MechChem Africa February 2017

Maintenance as a key part of overall strategy can improve profits by reducing the costly effects of machine downtime. “Indeed, maintenance should be seen as a profit centre,” according to Greg Sassen, SKF asset reliability consultant. In this article he talks about SKF asset efficiency optimisation (AEO), combined with proactive reliability maintenance (PRM) hardware and software. Reliability-focused maintenance as a profit centre

T he correct implementation of hard- ware and software will assist com- panies in realising a return on their investment by reducing mean time between failures (MTBF), extending equip- ment life, improving uptime, plant availability, production and profitability. It is essential for companies to identify key business goals and set associated perfor- mance targets in order to remain competitive and profitable. “The overall objective in this effort shouldbe tocreatea strategyaligned to business goals and then followawell-defined process to drive down total costs of owner- ship whilst maintaining or even increasing production time,” suggests Sassen. Maintenance is usually seenas anecessary cost of doing business. “Neglecting mainte- nance results inequipment failure, unplanned downtime and a drop in production levels,”

continues Sassen. “However, one train of thought suggests that manufacturers could make a return on their investment in mainte- nance and even that maintenance should be seen as a profit centre.” Implementing maintenance as a key part of overall strategy can improve profits by reducing the scourge of machine downtime. For maximum effect, maintenance should work in partnership with other elements of the business including engineering and pro- duction, to pinpoint howa reliability-focused maintenance process can deliver specific business goals. Sassen recommends an integrated strat- egy and technology approach. “A strategywill ensure these programmes are implemented cohesively throughout a plant. SKF offers a newgenerationof integratedapproaches that take the needs of the entire organisation into

account. Once implemented, these strategies enablemaintenance requirements to be ana- lysed, assessed andmanaged simultaneously, raisinguptimeandproductivityandimproving the bottom line.” “Investigationofmaintenance procedures is a good starting point,” recommends Sassen. “Factory maintenance has historically been done reactively, linked to set time intervals and machine or component failure. This results in poor control of production assets (people and machines) and drags productiv- ity down.” Amore proactive, holistic approach offers better asset control, minimised unexpected downtime and boosted productivity. This is the basis of SKF’s AEO plan, a work man- agement process structure that delivers maximum efficiency and effectiveness from activities focused on the overall business aim of the plant. The plan takes account of top- level business forecasting and system-wide analysis. It is a shift away from the reactive approach, toa selectivemixof scheduled, pro- active, predictiveand reactivemaintenance. It has in-built sustainability and provides rapid results and payback on investment. A strategic tool such as AEO helps a com- pany to manage its assets more effectively – ensuring smooth running and minimum downtime across the entire plant. It boosts profitability by increasing output for the same cost, ormaintaining output for less cost. There are four integratedelements toanAEO programme:maintenancestrategy,workiden- tification, work control, and work execution. The maintenance strategy sets business goals and objectives, assesses plant critical- ity and risk, and defines the most important issues and priorities to ensure an effective maintenance plan that is tailored to the needs of the business and can be easily communi- cated throughout the organisation. The second element is the identification of work, where critical plant information is gathered by relevant CBM equipment and analysed, allowing informed decisions to be made and the correctivemaintenance opera- tions to be carried out. The third element, work control, involves detailed planning and scheduling of mainte- nance activity, taking into account timescales,

Asset efficiency optimisation, combined with proactive reliability maintenance, can help maintenance to be seen as a profit generating activity.

12 ¦ MechChem Africa • February 2017