Extending Equipment's Life Cycle - The Next Challenge for Maintenance

The objective of any maintenance program in industries is to take care of the Equipment’s Total Life Cycle at the most reasonable cost with compliance to quality safety and the environment. To perform this we need the following;Upgrade the skills and knowledge of our maintenance peopleSustain equipment reliability by doing the correct maintenanceImprove design weaknessesin the equipmentReduced the cost of doing maintenanceThis means that before we can even sustain and preserve our equipment and assets we need to provide our maintenance people with the knowledge to develop their skills to do their job correctly but it does not stop from here. Sustaining and preserving the equipment is merely the beginning. Maintenance must also understand their equipment especially on those parts spares and items with inherent design weaknesses and improve them. Doing this will definitely reduce the cost of doing maintenance.This book is written based on the Author’s personal experience on how to make it possible to extend the Total Life Cycle of the equipment so that we can operate and maintain them at the least amount to own the asset. The study of the life cycle is simply the sum of both the Initial and the Running Cost of the equipment. While the initial cost is easy to see as it is always given the running cost is not but it can still be projected.Although the last objective which is reducing cost will only happen by sustaining and improving the equipment and this can only be possible if maintenance is equipped with the right skills and knowledge to execute their jobs correctly. Reducing cost is just the effect of doing the correct maintenance on the equipment. This should not be the primary objective of maintenance. In fact in many cases reducing maintenance costs can be detrimental to the health and the reliability of the equipment.The discussion of Life Cycle Costs involves two subjects which include the Product Life Cycle and the Equipment Life Cycle. Although this book is focused more on discussing the Equipment Life Cycle and most importantly what we can do to possibly extend it. This book covers the 7th Discipline on World Class Maintenance Management which is all about the Extending Equipment Life Cycle and how it can be part of the overall Plant’s Maintenance Strategy.One of the things that the reader needs to understand is how to integrate TPMs Initial Flow Control Activities into the Life Cycle to reduce the vertical start-up time of the equipment. This book explains that it is not only the running cost that can be improved but also the initial cost. Some of the highlights of this book include the following;Why Life Cycle Costing is Important for IndustriesNo Equipment is Perfect by DesignWhy Equipment Can No Longer be Used?The Six Conditions for Equipment’s Initial Flow Control ActivitiesWhy Cheap Is ExpensiveWhy Do Equipment fail and What Can be Done About It?Human Errors ExplainedWhen Maintenance Errors Cost LivesMaintenance and Non-Maintenance ErrorsReducing Human Errors in MaintenanceStrategies to Reduce Equipment’s Maintenance CostsA Deeper Meaning of ReliabilityWhy Reliability is Everybody’s ResponsibilityDifference Between the East and the West Approach to ImprovementsIndustries Problems Can Go Beyond Equipment LossesDetailed Steps in Monitoring Equipment Life CycleCost Cutting the Wrong Way to Save on Maintenance CostsThe Challenge with MaintenanceAnd More . . .