Just how do you start a reliability program?
Where do I start?
I have heard the question many times and there is no real “easy” answer other than “pick a spot”. What I mean is that normally when a company decides to start a reliability program, there are a lot of improvements to be made in other areas as well. I have never heard of a facility in which everything is perfect and the only thing they need to do is start a reliability program to become “world class”. Reliability is tied to almost every other area in a facility, and so when one area is at a low point, other areas are also suffering. As with my other articles, I would call on all of the experienced reliability veterans to bring out their suggestions to help those who want to start a reliability program.
The first of my suggestions is to pick a spot. Gather all of your best people, including the top people in production, maintenance, quality and safety/environmental. This group should include various levels of technicians, operators and management. The group should figure out what they think are the areas that need improvement. I do not only mean specific pieces of equipment, but all of the areas that affect reliability such as training, schedule, parts and tools. The list can go on, but the point is that you need to have a picture of the potential improvement to get some direction. The list of improvement areas needs to be prioritized so everyone can get on the same track.
The second of my suggestions is to pick the tools. Once you know what needs to be improved, you can figure out what tools you need in order to start working. Sometimes the tools are already in the toolbox, and that is great. If the tools are not in the toolbox, it is time to buy them. When purchasing the tools, you want to buy the quality tool and not the bargain-bin tool that will fail to live up to the task. Some of the tools include root cause failure analysis (RCFA), Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM), fault tree analysis (FTA), life cycle cost analysis, and the list keeps growing. The tools are not all related directly to reliability, either. Your different areas -planning/scheduling, quality, custodial services, etc. - can have a very profound effect on reliability.
The final suggestion I will make in this article is to pick a champion. The champion must be a person who is committed to the job and the future goals. Far too often, the hat is given to a person who already has a few hats, and the hat will end up getting shelved at times. That can impede progress in moving a reliability program forward. The champion also needs to have the power and ability to make changes happen and influence the decision-making process. Responsibility without the ability is a recipe for failure. The champion is normally a cost in the beginning, but over time, it will pay for itself over and over again.
There are many more things you can do to start a reliability program, but I think this is a great way to start.
Let me know your thoughts on this subject!
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Filed Under: Reliability Engineering | Tags: maintenance
Comments
By M.Bassam on February 5th, 2009 at 9:33 am
It is imperative before starting this work, you should have the blessing,support and endorsement of the company top management. The management should wholeheartedly cherish this work, if it is to succeed. Also people from the shop floor should be involved in the process. Shopfloor workers should also know what the process can bring to them and the company in terms of various improvements.
By OJ Utter on February 5th, 2009 at 11:10 am
I have found that many times when moving from “fire fighting” to reliability based setting some easily obtainable goals helps direct the focus the proper direction.
Also many times in the beginning finding help to “kick start” things can establish the ground work to give breathing room from the daily fire fighting posture.
By Elena Forlerer on February 17th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Could you recommend some books, to start?
We can’t attend lectures
Thanks
EF
By john crossan on February 21st, 2009 at 7:16 am
Most plants have (or definitely should have) daily production meetings where a part of the meeting is discussion on major downtime, quality, safety etc issues from previous day.
This is where “How could this have been avoided if we were proactive?” and “How can we prevent this ever happening again?” can be discussed. Focus on the processes that should have been in place, not the engineering detail of the problem,(and definitely not any shortcomings of individuals).
This will begin to get plant leadership groups thinking in the right direction. Until you begin to have that, no reliability program will get the backing it needs.
By Jeff Shiver on March 16th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
As both a past practitioner and now a consultant, I can echo the previous comments about having leadership buy-in and support. While it can be done in rare circumstances, it’s a long uphill battle best avoided. Some books would be ‘Making Common Sense Common Practice by Ron Moore, Stephen Thomas’ books on leading organizational change.
Cheers,
Jeff Shiver
By Rob Apelgren on March 17th, 2009 at 6:32 am
Great comments! I always like to have goals with anything I do and of course buy-in is critical. Thanks!
By Mick Drew on April 2nd, 2009 at 2:40 pm
The choice of tool is an interesting question, not so much as to which you start with, but to ensure you at least have the right tool for the job. I can start looking at a problem area using Root Cause Analysis to understand the causes of poor reliability. Once I identify failure modes such as worn bearing, I need to search for a solution. At this point I am going to want to switch to an RCM decision making process, whereby I consider the merits of regular inspection, monitoring replacement or redesign.
If I had started my investigation of the problem equipment with an RCM study, when I get to the maintenance selection phase I will want to consider redesign options. At this point I will switch to RCA mindset to consider the causes of the bearing wear, and look for possible solutions to eliminate the problem.
These tools are actually thinking techniques that all technicians should be familiar with. The “tools” aspects is more about software so the processes can be applied in an efficient, systematic manner.
By sadia moin on April 2nd, 2009 at 10:15 pm
when starting a rel program, its is important to create a sense of urgency throughout the organisation. this will involve conducting a few seminars/training classes throughout the organisation to make people feel (including the higher management) what reliability is actually and why is it so important. then highlighting weaknesses of a few major projects (for process/maintenance improvement). defining their “as is” and “to be” processes. and present to the management the results of those projects in terms of cost benefits. for continuous improvement it is very improvement to encourage people having proactive approach at each level , i.e., higher management to labour class.
By Muhammad on September 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Nice inputs from all…
I would like to add up a few more comments.
The first thing to do is to increase the overall awareness about the equipment performance and the level of reliability knowledge across the company. The reliability performance data should be highly visible to all… especially to the Top Management. Remember that “What gets noticed, gets done.”
The reporting structure of reliability performance KPIs should be representative of actual performance, and should highlight the bad actors, in order to prioritize the efforts.