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Contents – Module 1

1. Importance of maintenance.
2. Objectives of maintenance.
3. Types of maintenance.
4. Maintenance systems.
5. Planned and unplanned maintenance.
6. Breakdown maintenance.
7. Corrective maintenance.
8. Opportunistic maintenance.
9. Routine maintenance.
10. Preventive maintenance.
11. Predictive maintenance.
12. Condition based maintenance systems.
13. B Design-out maintenance.
14. Selection of maintenance systems.

INTRODUCTION

Maintenance Engineering is the discipline and profession of applying engineering

concepts to the optimization of equipment, procedures, and departmental budgets to achieve
better maintainability, reliability, and availability of equipment.

Maintenance engineering is the occupation that uses engineering theories and practices to plan
and implement routine maintenance of equipment and machinery. This must be done conjunction
with optimizing operating procedures and budgets to attain and sustain the highest levels of
reliability and profit.

Maintenance engineers are often required to have knowledge of many types of equipment and
machinery. A person working in the field of maintenance engineering must have in-depth
knowledge of or experience in basic equipment operation, logistics, probability, and statistics.
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Experience in the operation and maintenance of machinery specific to a company's particular

business is also frequently required. Since the position normally requires oral and written
communications with various levels of personnel, excellent interpersonal communication and
participatory management skills are also desirable.

Maintenance engineering positions require planning and implementing routine and preventive
maintenance programs. In addition, regular monitoring of equipment is required to visually
detect faults and impending equipment or production failures before they occur.

These positions may also require observing and overseeing repairs and maintenance performed
by outside vendors and contractors. In a production or manufacturing environment, good
maintenance engineering is necessary for smooth and safe daily plant operations.

Maintenance engineers not only monitor the existing systems and equipment, they also
recommend improved systems and help decide when systems are outdated and in need of
replacement. Such a position often involves exchanging ideas and information with other
maintenance engineers, production managers, and manufacturing systems engineers.

Maintenance engineering not only requires engineers to monitor large production machine
operations and heavy-duty equipment, but also often requires involvement with computer
operations.

Maintenance engineers may have to deal with everything from PCs, routers, servers, a software
to more complex issues like local and off-site networks, configuration systems, end user support,
and scheduled upgrades. Supervision of technical personnel may also be required.

Good maintenance engineering is vital to the success of any manufacturing or processing

operation, regardless of size. The maintenance engineer is responsible for the efficiency of daily
operations and for discovering and solving any operational problems in the plant.

Old maintenance practice: It consists of activities related to equipment reparation after a break
down. Most companies do not invest enough resources to keep their equipment and facilities in
good condition. On the contrary, they wait until they break down to take the corrective measures
needed to repair or replace the equipment. Nothing lasts forever and every piece of equipment
has its lifecycle.
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New maintenance practice: It must consist of actions taken to prevent an equipment or facility
of failing, keeping them in good work condition. The need of maintenance is based on the actual
or imminent fail. Ideally, maintenance is carried out to keep equipment and systems running
efficiently during at least its usual life cycle. As such, practical functioning of equipment is a
function based on time. If you want to graphically represent the failure rate of a piece of
equipment in relation to time, it is probable that the graphic takes the shape of a bathtub, such as
the one shown in picture 1, where axis Y represents the failure rate and axis X represents time.
This curve can be divided in three periods: premature dead, lifecycle and exhaustion period.

The first period, the premature dead one, of the curve is characterized by a high rate of failure,
followed by a decreasing failure period. Most of the failures related at this time are linked to bad
design, bad installation or wrong use. The premature dead period is followed by a period with a
nearly constant failure rate know as life cycle. There are many theories about why equipment
fails in this time area. Most of them agree that poor preventive maintenance has often a key role.
It is also generally agreed that exceptional practices related to predictive and preventive
maintenance can extend this period in time. Exhaustion period is characterized by a higher and
higher rate of failure. In most cases, this period includes a regular distribution of failures during
design life but in reverse.
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The lifecycle of most of equipment needs periodical maintenance. If we use the example of a car,
we could say that filters must be changed, front-end alignment must be maintained, oil change
and proper lubrication are needed and so on. In some cases, certain pieces need to be replaced,
for example, the timing belt, to ensure the proper functioning of the main piece of the equipment,
the car in this particular case, once its design life has ended. Each time we do not carry out the
maintenance activities planned by the designer; we shorten the operational lifecycle of the
equipment. So, what are our options? For the last 20-30 years the different approaches to how
maintenance can be carried out to ensure that the equipment reaches or exceeds its design life are
focused on proactivity, thus, on a proper preventive maintenance and more and more on
preventive maintenance accompanied by proper predictive maintenance to complement it.

DEFINITION OF MAINTENANCE

“Maintenance is a routine and recurring activity of keeping a particular machine or

facility at its normal operating condition so that it can deliver its expected performance or service
without causing any loose of time on account of accidental damage or breakdown”.

a. Once equipment is designed, fabricated and installed, the operational availability of the
same is looked after by the maintenance requirement. The idea of maintenance is very old
and was introduced along with inception of the machine. In the early days, a machine was
used as long as it worked. When it stopped working, it was either repaired/serviced or
discarded.

b. The high-cost sophisticated machines need to be properly maintained/serviced during their

entire life cycle for maximizing their availability. The development of mechanization and
automation of production systems and associated equipment, with the accompanying
development of ancillary services and safety requirements, has made it mandatory for
engineers to think about proper maintenance of equipment.

c. Maintenance function also involves looking after the safety aspects of certain equipment
where the failure of component may cause a major accident. For example, a poorly
maintained pressure vessel such as steam boiler may cause a serious accident.
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OBJECTIVES OF MAINTENANCE

The objectives of maintenance should be formulated within the framework of the overall
organizational setup so that finally the goals of the organization are accomplished. For this, the
maintenance division needs to ensure that:

a. Minimizing the loss of productive time because of equipment failure (i.e. minimizing idle
time of equipment due to break down).

b. Minimizing the repair time and repair cost.

c. Minimizing the loss due to production stoppages.

d. Efficient use of maintenance personnel and equipment’s.

e. Prolonging the life of capital assets by minimizing the rate of wear and tear.

f. To keep all productive assets in good working conditions.

g. To maximize efficiency and economy in production through optimum use of facilities.

h. To minimize accidents through regular inspection and repair of safety devices.

i. To minimize the total maintenance cost which includes the cost of repair, cost of
preventive maintenance and inventory carrying costs, due to spare parts inventory.

j. To improve the quality of products and to improve productivity.

Maintenance is also related with profitability through equipment output and its running cost.
Maintenance work enhances the equipment performance level and its availability in optimum
working condition but adds to its running cost. The objective of maintenance work should be to
strike a balance between the availability and the overall running costs. The responsibility of the
maintenance function should, therefore, be ensure that production equipment /facilities are
available for use for maximum time at minimum cost over a stipulated time period such that the
minimum standard of performance and safety of personal and machines are not sacrificed. These
days therefore, separate departments are formed in industrial organizations to look after the
maintenance requirements of equipment’s and machines.
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Figure 2: Objective of maintenance

EFFECTS OF MAINTENANCE

Maintenance, being an important function in any production system, has far reaching effects on
the system. If the right practice of maintenance is not established for a particular environment, it
may lead to serious problem of either over maintenance or under maintenance. The selection of a
particular maintenance policy is also governed by the past history of the equipment. Cost
effective maintenance will help in enhancing productivity. It is therefore, is important for the
team associated with maintenance work, to know how much to maintain. The nature of the
maintenance function affects the life of equipment. It is known from experience that optimum
maintenance will prolong the life of the equipment, and on the other hand, carelessness in
maintenance would lead to reduced life of the equipment and in some cases an early failure as
well. Further, proper maintenance will help to achieve the production targets. If the availability
of the equipment in good working condition is high, the reliability of the production will also be
high. Another important effect of the maintenance function is the working environment. If the
equipment is in good working condition, the operator feels comfortable to use it otherwise there
is a tendency to let the equipment deteriorate further. To get the desired results in maintenance
operations, there should be selective development of skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled labour.
And also, proper job description is required for the jobs in order to make full use of skilled
workforce available.
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CHALLENGES IN MAINTENANCE

The maintenance function of a modern industry faces a number of challenges attributable to:

1. Rapid growth of technology resulting in current technology becoming obsolete. Such a

challenge is a frequent one in Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
industry where computers and computers-based system (hardware and Software) is the
main component.

2. Advent of new advanced diagnostic tools, rapid repair systems, etc.

3. Advance store management techniques to incorporate modular technologies.

4. Requirements of keeping both outdated and modern machines in service. For example,
many industrial organizations have a combination of the old machines working on
obsolete technology and new systems utilizing the latest technology and equipment.

5. The effective management of maintenance aspects under such challenging circumstances

is often a difficult job. Besides the rectification of the faults in the equipment, the
activities of the maintenance department include:

i. Up gradation of the existing plants and equipment and training maintenance

personnel to attend the required technical skills.

ii. Effective maintenance of the old equipment for higher availability.

iii. Cost optimization of all maintenance functions.

iv. Improvement of maintenance activities in the areas of tribology and

terotechnology

v. Reconditioning of used /unserviceable spare parts.

vi. Development of indigenous sources for parts for import substitution.

vii. Setting up of an effective maintenance information management system (MIMS).

viii. Effective utilization of the maintenance workforce.

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ix. Setting up of in-house R&D activities for effecting improvements in maintenance

practices.

IMPORTANCE OF MAINTENANCE

1. Maintenance can avoid work stoppage and ensure the loss of production time and cost or
minimized.

2. To keep the entire production system running smoothly with minimum interruption.

3. To avoid loss of sales and profits.

4. Help reduce production cost such as idle labor cost and overtime cost.

5. To ensure that the entire work place is a safe place to work for its employees.

6. To established a competitive edge and to enhance good customer service.

7. To ensure that the product meet the expected quality and specifications.

8. To reduce cost of breakdown and repairs.

MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES/TYPES/SYSTEM

DEFINITION

Maintenance Strategy may be defined as a long-term plan, covering all aspects of maintenance
management which sets the direction for maintenance management, and contains firm action
plans for achieving a desired future state for the maintenance function.

Maintenance system though meaning almost the same as maintenance strategy, assumes little
broader approach. Maintenance system can be defined as a methodology and strategy for
establishing a good maintenance management principle and providing a framework for
identifying, mapping and controlling the elements of maintenance functions.

Maintenance type, though meaning somewhat same as other two terms, may be the more
appropriate term for this, as the other two terms cover relatively broader approach. Maintenance
types may be defined as what kind of maintenance functions are to be performed and what type
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of maintenance methodology is to be chosen to plan and execute those functions in most efficient
way. However, for further discussions, we would mean the three terms the same.

Almost every business/ industry has some sort of maintenance programme for its physical assets.
Even in domestic sector, people having car or many house hold appliances, knows the principle
and advantage of preventive maintenance programmes, whether that may mean routinely
changing of engine oil etc. for few machines it may be easy to keep track what need to be done
and when, but when scope includes thousands of equipment’s/ assets, involving millions of
Rupees, it becomes significantly complex and expensive. As such, over period of time, many
maintenance strategies or methodologies have been developed, mainly basing on time for doing
maintenance, frequency of maintenance, quality of maintenance, complexity and sophistication
of equipment’s and value of total assets etc.

BASIS OF SELECTING MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES

Though, basically there are four distinct maintenance strategies (Reactive, Preventive, Predictive
and RCM), we would consider many others in this chapter, to cover the topic broadly. By
optimizing equipment maintenance strategies against both target availability and the penalty of
failure, you can optimize your asset life-cycle costs.

There are various reasons for evaluating/ considering/ selecting maintenance strategies such as -

 Which set of tasks that should be performed and their frequency,

 With aging of the plant, a different mix of tasks is needed to maintain reliability.
 Perhaps with reduced staff it is not possible to perform all the tasks that used to be done.
 The plant operator may want to reduce maintenance expenditure without elevating risk or
reducing reliability; etc.
1. Is the equipment regularly available to perform planned/routine maintenance activities?
Another set of conditions to help determining the strategy may be as followings-
2. Will the cost to shut down the equipment be less than the cost of failure (break- own)?
3. Is equipment downtime a problem?

The resulting strategy must strike a balance between maintenance cost and plant reliability This
evaluation develops tools and techniques for determining the best mix of maintenance tasks.
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There may not be a sacrosanct maintenance strategy for the total plant/ industry for all times;
may have to continue to improve maintenance task selection techniques, maintenance strategy.
develop industry databases of equipment maintenance and reliability information such as the task
selection templates, and improved software tools to support your strategy and other approaches.
An element of the maintenance strategy is to prioritize maintenance tasks. One approach is called
Risk-based Evaluation and Prioritizing (REAP). REAP has been successfully used to prioritize
routine and outage maintenance tasks, based on improved reliability and cost of the task.

Any good maintenance strategy must have an integrated information system for interacting with
all concerned areas such as shown in Figure 3

Figure 3: Integrated Information System for Maintenance Strategy

Presently many maintenance systems/ strategies are in use in industries and selection has to be
made depending the need, complexity and reliability needed and also considering techno-
economics. Most of the commonly used strategies can be grouped as shown in Figure 4. Reactive
maintenance, as the name suggests, are maintenance jobs in reaction to breakdowns or problems
or deficiencies already occurred. This may include breakdown, emergency or corrective
maintenance etc.
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Figure 4: Types of maintenance Strategies

OR

Figure 4: Types of maintenance Strategies

MAINTENANCE DECISION DIAGRAM

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Figure 5: Maintenance type decision diagram

Figure 5 gives another basis for selecting maintenance type/strategy.

BREAKDOWN OR REACTIVE MAINTENANCE

In such maintenance repair is done after failure has already occurred. The equipment is allowed
to run undisturbed till it fails. Off-course lubrication and minor adjustments (for pressure and
flow etc.) are done during this period. Only when the equipment fails to perform designated
functions or comes to a grinding halt, any maintenance or repair job is taken. This type is also
called Reactive Maintenance.

On face value, this system looks to be simple and less expensive, but is not really so. It may
work good in a small factory/ plant, where

• Number of equipment are few,

• Equipment’s are simple and repair does not call for specialists or special tools/ tackles,

• When sudden stoppage/ failure of the equipment will not cause severe financial loss in terms of
delivery commitment or further damage to other equipment/ components,
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• When sudden failure will not cause any severe safety or environmental hazards.

In such small factories, generally no specialized maintenance crew are kept and maintenance is
normally done by persons operating the machine and other concerned persons. Occasionally help
of outside agency may also be taken. Maintenance is generally done to put back the breakdown
machine into operation and not much attention is given to investigate and to prevent recurrence
of such breakdown.

However, such maintenance system cannot work in big industries, having large number of
equipment’s, some of which may be quite intricate. This is not used for chemical or process
industries where reliability requirement is high and where failure may lead to safety or pollution
hazards or where restart of equipment’s may take considerable time. Fig. 5.3 shows the rough
flow diagram of Breakdown/ Reactive maintenance. The advantages and disadvantages of this
type is given herewith.

Advantages Disadvantages (Reactive Maintenance)

1. Low cost 1. Increased cost due to unplanned downtime of equipments
2. Less staff 2. Increased labour cost, including overtime and outside help
3. Cost involved with repair and replacement of equipment,
4. Possible secondary equipment or process damage for
equipment failure
5. 5. Insufficient use of staff or internal resources.

CORRECTIVE MAINTENANCE

Corrective maintenance means maintenance actions for correcting or restoring a failed unit (or
unit going to fail). Its scope is very vast and may include different types of actions, from small
actions like typical adjustments and minor repairs to minor redesign of equipment. It is mostly an
unplanned action, but may include few planned/ scheduled actions.

Actions in corrective maintenance may be sub-divided, according to priority, as follows-

1. Emergency work, high priority, generally offline, i.e. after stopping the equipment, giving
normally less than 24 hours’ notice to take up the job.
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2. Deferred works-jobs of lower order priority; generally off-line,

3. To eliminate /reduce repetitive breakdowns,
4. Specific reconditioning or redesign jobs, generally small or medium in volume.

Corrective maintenance is generally one time task; once taken up, completed fully. Each
corrective job may differ from other. Some bigger corrective maintenance jobs may have the
following stages-

 Collection of data/ information and analysis,

 Identify likely causes.
 Find out the best possible solution to eliminate those likely causes,
 Implement those solutions etc.

Some of the differences between corrective maintenance and preventive maintenance are as
follows

1. PM jobs are generally taken before the equipment has stopped working but corrective
may be taken before or after the equipment has stopped working,
2. Level and type of PM jobs are normally decided within maintenance department whereas
in corrective maintenance, help of other departments may be taken.
3. PM jobs are planned well in advance whereas corrective maintenance jobs may be taken
at shorter notice.
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Figure 6: Flow Diagram of Breakdown/ Reactive Maintenance

Corrective maintenance may include some of design-out maintenance jobs.

OPPORTUNISTIC MAINTENANCE

In multi-component system, with several failing components/ equipments, often it is

advantageous to follow opportunistic maintenance also. Hen an equipment/ system is taken down
for maintenance/ changing of one or few worn-out components, opportunity can be utilized for
maintaining /changing other worn-out components, even though they have not failed. This would
be, probably, economical in the long run rather than taking shutdown when other components fail
or going to fail. Normally cost of changing several parts together is much less than the sum of
the costs of several separate replacements. However, cost of leftover (residual) life of the
components, going to be changed, are to be considered in such calculations.

Opportunistic maintenance is very beneficial for non-monitored components. For non- monitored
components, which are inaccessible and cannot be inspected without dismantling changing, such
replacement policy may be considered. For non-monitored components, which c be inspected
without dismantling/ changing, usual inspection policy should guide about replacement/
maintenance. For monitored components, if fault is detected in one of the few similar
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components, opportunity of shutdown and dismantling is taken to check and repair other similar
components (As an example, in automobile engines, if one valve gives problem (worn-out) and
needs grinding, all other valves are ground in the same shutdown)

Often in an equipment complex, which are taken down every year for statutory annual overhaul
and inspection (like boilers etc.), if any component fails one or two months before the scheduled
date of start of next shutdown and if that repair is going to take some time, the next annual
overhaul and inspection is preponed to start immediately and the total job is taken together. This
is also a case of opportunistic maintenance.

Opportunity maintenance is actually not any specific maintenance strategy but is a system of
utilizing an opportunity, which may come any time. To carry actual jobs, we may use other
maintenance systems/ strategies.

ROUTINE MAINTENANCE

Routine maintenance is the simplest but very essential form of maintenance system. Earlier the
routine maintenance was considered about preventing failures. Today routine maintenance is
being considered about avoiding, reducing or eliminating the consequences of failures. As the
implies, it means carrying out minor maintenance jobs at regular intervals. It involves jobs such
as cleaning, lubrication, inspection and minor adjustments pressure, flow, tightness etc. and
tightening of loose parts etc. It also includes inspection of bearings, V-belts, couplings, jointings,
foundation bolts, earthings and protective covers etc. The small and critical defects, observed
during such inspection, are rectified immediately and bigger jobs are planned for rectification
during next available shutdown. Such maintenance is essential for effective scheduled and
preventive maintenance.

Routine maintenance is not necessarily need-based. In an equipment /plant some motors may be
running for 4 hours a day and some others may be running 20 hours a day but, in routine
maintenance, all may be inspected at the same frequency. This may lead to some amount of over
maintenance in some components, but the system pays up handsomely in the long run.
"Regularity", carrying out planned jobs regularly in simple cyclic schedule, is very essential in
routine maintenance. Such schedules are simple (like check, clean, lubricate, tighten, adjust etc.)
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and repetitive. Routine maintenance may also be considered as a small portion of preventive
maintenance.

Frequency of routine maintenance is generally once every shift or every day (normally at the
start). Of course, in sophisticated and automatic working equipments or in equipments having
enough condition monitoring gadgets to indicate failures or deviations, the period of routine
maintenance may change. Again, if such jobs are more and time availability is less, one group
job may be planned for Monday, another group of jobs for Tuesday and so on. Routine
maintenance needs very little investment in time and money. The duration of routine
maintenance is generally so small that it does not affect the output of machine appreciably.
However, the cost of not-doing routine maintenance may be very high as a small defect may
develop in big and catastrophic failure.

As one example of routine maintenance, in few railways suburban electric trains system,
whenever the train stops at few bigger stations, a group of maintenance people immediately
starts checking and doing minor jobs like identifying loose parts and tightening, cleaning
moisture traps and checking brakes etc. The whole job may take 10 to 12 minutes by the time the
train is due to start for onward journey. In industries, during shift change periods, a small group
of maintenance personnel carry out necessary inspection, lubrication, adjustments and tightening
etc., which may take about 15 minutes.

PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

Preventive maintenance (pm) has a vast scope. As the name applies, it may include any action to
prevent equipment downtime/ failure. An enhanced PM may include Predictive maintenance,
CBM, CMMS and Proactive maintenance etc. also. Fig. 5.4 gives the Process Flow for enhanced
PM. The steps include review of existing PM or other maintenance programmes, Analysis,
assessing new reliability and other requirements and planning of new PM programmes,
integrating programmes of new or other equipments with existing system if any, establishing
system support requirements and configuration, define reimplementation plan and fixing
performance monitoringmmetrics etc.

However, the conventional PM, using less of predictive and proactive maintenance, is the oldest,
easily understood and extensively used form of maintenance. PM is the planned maintenance of
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plants and equipment’s (including and resulting from routine maintenance inspections, other
inspections/ reports and condition monitoring etc.), in order to prevent or minimize breakdowns
and deterioration/ depreciation rates. It covers a vast area and occasionally people get misled by
its coverage. After PM repairs, the equipment's health is, restored back nearly to its original
condition. However, it does not include much improvement and up-gradation jobs.

Figure 8: Enhanced PM Process Flow

In general, the various components of PM are as follows-

1. Check drawing, design and installation of equipments including subsequent redesign and
minor modifications, depending on specific nature of problems,
2. Proper identification of all items, proper documentation and codification; check-
 History cards/ records,
 Spares catalogues, equipment catalogues and inventory lists.
 Job manuals and standard maintenance practices (SMP),
 Maintenance workorders and other pending workorders.
3. Periodic inspection of plant and equipments
 Use of checklists by inspectors and its frequency; shift-wise, daily, weekly and
monthly Etc.,
 Well qualified and experienced inspectors.
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 Use of necessary aids; test equipments, Vibration meters, Ultrasonic and X-ray
Equipments etc.,
 Preparing total defect failure list and its categorization,
4. Repetitive servicing, repairs, upkeep and overhaul-
 Minor repairs,
 Medium repairs- roughly around 50% of jobs of major overhauls,
 Major overhauls or capital repairs,
 Emergency repairs or corrective repairs,
 Recovery or salvaging; when equipment has undergone several major repairs, etc
5. Adequate lubrication, cleaning and painting of equipments; Changing of oils and
lubricants of systems as per inspection reports,
6. Typical failure analysis and plan for their elimination,
7. Organization for PM,
8. Budget provision and control for repairs and PM.

The extent of above-mentioned components may vary in PM practices from equipment to

equipment and from plant to plant. However, all components are essential and they supplement
each other. Aim should be to increase (qualitatively and quantitatively) inspection and minor
repairs and, to some extent, medium repairs so that the major repairs and overhauls are reduced
and the interval between two capital/ major repairs are increased; i.e. major repairs are less
frequent.

PM schedules are normally of following two types-

 Fixed Time Maintenance (FTM) schedules,

 Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) schedules.

Majority of PM schedules are FTM. Simple routines or cycles of workloads are established for
different days, weeks, fortnights, months or quarters etc. and are followed regularly. Often all
equipments may not work for same number of hours but, for convenience of planning,
organizing and control, equipments are clubbed for PM schedules. Such a system simplifies
control and filters and workmen can work with minimum supervision. FTMs may include simple
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jobs like inspection, calibration, testing and adjustment etc. or bigger jobs like replacement and
rebuilding etc.

CBM mostly comes under predictive maintenance category but it overlaps to some extent with
PM also and reasonable amount of condition monitoring equipments are used to determine the
jobs of PM. A good PM programme uses modern diagnostic tools and condition monitoring tools
as part of inspection tools and also uses some amount of routine and corrective maintenance.
Again, planning and scheduling of all activities of PM should be done beforehand so that
common delays of following types are avoided-

 Waiting for job orders at the start of shift and also after finishing one job,
 Visiting the site or other place to find out what to do and how to do,
 Unnecessary trips to stores as complete list of tools/ spares are not available at the start of
shift and tools are brought from stores as and when needed.
 Operating personnel not clearly aware of time of sparing the machine and doing their
preparatory jobs (e.g. opening of dies/ jaws etc.), before handing the machine to
maintenance for PM.
 Loosing time because of non-availability of safety clearance/ permit in time.

Crews carrying PM jobs should, normally, be different from crews carrying breakdown
maintenance. If the two jobs are given to the same crew, the PM jobs often get neglected or gets
less importance and less supervision as not doing PM jobs does not immediately reflect in
breakdowns.

Frequency of Major Repair in PM

Scheduled periodic/ cyclic major repair is an important component pf PM. The interval between
the two PM major repairs for the same equipment, i.e. frequency, may not be the same
throughout the lifecycle If the equipment. Frequency is dictated by the well-known bathtub
curve; the initial small de-bugging or wear-in phase (just after commissioning the equipment
after major repair), chance failure phase (long normal working period) and wear-out phase (just
before the equipment is taken for major repair. It is also governed by the inspection results
through different diagnostic and condition monitoring tools. Our past experience and
manufacturers recommendations, if any, also help in deciding the frequency. Figure 9 shows the
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rough curve for major repairs of PM. In the curve "x" is the working period of the equipment,
when its condition deteriorates from good (near 100% condition) to bad when the failure rate is
expected to be un- acceptable and "y" is the period of PM major repair, when the equipment is
restored to nearly 100%. In actual practice, the periods 𝑥 , 𝑥 , 𝑥 etc. and 𝑦 , 𝑦 , 𝑦 , may not be
the same, but is often nearby.

Figure 9: Frequency of PM Major Repairs

Sources for PM Procedure Development

Following sources may help in the development of PM procedures-

1. Vendor recommended PM: The maintenance manuals provided by equipment manufacturers

are invaluable when trying to build a PM procedure. However, the procedure in the manual
should not be used in its original form. Additional tests, repairs or added which reflect the special
use of the machine in your facility.

2. Plant Developed PM: Mechanics who work on equipment and the operators who run it can
help define PM that might be specific to the equipment's environment. Working together, they
often discover PM procedures that would not otherwise be obvious.

3. Generic PM: Generic PM procedures, developed for general classes of equipment, can be
modified to fit a specific facility requirement. Some typical procedures of this type are developed
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by professional organizations such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

(L.E.E.E.), USA, etc.

The advantages and disadvantages of PM can be summed up as following-

Advantages (Preventive Maintenance) Disadvantages

1. Cost effective in many, capital intensive 1. Catastrophic failures still likely to
processes occur,
2. Flexibility allows for the adjustment of 2. Labour intensive,
maintenance periodicity, 3. Includes performance of unneeded
3. Increased component life cycle, maintenance,
4. Energy savings, 4. Potential for incidental damage to
5. Reduced equipment or process failure. components in conducting unneeded
maintenance.

Selecting equipments for Periodic Maintenance

Periodic maintenance is commonly referred to as somewhat combination of Preventive and

Routine maintenance. Periodic maintenance jobs may also be taken from following categories-

1. Equipment that, by law, requires periodic inspection (boilers etc.)

2. Equipments with maintenance intervals determined by experience,
3. Equipment that requires regular checking because of its importance to the process,
4. Equipments with an established replacement interval based on serviceable life of its
components,
5. Equipments, such as heat exchangers, whose performance begin to deteriorate after a
known period as a result of scale build-up etc.,
6. Important equipments, for which it is difficult or impossible to detect/ monitor
abnormalities during operation.
7. Necessary material improvement- Even though the best material might have been
selected when the equipment was originally designed, subsequent process changes or
availability of better materials calls for jobs which can be included in periodic
maintenance. Original drawings and other records should also be corrected accordingly.
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 Spare parts forecast (reduction of inventory)

 Sequence of tasks (both, PM and PdM routes); Combining of PM and PdM jobs,
Equipment and maintenance performance indicators and trends,
 Planning and scheduling for PdM; the preparatory steps.
 Organizational requirements
 Qualification of personnel, training.

Measuring Results of PdM

Following parameters measure results of PdM-

 PdM database/data collection,

 Costs of PdM (equipment/instruments, labor and services),
 By determining PdM benefits and return on investment (ROI),
 Decision factors for in-house vs. contracted PdM or PM jobs.

Advantages and Disadvantages of PdM

Those can be summed-up as followings-

Advantages (PdM) Disadvantages

1. Increased component operational 1. Increased investment in diagnostic

life/availability equipment.
2. Allows for preemptive corrective 2. Increased investment in staff/ workmen
actions, training,
3. Results in decrease in equipment and/or 3. Savings potential not readily seen by
process downtime and prolongs the management.
time intervals between shutdowns/
overhauls,
4. Decrease in costs for parts and labour,
5. Improved worker and environmental
safety.
24

6. Better product quality,

7. Energy savings
8. Estimated 8% to 12% cost savings
over preventive maintenance program,
9. Improved workmen moral.

CONDITION BASED MAINTENANCE SYSTEM (CBMS OR CBM)

In crude way, CBM is an age-old practice. In earlier days also, whenever a bearing was giving
noise or getting hot, the equipment was taken down, as soon as possible, to check and rectify the
problem. But in those days, early detection of fault was not possible and, hence, and hence the
system did not give much benefit. Recently, CBM has become one of the most important
maintenance system/ strategies, because of-

 Development of good and cheap condition monitoring tools (both, portable and on-line)
and superior monitoring techniques, which detect the fault generation very early.
 Increased awareness and acceptance of CM tools and techniques by common
maintenance personnel and other concerned personnel,
 Increased cost of equipment downtime because of reactive or preventive maintenance (in
terms of cost of maintenance and resources used and cost of loss of production) etc.

The impact of CBM or any maintenance initiatives, including CM, should be predictable and
measurable, and indeed somewhere around the performance and dependability of the
operating unit. Among the most sensible measures of performance is the production rate or
throughput of the unit. However, in performance and dependability analysis, the "random"
nature of failures should not be forgotten.

CM regarding CBM

The objective of condition monitoring (CM) is to predict upcoming maintenance need by

monitoring condition indicators. CM is simply attempting to predict an imminent failure. But
CBM (and other PdM techniques) takes the appropriate measures to delay the failure as long as
possible through the obvious like appropriate lubrication, but also through other jobs like dusting
25

down cooling fins on motors, vacuuming the distribution board and cleaning the pool of oil
under the machine so an increase in 'drip rate' is noticeable etc. A CM programme cannot become
a successful CBM practice unless the links to the operation are made and the financial metrics
determined.

Frequency of CM

The frequency of CM is a difficult question and assessment. The frequencies of CM tasks are a
primary function of the rate of decay of the failure rather than the MTBF. MTBF only comes into
the equation if the inspection confidence is known and is less than 100%. The main question that
you need to ask yourself in determining the appropriate frequency for a CM task is "How quickly
does it fail, once an incipient failure is detected?" If it fails more quickly, then inspect more
quickly. Again, for CM frequency determination, you must first decide what results you want
from your programme. If it is simply to predict imminent failure, follow the conventional
intervals and gadgets. But if you want to optimize performance, minimize costs and extend the
useful life of your critical production systems, you must base the interval and methods used on a
design review of the installed system. This review must include the designed operating envelope
of the system (i.e. what was it designed to do?), the actual installation and how it is really being
operated.

The earlier saying was "The frequency of condition-based maintenance tasks should be based on
the frequency of the failure and/or failure criticality of the item". The new saying is "The
frequency of condition-based maintenance tasks should be based on the failure period (also
known as the "lead time to failure" or "P-F interval) “.

Few Technical Barriers for widespread Application of CBM

 The difficulty to accurately and reliably predict the remaining useful life of the
equipment,
 The difficulty to continually monitor an equipment, and
26

 The difficulty of maintenance system to learn and identify impending failures for an
equipment and then recommend what action should be taken,

However, these barriers can potentially be overcome through innovations in technical areas, such
as Prognostication capabilities, Cost-effective sensors and monitoring systems and Reasoning or
Expert systems. Prognostication includes areas such as estimation of remaining useful life (or
time to failure or degraded performance), development of confidence levels (uncertainty
estimates) and recording an audit trail of how the estimate and confidence level were obtained.

Figure. 10; CBMS Flow Sheet

27

Methodology of CBM

A simplified method of CBM System has been shown in Figure 10 (CBMS Flow Sheet), taking
only few monitoring tools. A simplified CBMS normally uses following steps-

1. Listing and codification of all equipments/ components: for proper identification and
location,
2. Selecting critical equipments/ machines and systems: identify very critical, critical and
less critical, basing on importance for production, cost of repair and safety and
environmental hazards etc. CBMS is more beneficial for critical and very critical
machines. If the machines are classified as Vital, Essential and Desirable (VED analysis),
continuous monitoring, periodic monitoring and fixed time maintenance may be preferred
accordingly.
3. Identify components/ items: Very critical, critical and less critical equipments/
machines/ systems are subdivided into process components, mechanical components and
control components. etc. From these, individual items/components are identified for
monitoring; e.g. bearings, seals etc.
4. Fixing condition parameters: For identified items/components, condition parameters
are to be assigned which can be actually measured and monitored; e.g. vibration,
temperature, pressure, flow, noise, strains, magnetic flux and electrical insulation etc.
5. Fixing Monitoring Techniques: For each condition parameters, relevant measuring and
monitoring techniques are selected and suitable tools/ instruments/ implements are
identified and obtained/ installed. All techniques cannot be used and also not required for
all machines/ components. After this, the mode of monitoring is ascertained, such as
displacement mode, velocity mode and acceleration mode for vibration monitoring etc.
Then comes fixing of monitoring points or sampling points.
6. Monitoring Schedule and frequency: Next comes the decision for frequency and
schedule of monitoring (daily, weekly, monthly, continuous etc.). frequency assessment is
a tricky judgment and has to be regularly updated. Some condition parameters can be
monitored "on-line" i.e. when machine is running (e.g. vibration, temperature, strain etc.)
while some others can be monitored only "off-line" i.e. when machine is stopped (e.g.
checking internal clearance and back-lash etc.).
28

7. Trend Monitoring: The inspection records, thus obtained, are decoded, analyzed and
compared with maximum allowable limit or earlier data, if available. Today, equipment
manufacturers, often, supply vibration signature/ record and records of other condition
parameters of new machines, along with their test certificates. However, if no records are
available, successive inspection/ monitoring records of same machine are analyzed and a
trend is established, which helps in finding out the extents of deviations and defects. In
case of increasing trend, more frequent inspection is made. Failure statistic and MTBF/
MTTF, if available, can also be considered.
8. Repair schedule and execution: Based on monitoring, necessary repair actions are
scheduled and executed for correcting the deteriorations to avoid severe degradations.
9. Follow-up: After repairs, the monitoring continues, as shown in Figure 10.

Objectives and Advantages of CBM

The advantages and disadvantages are generally similar in line with those mentioned for PdM.
The main aims/ objectives are to intervene before the failure occurs, to do maintenance only
when needed, to reduce number of failures and number of shutdowns, to reduce cost of
maintenance and production loss and to increase the operating life of the replacement items, etc.

The earlier thinking was that "If both are technically appropriate, fixed interval overhauls /
replacements are usually both cheaper and more effective than CBM. The new thinking is that "If
both are technically appropriate, CBM is nearly always both cheaper and more effective than
fixed interval overhauls /replacements throughout the life of the asset".

PD.M vis-à-vis CBM

Apparently PdM and CBM may appear to be somewhat similar. Though they are actually quite
different, there are some overlapping areas. CBM may include a good amount of PdM, in
addition to other maintenance strategies. As an example, the following is the spectrum of PdM,
which is also used in CBM-

Equipment Equipment Failure Mode Failure Detection Methods

Category Type Causes
Rotating Pumps, Motors Premature Excessive Vibration Analysis
29

Machinery Compressors, Bearing Loss Force Lube Oil Analysis

Blowers Lubrication Failure Over, under Spectrography and
or improper Ferrography
Lube.
Electrical Motors, Cables, Insulation Failure Heat, Time/ Resistance
Starters, Moisture test, I.R. Scans, Oil
Transformers Corona Discharge Moisture Analysis
Splice Ultrasound
methods
Heat Transfer Heat Fouling Sediments, Heat Transfer
Equipments Exchangers, Material Calculations
Condensers Build-ups
Contaminants Tanks, Corrosion Chemical Corrosion Meter,
and reservoirs, Attack thickness checks
Transfer Piping, Stress Cracks Metal Acoustic Emission
equipments Reactors Fatigue

The advantages and disadvantages of CBM is somewhat similar as for PdM

PROACTIVE MAINTENANCE

Dissimilar to preventive maintenance that based on time intervals or predictive maintenance that
based on condition monitoring, proactive maintenance concentrate on the monitoring and
correction of root causes to equipment failures. The proactive maintenance strategy is also
designed to extend the useful age of the equipment to reach the wear-out stage by adaptation a
high mastery level of operating precision. It takes a micro view on machine damage
concentrating on the causes instead of the symptoms of wear etc. Proactive maintenance
commissions corrective actions aimed at the sources of failure. It is designed to extend the life of
mechanical machinery as opposed to (1) making repairs when often nothing is broken, (2)
accommodating failure as routine and normal, and (3) preempting crisis failure maintenance - all
of which are characteristics of the predictive/ preventive strategies/ disciplines.
30

Proactive maintenance relies on the use of electronic instrumentation and computerized

programs to effectively pinpoint problems in rotating (also sliding) equipment. Because most
problems are mechanical, vibration analysis has evolved as the leading diagnostic tool in
proactive maintenance to determine problems and their sources. Other diagnostic systems have
made their debut and each has, in its own way, contributed to enlarging the scope of predicting
potential problems in rotating equipment and structures. It also uses many other tools/
techniques. few of which are given below-

 Infrared Thermography,
 Ultrasonic leak detection,
 Lube oil analysis, Contamination Analysis, Wear stability,
 Phase angle analysis for alignment and looseness checking and nodal and anti-nodal
points on piping and structure etc.,
 Laser shaft alignment, Precision balancing,
 Resonance correction,
 Fluid chemical stability, Fluid physical stability,
 Cavitation stability;
 Soft-foot conditions checking and correction, etc.

At this stage, techniques like RCA, RCFA, TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) and RCM
(Reliability centered maintenance) etc. are effectively used. It adopts a continuous improvement
model in moving to a "improved precision" and/or "World Class" domain and involvement of
people and integration of cross-functional groups becomes essential because all

groups contribute to the creation of defects and they must contribute to their elimination. The
knowledge base for doing Proactive Maintenance activities is then accessible to the entire
workforce instead of only a few experts.

All of these programs have brought maintenance activities out of the dark and into a new light.
One critical factor for this is that of the "hands-on" aspect of machinery maintenance. If there is
to be a complete cohesion between those who analyze and those who correct the problem, it
becomes imperative that all maintenance personnel receive training about all of the proactive
31

maintenance programs in their plant. Some of the techniques, mentioned in chapter 11 are also
used in proactive maintenance.

RISK BASED MAINTENANCE

This is not any specific maintenance strategy/ type but may be any or combination of above-
mentioned strategies, but devoted to the risk factor of the plant/ equipment. Maintenance plays a
pivotal role in managing risks at many sites (mines etc.) and it is important that right risk
assessment tools/ techniques are applied to capture and evaluate the hazards at hand to allow a
functional risk-based approach. You have to examine how risk concept can be used in
establishing preventive safety and management strategies, what types of tools are available and
what gains can be made.

Risk is inherent in all human activities. We manage risk continuously and subconsciously make
decision, based on previous experiences. In industries, risk management, often captured in a
Safety Management System (SMS), is a complex issue with many facets and its success is based
on our ability to balance frequent low consequence events as well as rare high consequence
events, such as fires, explosions, flooding etc.

Fig. 5.7 shows a risk analysis method Normally qualitative method are not much effective in
assessing system hazards. Quantitative methods are better for maintenance application where
some data is available and decisions on system safety and criticality can be made.

Figure 11: Risk Analysis

32

From Risk Analysis, we can finalize "Risk Assessment" which also includes Hazard
Identification, Risk Estimation, Risk Evaluation, Risk Tolerability and analysis of various
options, then after, we can decide on maintenance strategy and actions.

QUALITY ASSURED MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT (QAMM)

QAMM is another set of terminology, which uses some of the earlier maintenance strategies,
with quality aspects especially in view. The objectives of this strategy may be the followings-

1. Prediction of impending failures of critical plant components (like rotors, shafts, pulleys
etc.) in real time, resulting in enhanced safety, operation reliability, availability and
maintainability.
2. Establishing an alarm level, based on the variations of physical parameters, like vibration.
Temperature, power consumption etc.,
3. Reduction of the life cycle cost by optimizing plant operation and maintenance
scheduling and proper implementation,
4. Facilitation of design revision to permissible level to incorporate new technologies for
active control, including built-in test equipments and structural materials; Etc.

Identification of actual maintenance work and minimum necessary improvements, are to be

properly assessed. Maintenance strategies, used in QAMM, , normally, combination of
preventive, predictive and proactive etc.

DESIGN-OUT MAINTENANCE

It is a design oriented curative measure aimed at rectifying a design defect or defects originated
from improper method of installation or poor material choice etc. Design-out maintenance
requires a strong maintenance-design interface so that maintenance engineer works in close
cooperation with design engineer. Whereas most maintenance systems/ strategies aim to
minimize number of failures or effect of failures, the design-out maintenance aims to "eliminate
the cause of maintenance". It is more suitable for equipments of high maintenance cost. The
choice is to be made between the cost of redesign and cost of recurring maintenance. Recently,
design-out maintenance has gained more importance for maintenance engineers because of its
33

potential in reducing breakdowns, minimizing maintenance efforts and costs and, at times, totally
eliminating maintenance activities for those items.

Though the corrective maintenance includes some number of design-out activities, it differs from
design-out maintenance. In corrective maintenance the design and redesign activities are carried-
out by the maintenance engineer or his department, but in design-out maintenance, the
maintenance engineer involves design engineer and design department and works in close
cooperation with them. Thus, the design-out maintenance includes both, small redesign of
corrective maintenance nature or big redesign jobs, but all with the aim of eliminating/ reducing
cause of maintenance activities.

However, whenever any equipment does not work properly and fails frequently, efforts should be
made to find out the causes of failure and take corrective action, rather than immediately jump
for redesign or design-out maintenance. Design-out maintenance may be needed because of the
following reasons-

a. Inadequacy in original design,

b. Equipment/ component not made as per design or not erected or commissioned as
per Specification,
c. Change in performance parameters and needs from original specification,
d. Non-availability of spares or components, because of obsolescence or otherwise,
e. Availability of much cheaper and better spares, consumables and components etc,
f. Change in statutory obligations, especially with respect to safety, pollution or
environmental needs; etc...

Such design-out maintenance (also called as maintenance modification) can be done in one
installment (such as total replacement or overhauling) or n the form of small continuous
improvements (generally preferred by Japanese-Kaizen). Again, the design-out maintenance
differs with plant modification and up-gradation jobs to the extent that the aim of design-out
maintenance is limited to eliminate the cause of maintenance.

REVIEW/IMPROVEMENT OF MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES

34

Many large organizations may have sophisticated preventive and predictive maintenance
departments that are staffed with trained technicians. Other companies may have their PM
programmes embedded within general maintenance workmen, with the necessary technical and
specialized supports provided by contractor vendors or other external help. Again, some PM
programmes are maintained by a CMMS software application and interfaced or integrated with
predictive or performance-based systems that support an extensive reliability programme, while
some PM programmes exist as a combination efforts and control methods or more manual in
nature as simple card files and periodic rotations. However, we have to review occasionally if the
ongoing maintenance programmes/ strategies are really what we think of and is it giving the
result what we want. For such review, we have to dig into the effectiveness of our maintenance
programme/ strategy. We may take the following steps for that-

a. Review the existing programmes/ strategies (quality, accuracy and compliance

etc)
b. Analyze and device new programmes and planning.
c. Establish system support requirements and configuration,
d. Define reimplementation plans with rough timeline,
e. Redesign performance monitoring metrics,
f. Define human resource development plan if any needed,
g. Develop benchmark, Audit programmes etc;

Each of the above-mentioned steps calls for substantial investigation and thought. Step (2) also
calls for defining criteria for maintenance activities, check lists and cost model etc. Step (3) also
includes development of system codes (how data can be selected and sorted), Maintenance
triggers (what and how your system generate maintenance work orders), System Default code
(auto populates data fields) and Work completion codes (supports the ability to analyze and
trend) etc. Step (4) also includes the amount and type of equipments needed, resource availability
and project/ programme's constraints. Step (5) calls for examining existing metrics, if any,
researching of industry benchmarks and developing applicable metrics. Step (7) also calls for
defining a changed management programme defining maintenance audit and accounting
responsibilities.
35

Figure 12 further shows how to arrive at appropriate maintenance system/ strategy from failure
pattern (SI. Nos. 1, 2, 3 shows the 1", 2nd, 3rd preference). In this, RCM and Proactive
Maintenance and other special maintenance systems are not shown as that would complicate the
diagram.

Though the percentage may vary as per the type of industry and the reliability required, in one
type of industry, the actual percentage of different maintenance work-orders are as follows-

1. Preventative Maintenance........... 50 %

2. Predictive maintenance and CBM.................30%

3. Corrective Maintenance.................15%

4. Breakdown.......................<5%

Figure 12: Decision Diagram to select appropriate Maintenance System

COMPARISON OF MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES

36

Considering the Breakdown Maintenance, Corrective Maintenance and Opportunistic

Maintenance as "Breakdown Maintenance" or "Reactive Maintenance", including Routine
Maintenance in Preventive Maintenance and including CBM or CBMS in Predictive
Maintenance, we can divide maintenance strategies in four broad groups-Breakdown, Preventive,
Predictive and Proactive maintenances. Rough comparison of these four strategies is given in
Table 1.

Table 1 Comparison of Maintenance Strategies

Maintenance Maintenance Significance and Human Body

Strategy Approach Techniques Needed Parallel
1 Breakdown Fix-it when breaks Large maintenance Heart attack or
(Reactive) budget stroke
2 Preventive Scheduled Maintenance Periodic component By-pass or
replacement/ Repair transplant
surgery
3 Predictive Condition-based Monitoring condition Detection of
Monitoring by vibration, heat, heart disease
alignment, wear using EKG or
ultrasonic
4 Proactive Detection of Sources of debris etc Cholesterol and
Failures Monitoring and blood pressure
correction of failing monitoring with
root causes diet control

The differences can also be explained in following way-

a. Scattered Acts/ actions-Breakdown and Reactive Stage,

b. Getting your acts together-Reactive to Planned Stage,
c. Getting Beyond the Boundaries-Planned to Predictive/ Proactive Stage;
Maintenance must e recognized as an integral part of plant's production strategy,
by which products are delivered to customers. Though improvement in
maintenance organization is necessary. "Going beyond the boundary" is also
37

considered to get other departments to adjust their responsibilities related to

plant's upkeep.
d. Fix the Process, not just the Problem-To Proactive and World Class; maintenance,
Production and other concerned departments should share few responsibilities for
improving plant's productivity and profitability etc.

EVOLUTION OF MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES

In past, a simple expectation from maintenance was keeping an equipment running or restoring it
to the desired operating condition, but most management now see maintenance efficiency as a
factor that can affect the all-business effectiveness and risk-safety, environmental integrity,
energy efficiency, product quality and customer service and not contained only to plant
availability and cost. Thus, the evolution of new and better maintenance strategies became
necessary as the business became more competitive and complexity in industries increased. In
general, the evolution of maintenance changes usually is categorized into 3 different generation,
the period of 1930's-1940's which usually referred as the First Generation (early days of
industrialization), between 1950's to 1970's often recognized as the second generation (period of
increasing mechanization and complexity in industries), and from 1980's till recent times which
is commonly accepted as the third generation (period of higher complexity, automation,
competition and safety hazards etc). This has been shown in Table 2 (Evolution on Maintenance
Strategies).

Under the third-generation maintenance strategy/ principles, many organizations have shifted
more focus on reliability than availability and have stated zero breakdowns/zero in-service
failures as their maintenance goals. However, since no amount of maintenance can guarantee the
total elimination of failures, it is no longer a really achievable objective and a more realistic
approach is to avoid, reduce or eliminating the consequences of failures.
38

Table 2 Evolution of Maintenance Strategies

First Generation Second Generation Third Generation Fourth Generation

Fit when breaks  Scheduled Maintenance/  Predictive Maintenance Under Development
Overhauls  Condition Monitoring, CBM, (More use of IT,
 Preventive Maintenance  CBMS etc., Computer modeling.
and Controls  Design for Maintenance and Reliability Expert System and
 Low-tec Computerization (Design-out Maintenance) Artificial Intelligence to
 Hazard Studies predict and prevent
 High-tech Computerization FMEA and failures)
FMECA etc.
 Expert Systems
 Multi-skilling and Teamwork
 Proactive to limited extent

1930 1950 1970 1990 2000

Due to the rapid changes in the development of equipment and process, accelerated with the help
of faster computers, it is only a matter of time when the maintenance scenario entered its to
highlight those areas where the inherent design of the assets yields probabilities of failures that
fourth generation. The third-generation maintenance has undergone a shift of focus in
maintenance the basic principles of the fourth generation of maintenance, although are expected
to be based on are unacceptable, and provide some guidance and motivation for improving those
assets. Hence, the previous three generations, will have some signified features, few of which
may be as below-

1. Definite deliberation of risk, notably at higher levels of organizations, when dealing with

equipment design and maintenance strategies,

2. Coherence between functional demand, equipment design and maintenance will be greater

than the currently existing integration,

3. More use of developments in information technology to detect, predict, diagnose and prevent
equipment failures; Increased usage of computer modeling in maintenance strategies, more use
39

of artificial intelligent and expert systems, computer simulations and modeling etc. to provide the
predictive tools of the future; Etc.

TOTAL MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT (TMM OR TM2)

These modules bring together all aspects of managing a maintenance organization such as work
order tracking: scheduling of preventive maintenance; inventory control, purchasing, and
receiving: labor scheduling and costing; and project management and estimating. TMM keeps
track of all of the labor and inventory costs for all of your work, equipment, and facilities so that
you can run detailed cost analysis reports.

RELIABILITY CENTERED MAINTENANCE

It is used to identify the maintenance requirements of equipment. The RCM establishes the
functional requirements and the desired performances standards of equipment and these are then
related to design and inherent reliability parameters of the machine. For each function, the
associated functional failure is defined, and the failure modes and the consequences of the
functional failures are analyzed. The consequences of each failure are established, which fall in
one of the four categories: hidden, safety or environmental, operational, and no operational.
Following the RCM logic, preemptive maintenance tasks which will prevent these consequences
are selected, provided the applicability and effectiveness criteria for preventive maintenance are
satisfied. The applicability requirements refer to the technical characteristics and effectiveness
criteria for preventive maintenance tasks and the frequency at which these should be carried out.
Effectiveness criteria depend on the consequences of the failure; probabilities of the multiple
failures for hidden failure consequences, acceptable low risk of failure for safety consequences,
and nonoperational consequences. When the requirements for planned maintenance (PM) are not
fulfilled, default tasks include failure finding (for hidden failure, possible redesign of equipment,
procedures and training processes) and no-schedule maintenance.
40

QUESTIONS FOR PRACTICE

1. What do you understand by maintenance strategy/ system? Name few common maintenance
strategies Tap and explain the basis of their selection.

2. What is reactive maintenance, why is it called so and what does it include?

3. What is preventive maintenance and what are its components? Why is PM better than reactive

maintenance?

4. Explain any example when PM is not preferred and machine is allowed to run till failure.

5. What is difference between fixed time maintenance and condition-based maintenance? Give
example of both.

6. What is predictive maintenance and what are its advantages and disadvantages?

7. What is proactive maintenance and why is it called so? Mention few techniques/ methods
which are used in proactive maintenance.

8. What is condition-based maintenance? Explain its objectives and methodologies.

maintainability improvement?

9. What is design-out maintenance and when is it used? How is it different than design for

10. Explain briefly, the routine maintenance and opportunistic maintenance.

41

NOTES

Reliability: The probability that an item will perform its stated function satisfactorily for
the desired period when used per the specified conditions.

Maintainability: The probability that a failed item will be restored to adequately working
condition.

Active repair time: The component of downtime when repair persons are active to effect.

MTTR (mean time to recovery /repair/ restore) is the average time it takes to recover from
a product or system failure.

Mean time to failure (MTTF): is a maintenance metric that measures the average amount
of time a non-repairable asset operates before it fails.

Advantages of Maintenance

 Life of machinery and equipment's are increased.

 Production takes place as per the schedule.

 Products are delivered to customers in time and hence high level of customer satisfaction
can be expected.

 Machines are in good condition. Hence quality of the products will be good.

 No production loss.

 Machinery is not damage.

 No idle time of men and machines. Hence their utility increases.

Disadvantages of Maintenance

 Machinery may be damaged. This is a loss.

 Poorly maintained machines will produce poor quality products.

42

 More wastage of materials.

 Breakdown of machines makes both men and machine in idle position. So production
time is wasted. This will increase cost of production.

 Poor maintenance increases maintenance cost.

 Due to poor maintenance life of machine is reduce.

Planned maintenance and unplanned maintenance

 Planned maintenance is a scheduled, proactive approach to maintenance that is based on

an analysis of the equipment’s historical performance.

 Planned maintenance is typically carried out on a regular basis, such as once a week or
once a month.

 It can also be scheduled in response to a known issue, such as a manufacturer’s

recommendation to replace a part after a certain number of operating hours.

 Planned maintenance is typically less disturbing than unplanned maintenance, as it can be

scheduled at a time that is convenient for the business.

 Unplanned maintenance is a reactive approach that is typically used when something

breaks or stops working.

 Unplanned maintenance is often emergency in nature and is often carried out outside of
normal business hours. This type of maintenance is usually more disturbing than planned
maintenance, as it can cause unexpected downtime.
 43

Proactive Maintenance Reactive Maintenance

1. Plans and schedules maintenance in advance 1. Rarely plans or schedules maintenance
while reducing reactive activities. in advance.
2. Uses a detailed work order process to facilitate 2. Ineffective work order processes make it
backlog management, job planning, asset difficult to manage the maintenance.
evaluation, and work order documentation. 3. Disorganized inventory management
3. Manages storeroom inventory efficiently by practices make it hard to manage
coordinating activities through proper policy. storeroom inventory.
4. Uses a CMMS and other support systems to 4. Support systems are inadequate to
address facility needs successfully. achieve desired maintenance goals.
5. Uses the right skills, tools, resources, and 5. Poor machine health, unavailable parts,
people to foster a good work environment lack of oversight, high employee
while driving maintenance effectiveness. turnover, and low morale diminish
6. Invests early and often in proactive maintenance effectiveness.
maintenance strategies to achieve long-term 6. Focus on short-term profit delays
organizational goals proactive investment at the expense of
industry position

Preventive vs Predictive Maintenance

The difference between preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance lies in the data being
analyzed. While a predictive maintenance technician relies on monitoring and analyzing data
from the actual, current condition of the equipment in operation, preventive maintenance relies
on historical data, averages, and life expectancy statistics to predict when maintenance
activities will be required.

Predictive Maintenance

 Predictive maintenance refers to the use of data-driven, proactive maintenance methods

that are designed to analyze the condition of equipment and help predict when
maintenance should be performed.
44

 The goal is to schedule maintenance at the most convenient and most cost-efficient
moment, allowing equipment’s lifespan to be optimized to its fullest, but before the
equipment has been compromised.

 Predictive maintenance technologies include nondestructive testing methods such as

acoustic, corona detection, infrared, oil analysis, sound level measurements,
vibration analysis, and thermal imaging predictive maintenance, which measure and
gather operations and equipment real-time data via wireless sensor networks.

 Predictive maintenance solution providers utilize these measurements and predictive

maintenance machine learning techniques, such as the classification approach or the
regression approach, to identify equipment vulnerabilities.

The predictive maintenance process flow consists of the following steps:

1. Determine equipment and failure mode to be monitored.

2. Establish frequency.

3. Monitor condition.

4. Issue report.

5. Is there an abnormality? If no, return to Step 3. If yes, continue to Step 6.

6. Create work order.

7. Plan work date.

8. Ensure parts and labor are available.

9. Perform repair.

10. Close work order and return to Step 3.

Benefits of Predictive maintenance

• Minimize the number of unexpected breakdowns.

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• Maximize asset uptime and improve asset reliability.

• Reduce operational costs by performing maintenance only when necessary.

• Maximize production hours.

• Improve safety.

• Streamline maintenance costs through reduced equipment, inventory costs, and lab.

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance (PM) is the regular and routine maintenance of equipment and
assets in order to keep them running and prevent any costly unplanned downtime from
unexpected equipment failure. A successful maintenance strategy requires planning and
scheduling maintenance of equipment before a problem occurs.

Merits of Preventive Maintenance

• Reduction of workplace risks

• Longevity of equipment lifespan

• Optimized operation and productivity

• Reduction of costs

• Energy and resource usage efficiency

The preventive maintenance process flow consists of the following steps:

1. Identify and choose the areas.

2. Define the PM requirements.

3. Establish assignment frequency.

4. Prepare the PM assignments.

5. Schedule the PM assignments on annual basis.

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6. Expand the PM program as necessary.

Corrective Maintenance

• Corrective maintenance is a maintenance task performed to identify, isolate, rectify and

repair a fault so that the failed equipment, machine, or system can be restored to an
operational condition within the tolerances or limits established for in-service operations.
The purpose of corrective maintenance is to restore broken down systems.

• Corrective maintenance is initiated when an additional problem is discovered during a

separate work order. For example, during an emergency repair, as part of a routine
inspection, or in the process of conducting preventive maintenance, a technician spots
another issue that needs corrected before other problems occur.

• Upon discovering an additional problem, corrective maintenance is planned and

scheduled for a future time. During the execution of corrective maintenance work, the
asset is repaired, restored, or replaced

• Within the maintenance arena, corrective maintenance is triggered when a technician sees
something that is about to break or will affect the overall performance of a piece of
equipment. It can still be repaired or restored without incurring downtime.

• If corrective maintenance is not scheduled, the problem may become an emergency

maintenance work order down the road and result in halted production lines, interruption
in service, or unhappy customers.

Corrective maintenance workflow

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The corrective maintenance process flow consists of the following steps:

1. Recognition of existence of a failure.

2. Localizing the failure within the system to a specific item/equipment.

3. Diagnosing within the item/equipment to identify specific failed part/ component.

4. Replacing or repairing the failed part/item/component.

5. Checking out and returning the system to service.

Advantages of corrective Maintenance

• Reduced emergency maintenance orders

• Increased employee safety

• Resolved problems before delays in production or service interruptions.

• Extended lifetime of assets

• Reduced employee injury

• Optimized resource planning

Examples……….
Corrective maintenance can include a wide variety of equipment, systems, and situations.

 For example, if you are performing preventive maintenance on a line of production

equipment and notice significant wear on a critical part or component, you may initiate a
corrective maintenance order to repair or restore that part within the next month.

 If you are responding to an emergency request to repair a heating system in the middle of
winter, you may notice that the HVAC system needs filters cleaned or replaced to
improve efficiency and prevent further heat loss. You can restore the heat during the
emergency call but you may schedule the corrective maintenance order to handle the
filter issue later.
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In a public works situation, you may be performing routine roadway repairs when you notice
some signage damage from a recent storm. You can initiate a corrective maintenance order to
restore that signage at a later date.

1. Remedial maintenance which is a set of activities that are performed to eliminate the
source of failure without interrupting the continuity of the production process.

2. Deferred maintenance which is a set of corrective maintenance activities that are not
immediately initiated after the occurrence of a failure but are delayed in such a way
that will not affect the production process.

3. Shutdown corrective maintenance which is a set of corrective maintenance activities

that are performed when the production line is in total stoppage situation.

Improvement Maintenance

Improvement maintenance motivate to lead improvement actions after abnormal failures or in

order to satisfy the performance objectives formulated by the production, such as: quality, cost,
safety and the environment protection.

Thus, improvement maintenance is centered on the activities below:

−Removal abnormal failures by eradicating root causes.

−New production requirement’s satisfaction by modernizations and adaptations.

−Increased equipment's life by renovations.

Engineering services: It includes construction and construction modification, removal and

installation, and rearrangement of facilities.

Design-out maintenance: It is a set of activities that are used to eliminate the cause of
maintenance, simplify maintenance tasks, or raise machine performance from the maintenance
point of view by redesigning those machines and facilities which are vulnerable to frequent
occurrence of failure and their long-term repair or replacement cost is very expensive.
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Shutdown improvement maintenance: It is a set of improvement maintenance activities that

are performed while the production line is in a complete stoppage situation.

Opportunistic Maintenance

 Opportunity maintenance is a form of preventive maintenance based upon “convenient”

replacement of equipment items or components by taking the advantage of the unplanned
or planned shutdown of a system where we have suitable maintenance resources already
on location.

 The objective of opportunistic maintenance is to improve system availability and

reduce production loss; however, the key to success is being able to determine when a
component should be replaced during its useful working life to gain a cost-effective
improvement.

 Opportunistic maintenance is considered effective for an oil and gas asset due to the high-
level of dependency presented by the different systems. For example, considering an
offshore platform, a failure event in the separation system is likely to shut down other
parts of platform such as the oil export system.

 Thus, when a downtime opportunity is created by the failed component, the maintenance
team may take the opportunity while at the facility to perform preventive maintenance for
other components satisfying a pre-specified decision rule. As a result, substantial cost can
be saved when compared to awaiting the regular maintenance schedule of the opportune
maintained item(s).