Maintenance method tool: 9 techniques to know
Industrial maintenance management can sometimes seem very complicated for many companies. Yet there are a lot of simple tools that can help you master it perfectly. If you want your business to be successful, you need to be well-organized, to communicate smoothly with your collaborators and to make the right choice for your CMMS.
TPM, FMECA, Kaizen: all these terms probably sound familiar. We decided to present you eight methods that have been approved by many experts and that will help you make your equipment industrial maintenance more fluid!
The TPM – maintenance method tool #1
The TPM method (total productive maintenance) was born in Japan in 1971. It basically aims to progressively change maintenance techniques in order to increase equipment output. This method allows you to avoid unplanned shutdowns, time loss everytime a technician turns on a machine or waste when pieces of equipment are deficient. As a result, ineffective equipment or lack of attention from certain technicians are not a problem anymore. In order to get to this point, TPM is divided into three clear tools:
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the overall output rate, which is an indicator for the equipment use rate;
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the 5 Ss:
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Seiri – Sort;
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Seiton – Set In Order;
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Seiso – Shine;
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Seiketsu – Standardize;
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Shitsuke – Sustain;
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autonomous maintenance, which allows production operators to perform simplified maintenance tasks.
The PDCA – maintenance method tool #2
The PDCA, or Deming wheel, is a technique aiming to enhance your industrial projects anticipation and management. This tool helps you organize your ideas and divide the work you have to do into several steps in order to ensure that everything goes well. The PDCA acronym corresponds to:
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P – “Plan”: plan what you are going to do
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D – “Do”: do what was planned
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C – “Check”: check that the work done corresponds to what was planned in the first place
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A – “Act”: react according to the assessment of the work done.
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Diagram by Karn G. Bulsuk (http://www.bulsuk.com)
The Ishikawa diagram – maintenance method tool #3
The Ishikawa diagram, also known as fishbone diagrams, herringbone diagrams or cause-and-effect diagrams, is used in quality management. It is a way for you to identify the different origins and consequences of a given issue.
It is a very simple tool, you just need to list all the possible causes of the problem you encounter and classify them according to different categories. If we take the example of a machine, you just have to create categories such as electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, automation and then list the potential issues below. This visual tool is particularly used in risk management as it allows you to anticipate a lot of difficulties that could have dramatic consequences on your company’s activity.
The Five Ws – maintenance method tool #4
The 5 Ws are questions that you need to ask yourself when you’re facing an issue. This is therefore a very simple method to quickly obtain the information you need. The aim is to deal with an industrial problematic and to answer the following questions:
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Who (was involved)?
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What (happened)?
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Where (did it take place)?
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When (did it take place)?
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Why (did it happen)?
Thanks to this method, you can gather a lot of information that will probably help you better understand the issue you are facing. It is then possible to identify spheres of actions, to put them in order of priority and to react with the proper solutions and propositions.
Kaizen – maintenance method tool #5
Kaizen is a Japanese method consisting in enhancing a plant’s efficiency and output quality thanks to minor but continuous improvement. In order for this method to be perfectly efficient, all employees need to get involved in this continuous improvement process and all have to gather to achieve their objective. To put this method into place, it is necessary to:
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organize awareness-raising sessions to encourage employees to get involved and to relate;
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train managers and technicians to this method so that they can completely understand why it is so useful;
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standardize processes and implement tools such as PDCA, presented above, or quality management tools that give everyone the chance to express themselves freely and to share their opinion.
Pareto or ABC analysis – maintenance method tool #6
The Pareto analysis, also known as the 20-80 rule, allows you to analyze the major breakdowns in terms of frequency as well as time spent. It states that 20% (or even less) of the causes are responsible for 80% of a plant’s problems and helps analyzing all the issues to find an appropriate answer. In order to use this method and to have a general overview of the situation, you first need to take your failure history into consideration. The next-gen CMMS Mobility Work, thanks to its analytics module, displays all your data automatically so that you can use them.
Mobility Work’s analytics tool forecasts are based on data collected from thousands of users working on the same equipment.
The ABC analysis is based on the same principle as the Pareto analysis as it directly results from it. It basically is a classifying method that is widely used for stock analysis.
The FMECA – maintenance method tool #7
The failure modes, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) aims to help you analyze your maintenance interventions as well as your machinery. FMECA allows you to manage your industrial maintenance, as this operational safety tool is also very used in quality approaches.
To make the best use of it, simply follow these few steps:
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determine the mode of failure as well as the cause;
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assess the repercussions on the system, the damaged feature as well as the resulting damage;
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identify the following criteria:
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N: Number of breakdowns
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O: Occurrence
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S: Severity
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D: Detectability
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calculate the criticality thanks to the following formula: Detectability * Severity * Occurrence.
The FMECA can take different forms (functional, product, process, production mean, flow) and have different effects each time but which finally will allow you to obtain a work document that is absolutely necessary to know what actions to put in place, what interventions to plan, etc.
As a result, this method enhances production results and limits failure problems in the same time, it also allows you to analyze production defects, to constantly look for improvement, etc.
The industrial risk and equipment failure assessment methodology – maintenance method tool #8
This risk assessment methodology is particularly used in the maintenance operations planning. In order to make the best use of it, you have to evaluate the failures before carrying out a general risk assessment study.
If you decide to implement this tool, you will be able to identify the type of maintenance that you want to put into place (predictive or preventive for example), to better manage your stocks, to determine the procedures that need to be followed, etc.
Mobility Work’s calendar feature allows you to schedule all your preventive and predictive maintenance tasks.
All these tools can make your everyday-life easier and, thanks to a next-gen CMMS like Mobility Work, make the industrial maintenance of your company’s equipment very smooth. Thanks to our community-based maintenance application, you will be able to communicate easily within your company and to evolve towards 4.0 maintenance. All these tools won’t have any secrets for you and you won’t have to struggle with the difficulties of industrial maintenance anymore.
If you are willing to better understand our CMMS application Mobility Work and to discover all the features that our agile, intuitive and user-friendly tool offers, don’t hesitate to watch our video presentation.
