A case study of holistic Asset Management

If we think that we are going to make large scale changes based solely on maintenance activities and scheduling, then we are kidding ourselves. 

Accurate and efficient maintenance, while important, is only part of the solution. This post relates to a short case study we have recently published on application of holistic maintenance principles to a centrifuge installation in a wastewater plant.

The results were large scale, and were generated out of combining all three areas of maintenance  renewals and overhaul optimisation, and operational activities and procedures. 

Why do Assets Fail?

Without considering human error, which can have impacts across every area, assets fail in three fundamental ways. 

First they can fail due to degradation, wear and tear and the normal reasons why we generally think that assets fail. 

This is the way that everything in the universe works. When you put an organised system into the environment it starts to degrade until such time as it is no longer able to fulfill its function.

Within industry we see this in the degradation of grease in bearings, or the wear of ground engaging tools, or the wear of gears within a gearbox. 

The asset degrades until it no longer does what we want it to do, in which case we see it as having failed. The department responsible for managing this effect is maintenance through routine tasks, overhaul periods and inspections. 

The second common way we see asset fail is when they are required to do more than what they are actually designed to do. 

Often deliberate, this generally occurs when operations drive the asset beyond its design capacity. 

This can happen in many ways. Overloading within the mining industries, changes to throughput materials within the water treatment industries or changes in process throughput in process industries.

This is managed via the operations department, responsible for managing production targets as well as managing the profitability of the company. 

The last way that assets fail is when they are not fit for purpose in the first place. 

This is often caused by either an error within the engineering processes, or an error within the purchasing or accounting section. 

A common reason for this is cost saving without full consideration of functional requirements. 

Holistic Asset Management

We can see that developing a reliable asset base is in no way controllable by one department. In fact, asset management is a process not a department. 

By applying the principles of holistic asset management we were able to develop initiatives for optimising the routine maintenance, modifying the renewals program, and dramatically changing the operational practices in place.