Jasper Veldman

Managing condition‐based maintenance technology: A multiple case study in the process industry

Purpose – Condition‐based maintenance is the diagnosis of component failure or a prognosis of a components time to failure. The aim of this paper is twofold: a summary of the main assumptions regarding condition‐based maintenance found in the literature into eight postulates, and a comparison of the postulates against industrial practice. The postulates were formulated regarding the technical system, the managerial system and workforce knowledge.Design/methodology/approach – The postulates were examined in a multiple case study of five large firms in the process industry.Findings – The results indicate that some postulates were supported with empirical findings. Limited or no support was found for postulates concerning the application of prognostic activities, use of dedicated software, use of procedures, use of training, and the active management of domain‐related knowledge availability.Practical implications – Practitioners can use the eight postulates as key elements in the management of condition‐bas...

Typology of condition based maintenance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is the development of an empirically based typology of condition based maintenance (CBM) approaches, including the relevant characteristics and requirements.Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory case study was conducted in a major gas production facility. The CBM typology that resulted from this case study was subsequently tested against a large set of CBM literature.Findings – In the literature, CBM is usually presented as a single theory or practice. The paper finds that CBM in fact includes several different approaches and that each of the approaches is only suitable in situations where the specific characteristics of the approach match the situational characteristics. Aided by these findings, a new typology for CBM was developed. The typology is based on the method for obtaining the expected value, or trend (through statistical vs analytical modeling) and the type of data used (process vs failure data). A subsequent literature survey reveals that the proposed...

Failure mode and effect analysis in asset maintenance: a multiple case study in the process industry

Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is an important method for designing and prioritising preventive maintenance activities and is often used as the basis for preventive maintenance planning. Although FMEA was studied extensively, most of the published work so far covers FMEA concept design. Little detailed comparison to industrial practice regarding the application of FMEA can be found in the literature, which is the contribution of this study. This paper summarises the main descriptions and assumptions found in the literature on FMEA into six postulates, and compares the postulates to industrial practice. This was done in a multiple case study conducted at six companies in the process industry. Some postulates were supported by empirical evidence, whereas for others, limited or no support could be found. The results suggest a fundamental problem in the FMEA procedure, namely, the reliance upon expert judgement in general and the reliance upon design engineering expertise for keeping the FMEA up-to-date in particular. Also, a number of operational and information management problems that companies suffer from when conducting an FMEA were identified. Practitioners can use this paper to assess their potential for implementing FMEA and to learn from the insight into the identified pitfalls. Researchers can use the findings to guide further work on improving and developing the FMEA procedures.

Clustering condition-based maintenance for systems with redundancy and economic dependencies

Systems that require maintenance typically consist of multiple components. In case of economic dependencies, maintaining several of these components simultaneously can be more cost efficient than performing maintenance on each component separately, while in case of redundancy, postponing maintenance on some failed components is possible without reducing the availability of the system. Condition-based maintenance (CBM) is known as a cost-minimizing strategy in which the maintenance actions are based on the actual condition of the different components. No research has been performed yet on clustering CBM tasks for systems with both economic dependencies and redundancy. We develop a dynamic programming model to find the optimal maintenance strategy for such systems, and show numerically that it can indeed considerably outperform previously considered policies (failure-based, age-based, block replacement, and more restricted (opportunistic) CBM policies). Moreover, our numerical investigation provides insights into the optimal policy structure.

Towards a social exchange theory perspective on preferred customership — concept and practice

In the situation of an increase of the role of suppliers, for instance in innovation processes and a scarcity of suppliers, buying firms find themselves in competition for the benevolence of suppliers. In this conference contribution, we introduce the concept of preferred customer status, i.e. a buyer is awarded preferential treatment by its key suppliers when compared to the supplier’s other customers. As there is a lack of knowledge of what motivates suppliers to treat certain buyers better than others, our research focuses on the suppliers’ evaluation of customers and how it can be influenced by buyers. Based on social exchange theory, we propose a conceptual model that contains customer attractiveness, supplier satisfaction and knowledge of alternative customers as factors influencing suppliers to award preferred customer status to a certain customer. Besides, based on a novel World-Cafe method, we show what practices CPOs and consultants experience to be important in increasing attractiveness of customers and satisfaction of suppliers. We conclude by suggesting future research directions in this field.

Applicability of the capability maturity model for engineer-to-order firms

Most of the well-known management and improvement systems and techniques, such as Lean Production (e.g. Just-In-Time (JIT) pull production, one piece flow) and Six Sigma (reduction in variation) were developed in high volume industries. In order to measure the progress of the implementation of such systems, companies and consultants use reference frameworks, which contain descriptions of best practice processes. The core principles of these systems are applicable in any type of industry or service (e.g. focus on reliability and minimisation of waste). However, the best practice references and other implementation tools are dependent on the context in which the principles are applied. For the Engineer-to-Order (ETO) industry, many of the traditional practices (e.g. JIT logistics or line balancing) are not applicable. In this paper, it is demonstrated that the Capability Maturity Model Integrated CMMI), a best practice reference framework widely used in the software industry, contains practices which are also widely applicable in ETO companies, but that the original model needs to be enhanced. CMMI provides a philosophy, as well as a set of hands-on guidelines and measurable stages for process improvement. CMMI may provide practical techniques to ETO companies which other companies acquire from systems such as Lean Production and Six Sigma.

Joint condition-based maintenance and inventory optimization for systems with multiple components

Efficient (condition-based) maintenance planning and inventory control of spares for critical components jointly determine the effectiveness of a maintenance strategy and, thereby, balance system uptime and maintenance costs. Duplicating an optimal policy for a single-component system to a multi-component system is not necessarily optimal, while a separate or sequential optimization of the maintenance and inventory decisions is also not guaranteed to yield the lowest costs. We therefore consider the joint optimization of condition-based maintenance and spares planning for multi-component systems. We formulate our model as a Markov Decision Process, and minimize the long-run average cost per time unit. A key insight from our numerical results is that the (s, S) inventory policy, popular in theory as well as practice, can be far from optimal for systems consisting of few components. Significant savings can be obtained by basing both the maintenance decisions and the timing of ordering spare components on the system’s condition.

Winning the competition for supplier resources: The role of preferential resource allocation from suppliers

Purpose This paper examines the competition between buying firms for the supplier’s competitive resources. The purpose of this paper is to examine how indirect capabilities – the ability to access external resources – can help in obtaining preferential resource allocation from suppliers. Design/methodology/approach Partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to analyze data of 163 buying firms that assess preferential resource allocation from suppliers. Findings Two indirect capabilities (a buying firm’s selection capability and relational capability) positively influence the firm’s competitive advantage. These relations are significantly mediated by preferential resource allocation of suppliers. The impact of preferential resource allocation appeared stronger for manufacturing firms than for service firms. Research limitations/implications This study’s data set represents the buyer’s assessment of suppliers’ resource allocation. Future research should aim for dyadic data for further validation. In addition, due to sample size limitations, this study’s data does not allow sector segmentation. A larger study that provides insights into segmentation is suggested for future research. Practical implications The results inform managers about the relevance of the competition for supplier resources with rival firms that share suppliers, and the influence of this competition on firm competitiveness. Managers should not only focus on the supplier itself, but also on the capabilities of the supply chain management (SCM) function to recognize and integrate the supplier resources. Originality/value This study adds to the extended resource-based view literature by integrating the notion of supplier resource competition. In addition, the study shows the importance of indirect capabilities for obtaining preferential resource allocation from suppliers. Finally, the authors show the importance of separating between service and manufacturing when examining SCM practices.

Service and Life Cycle Management of engineered assets/goods

This article provides an introduction to the special issue dedicated to Service and Life Cycle Management of engineered assets/ goods. Managing engineered assets and goods requires integrative organizational practices to ensure low life cycle costs, high reliability and availability, at maximum safety levels. These integrative practices have always been at the forefront of the research of guest editor dr. Warse Klingenberg. Warse Klingenberg, who was an associate professor of Industrial Engineering, passed away in December 2013. We dedicate the introduction to this special issue to him. We start off with a short in memoriam. Thereafter, we share the vision of dr. Klingenberg on this field which also formed the inspiration for this special issue. Warse Klingenberg, who received his PhD in mechanical engineering, has been active in consulting and conducting research at major engineering and maintenance contractors. The questions driving his professional activities have always been structured around the process improvement of firms engineering, producing and servicing/maintaining engineered assets/goods. In doing so he always had an open eye for questions that were both theoretically and practically grounded. This was underlined by the fact that he received many Dutch research grants for projects driven by industrial reality, targeted towards improved theoretical understanding. Warse established a clear line of thought in terms of teaching as well. The Master course Asset management he developed with colleagues from the University of Groningen now serves as a basis for teaching young professionals the essentials of Service and Lifecycle Management of engineered goods/assets. Warse delighted his colleagues, and his PhD students in particular, with his pragmatic and practical view on researching and teaching asset management. We are very sad to see that his life ended too soon.