Planning and Controls: William N. Berryman
Planning and Controls: William N. Berryman
Planning and Controls: William N. Berryman
11
CHAPTER 2.3
PLANNING AND CONTROLS
William N. Berryman
Engineering Consultant
Morgan Hill, California
SCHEDULING 2.11
COST CONTROL 2.11
RELIABILITY AND MAINTAINABILITY 2.12
BENCHMARKING 2.12
MAINTENANCE MEASUREMENT 2.13
SCHEDULING
Scheduling of work depends on the nature of the business, personnel availability, equipment
availability, and unexpected events. Effective scheduling of maintenance personnel in a per-
fect situation is simple. It is called area maintenance. That means to schedule the proper crafts
to a specific area and complete all the maintenance tasks, rather than scheduling them to
move from area to area, then back to the previous area to accomplish tasks on adjacent equip-
ment.
Travel time is lost time in most cases, but in an effective program it can be used as an
opportunity to identify other maintenance issues, as long as the area maintenance methodol-
ogy is employed.
Scheduling with your internal managers (“customers”) will reduce false starts. Using good
scheduling tools and communicating your planned schedule will reduce scheduling conflicts
with production, operations, and other customer-planned activities. Follow these simple steps:
Develop a “lessons learned” policy and use this tool to improve your scheduling tech-
niques.
COST CONTROL
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Reliability is the ability of equipment to function as designed for a given period of time. The
criterion for how long a period the equipment operates at its design specification without fail-
ure is mean time between failures (MTBF).
Reliability metrics for equipment can be established using reliability models. This can be
accomplished either by measuring the equipment device (e.g., air handler, air compressor, or
boiler) or breaking down the equipment into major components and measuring the “parent”
and “children” (e.g., air handler = parent; motor, coil, valves, fan, etc. = children), then defin-
ing the expected life of the components or device and plotting these failures against equip-
ment life expectancy and comparing the information.
You can also contact the manufacturer and request the MTBF data on that specific equip-
ment. Alternatively, benchmarking for the required data can provide the equipment life-
expectancy information needed to build a model. Once the model has been established, the
MTBF data can be extracted from maintenance records, or a computerized maintenance
management system (CMMS) can be set up to provide the data.
Maintainability is the ability of equipment to allow access to perform the required mainte-
nance tasks. This is usually a function of the equipment design and location and any special
tools or fixtures required for access, calibration, lubrication, or other maintenance activities.
Equipment that is inaccessible or even difficult to access is a prime cause of reduced main-
tainability. Generally, equipment should be designed for ease of maintenance. Maintainabil-
ity issues will arise when the equipment is installed or when other equipment is installed
adjacent to it. Make sure all access points are clear; if height of access points is an issue, for
example, ensure that catwalks and lift devices are properly positioned for ease of access.
BENCHMARKING
MAINTENANCE MEASUREMENT
1. You might measure preventive maintenance (PM) procedures scheduled versus completed.
The purpose of this measurement is to gauge the performance of PM activities against a
schedule. This information will help determine whether your support staff is large enough.
If you are unable to perform 100 percent of PM every month, your staff is too small; or, if
you measure by craft (e.g., electrician or mechanic) you may find an imbalance in craft
staffing.
2. You might measure corrective activities on equipment. This will provide MTBF informa-
tion and provide data to substantiate whether your PM program is effective. It may also
define such issues as lubrication and incorrect power input parameters (voltage, frequency,
power factor, etc.).
3. Cost measurement is another important type of metric. Measuring the costs of maintaining
equipment is very important and can be accomplished through good recordkeeping or
CMMS architecture. Knowing how long a repair activity takes, what parts are used, the
cost of parts, and the actual downtime are important to good cost measurement.
These are just a few of the parameters, but the list can be as long as the tasks require.