Asset Care
I find that as I comb through my computer folders that I have 3 complete Asset Management courses developed for various audiences. Part of me says merge and rationalise them, or just give them away.
In these days of seemingly continuous economic crisis, physical assets have to be worked harder and for longer, so the importance of a robust Asset Maintenance Strategy grows by the day.
Asset Care is the generic title for all those activities that seek to maximise the benefit of owning an asset or, in more general terms, reducing the maintenance cost and increasing the output efficiency of production equipment. The term Asset Care has been coined to emphasise that, when executed correctly, it comprises a complete programme of activities designed to maximise the benefit of a machine or facility from cradle to grave. Thus, it stresses a forward-looking planned approach rather than the breakdown service often associated with an Engineering Maintenance department.
The oil industry was the first 24x7 Process Industry to recognise that their business was split into four approximately equal activities.
Exploration
Design & Construction
Operations & Maintenance
Marketing
Oil companies recognised that they were the most suited to conduct the first and last of the activities noted above and several decided that most engineering work was best outsourced. Design & Construction had been outsourced for years, but most maintenance had been kept in-house. So, the maintenance of all refinery assets, not just the specialist equipment, began to be outsourced to general engineering companies, usually the one that designed the actual or similar plants. Their performance was linked to the production requirements/operations and payment for maintenance support linked directly to achieving the agreed production targets.
A by-product of the traditional project and operational split was the loss of information integrity in the transfer of ownership from the project to operations. This was aggravated by ever tighter controls on capital spend, making the skipping of the effort for as-builts attractive to budget constrained project managers. This resulted in increased revenue charges, which of course run on for the entire life of the facility. There was the potential to improve this with the new complex partnership contracts to design, build and operate. These contractual arrangements have been subject to considerable development.
The changes also provide a more meaningful career path for the contractor’s engineers as they are now required to be more interested in developing and maintaining the assets in optimal operational condition at economic cost.
Steps in Developing a Maintenance Strategy
All industries are regulated to an increasing degree and need to comply, or it is possible that they will not survive. Compliance has had specific meanings in the aeronautic and pharmaceutical sectors for years under the pressure of the regulators, the FAA & FDA. Regulators also play an increasing role in the process industry. Adding to the pressure to design economically maintainable as well as safe plants. In addition, they need to meet the quality and financial objectives set by their management to respond to, or keep ahead of, the competition in their sector.
Cost pressures have driven companies to outsource. However, the decision to outsource must not result in the abdication of responsibility of the owner’s engineers. They too could end up in court for any serious environmental or safety infringement.
Effective maintenance focusses on doing enough to maintain the functionality of the asset. Not too much to reduce the value added, or too little to cause excessive downtime or breakdown costs.
With the support of analyses such as RCM (Reliability Controlled Maintenance), CBM (Condition Based Monitoring) and SPC (Statistical Process Control), allied to an established MMS (Maintenance Management System), superior, yet competitive Asset Maintenance will be achieved.
I have presented modules of a university MBA course describing the range of techniques that are available and from which choices must be made, if a strategy to enhance the effectiveness of the business is to be developed.
I find that as I comb through my computer folders that I have 3 complete Asset Management courses developed for various audiences. Part of me says merge and rationalise them, or just give them away as is, but is anyone interested?