Machinery Lubrication

Machinery Lubrication March April 2016

Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation

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M a i n t e n a n c e a n d R e l i a b i l i t y hat is reactive mainte- nance, and how do you know if your company is practicing it? Many people like to hide reactive maintenance and call it something it's not, but if you honestly answer "yes" to any of the following ques- tions, then you likely are stuck in the reactive rut: Are you measuring how fast a piece of equipment gets fixed once it breaks down? Are you patting guys on the back for fixing broken equipment rather than keeping it from breaking? Do you think cutting maintenance costs starts with manpower and/or material? Are your maintenance costs increasing even though you've implemented sound strategies? Are you rewarding failure? Some of these questions may sound ridiculous, so let me explain. For example, you may ask what company in its right mind would reward a failure. But do you award overtime to your millwrights or mechanics for coming in at night or on weekends to fix broken machinery? If so, you are rewarding the failure of that machine. A better strategy would be to reward the team when there are no failures. Don't you think maintenance personnel would focus on keeping a machine in optimum condition if their reward was tied to the machine's continual operation and avail- ability as opposed to its failure? This is a significant cultural issue at a number of the plants I visit, and it is not an easy hurdle to overcome. Changing from reactive to proactive maintenance requires a different way of thinking, executing and managing. When designed, implemented and managed effectively, proactive maintenance results in optimal asset reliability at optimal cost. Everyone wins. The company gets more value from its machines, the maintenance budget and upfront costs are reduced, profit margins increase, the actual work being done by the team is easier, etc. The list of benefits could span pages. So why isn't everyone striving to make this change? Change is difficult, and people tend not to like it. Although change is not simple or easy, it is achievable. Not only is change achievable, but lots of people are making it happen. There are many strategies for change management, including a few I will discuss later. However, the first thing you must do is to believe that making the change will have a lasting effect on the organization and the people within it. Anyone who works in maintenance and reliability is probably aware of the frus- trating consequences of unexpected equipment breakdown (the definition of reactive maintenance). Some organizations have hundreds or even thousands of pieces of equipment to maintain, and a single breakdown could bring operations to a halt. If the organization is running at full capacity, this loss can never be returned. While there's no doubt that fixing some- thing as soon as it breaks is important, few people realize the high costs associated with working in reactive mode. Maintenance Management Approaches There are three basic approaches to maintenance management: reactive, predictive/preventive and proactive. Reac- tive maintenance, which is precipitated by failure, results from a lack of preventive and predictive maintenance. On the other hand, proactive maintenance keeps equip- ment ser viced and in working order through preventive and predictive mainte- nance as well as a keen focus on eliminating the root causes of failure. A reactive maintenance approach can be detrimental to your organization because it means that you could get stuck in a vicious cycle of constant emergency work pushing aside the tasks that could lead to a reduction of that very same emergency work at a future date. Further- Making the W FROM THE FIELD Jerem y Wrigh t | Nori a Corpor at ioN 6 | March - April 2016 | www.machinerylubrication.com " " Making the leap to proactive maintenance requires a change that is difficult for most organizations to master because it requires a shift in thinking, processes, procedures and culture. TRANSITION to Proactive MAINTENANCE

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