Smart Maintenance

By

Ashok Ramgir

I am a retired professional having worked over 45 years with variety of Industries from very junior level to highest level and had a very good experience of developing Systems related to every aspect of a Manufacturing unit. Maintenance was also one of the main area where I had systematized the working and created Smart Maintenance Systems.

Based on my experience I am giving a short write up which explains as to how the system is developed and who all are involved. Hope you can get some tips from this.

Maintenance is one of the crucial area in any manufacturing unit/ organization as this can effect productivity directly. In view of its importance & direct relation SMART MAINTANCE becomes very essential for any Maintenance Manager. It becomes his duty & vision to prevent down time to maintain productivity of the organization.

Smart maintenance requires a holistic approach to create a Predictive maintenance integrating with organisations structure and functions. This requires maturity, where Smart maintenance system can be developed.

The sections will be involved in this model will be as under;

• Maintenance

• Management

• Manufacturing Engineering ( Production)

• Supply chain ( Purchase)

• Logistics

• Finance

Everybody has to play its roll depending on situation. Maintenance issues alert about the seriousness of the down time and accordingly all have to coordinate to minimize the downtime so the productivity is not affected.

The maturity in system comes with

• Autonomy to departments

• Perspective

• Predictive or Pro activeness of Maintenance

• Prevention of the cause and effectiveness of actions

• Reactions must be in line with seriousness of the problem

For effective Smart Maintenance we can divide the requirements in 3 categories

1. Essentials

2. Desirable

3. General

Essentials items are those items which are critical for maintaining machines, these items are in general recommended by the OEM which are procured with the Machine purchase.

Desirable items are those items which are necessary but can be procured locally at short notice and are mostly available locally.

General items are those which are common for various machines and available locally

In general we can say that Inventory of Spares to be maintained can be decided and accordingly inventory is built up so effectively any downtime can be reduced.

System can be developed looking to the organisations structure, the Data for Smart system can be evolved with Data analysis and experience, inventory system with lead time of each and every item procurement must be considered. This comes with the experience of the Maintenance Head and his vision in consultation with the Materials department.

A product Lifecycle Management system can help in organizing things.

Roll of MES is important here which can provide real time data.

Now a days Internet is quite helpful where you can search and act, every data can be searched to evolve effective system.

Predictive or Pro-active maintenance gives an edge to the organization to maintain it’s production cycle and save time and money.

I hope this short write up can help many people who struggle with loss of productivity in absence of any Smart Maintenance system.

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