Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices by Ramesh Gulati
Book Review: Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices
Key Concepts
- The role of maintenance is to preserve the function of an asset, not to run the asset itself. (For an explanation, see the chapter on PM Optimization, which describes RCM.)
- Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) has an advantage over time-based maintenance when the life of the equipment is variable or not known with much certainty.
- In maintenance Planning & Scheduling (P&S), the planner determines what and how, and the schedular determines who and when.
- TPM, 5-S, and Visual Workplace and fundamental tools in operations reliability.
- Lagging indicators show after-the-fact results. Leading indicators are process measures. Well-designed and measured leading indicators are better are identifying sustainable performance improvements.
- The generation gap plays a signficant role in workforce management. While individuals vary in their motivations, attracting talent from each of the generations requires different approaches. For example, Baby Boomers often prefer the prestige of job titles, opportunities for networking and learning, and long-term benefits. Generation Y prefers work schedule flexibility, change and challenges, and work that has a higher meaning.
Noteworthy Features
- Calculations for economic order quantity (EOQ), page 117
- Calculations for estimating reliability, page 138
- Summary of CBM/PdM technologies, p. 215
- Brief description of several maintenance & reliability analysis tools (fishbone, FMEA, standards, Pareto, RCA, Six Sigma, etc.) p. 308
- List of trends and practices that are important to understand. p. 357
Limitations
- The Basic Test on Maintenance and Reliability Knowledge (chapter 1) had some poorly-worded questions that made the intent unclear. Here are several examples with my comments.
- Question 3 . All maintenance personnel’s (craft) time is covered by work orders. T/F? Answer: “true” in order to ensure maintenance and repair costs are accurate. [My answer: false. Breaks and lunches are not generally covered by work orders.]
- Question 7: Utilization of assets in a world-class facility should be above 98%. T/F? Answer: “true.” [Can we possibly be thinking of the same meaning of asset utilization?]
- Question 12: It is a common practice for operators to perform PMs. T/F? Answer: “true,” assuming the organization is deploying TPM. [But the question does not say anything about TPM. The question asks if it is "common" for operators to perform PMs, not whether it is a good or best practice or whether it is a component of TPM.]
- Question 13: P-F interval can be applied to visual inspections. T/F? Answer: “true.” [I still don't know what the question means by "applied." Visual inspections do not detect faults until near the end of the failure curve, so as a fault-finding task it will have to be done more frequently to ensure the fault is caught before total breakdown. Is this what the question means?]
- Question 16: The primary purpose of scheduling is to coordinate maintenance jobs for the greatest utilization of the maintenance resources. T/F? Answer: “true.” [My answer: false. The purpose of scheduling is to maximize return on capital investments by getting the right work done at the right time and removing efficiency roadblocks. Maximizing maintenance utilization is a purpose only insofar as it promotes ROI. Therefore, the given answer is only a partial truth.]
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introducing Best Practices
Chapter 2: Culture and Leadership
Chapter 3: Understanding Maintenance
Chapter 4: Work Management: Planning and Scheduling
Chapter 5: Materials, Parts, and Inventory Management
Chapter 6: Measuring and Designing for Reliability and Maintainability
Chapter 7: The Role of Operations
Chapter 8: PM Optimization
Chapter 9: Managing Performance
Chapter 10: Workforce Management
Chapter 11: M&R Analysis Tools
Chapter 12: Current Trends and Practices
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