Maintenance Engineering Analysis

This topic covers:

• Scope and Purpose of Maintenance Analysis
• Documentation Standards
• Analysis Procedures.

Scope and Purpose of Maintenance Analysis

To formulate a reliability centered maintenance plan it is important that the principles of Maintenance Engineering Analysis (MEA) be applied logically and uniformly. This section defines the principles and details the procedures to apply those principles. These procedures provide the means to:

• Systematically evaluate the need for scheduled maintenance based on:
  • The principles defined
  • Appropriate current preventive maintenance
  • Historical failure data
  • Manufacturers procedures and recommendations
  • Maintainers' experience.
• By exception, identify those items, the failure of which can and should be accepted
• Identify those failures that cannot be prevented, predicted or delayed but are critical to the objectives of the plant. These are candidates for redesign/ modification
• Document the basis for each decision in a form which can be retained and used during subsequent reviews
• Record information and decisions, which will be used directly in preparation of a technical maintenance plan.

Maintenance analysis is necessary to ensure that scheduled maintenance requirements remain effective and efficient in meeting the maintenance objective by establishing whether:

• Each task is potentially effective in preventing, delaying or detecting identified failure modes
• The tasks are efficient in terms of the potential benefit which will accrue from their completion
• The interval at which each task is performed is consistent with the demonstrated or suspected failure pattern for the item
• A different task, or introduction of a new task may be required.

Documentation Standards

Accurate and complete documentation of maintenance analysis decisions is of primary importance. This documentation serves as a permanent record of the basis for each decision as well as the baseline for subsequent reviews; accordingly, the information presented must be objective, thoroughly researched and sufficiently comprehensive to ensure that the reason for the rating selected is self-evident. In many cases, the need for subjective evaluation may be encountered; therefore, the guidelines should not be regarded as inflexible rules.

Finally, for the total maintenance task to be valid and auditable, the logic and records must be raised and recorded. On this principle depends the justification for all maintenance action and therefore the management considerations of budgets, staffing levels, facilities, and other resources.

Analysis Procedures

Maintenance analysis is performed to identify the items of equipment that display specific or likely failure modes and because of their role in maintaining personnel and equipment safety, a clean environment, or a defined level of facility function, are worthy of scheduled maintenance. Analysis is not intended to identify all possible failures for all equipment. In some cases, it is more cost effective to repair an item on failure. Failure should and will occur.

The analysis of maintenance requirements for plant and equipment involves separate but related procedures. These procedures have been broken down into major activities and are shown below.

Some of the analysis sub-activities may require co-operation with operations staff. Operation staff participation is recommended for the following sub-activities:

• Item functional description
• Item redundancy
• Criticality rating.

Sources of information for completion of the analysis will include:

• Plant drawings
• Manufacturers manuals
• Design requirements
• Operational requirements.

This information may be supplemented by discussions with the operating and maintenance personnel, designers, and equipment manufacturers.

Care should be taken to ensure, however, that the information gained from interviews represents a balanced viewpoint and not one based upon unsupported or "worst case" information.