You are on page 1of 23

Master of Business Administration - Semester 4 OM0015 Maintenance Management - 4 Credits (Book ID: B1340) Assignment Set- 1 Q1.

. Briefly explain the maintenance systems that are practiced in production/service units by providing few examples. Ans: A way of reducing the plant breakdowns is to select the best maintenance strategy. Widely adopted maintenance techniques or strategies are: <!--[if !supportLists]-<!--[if !supportLists]-<!--[if !supportLists]---[endif]-->Routine Maintenance. --[endif]-->Planned Maintenance. --[endif]-->Break down Maintenance or Corrective/ Remedial Maintenance.

<!--[if !supportLists]-<!--[if !supportLists]-<!--[if !supportLists]-<!--[if !supportLists]--

--[endif]-->Preventive Maintenance. --[endif]-->Predictive Maintenance. --[endif]-->Condition Based Maintenance. --[endif]-->Total Productivity Maintenance.

The following sub-sections give a brief explanation of these systems. 1 Routine maintenance Routine Maintenance (RM) is a procedure followed regularly i.e. a cyclic operation recurring periodically. It includes activities like inspection, cleaning of machines, lubricating systems, small repairs, and so on. For example, checking all compressors first on Mondays, replacing light bulbs, cleaning, repairing any leakages of oil, and lubricating machines daily. RM can be classified as: Running maintenance: is the work carried out when the equipment or the machine is performing some operations that is, when the machine is working. These include say greasing or lubricating the bearings or systems, outer cleaning, inspection and so on. Shut down maintenance: certain minor maintenance activities cannot be carried out when the machine is running and hence must be carried out by shutting down the machine. For example, de-scaling furnaces and boilers. 2 Planned or scheduled or productive maintenance Planned maintenance is the activities carried out according to a predetermined schedule and hence known as scheduled or productive maintenance. It involves inspecting all machineries, overhauling, lubricating,

repairing, and carrying out all requisite maintenance before actual break down happens, thus avoiding a situation of emergency maintenance. Planned maintenance reduces the machine downtime, reduces cost of maintenance, and increases productivity as compared to unplanned maintenance. 3 Break down or corrective or remedial maintenance Breakdown Maintenance is the method of operating the machines to run until they fail and then repair in order to restore them to an acceptable condition. Planned repair or rectifying the problem is carried out when it is more convenient and cost effective. This method is also called as on-failure maintenance or corrective maintenance. It is carried out when an item has failed or worn out, to bring it back to working order. Corrective maintenance is carried out on all items where, failure or wearing out is not significant and the cost is not greater than preventative maintenance. 4 Preventive maintenance Preventive Maintenance (PM) is based on the idea Prevention is better than cure. PM is a regularly scheduled maintenance activity, with an objective to anticipate problems and correct them before they occur. PM is carried out and normally programmed, to prevent an item failing or wearing out by: Providing systematic inspection. Using recommended grades of oil. Periodical lubrication and cleaning. Detecting and preventing incipient failure. PM is carried out on those items where a failure would result in expensive consequences. For example, lifts, fire alarms, electricity supply, battery back up at sub-station, sub-station transformers, distribution transformers, circuit breakers, isolators, and so on. The figure 1.1 shows the PMs pre-requisites. Routine and planned maintenance includes PM actions, which could be grouped as: Fixed-time maintenance: Here maintenance actions are carried out at regular intervals (calendar time). For example, maintenance actions like item replacement, repair and major overhaul. Condition-based maintenance: This maintenance action is explained below in the further sub heading. Opportunity maintenance: Here for example: an opportune time to take up the task of repair or reconditioning may arise on those machines, where the work load is not there for that day or product produced on that machine is rejected. The operator has to keep the machine idle since he is waiting for the quality report before producing further quantity. 5 Predictive maintenance Predictive Maintenance is one of the modern approaches to preventive maintenance. Here sensitive instruments like vibration analyser, amplitude meters, audio gauges, sensors for pressure, temperatures,

resistance gauges and so on are used to predict the anticipated failure of machines and equipment. Conditions of the machinery can be checked on line periodically or on continuous basis and maintenance crew can take decision and plan overhaul or repair as warranted. Failure is predicted well in advance using certain techniques like vibration, temperature, misalignments, incorrect installation, rotor imbalance, pump cavitations, oil condition, wear debris analysis, and so on and has proved very effective. Good ability to predict impending failures well in time will result in: Maximising the online operations. Minimising downtime. Increased plant and Personnel safety. Optimal maintenance. 6 Condition based maintenance Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) relies on the fact that the majority of failures do not occur instantaneously, but develops over a period of time. CBM involves recording measurement that gives an indication of the condition. For example, increase in vibration levels, temperature soars, increased leakages, and so on. Hence it is a periodic measurement and interpretation of data to determine the need for maintenance. Condition monitoring is merely a tool that is used by crew through touch, smell, and through their experience to make out the existing condition of the equipment or aggregate. CBM is also known as dynamic predictive maintenance or diagnostic maintenance. In CBM, the plant is not maintained just after some problem surfaces, but much before the possible breakdown. For example operators who work with equipment every day can listen to equipment and identify changes in noise levels and vibrations, and so on. Temperature changes can be photographed through Infrared (IR) thermograph, which gives warning that something is 'not right'. An investigation can be carried out to identify the exact problem

Q2. What are the three stages in the lifecycle management of any machinery? Explain in brief the Life cycle management system Ans: 1. Introduction Every organization has an objective or objectives and goals to achieve. These objectives and goals achieving can be possible only when management organizing the available recourses in a suitable structure with a plan. The whole process of achieving objectives like planning, organizing and implementation and correction process by means of feedback bring together by operation management. The physical resources like space, machinery, money and men who organize those physical will take major role in the operation management.

The objectives related to both performance and cost, decision making process related production or operation of the organization, strategic and operational and feedback control system will play important role in deciding life cycle of any organization. The various stages and their life span each stage life cycle of system is discussed in the next section. 2. Life cycle concept Life cycle concept is applied in operational management for any production system which takes input and produces some out put by using some process. The production system may be mass production, batch production, Job shop production or unit manufacture or project. The different production system is applicable to process of production depends on the type of product we produce and the volume of the process we use to produce the goods. The whole process of operation form birth to death of a production system can be viewed as definite Life cycle. The life cycle concept of any product is similar to any life cycle of a living being. The major stages in the life cycle concept are 1) Development 2) Introduction or Birth 3) Growth 4) Maturity 5) Decline or Death. The similar Life cycle concept we can apply to any product in production system. The Typical product Life- cycle is represented in Figure A1-1. The concept also shows the product life influenced by the external environment and go through the various stages in its life cycle. Through out the cycle the whole process of operation management is applied on the production system to maintain to sustain longer. The in evitable situation due to the environmental influences like people taste, interest there is always new born of other production system. The same concept is shown in the Figure A1-1 Product A and Product B. product B emerged in the market when the Product enjoying the maturity stage of its life cycle. Birth Growth Maturity Death Product A Product B Volume Time The life span of each stage of a product may vary from a few months to years. For an example, within no time some products reach growth stage as soon as they were introduced in the market. Now we will discuss about each stage of the product life cycle. 2.1 Development The development stage can be a protracted stage and will involve activities such as design, planning, costing, test marketing, etc. The costs are high, with no earned revenue (and thus it does not register as a

stage on the diagram at Figure A1-1). Promotion for awareness may commence in advance of introduction of the product to the marketplace. 2.2 Birth (or Introduction stage) This is the stage where a product will be introduced after initial decisions like selection, technology selection, location and layout design of production facility after study of various aspects of business unit in transpiration and raw material, manpower resources availability etc. This is the stage we call it as Birth stage of the product. 2.3 Growth stage After introducing the product the next stage for any product is looking for growth. The growth is stage is very critical in the operation management. The key of success is lying in this stage. How we take this product to people or how people will have the feel of necessity of the product depends on the efficient marketing strategies of the management. Sometimes the time taking to reach to growth stage will be faster because of the uniqueness of its usage when compared with its competitor's products. Major efforts are required at this stage to push with all possible strategies in an ethical manner. 2.4 Maturity stage Once the product is established, the product life cycle enters into the maturity stage. At this stage organization takes feedback from various groups of users and improve the product usability with add on features and introduce different models without changing the basic applications. This is the stage where businesses will be exposed more to the external competitive market which initiates the new comers with similar products where they will take off the market or share the market which causes the original product business organization will go for further improvements or for a new product line. Sustainability of this stage depends on the factors like the management's views, how fast they recognize their product obsolesced and how fast new comers takes over the market. 2.5 Death stage. As discussed above in maturity stage, in case business management could not predict the impact of the new product growth and lack of taking necessary changes in the product design, the product life cycle enters into the decline or death stage, which leads to the organization merging with new companies or liquidation or sale. 3. Life-cycle costing The cost of the product throughout the product life cycle is referred to as the Life cycle costing. The new concept of this Life cycle costing is long-term cost. The short-term cost always lead us to inefficient decisions which put us in a wrong track of product selection, design and production. The initial cost may be higher at growth stage, but if we know that the product sustains longer in the market in future, we should go ahead with considerable investments keeping the future market in mind. The decision policy throughout the life cycle should be maintained in the operational management of such business opportunity. 4. Conclusion

As we discussed in the above section, any business organization will have their product life cycles. The operation management of the organization should always keep watching the new trends of people's taste or requirements, the available latest technology and competitor's new proposals so that necessary actions can be taken in advance to decrease the growth stage and increase the span of the maturity stage. The type of operational decisions and selection procedures all depends on the product of any organization plans to develop or introduce into the market.

Q3. Explain briefly the metrics that can be developed by the maintenance department to identify the gap and take action to achieving the desired level of performance Ans: Developing Metrics to Firm Up Improvements In the previous section, you have studied about the importance of measurement of maintenance performance and the prerequisites and steps involved in the same. Here, in this section, we shall look into how developing metrics help to firm up the improvements. Once the desired data of the performance measures of maintenance of the previous years are compiled and analysed, the management will be in a position to understand the current level of performance and the deficiencies in the critical areas of the machines and equipments for optimum productivity. The data will also indicate the type of breakdowns, time taken to put back the machines to order and skill levels that were deployed. Maintenance management in consultation with the production managers can analyse the previous years performance and decide upon the improvements required in order to improve the overall effectiveness of the maintenance department. They will also fix the next level of the desired performance, which should help in achieving better availability and reliability of the equipments. When the improvements are planned, it is the job of the maintenance management to execute and accomplish the desired level of performance within a short period. By taking advantage of the time and the cost factor they will be able to improve the effectiveness further.

Figure 3.1: Graphical Representation of Metrics The metrics illustrated in the above figure 3.1, indicates the output level of performance on y axis and time taken for the performance on x axis. As can be seen in the metrics, the gap between the current level of performance and the desired level of performance is nothing but the improvements required, which is required to be planned and achieved within the shortest possible time. For this the entire maintenance crew has to work efficiently to assure higher availability of the capital assets. When the desired level of performance is being firmed up, it is very essential to note that it should be achievable, measurable and has the consent of all concerned in the maintenance management. While fixing the desired level of performance and its measurements, it may be necessary to benchmark similar best practices in the identified critical areas In the previous section, we have discussed how maintaining maintenance records for evaluation acts as a measure for maintenance performance. Let us now learn more about some of the other measures of maintenance performance. The maintenance has been recognised as an important and inevitable service function of an efficient production system that helps in reducing the breakdowns and improving the operational efficiency of the plant facilities. When there is a work stoppage because of machine breakdowns, immediate corrective action has to be initiated by the maintenance department. Hence the most direct measure for assessing the maintenance function is by means of analysing the equipment breakdowns. Breakdowns can be measured in terms of their frequency and also the severity. Let us see how this is done. The frequency measure indicates how often the equipment was not fit for use.

The severity measure indicates how long it was unavailable on account of the breakdown. Hence, the goal of the good maintenance function is to ensure that not only the frequency of the breakdown but also the severity is studied and analysed and suitable preventive maintenance action is taken. Measures that capture the attributes pertaining to breakdowns and other maintenance performances are mentioned below. These are: Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF). Mean Time To Repair (MTTR). Availability. Let us understand each of these in detail. MTBF Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is the expected time of the arrival of a failure. If Y is the failure rate of the equipment then MTBF is . As was discussed earlier, the breakdown frequency is linked to MTBF. Equipment with less frequent breakdowns implies a higher value of MTBF and vice versa. The equipment manufacturers sometimes supplies data on MTBF. However there is a set of assumptions behind these numbers. A more direct and easier approach to estimate MTBF is to maintain equipment history cards and record all the failures that have occurred. On analysis of this information one can estimate the MTBF. MTTR Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) is the expected time for restoring the equipment back to working condition.

If the service rate is denoted by u, then the MTTR is the inverse of the service rate, that is, MTTR is composed of two components in the maintenance context.

The first is the exact identification of the nature of the problem and the remedies and repairs required. The second is the actual repair of the equipment. The severity of breakdown will significantly influence the MTTR. If the breakdown is less severe then it may require less time to restore the equipment to working condition. Another factor that will influence MTTR is the quality of the maintenance activity itself. By developing superior trouble shooting methods, it is possible to quickly locate the root cause of the problem and thereby minimise the MTTR.

3.5.3 Availability The availability is defined as the fraction of the time the equipment is available for production use. If, on an average, in a total time of A(t), the equipment is not operative for a period of [d(t)] due to breakdowns, then the availability is computed as

The equipment can be considered to go through a series of failures and repairs until the useful life is over. Therefore, an alternative definition for availability is expressed as:

It is clear from the above discussions, that the availability measure captures both the frequency and the severity of breakdowns. Therefore, it is a useful measure for assessing maintenance effectiveness. However in recent years, the measure in which the availability is being computed has witnessed a much broader scope. As we will see later in the section, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) has a greater application of the availability concept. In recent years, other measures have been developed to assess the effectiveness of the maintenance function. These include maintainability, maintenance prevention and maintenance improvement. All the above said measures address the effectiveness of the maintenance activity itself rather than the status of the equipment being maintained. They underscore the need for having good system and procedures for maintenance so that the other measures of maintenance pertaining to the equipment status could be improved upon in a cost effective manner. Process industries have a greater premium for maintenance. Poor maintenance leading to system breakdowns may often result in complete shutdown of the system. Even when the system is restored, it will be few hours before the quality and output stabilises at the predetermined levels. All the output until that point is either scrapped or downgraded as seconds. Therefore, the process industry lays a greater emphasis on maintenance. Process firms use cost based measures to assess the performance of the maintenance activity. Detailed maintenance costing systems are often developed and performances compared with benchmarks on several cost based measures. This benchmarking and the balanced score cards methodologies were discussed above. Given below is an example which will help you to understand the above explained concepts. In this example, the importance of measuring the vital attributes of MTBF, MTTR and the availability can be visualized and hence the calculation of the attributes will show the present status of the equipment and what all areas requires improvements. Working on this requirement will help improve the effectiveness, and help bridge the gap between the desired level and the present level of performance.

Q4. Distinguish between preventive and breakdown maintenance Ans: Maintenance, to most people, is any activity carried out on an asset in order to ensure that the asset continues to perform its intended functions, or to repair any equipment that has failed, or to keep the equipment running, or to restore to its favorable operating condition .It improves the systems overall reliability, availability, and consequently higher production efficiency. Machine and component failures can trigger incidents or cause costly production interruptions. Minimizing the failure count or their adverse effects leads to increase safety, reduced downtime and cost of operation. Minimizing these adverse effects is the role assigned t maintenance .Maintenance is defined as any action that restores failed units to an operational conditioner retains non-failed units in an operational state or an activity carried out for any equipment or asset to ensure its reliability to perform its functions Consider a preventive maintenance schedule, which after a machine has been running for fixed time Tr, the machine is shutdown, inspected and parts replaced. This preventive maintenance work takes a time Tm, after which the equipment is ready to work. The total time period Ta, the average maintenance free run-time, is equivalent to Tr(maintenance free run-time) plus Tm (the time take to do the preventive maintenance).This can be considered the standard preventive maintenance cycle time. In actual practice, the situation is slightly different; over a period of time, there will be breakdowns that occur before the equipment is shutdown for preventive maintenance. In such cases, the running time between the preventive maintenance and the breakdown plus the time taken to repair the breakdown, Ts can be considered the breakdown cycle. Since preventive maintenance is meant to reduce the total plant downtime particularly unscheduled event its timing and frequency are important. Ideally, preventive maintenance should be performed just a little before normal breakdown is likely to occur. The probability of occurrence of a breakdown in the two different cycles depends on the specific breakdown-time distribution of the equipment, and the length of the standard preventive maintenance cycle. If the distribution has greater variability, more breakdowns are likely to occur during the course of the standard period. When this happens, shortening the preventive maintenance cycle can reduce the number of actual breakdowns. Figure 4.5 gives the percent of time a machine is working for the three distributions of breakdown-time shown in Figure and the ratio of the standard maintenance period to

average maintenance-free run-time, Ts. Such a relationship is shown for the three different breakdowns time distributions. The percentage of machine running time depends on the ratio of the standard

maintenance period and the average run-time, Ta for a given breakdown-time distribution, it is assumed that either preventive maintenance or repair puts the equipment in line for a running time of equal length. It can be seen that for low values of the ratio of standard maintenance period to average maintenance free runtime, the machine works for a small percentage of time. This is obvious, since a low ratio would mean too many machine stoppages, and hence less availability. From figure, it can also be seen that for curves b and c an increase of the ratio results in an increase in the percentage of machine running time. In the case of curve a (for breakdown-time distribution with low variability), there is similar increase in machine running-time, but only till a peak is reached after which lengthening standard maintenance period seems to reduce the percentage of machine running time. This suggests that for breakdown time distribution with low variability, there is an optimum value for the standard maintenance period. Figure 4.5: Present of time when the machine is working and breakdown distribution Certain generalizations can be made from the above three graphs. First, preventive maintenance is highly benefited to machines whose breakdown time distributions have low variability, like those depicted by curve a, as there is better predictability of when breakdowns are likely to occur. In this type of situation, a standard preventive maintenance period can be set in such a way that the total downtime is reduced. Second, the relation of preventive maintenance time to repair time is important. Unless the preventive maintenance time is less than the repair time, there is little gain in

preventive maintenance. If preventive maintenance is equal to, or more than the time for repair, it is better to perform corrective or breakdown maintenance. In general, when the repair time is equal to maintenance time, the percentage of machine running time continues to increase with the increase of standard preventive maintenance period. For a given breakdown time distribution, an increase in the standard period would mean less number of preventive maintenance cycles and more repairs. We also need to take into account other effects of unscheduled downtime, such as1. Additional stoppage time because maintenance crew cannot start repairing immediately after the breakdown has occurred;2. Effect on production losses if plant shutdown could have been avoided, and3. Effects of scheduling preventive maintenance for non-productive days or shifts with no loss of production.

5. Organisations normally adopt a combination of one or more of the above methods. And these options are justified if the resultant savings are more than the total costs associated with any one of these methods Substantiate this statement. Ans: In the previous section we discussed about the breakdown, corrective and remedial maintenance issues faced by most of the organisations. Let us now look into how decision making and preventive maintenance is carried out. Decision is required to be taken by the maintenance manager in order to select the best out of the two methodologies namely the Preventive maintenance versus Breakdown maintenance for the equipment. This decision will depend on many factors like the implications of the cost as well as the production losses due to downtime. As explained under the Maintenance Strategy, the questions that normally arise are to be answered. These questions are: Is routine preventive maintenance economical? Will it be less costly to wait for breakdowns to occur and then repair the equipment? Is preventive maintenance economical? What service level for repair is appropriate when breakdown occur? Hence, in this exercise of knowing the best methodologies between the two maintenance practices of breakdown and preventive maintenance and further to work out the cost benefits, it better to know the differences between these two practices. Some of these differences are detailed below: Preventive maintenance is specifically designed for taking action to prevent or at least to minimise the failures or breakdowns, whereas, corrective maintenance is carried out to repair the equipment after fault occurs or breakdown happens. Preventive maintenance program is planned in such a way that it controls the repair costs during the overall life of the equipment, where as in corrective maintenance brings back to the original life depending on the extent of damage the earlier breakdown has brought into the equipment. As against the preventive maintenance the breakdown maintenance have the following characteristics, which are to be known by the maintenance manager before deciding to adopt the best methodology between the preventive and breakdown maintenance and their cost implications: In breakdown maintenance no other type of services by maintenance is needed until the failure occurs, except for occasional lubrication and so on and hence no maintenance men are assigned on a regular basis. Maintenance activities could be done by sub-contracting also. There is no need to stock spares as they must be procured on the day of the failures, after knowing the exact failure and the parts required. No budgeting is done in advance. It looks economical in principal, but it must be controlled.

This method may result in certain internal problems namely: who will do the repair, how to obtain the immediate requirement of spare parts and to whom the amount spend on breakdown maintenance is to be charged 6. A valuable tool for improving maintenance effectiveness is to use fault tree analysis. What does this tree means and how it is used as a valuable tool for electrical, hydraulic and other complex systems in isolating physical components using circuits and attends to the problem? Ans: A fault tree is a network diagram of the circuitry that will trace the component failure to specific portion of the network. This is a valuable tool to analyse complex systems, where specific physical components can be isolated quickly using circuits or connections, It is a standard practice with the Equipment manufacturer to supply parts catalogue and other documents along with the equipment, so that the purchaser will have all the information about the equipment, when the same is installed and commissioned for production. The equipment catalogue is an important requirement for effective maintenance. These catalogues are prepared by the manufacturers with the customers in mind and hence it should act as a guide for both operational and maintenance personnel. In case the machine or equipment is very complex one, having many operating systems, the equipment manufacturers issue what they call as Manuals. These manuals are prepared by categorising into different critical operations. There are many instances wherein separate manuals are issued for each of the critical areas of operations of the machine. This categorisation, for example, may be supplied as follows: Manual 1 - Catalogues: Gives details of overall specifications and dimensions of the machine and certain salient features. Manual 2 - Operating instructions. Manual 3 - Instruction for assembly and disassembly of Equipment Manual 4 - For hydraulic and pneumatic systems of the Equipment. Manual 5 - Parts list for each assembly and subassemblies of the Equipment. Manual 6 - Maintenance manual. Manual 7 - Details of all the Electrical and Electronic circuits. Category wise manuals prepared and issued by the manufacturer will quite often provide the following information: List of recommended spare parts and the quantity to be stocking. Recommended methods of maintenance. Basic set of troubleshooting methods. Recommendations on the frequency of maintenance.

Catalogues and manuals may also list out the set of activities that are to be reserved for the original manufacturer to attend in case of any major failures or breakdowns. This is because they know the total technology behind that machine. OE manufacturer will be in a position to set the machine to order quickly and this type of expert services is normally covered as one of the conditions in the original purchase document. The above provisioning of all the requirements for use of operating and maintenance personnel will facilitate them to properly take care of the machine and improve MTTR and good availability of the productive assets. Typically, the equipment is used in an organisation for several years before it is either discarded or replaced with a similar new machine. From the time the equipment is brought, the production and maintenance personnel accumulate considerable knowledge about the equipment, the manner in which failures occur and the symptoms that it develops before a particular failure or malfunctioning happens. It is important that a progressive learning happen with respect to equipment usage and systematically captures many types of information and put to use. One method is to develop good trouble shooting mechanisms. A trouble shooting mechanism is a structured approach to identify the root cause of the problem that needs some correction when viewed from the maintenance. By successively checking on a set of condition about the equipment, several alternatives pertaining to the possible problematic areas will get eliminated and progressively narrows down to a few. Once this stage is reached, it is possible to conduct a detailed analysis to locate the problem and take corrective measures. The equipment manufacturer usually provides some basic trouble shooting mechanisms. However, the real value lies in the ability of the maintenance personnel to channel their learned knowledge pertaining to the equipment maintenance, into development of efficient trouble shooting procedures. Such an approach could significantly cut MTTR and improve equipment availability. The prerequisite for developing the above type of tools for effective maintenance is the existence of a very good information system for the use of maintenance. Whenever a new equipment is installed in the system, a large amount of information pertaining to the equipment becomes available, which in turn provides vital clues to the maintenance function. Therefore, the information should be properly captured and archived for future use and analysis. Some of the information like the breakdown record in terms of the time and nature of breakdowns that have occurred so far are easy to list. This listing will help diagnose and trace the problem and rectify it. The details may be pertaining to replacement of components or subassembly elements thus generating the data about the nature and quantum of preventive maintenance performed on the equipment. It is systematically stored using an equipment history card (traditionally). Now days, several web based software are available to capture, archive and analyse this type of information. The information serves variety of purposes and act as critical inputs to the decision making process of the maintenance department. Some of the prominent uses are: Basic data required, such as breakdown frequencies, probability of failures, mean down time, mean repair time and failure rates-can be computed from historic data Better trouble shooting mechanisms and fault tree analysis could be carried out

The cost of maintenance of equipment can be computed. This serves as a useful platform for choosing the exact type of maintenance required to be carried out and facilitate decision on equipment replacement. Trends in failure rates, breakdown frequencies and equipment availability could be analysis and adjusted in the maintenance planning. Based on data available on the equipment, it is possible to develop certain predictive models about the condition of the equipment and then develop maintenance activities on the basis of such predictive capability.

Master of Business Administration - Semester 4 OM0015 Maintenance Management - 4 Credits (Book ID: B1340) Assignment Set- 2 Q1. What are the maintenance planning principles? How they contribute to the success of planning? Ans: Planning Principles

The principles or paradigms that are evolved over the maintenance mission will profoundly affect planning. These principles must be understood by all concerned to have effective planning process. The principles of having planning as a separate department in order to focus on the future work and consequent use of planners expertise to create estimates, recognizing skill of the craftsman and measuring performance must be understood by every one concerned with production. There is a methodology of work measurement what is commonly known as wrench time and this frequently misunderstood principle and hence must be made clear to everyone concerned. Each principle identifies important crossroads. Decisions making at each crossroads on the alternative ways to conduct planning and execute is essential and ultimate success of planning depends on this situational oriented decision. Six principles greatly contribute to the overall success of planning. 1) Company organizes planners into a separate department. 2) Planners concentrate on future work. 3) Planners base their files on the component level of systems. 4) Planner expertise dictates job estimates. 5) Planners recognize the skill of the crafts. 6) Work sampling of direct work time provide measure of planning effectiveness. Principle 1: [The Company organizes planners into a separate department] The planners are organized into a separate department from craft maintenance crews to facilitate specialization in planning and focus on future work. Planners report to a different supervisor/ lead planner who will be responsible to provide direction and ensure consistency within the planning group. The planners must be engaged in preparing work that has not yet begun. The supervisor has an obligation to complete the assigned work in an expeditious manner with a minimum of interruptions The crew focuses exclusively on executing assigned work. Because planning contributes to scheduling, the lack of planning effort may decrease the number of work assignments to crew members The company organizing planners to a separate group, which helps planners to become specialized in all the tools and techniques of planning Planners need to work closely to ensure proper execution of work with consistency. Planners use personal experience and develop work plans to avoid anticipated work delays and quality or safety problems. Principle 2: [Focus on Future Work] The vision of planning is to increase labor productivity by preparing the jobs in advance. The Planning Department concentrates on future work and provide the crew to plan their work in advance and remove backlogs After job completion, feedback is given by the lead technician or supervisor to the Planning Department. The feedback consists of any problems, plan changes, or other helpful information so that future work plans and schedules might be improved. The planners ensure that the feedback information is properly filed to aid future work. Principle 3: [Component Level Files] Planning maintains a simple, secure file system based on equipment tag numbers. Matching identify tags on the machineries are also arranged. The file system enables planners to

utilize equipment data and information and their experience on previous work to prepare and improve work plans, especially on repetitive maintenance tasks. The majority of maintenance tasks are repetitive over a period of time. File cost information assists in making repair or replace decisions. Supervisors and plant engineers are trained to access these files to gather information they need with minimal planner assistance. Principle 4: [Estimates Based on Planner Expertise] Planners use personal experience and file information to develop work plans to avoid anticipated work delays after considering quality and safety problems. Plant must choose from among its best craft persons to be planners. These planners rely greatly upon their personal skill and experience in addition to existing information in the files to develop job plans. Routine maintenance offers the highest potential for planner contribution to company success because more intricate or unusual maintenance tasks receives necessary help from plant engineering department Principle 5: [Recognize the Skill of the Crafts] The Planning Department recognizes the skill of the crafts. The planners responsibility is to firm up the scope of the work request including clarification of the originators intent wherever necessary. The planner then plans the general strategy of the work (such as repair or replace) and includes procedure if it is not already there in the file. This principle dictates that planners depend on the workforce being sufficiently skilled when he is putting a minimum level of detail into the initial job plans. Craft technicians use their expertise to make the specified repair or replacement. The planner calls for a minimum craft skill on a job plan. The plan dictates the skill set necessary to accomplish the work given the state of the job plan. The planners and technicians work together over repeated jobs to develop better procedures and checklists. Supervisors must train technicians with deficient skills and give proper support and guidance Technicians must execute the job precisely as planned for three reasons. Any recommended deviations from the job plan must be approved by planning before execution. Planners give information to supervisor for scheduling control. The planners also use their own expertise to formalize best practices on individual job plans. Finally, the planning system counts on the skilled technicians giving feedback on job plans so that their expertise and the planners expertise both contribute to adding information to future plans. Principle 6: [Measure Performance with Work Sampling] Wrench time is the primary measure of workforce efficiency and of planning and scheduling effectiveness. Wrench time is the proportion of available time-to-work time during which the craft technicians are on productive working on a job site. Delays such as waiting for assignment, clearance, parts, tools, instructions, travel, coordination with other crafts, or equipment information are all deducted. Principle 6 dictates that measuring how much time craft technicians actually spend on their job site versus other activities performed such as obtaining parts or tools. This determines the effectiveness of the maintenance planning program. This principle holds that delays in technicians job should be avoided. Work sampling to determine wrench time gives this measure of how much planning is helping in the process. The time that employees spend at their job sites working is called direct or productive work. What is actually important is the analysis of the nonproductive time. Measuring wrench time thus gives an overall indication of how well the other principles have been implemented or accepted. Wrench time analysis is an indicator, not the control of planning or the work force. Wrench time is measured accurately with a properly structured, statistical observational techniques & study

Q2. Explain briefly the ABC classification and reasons behind recommending ABC and VED classifications for managing inventory of spare parts for maintenance?

Ans:

Q3. Explain briefly how the principles of scheduling, when followed, will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the maintenance management? Ans: Scheduling of maintenance work also includes who should do the maintenance works, which are already planned and when that work has to be started and when the total task is to be completed. Works such as cleaning, lubrication, inspection of various parts of the machines of equipment and repairing or replacing parts periodically, need to be properly scheduled and specified. Maintenance schedule also leads us in firming up job specifications and acts as a link between the engineer and the craftsman. It gives guidance in respect to method, and projects the work load. 10.2.1 Benefits of scheduling The reasons for scheduling maintenance activities can be understood clearly once the benefits of scheduling are understood. The scheduling of the plant maintenance is important for the following reasons: Reduces the abrupt break downs or failure of equipments or machinery by performing proper scheduling of preventive maintenance for plants and machineries. Facilitates the optimum utilisation of maintenance staff. Facilitates the optimum utilisation of equipments and tools. Eliminates the idleness of the maintenance crew. Helps in the effective utilisation of the equipment, this is because the hours allotted exclusively for maintenance is pre-determined. Helps in reducing the interruption in production due to maintenance, as maintenance work is usually scheduled after the production shifts or on weekly holidays or on festival holidays or national holidays. Eliminates the chances of abrupt breakdowns and equipment failures. Includes evolving specific work specifications, which acts as a link between the engineer and the tradesman. Facilitates proper sequencing of maintenance processes. Some examples of proper sequencing involve clearing of clogged pipes and waste disposals before the main maintenance work on piping and its alignment are taken up. Issues proper guidance with respect to the methodology that must be followed. Also provides guidance in sequencing of jobs and the total work load involved, to bring in more clarity. Production and Plant Maintenance are considered equally important and hence both must be planned and scheduled. Most of the production units, which works on two shifts per day, set apart few hours of mini shift for plant maintenance activities. Here the production machineries are used continuously for

production on three shift basis, the capacity is reduced to allow time for each machine to undergo its plant maintenance, inspection, adjustments, lubrication, and part replacement in the specific allotted hours of the day.

Q4. Explain briefly the five levels of data developed in UMS Ans:

Five levels of data developed in UMS are: 1. Basic motions. 2. Basic operations. 3. Craft operations. 4. Bench marks. 5. Spread sheets. These are helpful in the standardisation of the processes in maintenance department as is done in production and hence universally adopted. 11.5.3 Five levels of data in UMS The below figure illustrated below tells us how the data collected from all the standardisation processes are organised at five levels in the building block fashion.

Five Levels of Data in UMS We shall now discuss the above mentioned five levels of organising the collected data.

Basic motions

UMS data, which is organised at five levels, as explained above, is the predetermined time system for basic motions. Analysing and classifying the data into basic motions, establishing a relationship between the motions and the time taken to perform the operations is a universal practice. Two widely used practices are: Predetermined Time Systems, which details the methods and time measurement Operation Sequence Technique, where work measures are made on basic motions such as reach, grasp, move, position and release operations in a process. Data on each of these motions are recorded to establish the actual time taken for each of these. This data is then used for standardisation purposes. Basic operations Basic motions are grouped together as individual operations. For each process, the planner can fix up the suitable craft and skills. While standardising the process, the variables like weight of the part, distance that moves in that process and how to clamp the part during operation are tabulated and issued as standards. This data is to be followed by both the production as well as the maintenance department. Use of certain processes and its standards is also a universally adopted practice. Craft operations Some operations and their operating times are unique to a particular craft. For instance, we cannot start comparing processes and standards used for welding operation with say carpentry, as both are two different entities. All the data and the time taken for the craft operations in production or maintenance processes like manual handling of items, body motions, machine settings, tools and fixture setting, welding joints and the arc striking time, are all pooled and standardised. This data and process is then issued for practice. Similar craft data for other skilled operations such as painting, carpentry, electrical, pipefitting, can also be made available to the maintenance crew Bench marks By incorporating the use of UMS, the maintenance supervisor can typically apply the above discussed set standards to their work. Bench marking the best standards for each of the crafts are selected and applied in their work practices to improve the overall effectiveness. Spread sheets Planners need to establish planning times for large number of jobs using sample data of the benchmark jobs by using spread sheets. They help to publicise the data along with a step-by-step process. Spread sheets help us to quickly find the appropriate data and information to select the right bench mark for comparison. Certain allowances for job preparation time, area, travel time, job site time and rest and minor unavoidable delays could be applied to these bench marked times to UMS time, before allotting the job to the crew members. For example: Benchmarking a task can be easily done in areas of work performed on electrical lighting, diesel generators, in mechanical fields like belt drives, gear boxes and material handling equipment like

clutches and brakes. This has been made possible as most of the companies follow standard methods of operation and maintenance activities, which can be taken for benchmarking in your organisation for comparison of work.

5. Explain briefly the importance of Depreciation and its disposition while calculating the capital expenditure of the equipment to be replaced. What are the depreciation methods that are normally used in an organisation? Ans: Depreciation is the process of allocating the cost of a fixed asset as an expense in the years when the asset helps generate revenue and is an application of the matching principle. Since it is impossible to determine the actual consumption of a fixed asset, depreciation involves arbitrary allocations of costs. These allocations attempt to match the cost of consuming fixed assets with the periods that benefit from using the assets. Assumptions must normally be made about how much of a fixed asset has been consumed. Another important variable when estimating depreciation is called salvage value and this is the amount the firm expects to receive from selling the asset at the end of its useful economic life. Depreciation continues until the asset value declines to its salvage value. Calculation of depreciation is mainly classified into two categories - the straight-line methods and the accelerated depreciation methods. Straight-Line depreciation (SL) method takes the salvage value of the asset and subtracts it from its original cost. This result is then divided by management's estimate of the number of useful years of the asset. The company expenses the same amount of depreciation each year. The formula of the SL method looks like this: annual depreciation = (original costs of asset salvage value)/estimated asset life. If an entity purchased a manufacturing plant for $500,000 with an estimated useful life of 7 years and a salvage value of $50,000, the annual depreciation expense would be ($500,000 - $50,000) / 7 years = $64,286 and the depreciation rate would be 1 / estimated life in years = 1 / 7 = 14% Accelerated Depreciation methods cause higher depreciation expenses during the early years of the asset's life and hence a lower net income than straight-line depreciation. The most commonly used accelerated depreciation method is the Double Declining Balance (DDB). DDB calculationis where the depreciation rate used is twice the straight line rate. Using the DDB method depreciation costs can be written off more quickly than the straight-line method. The purpose behind this method is to minimize thetaxable income. This method basically doubles the rate of depreciation of the straight-line method. The DDB formula looks like this: annual depreciation = 2 x (original costs of asset salvage value / estimated asset life asset life). If an entity purchased a plant for $500,000, the annual depreciation expense when calculated using the DDB method would be $500,000 * 28% = $140,000 for the first year. For the second year, the net book value will be first calculated as $500,000 - $140,000 = $360,000 which is now used to calculate the depreciation expense for the second year as $360,000 * 28% = $100,800. Year 2 net book value can be calculated as 360,000 * 28% = $100,800, $360000-$100800= $ 259200 Year 3 net book value can be calculated as 259200 * 28% = $72576, $259200-$72576= $186624 Year 4 net book value can be calculated as 186624 *28 = $52254, $186624-$52254 = $134370 Year 5 net book value can be calculated as 134370*28% = $37623, $134370 $37623 = $96747 Year 6 net book value can be calculated as 96747*28% = $27089, $96747 $27089 = $69658 Year 7 net book value can be calculated as 69658 * 28% = $19658, $69658 $19658 = $50,000

Using this method, the net book value of the asset at the end of its useful life will be equal to the salvage value. The U.S Congress enacted the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA) which included the Accelerated Cost Recovery System (ACRS) depreciation method for income tax purposes. ACRS established rules for the depreciation (the recovery of cost through tax deductions) of qualifying assets within a shorter period than the asset's expected useful (economic) life. The government later created the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) to address certain shortfalls in the original standards. Some of the fixes were lengthier recovery periods, additional categories for assets and enforcement of specific depreciation methods based on the type of assets. For e.g. machinery and equipment were depreciated using the double declining balance while the straight line method was used for buildings. In the United States, companies frequently use one depreciation method for financial reporting purposes and a different method for income tax purposes. For financial reporting purposes, companies often prefer to show higher profits on financial statements and so favor SL depreciation method. For income tax purposes, companies usually select a depreciation method that reduces taxable income for that period and therefore choose accelerated depreciation methods. For proper analysis of a firm's financial statements, it is important to find out which depreciation methods are used for which assets. Methods The Straight line method It first calculates the depreciable base (cost less salvage) before dividing it by number of years (life of machine) to arrive at annual rate of depreciation. The straight-line method is the most straightforward method of Asset Value Depreciation. But: Not all equipment deteriorates equally e.g. a car, over its useful life. Methods based on actual usage: total life are too cumbersome to be practicable The Written Down Value Method Written down value, applicable to machines that have high rates of depreciation in the initial year or two, and later taper it e.g. a car, is a usable method.

Under this method, depreciation is charged at a fixed rate every year, ON THE REDUCING BALANCE. A certain percentage is applied to the previous year's book value, to arrive at the current year's depreciation/ book value, WHICH SHOWS A DECLINING BALANCE, WEIGHTED FOR EARLIER YEARS, AND LOWER AND LOWER FOR LATER YEARS, as the machine grows older. Accelerates depreciation taken in early years. Reduces the amount taken in later years. Ignores salvage value; starts with depreciable base = asset cost. Declining Balance Method

Q 6. What are the ranges that we can normally expect for each of the OCE factors? Explain how an improvement in 10 % of wrench time will offer 25% improvement in utilisation of the crew and hence the OCE.
Ans:

You might also like