Maintenance strategies and plant-wide optimisation
programmes can be as good for productivity and
profitability as building a new production facility, explains
Phil Burge, communication manager for SKF

It is estimated that manufacturers lose
about 25% of annual production capacity
due to a combination of unplanned
engineering downtime and poor production
processes. Yet this fact is rarely recognised;
indeed, rather than looking at ways of
improving the output from existing
production facilities, companies often choose
to install new production lines or systems.

Depending on the nature of the business, this
can be up to 50% more expensive than
reviewing ways of releasing hidden capacity.

Buried within many manufacturing
operations is a hidden factory; if released,
this could improve the productivity and
profitability of each organisation by up to
25%. Multiply this figure by the number of
production and process companies in the
UK and there is huge potential to enhance
the competiveness of UK plc.

Hidden opportunities can typically be
found in most factories; it is a matter of
knowing where to look. One approach that
often proves fruitful is to look at
maintenance procedures. Factory
maintenance has historically been carried
out on a reactive basis; either linked to set
time intervals or because a component or
machine had failed. This approach gives little
control of production assets – people and
machines – and means productivity almost
always falls far short of optimum levels.

However, by adopting a more holistic and
proactive approach to plant maintenance,
manufacturers can unlock the potential of
hidden savings through better asset control
that minimises unexpected downtime and
boosts productivity.

This holistic approach is the basis of an
Asset Efficiency Optimisation (AEO) plan, a
work management 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 planning,
system-wide analysis and includes a shift
from a largely reactive to a selective mix of
planned, proactive, predictive and reactive
maintenance. This approach has in-built
sustainability and provides rapid results and
payback on investment.

An AEO strategy plan comprises four key
integrated elements. These are: maintenance
strategy, work identification, work control,
and work execution.

The maintenance strategy sets out
business goals and objectives, assesses plant
criticality and risk, and states the most
important issues and priorities. This is
essential for a suitable and effective
maintenance plan to be created, and involves
training staff to carry out regular machinery
inspection, from which a wealth of
inspection data can be gathered.

The second element of the plan deals with
the identification of work, where critical plant
information is analysed, allowing informed
decisions to be made and corrective
maintenance operations to be carried out.

The third element, work control, involves
planning and scheduling maintenance activity
in detail, taking into account timescales, manhours,
data feedback, and competence levels.

Effective planning at this stage will fully
optimise resources and plant efficiency.

The final element, work execution, sees all
this planning and preparation carried out,
with feedback collected via postmaintenance
testing to ensure continuous
improvements are maintained and maximum
return on investment is achieved.

Using a strategic tool such as an Asset
Efficiency Optimisation programme, a
company can manage its assets more
effectively, ensuring that the complete plant
runs smoothly and with minimum total
downtime. This can result in significantly
increased profitability, either by producing
the same output for less cost or, alternatively,
increased output for the same cost. Either
way, an AEO programme is a consistent and
measurable method of maximising assets via
a structure that will enable improvements to
be maintained and continued – a far better
way to protect profits than to build new
facilities while existing plant falls short of its
potential efficiency.