A wide range of factors have been brought to bear recently on the development of factory and plant maintenance. Within many industries there has been an increase in both regulation and the number of external governmental organisations with whom a business must interact – many of whom will require detailed equipment maintenance information. There is also an ever increasing burden of environmental and health and safety compliance to which a company must adhere.

Within a business, maintenance has grown beyond the realm of a support function to manufacturing operations, as businesses now seek to ensure the best positive impact on the bottom line by using best-practice maintenance techniques to optimise the reliability and throughput of the equipment to increase productivity whilst still maximising the useful lifespan of the equipment and therefore reducing unnecessary capital spend.

Maintenance strategy

The net result of this has been a rapid maturing of techniques that has left many businesses asking how best to ensure that maintenance strategy continues to make the maximum possible contribution whilst remaining efficient and cost effective.

One approach is to refocus preventative maintenance away from cyclical time periods and instead align maintenance activities to the level of equipment use and its criticality to the manufacturing process.  

It obviously makes a great deal of common sense for the maintenance plan to reflect equipment usage, and combined with the intelligent timing of repairs activity, this can make a substantial improvement to uptime.

The initial question here is how to identify those assets most used. Instead of scheduling based on a calendar, levels of output can drive the maintenance programme. In some instances this can even be pulled directly from an integrated ERP / EAM system.

Another approach that is driving asset management and maintenance is a focus on minimising energy usage. This is not just due to a need to reduce energy consumption because of cost or regulation.  

Energy use patterns are a key indicator of asset performance. For example, if a compressor is drawing more power than it should, then it may suggest that it is not functioning correctly, and almost certainly, less than optimally.

Role of technology

Obviously there needs to be a compelling business case to evaluate these situations and then make the necessary changes. Typically, a business with a successful and efficient maintenance / asset management programme will see improvements in asset availability, equipment reliability, labour productivity and a reduction in parts costs, maintenance inventory value and energy consumption.

One such example of the benefits of even small, incremental improvements in maintenance is Scott Bader, a global chemical company, who manufactures, sells and distributes a wide range of synthetic resins and polymers. The company uses the maintenance management capabilities of Infor M3 at its manufacturing site in the UK to help improve productivity.

By using maintenance management, Scott Bader not only reduces the manual administration and paperwork for the preventative and breakdown maintenance undertaken, but also develops better data for the analysis of trends such as the types of breakdown suffered, and the equipment most prone to failure. 

By improving the efficacy of the preventative maintenance program Scott Bader aims to reduce the inventory of spares held and better align spares re-ordering to the needs of an optimised maintenance program.

The increased visibility will help improve traceability for compliance with regulatory demands and best practice. It will also help enhance management decision-making as department leaders will have better access to details on any equipment downtime and can make decisions accordingly.

"We look for continual, incremental improvement to our processes," explains Kathryn Mclean, IS manager, Scott Bader. "As we automate more of our compliance processes and increase the alignment of maintenance operations and the business, that equates to greater productivity and better customer service."