How Do Other Departments Impact Reliability?

Involving engineering in reliability

Moving beyond the practices of your organization as a whole, it’s important to focus on what each department can do individually. Engineering and design teams play a major role in your equipment’s reliability, since they design the system in the first place.

Reliability centered design

The initial design phase of a project has the greatest impact on how much it will cost over its entire lifetime in terms of maintenance. In fact, those costs generally become fixed during the initial design phase, and they’ll most likely remain consistent once the system is complete. In addition, as many as 70% of all equipment failures occur during the startup phase, making them a result of poor design or installation.

Ultimately, a system needs to be designed with reliability in mind right from the very beginning. That means the operational and maintenance needs of the facility need to be communicated to the engineering team as early in the process as possible.

Inherent reliability

One factor that engineers need to consider when designing a system is the inherent reliability of each component. Inherent reliability is a statistic set by the manufacturer, and it’s based on the way a piece of equipment is built, the parts it uses, and the level/type of maintenance the manufacturer anticipates the end-user will employ.

Inherent reliability isn’t the same as actual reliability, which depends on the actual usage of the machine in the facility, the way it’s maintained, and what types of conditions/loads it’s likely to face.

When choosing equipment, the engineering team should take into account its inherent reliability, as well as the context of its own facility in order to make a sound decision.

Collaboration with operations and maintenance

Often, those decisions are based on collaboration with operators and maintenance teams. Without open communication from O&M on what their needs are, the system’s actual reliability will likely be at least somewhat limited.

In particular, some of the items that O&M should communicate on include:

• Accessibility requirements (i.e. for performing repairs and inspections).
• Workplace conditions, such as temperature, humidity, power, vibrations, etc.
• Types of loads and materials to be processed.
• The functionality of the equipment.
• The ways different pieces of equipment interact.

When taking these items into account, the engineering team should still strive for cost-effectiveness, just not at the expense of long-term reliability.

Involving operations in reliability

Operations plays a critical role in reliability, more so than many might believe. Operators work directly with the equipment, so they tend to be closest to any issues that may occur. As such, there is a great deal that they can do in order to make sure the equipment keeps running reliably.

Proper operation of equipment

One of the ways in which operators can contribute toward reliability—or the lack thereof—is by the way they operate equipment. Each machine in a facility has its specific applications, tolerances, and operating parameters, and if it’s pushed beyond those limits, it’s more likely to have an untimely breakdown.

Training workers to use equipment properly is key. Assuming the system is properly designed, correct operation practices will ensure that it handles the loads moving through the production line without failing.

Coordination with maintenance

Another way that the operations department can support reliability is by coordinating with maintenance. Part of that responsibility rests upon maintenance crews—after all, if routine work needs to be performed on an asset to keep it working, they should notify operators and communicate the need to have it taken offline at the designated time.

However, operations should also be involved in informing the maintenance department about current equipment issues. Many facilities have a system set up where operators submit work requests whenever they detect a problem, with the end result of giving the maintenance team greater visibility over the facility’s equipment.

Performing minor equipment upkeep

In addition to coordinating with maintenance to get important work done, operators can be directly involved in caring for equipment. That often means tightening loose parts, lubricating equipment on a recurring schedule, and performing regular cleaning.

Encouraging operators to perform these tasks helps them to feel a greater sense of responsibility for the equipment they work on, which in turn is conducive to developing a reliability-centered culture.

Involving supply and procurement in reliability

Supply and procurement departments have the responsibility of making sure replacement parts are available for maintenance crews. Without effective involvement on their part, maintenance efforts are handicapped and reliability suffers. Involving procurement teams means making sure they purchase the right parts, keep the right number of them in stock, and take care of those items properly.

Securing the right replacement parts

In order to make sure supply teams obtain the right spares, they need to coordinate with maintenance and operations. Often, decisions are made based on price alone, and minor differences in a part’s specifications or tolerances may be ignored, resulting in either subpar parts or the wrong part altogether.

When obtaining spares, procurement should keep in mind FFF:

• Form – The shape and dimensions of the item.
• Fit – Whether the item fits your equipment.
• Function – The function the item is intended to play.

Quality is another function. Subpar pieces, while initially cheaper to purchase, may lead to greater losses in the long run if their use results in equipment failure.

Keeping the right number of items in storage

Housing spares has its expenses, so you don’t want to keep too many items in stock. However, having too few can result in stockouts that may prolong equipment downtime and increase costs, as you wait for necessary spares to be shipped.

In the process of planning how many of each item to keep on hand, it’s again worthwhile for procurement to coordinate with maintenance and operations. In particular, maintenance should provide information on how many of each part is needed in order to satisfy the demands of recurring PMs, possible equipment failures, and potential (if unlikely) catastrophic breakdowns.

Combined with their own data on lead times for obtaining those parts, procurement and supply personnel can determine the optimum number of items to keep in stock.

Storing spares properly

In addition to storing the right number of items, MRO supply teams should make sure those items are properly stored. Some items need to be kept within certain conditions, while others have a limited shelf life. More sensitive spares typically include:

• Lubricants
• Oils
• Sealants
• Paints
• Adhesives
• Batteries
• O rings
• Belts
• Hoses

The shelf life for these items and the conditions they need to be kept in should factor into MRO inventory optimization.

Involving management in reliability

Upper management, including executives and financial officers, play their own role in reliability as well, even though they tend to be among the most far removed from the physical equipment used in production processes. Their bird’s-eye perspective on the different departments and the organization as a whole is a vital part of making sure everyone works together to create more reliable facilities.

Long-range planning and goal setting

Ultimately, setting reliability goals should begin within senior management. In connection with those actionable goals for the organization, there needs to be long-range plans set in place.

The plans set forth by management should be designed to help each department fulfill its role in supporting reliability. At times, they may need adjustment, and consultation with O&M can help them do that.

Funding decisions

Without adequate funding, the efforts attempted by each department can be quickly frustrated. Senior management should make sure each department gets the funding it needs in order to fulfill its role. For engineers, that means having adequate capital for quality machines, for procurement, it’s funding for parts, and so on.

Of course, that funding should be intended to lower costs in the long run. The goal is to prevent costly equipment downtime, improve quality and consistency, and increase profitability. Senior management should make sure those goals are met.

Striking a balance

Ultimately, reliability is everyone’s mission, and it’s important to make sure each department is involved in supporting it. Even if they aren’t directly involved, they still have an impact, whether they’re designing a production line or ordering replacement parts.

Putting organization-wide reliability into practice may take some time, training, and resources, and it often involves a dramatic shift in the way your workers, managers, and other personnel view their daily tasks. However, the end result is a more cohesive organization, better communication, and (of course) more dependable processes.