing condition appraisal of the critical equipment's. Refurbishment plans are being made on the basis of the condition appraisal-which at this stage seems to be more towards machine rebuild and capital overhauls-which were neglected as due to budget pressures.

    5) A rudimentary CBM plan is in place- which involves measurement of vibration using a portable analyzer. This is giving early gains. In line oil filtration has also been started. We are getting improvements in terms of reduced oil temperature. Heat exchangers are being serviced in this process as well.

    At the initial stage,there is an outflow of money, which is needed for getting the plant in a needed shape. Going further, we are in the plan of circulating the gains made by maintenance practices- such as reduced oil consumption and improved uptime on monthly basis.

    I would like to thank Mr.Ron Moore on his pointers towards precision maintenance. There are definite gains that can be had through precision maintenance program. As Mr.Jesse Day rightly pointed, the existing PM program seems to be more of a time based schedule. FMEA is being planned on the most critical equipment's- to start with. We shall be upgrading the checklists as the output of the FMEA. And thanks for the input on the sensors-Alex. 

    The plant is in a client facility wherein we are providing maintenance services and we are looking to improve reliability and uptime through the adoption of best M&R practices.

    Regards,

    Srihari



    ------------------------------
    Srihari R,
    Manager-Asset Management
    Thyssenkrupp Industries India Ltd
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 11-23-2023 01:55 AM
    Edited by Erik Hupje 11-23-2023 01:55 AM

    Hi Srihari, reducing maintenance costs in a sustainable manner, without compromising on reliability and safety should in my view look at these 4 approaches:

    1. Tackle low-maintenance productivity
    2. Improve your preventive maintenance program
    3. Eliminate all those repeat failures
    4. Improve your maintenance contracts and rates

    I wrote a pretty detailed article about it a while ago, which you can read here: 

    4 Simple Steps to Reduce Maintenance Costs The Right Way! (reliabilityacademy.com)

    Hope that helps. 



    ------------------------------
    Erik Hupje
    http://www.reliabilityacademy.com
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikhupje/
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 11-23-2023 03:37 AM

    Dear Mr.Erik,

    Thank you for your valuable inputs. I will try to implement them for reduction of breakdowns and thereby reduction of costs in a sustainable manner. I have been reading your posts in Linkedin and I have found them to be useful.

    Regards,

    Srihari



    ------------------------------
    Srihari R,
    Manager-Asset Management
    Thyssenkrupp Industries India Ltd
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 11-23-2023 07:50 AM

    It's not so much about reducing costs in maintenance - that concept results in a reactive program, disaster, or usually both.  The concept should actually be a focus on performing the right maintenance on the right equipment at the right time for the right reasons.  This activity is the goal of development such as Reliability Centered Maintenance, which is a method for achieving that goal (as well as maintenance effectiveness reviews, which are used to verify the effectiveness of the programs).  There are similar approaches, such as maintenance optimization.

    You may want to consider how to tie your maintenance program to profitability goals for the company, or similar.  Such as energy reduction, emissions improvements, etc.  Other ways to accomplish this can be found in the work that SMRP participated in with NIST: Manufacturing Machinery Maintenance | NIST  This work was performed by NIST economists who reviewed everything from impact on corporate goals to safety (ie: reduction in safety-related concerns based on maintenance type).



    ------------------------------
    Howard W Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP
    Random Past SMRP Chair (2018), 2019+ Govt Relations Smart Grid, Infrastructure and Cybersecurity Working Group Chair,
    Chair Technical Standards wind, solar, energy storage, American Clean Power (formerly AWEA), and
    President
    MotorDoc LLC
    Lombard, Illinois
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 11-23-2023 11:31 PM

    Dear Sir,

    Thank you for your insights. We need to involve both the operations and the maintenance crews in the efforts to reduce unplanned downtime. We are working to have a cross functional team of for problem solving. We are able to have lot of incremental efforts being done in the direction, that done need too much of statistical analysis- there is a leak in the hydraulic line- that simply needs to be fixed. Those efforts are being done. We are also taking a detailed look into the maintenance checklists and are in the process of revision of checks that dont seem to add real value. I will also look up into the work done by NIST.

    Regards,

    Srihari



    ------------------------------
    Srihari R,
    Manager-Asset Management
    Thyssenkrupp Industries India Ltd
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 02-06-2024 03:22 PM

    Srihari, are you making progress?  You've received a lot of great advice from the respondents.  A very good book to have on your shelf is written by my friend, Dr. Celso de Azevedo, "Asset Management Insights: Phases, Practices, and Value".  

    Additionally, what have you done to operationalize the asset strategies resulting from FMEA studies?  You wrote, "We shall be upgrading the checklists as the output of the FMEA".  Do you have something in place that will allow you to see compliance to these checklists?  Will you have something in place that enables you to monitor the condition protections prescribed by the FMEA?

    Happy to discuss further.



    ------------------------------
    Marc Laplante
    Asset Management Principle
    Committee Member ISO TC251
    Itus Digital
    Charleston, South Carolina

    mlaplante@itusdigital.com
    www.itusdigital.com
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 12-04-2023 09:04 AM

    Good comments from others.  I agree with Ron.  Maintenance maintains what is there.  When it fails for any reason, maintenance is expected to repair even if it has nothing to do with maintenance.  Focusing on cutting maintenance costs will not help in those cases.

    If everything is done right, equipment runs to full life.  Less than full life then a premature failure or maintenance must be performed.  Why does it not reach full life?  Only 4 real reasons - Design, installation, Operation (including commissioning and startup), and routine maintenance (lubrication, replacing wear parts, etc.).  

    Maintenance cost is just a reflection of how well all those 4 elements are executed.  To operate maintenance must be done.  Companies put all repairs under maintenance when in reality, a large piece of it is not even maintenance.  So you can address the routine maintenance root causes as it relates to real maintenance.  How you perform routine maintenance and replacement maintenance is about the only real cost lever you control.

    Here is an article I wrote a few years ago about the maintenance cost piece.  Again its the only real control you have in maintenance.

    https://reliabilityweb.com/articles/entry/maintenance-rebuild-decision-reuse-or-replace

    Outside of maintenance, you'll need good reliability support on RCFA to determine where the root cause of any premature failures you have where full life of the assets have not been reached.  I'll tell you what I see a lot and that is there are lots of design errors (equipment and systems) where the failure and high maintenance cost is just designed and built in.  

    Good luck.



    ------------------------------
    Randy Riddell, CMRP, PSAP, CLS
    Reliability Manager
    Essity
    Cherokee AL
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    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: What are some strategies for reducing maintenance costs without compromising reliability?

    Posted 02-07-2024 07:20 AM

    I would agree with Ron and Erik on this one.  Eliminating failures is a strategy that can be measured and show some quick wins for you.  Optimizing your PM program to fit the defect elimination strategy will help with that and your safety component.  Safety Task Analysis (STAs)) will give you some added benefits towards this as well.  Lastly, your planning and scheduling efforts need to be on point.  Aligning PM and CM opportunities when you have downtime will surely save you time and money if aligned well.

    One thing that I haven't seen mentioned that you may want to consider is the cultural mindset around what maintenance does.  Alot of people want to work on their car while they're driving it. The main thing to think about here is what small changes to your program or strategy fit within your service level agreements. If you don't have service level agreements with your end users, then this strategy may open up alignment and that change management .  Can the intent of the SLAs be reached and are your executives helping you in this endeavor?  It's important to control the change management .  That will free up time because everyone will be on the same path .  Teamwork makes the Dream work.



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    Michael Guns, Jr., CRL, CEFP, CMRP
    Senior Maximo/EAM Consultant
    JFC & Assoicates
    www.jfc-assoicates.com
    mguns@jfc-associates.com Cell: 302.358.9381
    www.linkedin.com/in/michael-guns-jr-1b691882
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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