Asset maintenance strategy review must be a living program

Mark Brunner
Tags: maintenance and reliability

At some stage in your facilities’ life cycle, decisions were made related to what maintenance would be completed on your assets and how often it would occur. Often, these decisions are never questioned and the logic behind the decision is lost when the people that initiated them leave the business. For asset maintenance strategies to remain effective over the life of the plant, there must be an element of continuous review. In effect, your maintenance strategies must be a “living program”.

Many businesses are really good at the “Planning and Doing” in the PDCA cycle in relation to developing asset maintenance strategies, but the “Check, Act” part of the cycle is often neglected. What do you need to do to have a living program?

Making your asset management strategies a living system will assist in improving machine availability, improve operational security, improve safety standards and optimize the cost of maintenance.Quantifying gains from implementing these actions is not a straightforward task, and to some extent following these recommendations is a significant “leap of faith”. However, there is enough evidence available in asset management literature that suggests that this “leap” is well worth the effort.

About the author:
Mark Brunner has a masters of maintenance management degree and a certificate in electrical engineering. He and Rod O’Connor developed The Asset Reliability Road Map. The aim is to help simplify the road to asset management excellence. For more information, contact Mark at markbrunner@thereliabilityroadmap.com or visit http://thereliabilityroadmap.com .