Maintenance Strategy & Plan Development
Ross Francis Consulting is experienced in the methodologies, tools and techniques for the development of a strategy-based equipment reliability maintenance plans.  We can assist with this activity either through coaching and mentoring or by providing direct hands-on assistance.
The object of FMEA or Reliability Analysis of a Company’s plant and equipment is to ensure that its critical assets are maintained in such a way that the business goals can be achieved.  We are experienced in the application of standard procedures to ensure a structured approach to the analysis.  The purpose of the structured process is to guide the maintenance practitioner through all the necessary steps and decisions that will enable him to arrive at the most effective method of maintaining operating plant assets. The development of a strategy based component maintenance plan is aided by the use of a range of PC based tools specifically developed for this purpose.  Ross Francis Consulting is experienced in the practical application of these systems. The process will enable the maintenance manager to plan, review and optimise the maintenance operations that impact directly on plant availability, thereby improving the ratio of planned to breakdown work, overall plant performance and minimising catastrophic failure.
The primary concepts of the Reliability methodology are :- The determination of the appropriate level of maintenance services to suit the needs and objectives of the Company The identification of specific maintenance actions based on equipment failure analysis and risk assessment The prevention and reduction of potential failure by identifying defects/problems and implementing corrective action prior to failure
The approach generally involves the following procedures :-     Business Review - establishes business objectives, goals, key performance indicators, maintenance policy and maintenance system requirements     Operational and Criticality Analysis - identifies operating relationships of processes, and determines the criticality of each process considering relation to operations, cost, safety and environmental damage     Component Identification - identifies all plant and equipment in a hierarchical structure     Failure Analysis – determines how each item can fail and what can be done to prevent or predict failure occurring     Strategy / Plan Development - determines the most appropriate maintenance strategy, maintenance tasks, frequency, duration, resource requirement and equipment operating requirement     Work Packaging - develops standard work orders, based on identical criteria for input to computerised Maintenance Management Information Systems     Spares Assessment – Identifies spares required and optimises holdings     System Implementation – Inputs all information into computerised Maintenance Management Information System and initiates the routine maintenance program and the maintenance control system
Strategy / Plan Development Having identified, structured and documented all critical equipment to maintainable item level, our consultants will, in consultation with the nominated customer representative(s), determine the most appropriate maintenance strategy for each maintainable item identified in the plant hierarchical structure.
The types of maintenance strategies that may be applied include:-     Operate to Failure (OTF)  - no predetermined action taken to prevent failure     Fixed Time Maintenance (FTM) – actions carried out at regular intervals (calendar time) e.g. item replacement, repair and major overhaul     Usage Based Maintenance (UBM) – actions initiated by prescribed usage of the component e.g. tonnes, operating hours, number of operations     Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) – continuous or periodic measurement and interpretation of data to indicate the condition of an item to determine the need for maintenance
This process will provide the details necessary to select the most suitable maintenance actions from the possible actions identified at the failure analysis stage and will also assist in the selection of the appropriate frequency for each task. Our experience has been that best efficiency is achieved by utilising consultants who are very familiar with maintenance strategy tools to do the bulk of the work, or at least a sufficient quantity to establish the hierarchy and complete some initial major sections.  Subsequently our consultants will train site personnel to use the tools and the process, but ongoing everyday work pressures frequently detract from the effort required to get this important work completed.  In all cases, however, we utilise the knowledge and experience of on-site trades and staff employees.
Contact Ross Francis Consulting now for further details: info@rossfrancis.com.au
Services Available:| Audits | Improvement | Implementation | Asset Condition | Training | Systems | Procedures | Equip Plans | Design | Commissioning | Outsourcing |
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