In our last blog post, we looked at the first step in the Asset Management Excellence Journey, often described as the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach. This is a very common approach, but often leads to unexpected failures, poor reliability, safety issues, and unpredictable output availability.
We now move to consider steps 2 and 3. Step 2 is what we refer to as a break-fix model. Companies adopting this approach hold replacement parts in stock so they can carry out repairs when items break. This usually reduces the amount of downtime, but still results in unexpected breakdowns and typically incurs high costs associated with buying and storing spare parts.
Step 3 sees a significant shift with a move to a new maintenance philosophy of fixing items before they break. This dramatically reduces the number of unexpected failures and all the associated tangible and intangible costs. In this phase we typically see the introduction of Condition Monitoring , Asset Management Plans and the identification of the critical spares that do need to be kept on-site. The prediction of required maintenance, planning for its execution and ensuring the work is done properly is usually centrally controlled. As with any major change, this can be a challenging shift for many businesses, but the impact on costs and output and is usually significant.
In our next blogs, we will cover the two remaining steps, but if you can’t wait, you can read more and download our White Paper or call us on 01886 358025.