5 Tips for an Efficient Maintenance Strategy

We reproduce this article by Grégory GUIHENEUF, Marketing and Strategy Director for Factory Systemes Group en AVEVA, on asset performance management

Becolve Digital

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Through this article, we would like to offer you some strategic fundamentals regarding Asset Performance Management (APM). The maintenance strategy largely depends on the combination of the methods applied, the available resources, the strategic objective approach, and the company culture, offering very different results in your organizations. I hope this article gives you some ideas… and that it is a source of inspiration for your business and asset management!

Developing an APM (Asset Performance Maintenance) strategy allows companies to balance asset use, expense control, and regulatory compliance, and indicates how to achieve optimal performance by integrating people, processes, and technologies.

A good APM strategy combines people, processes, systems, data, and corporate culture around an understanding of multiple “holistic” interactions that occur in today’s industries. That is why there are 5 key aspects to consider when determining a holistic APM strategy.

1. Your Employees’ Roles should be Oriented to Their Core Competencies.

By maximizing the alignment of your employees’ skills with those required for their daily mission, you can get the most out of talent. This management strategy reduces departures, and your employees feel committed and useful in their mission.

Streamlining and reorienting responsibilities in key positions leads to increased team performance at all levels. Eliminating task duplication, defining more efficient processes, and positioning your staff in the process leads to an increase in operational efficiency of up to 25%.

2. Leverage the Potential of Data between Systems and People through a Well-Established Process.

The most effective asset performance strategies (APM) are based on the reliability and integration of data shared between all industrial services with an information feedback loop oriented to continuous improvement.

Through multiple audits, we are aware that there is a hidden value potentially available, and that it is present at the tactical and operational level of industrial plants, forcing field teams to resolve this lack of alignment between the data model and the operational reality. Companies are increasingly giving importance to this point since it establishes strong differences in efficiency.

The most efficient system is achieved by integrating operations and maintenance from the same source of information and aligning the objectives of both parties.

3. Translate the company’s business objectives for each of the company’s roles and people

Orienting teams towards the goal of generating a reduction in costs or increasing equipment availability seems like a simple objective, but in reality, it is not… If your employees do not clearly understand the objective, the improvements they produce may be based on personal interpretations that, in turn, can generate a result of effects opposite to those expected.

APM corporate objectives

That is why risk-based management comes into play as a necessary tool to guide business objectives. This risk-based strategy allows us to make decisions through concrete actions, focusing mainly on the assets where there is more risk, and that is why this criterion also allows us to focus on the most strategic assets of our company.

APM framework

Risk-based management goes beyond creating reliability-centered maintenance. The principles of Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM) in combination with operational performance data must be at the heart of maintenance decision-making – Ensure that everyone understands risk-based decision-making and its contribution to the company and/or business.

4. Benchmarking is an excellent tool to identify your potential and your objectives.

Your company or business must be able to continuously measure its performance indicators based on its APM asset performance management strategy, both internally and externally. It is necessary to have real-time indicators of OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) to control the development of your production and equipment and be able to make decisions in the most effective way. We must also follow up with other companies to know if our APM strategy is correct in reference to the sector or market (for example, TOP 10 technical problem solving).

Likewise, of importance, is the ability to share with the members of your team the maintenance management indicators (KPI’s). There is often a clear difference between the level of information existing between field technicians, workshop technicians or factory operators. A maintenance manager must be able to communicate their performance indicators, the optimization used and their investment plans to their team, always maintaining their alignment with the business and strategy.

An example of communicating your APM indicators in financial form is to present the evolution of general maintenance costs and investments related to equipment replacement. In this way, everyone is aware of the decision-making, and it will show you that your asset performance management strategy is effective. That is why it is necessary to take these 2 points into account:

The age and general conditions of the equipment (health): for a base of equipment used and not modified for 60 years, there is no doubt that a significant investment in capital is required for the purpose of replacement, given the state of its life cycle, health and technology.
Supply chain characteristics: the influence and relationship between your maintenance indicators and strategic work planning. The collaboration (relationship) between maintenance and production services, which must be aligned in their objectives, also has a high impact.

5. Orientation to the predictive, as a final objective.

Technology continues to offer enormous potential for industry, and many companies are at the beginning of this new industrial era. There is a clear trend towards predictive and proactive maintenance.

What can I do to succeed in the new asset management? Our recommendations:

Define your objectives – combined with technology. Technological solutions applied to your process or service, and always with your objectives in mind.
Re-examine your operations / processes, from beginning to end in order to try to anticipate incidents/failures/breakdowns.
Calculate and communicate your indicators and ROI – this will allow you to justify your investment.

Although many companies have the objective of improving their APM strategy, few really know where to start. Maintenance practices involve common sense, however, it is necessary to take into account the context of each one to implement a successful asset management strategy. To support this strategy, and aspire to significant tangible benefits, AVEVA offers a range of software solutions that allow you to establish the starting point: