Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. or its licensors or contributors. Too often, engineers work hard to improve one element of a system, only to discover that in doing so they have degraded the total system. The review paper addresses two main topics; (i) identifying procedures presently in use or being developed for assessing or predicting the reliability of equipment, and (ii) identifying OR practices that can improve equipment reliability through objectively determined maintenance practices. For example, downtime data together with equipment reliability data is vital for improving system designs, for optimizing maintenance and in estimating the potential for hazardous events that could harm both people and the environment. The suppliers, largely isolated, are in most cases not likely to commit resources to providing a capability that many U.S. manufacturers, because they have not yet understood its value, have not demanded. In recent years, reliability-centered maintenancehas gained popularity. While total abandonment of tradition, or complete cultural change, is neither possible nor desirable, U.S. manufacturers may need to import, adapt, and fine-tune techniques from other countries such as Japan. Well-understood methods of directing the work of these technologists are needed, as are mechanisms for implementing the results they achieve. Preventive maintenance is the systematic servicing of equipment to reduce the possibility of failure. Barriers to this vision of ERM are manifold. If the equipment’s inherent reliability or performance is poor, doing more maintenance will not help. Finally, this position may periodically function in a supervisory role. The advent of reliability certainly heralded a change in one important respect. A Strategic Industry at Risk. Source: VLSI Research Inc. impact of these integrated systems on capital investment alone is significant (forgetting impact on quality, cost, and lead time). Procurement specifications have been upgraded to require that all key process equipment suppliers have a basic level of ERM expertise. Sensors monitor the condition and performance of equipment throughout the manufacturing system and feed back relevant data to system controllers that interact with technically sophisticated human operators who use the data to maximize throughput, effect timely maintenance, and recover promptly from equipment failure. Much of the controller software was written with the assumption that all equipment works properly when, in fact, complicated and unpredictable failure modes, unanticipated by the system and equipment designers, are becoming increasingly apparent. Harvard Business Review 64(2): 87-95.). Predictive maintenance, in use in U.S. industry for only four or five years, is usually understood to involve the use of computer software to detect conditions that might eventually lead. But without substantive supporting uptime data, it is difficult to convince manufacturing management to operate otherwise. A few basic definitions are used in this chapter. But it is not yet known how to prove ERM's value using generally accepted accounting principles and short-term measurement systems that yield little information on life-cycle costs and benefits of equipment.4. It cannot. Development of standards for design and test, for measuring and evaluating ERM, and for operator–equipment interfaces, would be a great facilitator in each of the areas discussed above. Equipment-related needs can be grouped under the categories of performance measurement (identifying what we need to know and how to measure it), tools and techniques (what we can do for. This chapter addresses all causes of diminished or … U.S. manufacturing will want to jump to this futuristic plane from its present plateau. The strategy, which focuses on achieving economical life cycle cost for equipment and other physical assets, began in Japan in the early 1970s. Equipment design employs new approaches that use broader data bases. Articles in this issue should cover activities used to assess the current capabilities of equipment and processes in terms of their reliability, availability, maintainability and criticality. Firms that do value ERM, typically driven by powerful cus-. The hardest part of starting a reliability program is freeing up time to work on proactive tasks. Suppliers are reluctant to project ERM performance, claiming lack of control over user application, adherence to recommended preventive maintenance schedules, and adequacy of repair. Equipment Reliability In the 1960’s with the introduction of the Boeing 747, the aviation industry, in its search for improved reliability, questioned the then current maintenance strategies and the long established basic assumption that the older equipment gets the more likely it is to fail. One example is the stamping of automobile hoods, fenders, doors, and other major steel components. Problems have been diagnosed in time for corrective action, greatly minimizing damage to turbines. 1. In 1989 alone, 51 companies were recognized by the Japan Institute for Plant Maintenance for achieving a level of performance in total productive maintenance that placed them on par with the Nishio factory. To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter. The implementation stage calls for (1) ensuring early successes and hands-on experience by focusing initial efforts on equipment that offers the most potential for improvement, (2) establishing an autonomous maintenance program for operators, (3) creating a system of planned maintenance that anticipates an increase in work load, (4) improving operating and maintenance skills through training, and (5) developing a prototype equipment management program. The rapidly increasing complexity of factory equipment has led many U.S. manufacturers to look to suppliers for smarter equipment that will ease the need for a technically strong supporting infrastructure. Without a measurement system that can quantify relationships between engineering work and profit/asset benefits, assess the costs of equipment waiting (e.g., load, unload, operator, material) and downtime, and allocate maintenance costs to reflect reality, results will be anecdotal and perception of the basis for changing the incentive structure will remain shaky. Science 245 (August 25): 819-823. tomer demands or regulatory influences, are forced overseas in their search for suppliers who are willing to quantify machine reliability and to work to meet ERM goals. The goal of the strategy is to eliminate the six main downtime losses: losses from setup time associated with periodic changes and adjustments of tools and dies; losses that result from idling, minor stoppages induced by sensors, and blockages of work in chutes; losses attributable to differences between actual and design speeds of equipment; process-related losses associated with defects and reworking; and. Technology management is becoming an accepted discipline in a growing number of U.S. academic institutions. Equipment maintenance refers to the work done to either repair an equipment problem, prevent the equipment from wearing down, or to make the equipment run better. Though generally accepted accounting principles are inadequate for manufacturing decision making, no substitutes have gained wide acceptance. Given the opportunity cost of shutdown, such a system could calculate the benefit of reducing or eliminating each category of downtime. While they are generally effective, these practices have been considerably enhanced by state-of-the-art maintenance planning, management, and implementation technologies that incorporate information on equipment design, application, and operation. Software problems during system installation and checkout and numerous false diagnoses attending a later upgrade incurred extensive debugging that involved both vendor and user. Industrywide collections of such information will facilitate sharing of technical data—both ERM statistics and qualitative information about the relative effectiveness of different techniques—and help pinpoint areas where improvement is essential to global competitiveness. This chapter presents tools, methods, and indicators, in order to develop a successful and modern maintenance program. Development of a strawman model for analyzing the impact of various methodologies on the manufacturing environment. Availability is, in essence, the amount of time that an item of equipment or system is able to be operated when desired. Across each industry is a reli-. Technology alone will not yield significant improvements in ERM —it is only an enabler. In Japan, for instance, many firms are engaged in a 10-year program to upgrade predictive maintenance to the point where ERM becomes the responsibility entirely of operators. This situation is reflected in the radically different perceptions of the performance of newly installed equipment in the United States and Japan. Viewed as a discrete activity performed at different points in the manufacturing process, ERM will not achieve its full potential. Research needs in this area are amplified in Chapter 2, Intelligent Manufacturing Control. To be effective in preventing unexpected failures, the preventive maintenance program needs to, from a technical perspective, successfully deal with the underlying causes of failure (which, for the purposes of this article, we will call failure modes). Technicians can extend the equipment’s availability by increasing its reliability. Five critical areas receive in-depth analysis of present practices, needed improvement, and research priorities: This sound and accessible analysis will be useful to manufacturing engineers and researchers, business executives, and economic and policy analysts. The final, or establishment, stage calls for (1) making the new ERM strategy the norm for conducting business and (2) providing a process for continuous improvement. The equipment selected should be critical in terms of its effect on operations, its previous costs of repair, and previous costs of preventive maintenance. Moreover, Japanese plants are characterized by a highly disciplined approach to basic housekeeping—floors and manufacturing equipment are kept spotlessly clean. Still, the system has served the utility well. FIGURES 3-3 and 3-4 Results in trial fabrication plants for both implanter equipment (1987-8) and wafer etch equipment (1988), with and without service contract, show a substantial increase in average monthly uptime and increased predictability by reducing the range of monthly uptime. Software and sensors have the potential to enhance ERM and so mitigate the added complexity associated with these technologies (see Figure 3-1). Oil refineries and large petrochemical plants contain thousands of pieces of process and utilities … Further, a logical model of machine failure that can relate different kinds of failures, mean times between them, and their causes, is needed. Reliability—which may be the driver for a few key components or safety features, but is generally a secondary consideration for entire systems— is usually built in after the fact on the basis of experience and limited information. In many companies, the capital approval process specifies different levels of authorization depending on the size of the request. By continuing you agree to the use of cookies. Events that slow or interrupt the manufacturing process or degrade the product impair the competitiveness of a manufacturing enterprise. The term artificial intelligence is appearing in sales literature that increasingly is offering catalog solutions as alternatives to technical proficiency. A piece of equipment can be available but not reliable. A clear link must be established between equipment requirements and reliability. As a result, it is difficult to make comparisons, share results and good practices among cooperating operations, and measure ERM performance trends in any one factory in a universally credible way. Needed in equipment design is a design-for-reliability approach that takes into account all life-cycle costs (acquisition, installation, operation, maintenance, repair, and salvage). Organizations came to realize that there was a better way of doing things than simply reacting. Everyone who has worked in a complex organizational structure like that required in manufacturing knows that there is a need to constantly fight against the tendency towards thinking in silos. This volume presents a concise and well-organized analysis of new research directions to achieve these goals. Testability is a fundamental criterion for design, and an arsenal of reliable testing methods has given rise to equipment that facilitates experimentation. Results of these performance comparisons are published in the trade press. Just-in-time (JIT) is a method of manufacturing by which parts and assemblies are made or delivered as needed, thereby greatly reducing inventory. The earlier you, the RE, get involved the more you can impact the design and total cost of ownership. U.S. manufacturing also needs an equivalent to the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance—an active group unencumbered by antitrust legislation and supportive of joint R&D, production ventures and standard-setting efforts—to spearhead advances in ERM practice. Management accounting for advanced technological environments. As background to these topics, basic statistical concepts are identified and the importance of the Weibull distribution in reliability and maintenance studies is justified. The Japanese are succeeding at this because they have an integrated view of manufacturing as a system. Quantifiable reasons must be found for employing technologists in the manufacturing sector of an enterprise. To maintain competitiveness in the emerging global economy, U.S. manufacturing must rise to new standards of product quality, responsiveness to customers, and process flexibility. Because management needs both knowledge and data to know what to do and how to do it, a concurrent effort must be mounted to identify and supply the hard data without which even an enlightened management will be unable to identify the areas that need improvement. ing system design, simulation fosters a total systems approach to design. A standard methodology for measuring the performance of ERM is needed, as is a way to quantify the benefits of ERM for top management. There are two commonly used measures of reliability: * Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), which is defined as: total time in service / number of failures * Failure Rate (λ), which is defined as: number of failures / total time in service. The term equipment reliability and maintenance (ERM) encompasses not only equipment, such as machines, tools, and fixtures, but also the technical, operational, and management activities, ranging from equipment specifications to daily operation and maintenance, required to sustain the performance of manufacturing equipment throughout its useful life. Since, as we established earlier, reliability takes everything from design to organizational culture into consideration, there can be many different fr… Frequently, the industry implements maintenance schemes, which are based on equipment’s manufacturer’s recommendations and may not apply changes throughout … The technicians were so busy that they didn’t have time to think about how to proactively solve their issues. FIGURE 3-5 For photolithography, attempts to increase mean time between failures have yielded a 30% increase in availability and an approximately 30% decrease in area throughout, while achieving a 10% reduction in total fabrication throughput time. There was a lack of organization. Such a model should address matching of capabilities, design issues and rules, maintenance, installed base, culture, and organization. comparable, if not superior, to those produced by manufacturers of low volume, luxury cars. yield losses that occur between start-up and steady production. Even with greater awareness and understanding of ERM and sufficient good data to convince top management of its value, a serious deficit in the technical skills infrastructure required to implement an effective ERM program would still have to be overcome. This approach to maintenance is in marked contrast to that taken in other countries. In the case of maintenance planning and scheduling, hopefully they combine to maintain or restore the reliability of equipment, as an example. It is vital that each function and department links themselves to the overarching objective of the whole. Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email. The U.S. view is that “the equipment is now performing at its best and over time performance will degrade.” The Japanese view is that “the equipment is now performing at its worst and work needs to be done to improve its performance dramatically.”, Emphasis on short-term profitability at the expense of preventive maintenance programs, personnel, and spare parts actually decreases long-term profitability by increasing the frequency of catastrophic events (i.e., breakdowns that demand emergency repair). The Japanese stamping lines, for example, are specified to run at a lower, more reliable rate than equivalent U.S. lines. We provide side-by-side reliability and maintenance consulting and training designed to keep your equipment running. Scheduled output is the output expected from an operation for a given allocation of time, material, and labor; it is usually based on a published output rate. Initial emphasis was on detecting problems before they became serious enough to force outages. … High acquisition and operating costs (stamping dies and presses constitute a substantial part of the capital investment in automobile manufacture) lead automakers to run multiple sets of dies on a given line. This adds up to important savings because the base cost of many types of equipment exceeds $1 million per unit. Management leadership is essential to solving manufacturing 's problems because only management is positioned to have the overview essential for effective decision making and leading. General attention to the inadequacy of the basic level of talent. In U.S. manufacturing, equipment availability is generally ensured by the existence of standby equipment, i.e., buying two machines when one will produce the desired throughput. Every part of the organization is serving the same corporate goals and objectives even though each part is playing a vastly different role and carries different responsibilities. An understanding of enterprise optimization. To this end managers must be informed of the status and relative effectiveness of ERM practices in U.S. and foreign industries. No available method of measuring system reliability (e.g., equipment effectiveness = availability × speed ratio × yield) has yet been widely accepted by U.S. manufacturers, and manually collected production downtime data are questionable, inasmuch as waiting time for repairs is seldom reported. The Nishio factory is not an isolated showcase. U.S. semiconductor manufacturers traditionally have not communicated with their original equipment suppliers, nor have they taken advantage of engineering and managing upgrades, modifications, maintenance, and spare parts issued internally. To calculate availability, use the formula of MTBF divided by (MTBF + MTTR). Building a workforce with the multidisciplinary skills needed for competitiveness. Effective management of ERM requires realistic awareness of the benefits of and necessary decisions related to ERM, the technical knowledge that will permit managers to make appropriate. Managers and engineers should be aware of the benefits of using simulation methodology during process design. The definition that follows is the definition that I prefer; it is one that has been derived from many definitions that I have seen over time:“The This would be helped greatly by a competitiveness assessment that reflects ERM differentials. To. For example, meeting process parameters more reliably via FMECA increases factory yields and reduces work-in-process inventory. A complementary focus is needed on using technology. View our suggested citation for this chapter. Imagine being a maintenance engineer and receiving 50 work orders during an overhaul with a limited budget, time, labor, spare parts, tools, machines, etc. Develop a maintenance strategy based on equipment criticality- RCM, PMO or RTF. Workshops sponsored by the National Research Council could serve to acquaint manufacturing executives with present practice in the United States and Japan. The trend toward integrating mechatronic equipment into factorywide systems provides a framework for extensively exploring and exploiting this approach. Reliability and maintenance data is important for predictive analysis related to equipment downtime in the oil and gas industry. In the area of human–machine interface, research is needed to delineate the guidelines and practices needed for establishing this important junction. ScienceDirect ® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. ScienceDirect ® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. 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