Key maintenance figures and risk management | A key to reducing costs

Author: Kerstin Schröer, Senior Consultant at Orianda Solutions AG – a valantic company

In today’s competitive landscape, efficient plant maintenance is a key success factor for companies. But how can you ensure that your maintenance efforts are truly effective while minimizing the risk of costly breakdowns?

The answer lies in the targeted use of maintenance KPIs to identify and manage risks. In this blog post, we will look at this topic with a focus on risk management.

Categorization of investments: identification of risk

The first step towards effective risk management in maintenance is to categorize your systems. Not all assets are the same. Some have a higher risk of failure than others and some have significant costs associated with failure.

Let’s start with the question: which assets should be prioritized? This is where the ABC analysis comes into play. This method divides your assets into three categories:

• A category: assets with high value and high risk of failure.

• B category: Investments with moderate value and moderate default risk.

• C category: Investments with low value and low default risk.

This categorization gives you a clear overview of your most critical assets on which you should focus your maintenance efforts.

Condition assessment: further refining the risk

In order to assess the risk even more precisely, the condition assessment is crucial. This involves monitoring and evaluating the current condition of each system. This can be done through regular inspections, data analysis and monitoring systems. The assessment should take into account factors such as the frequency of use, the availability of spare parts and the expected duration of a repair.

Maintenance key figures for risk management

The following key maintenance figures are particularly relevant for managing risk:

• MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures): This key figure indicates how long it takes on average between failures of a system. Systems with a low MTBF have a higher risk of failure and should therefore be monitored more closely.

• Risk & Criticality Assessment: This assessment evaluates the risk and criticality of each system. It takes into account factors such as financial impact and safety risks.

• ABC Analysis: The ABC categorization helps to identify the assets that require the most attention. A-category facilities are particularly high-risk.

Risk management in practice

Identifying and assessing risks is an important step, but how do you put this knowledge into practice? Here are some proven strategies:

1. Prioritize maintenance work: Focus your resources on the A-category assets that have the highest risk of failure. Carry out regular maintenance and inspections.
2. Stock spare parts: Ensure that critical spare parts for your A-category equipment are always available to minimize downtime.
3. Fast response times: Develop contingency plans and work processes to respond to breakdowns quickly and efficiently.
4. Qualified teams: Ensure that your maintenance teams have the necessary qualifications and training to deal with critical situations.
5. Regular monitoring: Use monitoring systems to continuously monitor the condition of your equipment and provide early warning of problems.

Effective risk management in maintenance requires the targeted use of maintenance metrics and the right strategy to identify and manage risks. By focusing your resources on the most critical assets and developing rapid response plans, you can not only prevent costly breakdowns but also increase the efficiency of your maintenance processes.

Conclusion: Asset Performance Management – The future of maintenance

Maintenance metrics and risk management are essential tools to ensure the reliability and efficiency of assets. We have seen how asset categorization and condition assessment help to identify and manage risks. But how can we use these insights to take maintenance to the next level?

This is where Asset Performance Management (APM) comes into play. APM is a holistic approach to maximizing the performance and lifespan of your assets. It is based on comprehensive data collection, analysis and forecasting to predict the optimal time for maintenance activities.

The combination of maintenance metrics and risk management with APM enables companies to develop preventive maintenance strategies. By continuously monitoring the condition of your equipment, you can prevent breakdowns before they occur while maximizing uptime.

APM also takes resource utilization into account. It helps you plan and deploy your resources efficiently by taking into account the condition and priority of your assets. This leads to better utilization of your teams and minimization of downtime.

In addition, APM allows for long-term strategic planning. You can better manage the life cycle of your equipment and decide when modernization or replacement makes more sense than repair.

Overall, the integration of maintenance KPIs, risk management and asset performance management enables an effective and sustainable maintenance strategy. It not only ensures the reliability of your systems, but also contributes to cost savings and increased competitiveness. The future of maintenance undoubtedly lies in holistic asset performance management.