Spares Management The ability to ensure the availability of the equipment through maintenance interventions, corrective or preventive, depends on the presence and maintenance of an adequate stock of spare parts. It is not exaggerated to consider the unavailability of spare parts as the responsible for 50% of the total down time of a system subject to failure. Of course, the stock levels of the various spare parts depend on the maintenance policies adopted and it represents itself a potential maintenance policy. This is the reason that put the spare parts management at the top priority for any company that want to improve the OEE of the production asset, to have a clear TCO of the machines and to optimize the working capital on spare parts. What is Spare Parts Management? Spare Parts Management is all about maintaining the relevant parts stock in the appropriate location adhering to quality, at optimal cost and available at the right time. This ensures that the efficiency and operating...

The process of maintenance over the years has evolved based on the circumstances and the technological advancement in the manufacturing process. When the manufacturing process started to invest in machineries and equipment to take over from the manual process, the maintenance concept was limited to maintain the equipment once it breaks down. Over the years as manufacturing process started to use new technologies and increase in production activity, the maintenance concept shifted to planned preventive maintenance. The objective is to achieve maximum efficiency (OEE) in production and to drive major cost savings in maintenance. Today, preventive and predictive maintenance planning is the norms in industrial equipment maintenance process and it is a standard condition to stay competitive in the market.  To execute any maintenance strategy several software tools help to reduce the manual errors, lethargy in scheduling of maintenance activity, creating maintenance notifications and rec...

With introduction to the foundation (5-S system) and 8 pillars on which the TPM process is built , the implementation of TPM program needs to be understood. This is generally done in 6 steps: 1) share your plans with the entire organization 2) identifying a pilot area, 3) restoring equipment to prime operating condition, 4) measuring OEE, 5) addressing and reducing major losses, and 6) implementing planned maintenance. Step 1: Share your plans with your entire organization Implementation of TPM starts with introduction of the program, creating awareness and understands the objectives and value it generates within the organisation. But above all it’s critical that management and supervisors grasp the importance of proper TPM procedures. If managers promote, introduce, and adopt a certain way of working, then shop-floor personnel will generally embrace plans much faster. Step 2: Identify a Pilot Area Identifying a work area, or a plant, or an equipment where the production process operat...

2 software solutions for maintenance activities In today’s world with the advancement in technology, skillsets and production demands, the industries are evolving daily with new features and tools to remain competitive. One of them is plant maintenance activity which is crucial for any business to get the maximum performance from the equipment to achieve the end results. In earlier days plant maintenance was performed manually by detailing, planning and recording in papers and files. This was a tedious process to dig into the right documents to get the equipment maintenance history, take actions and keep the equipment in operation effectively during breakdowns. Over the years with experience new tools & software’s were developed and with continuous introduction of new functionalities have resulted in various software packages like SAP PM and various CMMS . In the specific in this article, I compare 2 software solutions for the maintenance activities of machinery and production lin...

Cost of maintenance  It's inevitable that every machine can malfunction. However, there are failures that can have very serious repercussions on production, on the machinery itself and unfortunately also injure the operators. Good maintenance can help to significantly reduce these risks and a good practice is to allocate a dedicated maintenance budget annually.  This budget should cover the costs incurred for materials, spare parts, labour and services. Therefore, if proper maintenance is planned and carried out, fewer failures will occur, a better Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) can be achieved and overheads on production costs can be reduced. Production overheads that have to take into account are both the above mentioned maintenance costs, and also the cost of production loss, which in the end is the highest price a process line pays when it is breakdown for a failure. In production lines for commodity production it is estimated that one hour of downtime can cost several t...