1. Preventive Maintenance

The preventive maintenance program is the key to any successful asset management program. The preventive maintenance program reduces the amount of reactive maintenance to a level low enough that the other initiatives in the asset management process can be effective. However, most companies in the United States have problems keeping their PM program focused. In fact, surveys have shown that only 20% of the companies in the United States believe their PM programs are effective.

This finding indicates that most companies need to focus on the basics of maintenance if they are to achieve any type of asset management process. Effective preventive maintenance activities would enable a company to achieve a ratio of 80% (or more) proactive maintenance to 20% (or less) reactive maintenance. Once the ratios are at least at this level, the other initiatives in the asset management process become more effective. From the financial perspective, reactive maintenance typically costs 2-to-4 times what proactive maintenance costs, due to its inherent inefficiencies. Because the asset management process is focused on Return on Investment (ROI), it is critical for all companies to have a successful PM program as a foundation.

2. Stores and Procurement

The stores and procurement programs must focus on providing the right parts at the right time for the asset repairs and maintenance. The goal is to have enough spare parts, without having too many spare parts. However, the interdependency between the asset management initiatives becomes apparent: No stores and procurement process can cost effectively service a reactive maintenance process. However, if the majority of maintenance work is planned several weeks in advance, the practices within the stores and procurement process can be optimized.

What level of performance is typical in companies today? Many companies see service levels below 90%, which means stockouts run greater than 10% of requests made. This service level leaves customers (maintenance) fending for themselves, stockpiling personal stores and circumventing the standard procurement channels to obtain their materials. These actions are not done for personal reasons, but rather because they want to provide service to their customer (operations or facilities). It is really a self-defense mechanism.

In order to prevent this situation, it is necessary to institute the type of stores controls that will allow the service levels to reach 95-to-97% with complete accuracy of the data. When this level of stores and procurement performance is achieved, then the next step in asset management is ready to be taken.

3. Work Flow Systems

This initiative in asset management involves documenting and tracking the maintenance work that is performed. A work order system is used to initiate, track, and record all maintenance and engineering activities. The work may start as a request that needs approval. Once approved, the work is planned, then scheduled, performed and finally recorded. Unless the discipline is in place and enforced to follow this process, data is lost and true analysis can never be performed.

Unfortunately, many organizations record only a small part of their maintenance and engineering actions; so much data is lost. When it comes time to perform an analysis of the data, the analysis is incomplete and inaccurate. Management does not support the decisions made, based on the data, and further degradation of their confidence in the maintenance department occurs.

The solution requires complete use of the work order system to record all maintenance and engineering activities. Unless the data is tracked from work request through completion, the data is fragmented and useless. If 100% of all maintenance and engineering activities are tracked through the work order system, then planning and scheduling can be effective.

Planning and scheduling require someone to perform the following activities:

Review the work submitted

Approve the work

Plan the work activities

Schedule the work activities

Record the completed work activities

Unless a disciplined process is followed for these steps, the productivity increases and reduced equipment downtime never occur. This leaves the perception that maintenance planning is a clerical function. In turn, the planning function becomes vulnerable to the first cuts when any type of reduction in overhead costs is examined. At least 80% of all maintenance work should be planned on a weekly basis. In addition, the schedule compliance should be at least 90% on a weekly basis.

4. Computerized Management Maintenance Systems(CMMS) and Enterprise Asset Management Systems (EAM)

In most companies, sufficient data is accumulated by the maintenance and engineering functions to require the computerization of the data flow. This computerization facilitates the collection, processing, and analysis of the data. The use of Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) or Enterprise Asset Management Systems (EAM) has become popular in most countries around the world. This software manages the functions discussed previously, and provides support for asset management.

CMMS/EAM systems have been utilized for almost a decade in some countries with mixed results. A recent survey in the United States showed the majority of companies utilizing less than 50% of their CMMS’ capabilities. What this means for these companies is that the data they collect is highly suspect and probably highly inaccurate. Unless this is corrected, the companies will never be able to achieve true asset management because there will be no method of tracking asset costs and calculating ROI. Figure 2-1 highlights the information flow in a CMMS/EAM system.