Overview
The asset maintenance approach is to:
- Establish the right balance of preventive, predictive, and reactive maintenance
- Implement improved maintenance and operational procedures
- Improve work planning and scheduling.
The aim of maintaining assets are to:
- Meet service delivery performance requirements,
- Control fixed plant, equipment and component aging
- Optimize whole of life costs.
This approach:
- Allows the organization to meet agreed maintenance standards
- Provides a structure in which changes are incorporated into maintenance operations and the maintenance organization.
The sub-elements assessed in Asset Maintenance include:
- Assets continue to support business objectives and service delivery requirements
- Capital investment in the asset is protected and is in line with its age and market value
- Maintenance planning is carried out effectively and efficiently.
The maintenance concept covers the following:
- Levels of Maintenance
- Types of Maintenance
- Grades of Maintenance.
Objectives of the Organization
Corporate asset management objectives could be:
"To manage the organization’s assets so that service quality is preserved and long-term business viability is retained, keeping costs to a minimum while meeting required outputs.
The objective of the maintenance organization could be:
"To improve reliability so there are fewer in-service breakdowns leading to a loss of supply or environmental harm, through a concerted asset reliability program based on planned and scheduled preventive maintenance"
Maintenance management systems have greatly assisted the way assets can be efficiently operated and maintained. Some benefits include:
- Improved support and reduced disruption to operations
- Increased understanding of the asset portfolio
- Better value from budgets
- Maintained asset conditions and performance
- Effective assessment of maintenance needs, monitoring and reporting
- Adherence to technical and statutory requirements
- Continuous improvement of maintenance strategies and delivery.
To ensure that the requirements of the maintenance objectives are met, a maintenance policy is developed for each plant and for many items of equipment at each plant.
The policy is a statement of the maintenance requirements for the item and comprises of two main elements:
- WHAT MAINTENANCE WILL BE PERFORMED - The maintenance processes for the item.
- WHEN MAINTENANCE WILL BE PERFORMED - The frequency at which maintenance is to be carried out.
There are two other considerations for a complete maintenance policy statement:
- HOW MAINTENANCE WILL BE PERFORMED - This element relates to the engineering standards and step-by-step procedures to be applied to carry out the work.
- WHO WILL PERFORM THE MAINTENANCE - This element specifies the trade responsible for the task.
The main elements of “WHAT” and “WHEN” result from a decision process, which begins during design and continues throughout the service life of the equipment. Initial decisions made during design and commissioning are progressively reviewed and refined as additional information and operating experience is accumulated.
The detailed requirements of a maintenance policy are of primary importance to the task of ensuring effective and efficient use of resources. A maintenance policy that causes too much maintenance to be performed leads to inefficient use of both manpower and material as well as a reduction in the amount of time and resources available for plant use. Conversely, a policy that results in too little maintenance will lead to deterioration in the serviceability standard of the equipment with possible corresponding reduction in safety and environmental standards. Maintenance policy must also take account Occupational Health and Safety requirements.
To ensure that maintenance policies defined for equipment provide the basis for effective and efficient use of resources, maintenance policy decisions must reflect an accurate and soundly based requirement. This can only be achieved through consistent application of logical and well-defined principles and ongoing review of maintenance requirements. The process is known as Maintenance Engineering Analysis.