Generator maintenance: objectives, types, schedule configuration

Source : Limble CMSS (Computerized Maintenance Management System)

Every piece of equipment you use will suffer wear and tear, eventually leading to equipment failure. Equipment maintenance not only delays this point of failure, it also prepares you for it.

Let's look at why good equipment maintenance is so important. We'll look at the most popular maintenance strategies, the unique objectives and benefits of each, and how to implement a cost-effective equipment maintenance programme.

Qu’est-ce que l’entretien des équipements et pourquoi c’est important

The best way to define equipment maintenance is to look at what it is trying to achieve. The primary objective of equipment maintenance is to keep equipment in optimum working condition. When proper regular maintenance is applied to a piece of equipment, it maximises its output and increases its useful life.

If your maintenance department does not have a proactive equipment maintenance strategy, machine breakdowns become a daily occurrence, leading to :

• Budgetary problems
• Production delays
• Safety incidents
• Increase in overtime
• Problèmes d’inventaire
• Shorter equipment life cycle
• Des employés insatisfaits dans toute l’usine

When you take into account the list above and add to that the potential impact on your brand's reputation, the real cost of equipment downtime can be devastating.

The good news is that implementing an effective maintenance strategy is easier than ever. Before we get to that, let's take a look at some of the most common strategies you can apply to keep your equipment in top condition.

Types d’entretien des équipements

Il existe différents types de stratégies de maintenance qui se sont développées au fil des ans. Nous avons beaucoup écrit sur la plupart d’entre eux. Dans ce chapitre, nous allons brièvement décrire chacun d’entre eux et vous donner un lien vers une ressource qui l’explique plus en détail.

Stratégie d’exécution jusqu’à panne This is a reactive approach to maintenance. Using this strategy, you make a conscious decision to use equipment until it breaks down. Suitable for equipment where repair costs are low and where equipment failure will not cause major operational problems (such as production delays). Can be used on critical equipment that you plan to replace after the next failure.

Preventive maintenance strategy A good overall strategy for most types of equipment. The simplest and cheapest proactive maintenance strategy to implement and execute. This is an important first step for all companies looking to move from reactive to proactive maintenance.

Conditional maintenance strategy (CBM) When implementing condition-based maintenance, you need to purchase and install condition monitoring sensors on your equipment. These sensors give you a real-time overview of the health of your assets. This helps you to optimise your maintenance schedule by having a better idea of when equipment needs to be repaired.

Predictive maintenance strategy (PdM) : la maintenance prédictive est comme une version améliorée de CBM (fait la même chose, mais en mieux). Cela implique l’utilisation d’analyses prédictives et d’algorithmes (basés sur les données provenant des capteurs de surveillance de l’état) pour prédire exactement quand un équipement est susceptible de tomber en panne afin que vous puissiez planifier la maintenance juste avant que cela ne se produise.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) : La maintenance productive totale est une stratégie principalement utilisée dans le secteur manufacturier. TPM étend la responsabilité de maintenance des équipements en dehors de l’équipe de maintenance. Il représente une philosophie d’amélioration continue qui nécessite l’engagement et les efforts de toute l’organisation. La mise en œuvre complète prend des années, c’est pourquoi les organisations qui souhaitent aller dans cette direction cherchent souvent à mettre en œuvre sa version allégée appelée maintenance autonome.

What is the best maintenance strategy to use?

In theory, predictive maintenance seems to be the best option. However, PdM can be expensive, and it rarely makes sense to implement an expensive strategy for relatively cheap equipment.

L’approche que vous souhaitez adopter est celle qui prend en compte le type/état de l’équipement que vous utilisez, vos KPI de maintenance et vos ressources disponibles.

In practice, the best approach is often to combine different strategies. Most organisations will start with a preventive maintenanceand will gradually incorporate more advanced strategies such as CBM and PdM lorsque les gens adopteront avec succès cet état d’esprit proactif.

Implement an effective equipment maintenance programme

It's no secret that maintenance managers are under constant pressure to deliver the right results on limited budgets. This sometimes leads them to buy the most expensive assets. cheaper availablewhich constitutes a short-term decisions. Less expensive assets tend to break down more often and consume far more of your maintenance resources over time.

Why is this important? We try to show how the amount of equipment maintenance required correlates with the quality of the equipment you buy. The balance between maintenance costs and investment is a daily concern for the maintenance manager.

Apart from the quality of the equipment, a certain level of maintenance will always be required. Let's take a look at how to set up an equipment maintenance programme.

1) Create an equipment inventory

Chaque élément d’équipement qui fera l’objet d’un plan de maintenance proactif doit être saisi dans votre système de CMMS.

Les raisons en sont doubles. Premièrement, si vous souhaitez créer un bon de travail pour un équipement spécifique, il est beaucoup plus facile de le faire si l’équipement est déjà dans votre base de données CMMS. La deuxième chose est l’historique des actifs. L’un des principaux avantages des systèmes informatisés de gestion de la maintenance par rapport aux enregistrements papier est qu’ils enregistrent automatiquement l’historique des actifs auquel vous pouvez accéder depuis n’importe où avec une connexion Internet.

2) Select which maintenance strategy will be applied to which equipment

Once you have a list of equipment that needs regular servicing, it's time to create the maintenance schedule. Before you do this, you should take some time to decide what maintenance strategies are available to you.

As mentioned earlier, most organisations will start with a comprehensive preventive maintenance strategy. However, if you have the budget, buying a few sensors for your most critical equipment is a welcome bonus.

3) Create the equipment maintenance schedule

Le equipment maintenance schedule is the central point of any equipment maintenance programme. It controls which maintenance actions need to be undertaken, when and by whom.

As such, the maintenance calendar should provide a clear overview of all incoming and ongoing maintenance work. In addition to this, it should also provide a simple way to quickly schedule routine activities, easily reschedule any maintenance task and change task priorities with a click or two.

When creating the first preventive maintenance plan, you can consult the OEM manuals and follow the instructions given there. You should also consult your technicians to check whether any assets have long-standing problems that need to be addressed.

Si vous utilisez CBM ou PdM, une partie de votre programme de maintenance sera basée respectivement sur les données provenant de capteurs et d’algorithmes prédictifs.

Whatever strategy you apply, there will always be a set of routine maintenance tasks that need to be planned and carried out consistently.

4) Define maintenance checklists and procedures

Maintenance benefits greatly from standardisation, as it involves many repetitive tasks carried out on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. These can be streamlined by defining :

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
• Procédures de maintenance d’urgence (EOP)
• Locking/labelling procedures (LOTO)
• Preventive maintenance checklists
• General safety instructions

All these elements must be communicated to the employees who need to use them and can even be attached to specific work orders when deemed necessary.

5) Train your maintenance team

A plan means absolutely nothing if you don't have the ability to execute it. Technicians must be able to read and understand the maintenance plan and have the necessary knowledge to follow the maintenance procedures described. They must also know how to use the CMMS and any other digital solutions you have put in place.

To get everyone up to speed, you may need to organise a few maintenance skills training programmes.

When moving from reactive to proactive maintenance services, the organisation needs to make an extra effort to ensure that all maintenance staff buy into the idea. In the first few months, it is important to check that technicians are following the new procedures, recording everything they need to in the equipment maintenance log and making proper use of the available CMMS functions. This will help to correct bad habits before they take root.

6) Analyse and improve

It would be a little arrogant to think that everything will work perfectly on the first try. A regular review of maintenance performance measures and other indicators is necessary to eliminate inefficiencies and problems in your current plan.

The maintenance software you use must be able to provide you with sufficient data to successfully optimise your equipment maintenance programme over time.

Last words

Qu’il s’agisse d’une unité de climatisation dans votre bureau, d’une voiture que vous utilisez pour vous rendre au travail ou d’une machine dans votre chaîne de production, Equipment maintenance is there to ensure that each asset can do what it is supposed to do.

With a little effort from your maintenance team, you can have a valid equipment maintenance programme in less than a month.

Source: Translation of Limble CMMS "Equipment Maintenance" by Bryan Christensen