Juan Francisco Gómez Fernández

Life Cycle Cost Analysis

The chapter presents a generic model for assets maintenance management. This model integrates other models found in the literature for built and in-use assets, and consists of sequential management building blocks. More precisely we want to show the reader the importance of selecting an appropriate method when considering the estimation of the non-reliability cost of an asset. By doing so, we show the impact of maintenance in life cycle costing and provide arguments to claim about the needs for proper assets maintenance control.

Framework for implementation of maintenance management in distribution network service providers

Distribution network service providers (DNSP) are companies dealing with network infrastructure, such as distribution of gas, water, electricity or telecommunications, and they require the development of special maintenance management (MM) capabilities in order to satisfy the needs of their customers. In this sector, maintenance management information systems are essential to ensure control, gain knowledge and improve decision making. The aim of this paper is the study of specific characteristics of maintenance in these types of companies. We will investigate existing standards and best management practices with the scope of defining a suitable ad-hoc framework for implementation of maintenance management. The conclusion of the work supports the proposition of a framework consisting on a processes framework based on a structure of systems, integrated for continuous improvement of maintenance activities. The paper offers a very practical approach to the problem, as a result of more of 10 years of professional experience within this sector, and specially focused to network maintenance.

Contractual and quality aspects on warranty

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a brief summary of quality and contractual aspects for the improvement of the warranty management. Together with this, the present work will show also some of the best practices followed by companies in order to manage properly those kinds of issues related to warranty, as well as some indications to assess the implementation degree of such practices in the whole organization. Basically, the global objective of the study is to present to the reader and in few words the importance of taking into account legal and quality aspects, when a company offers a technical service for the warranty assistance of any of its products, together with the maturity level that this company achieves applying some best practices currently available.Design/methodology/approach – The study starts by mentioning some antecedents related to warranty, in order to summarize a reference framework, proposed for proper warranty management, and how the information exchange should be perf...

Modelling using UML and BPMN the integration of open reliability, maintenance and condition monitoring management systems: An application in an electric transformer system

Maintenance management of an industrial plant has been always a complex activity. Nowadays Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMSs) help to organize information and thus to carry out maintenance activities in a more efficient way. The emergence of new ICT has increased also the use of Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) systems and the application of Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) analysis. Each system is proved to provide benefits to the maintenance management. However when all the systems are adopted, the lack of integration among them can prevent the maximum exploitation of their capabilities. This work aims at fulfilling this gap, proposing an e-maintenance integration platform that combines the features of the three main systems. The methodology and the reference open standards used to develop the platform are exposed. UML-BPMN diagrams represent the emerging algorithms of the designed system. The final product, a software demo is implemented in an electric transformer.

Criticality Analysis for Maintenance Purposes: A Study for Complex In-service Engineering Assets

The purpose of this paper is to establish a basis for a criticality analysis, considered here as a prerequisite, a first required step to review the current maintenance programs, of complex in-service engineering assets. Review is understood as a reality check, a testing of whether the current maintenance activities are well aligned to actual business objectives and needs. This paper describes an efficient and rational working process and a model resulting in a hierarchy of assets, based on risk analysis and cost–benefit principles, which will be ranked according to their importance for the business to meet specific goals. Starting from a multicriteria analysis, the proposed model converts relevant criteria impacting equipment criticality into a single score presenting the criticality level. Although detailed implementation of techniques like Root Cause Failure Analysis and Reliability Centered Maintenance will be recommended for further optimization of the maintenance activities, the reasons why criticality analysis deserves the attention of engineers and maintenance and reliability managers are precisely explained here. A case study is presented to help the reader understand the process and to operationalize the model. Copyright

Case study: Warranty costs estimation according to a defined lifetime distribution of deliverables

This paper pretends to describe a real case of warranty assistance, analyzing its management in the framework of a manufacturing company which provides deliverables during a specific period of time and following a scheduled distribution. With the sale of a product, the manufacturer is nowadays obliged contractually to perform warranty assistance to the buyer. Decreasing the incurred costs is clearly not the only aspect to achieve, since the decision has to be global and strategical inside the company in order to purchase a reliable and robust product, offering as well an appropriate after-sales service to the user. Therefore, key aspects will be presented along this study in order to estimate costs and, consequently, to take proper decisions for leading correctly the company to a successful goal. For that purpose, not only managers and responsibles in a well-established and controlled organization must take part, it is also of importance to consider the experience given by the technical staff for maintenance and warranty. As result, this paper will show basically how analyzing the past performance is possible to foresee and control the future. In our case, it will be possible to observe how the evolution of costs during the lifetime of a warranty assistance program can help to correct and foresee with more accuracy the expected total cost of the activity considered at the beginning of the program. The paper is based on an usual procedure in special supplies for the public sector (for instance, a fleet of customized vehicles), between companies inside the supply chain or directly to the final user, where this final user is for example a public entity and the budget for the complete warranty assistance is already known from the beginning of the project.

UML model for integration between RCM and CBM in an e-Maintenance architecture

Abstract Maintenance management of an industrial plant has always been a complex activity for the amount of information to be handled. Nowadays, Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) help to organize information and thus to carry out maintenance activities in a more efficient way. However, besides collection of data and information about maintenance, other analysis must be carried out and only some of them can be done using a CMMS; tools for Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) analysis are available to this end. Companies also adopt systems for condition monitoring, namely Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) systems. Each system is proved to provide benefits to the maintenance management, improving at least the efficiency of the maintenance processes. However, when all the CMMS - RCM - CBM systems are put together, the lack of integration among them prevents from the maximum exploitation of their capabilities. This work aims at fulfilling the gap, providing a data model to allow the development of an integrated system that combines the features of the three systems. The data model is outlined in the framework of an e-Maintenance architecture, so it is an extension of the well known MIMOSA database structure (Maintenance Information Management Open System Alliance).

Customer-oriented risk assessment in network utilities

For companies that distribute services such as telecommunications, water, energy, gas, etc., quality perceived by the customers has a strong impact on the fulfillment of financial goals, positively increasing the demand and negatively increasing the risk of customer churn (loss of customers). Failures by these companies may cause customer affection in a massive way, augmenting the intention to leave the company. Therefore, maintenance performance and specifically service reliability has a strong influence on financial goals. This paper proposes a methodology to evaluate the contribution of the maintenance department in economic terms based on service unreliability by network failures. The developed methodology aims to provide an analysis of failures to facilitate decision-making about maintenance (preventive/predictive and corrective) costs versus negative impacts in end customer invoicing based on the probability of losing customers. Survival analysis of recurrent failures with the General Renewal Process distribution is used for this novel purpose with the intention to be applied as a standard procedure to calculate the expected maintenance financial impact, for a given period of time. Also, geographical areas of coverage are distinguished, enabling the comparison of different technical or management alternatives. Two case studies in a telecommunications services company are presented in order to illustrate the applicability of the methodology.

A Framework for Effective Management of CBM Programs

CBM (Condition-Based Maintenance) solutions are increasingly present in industrial systems due to two main circumstances: rapid evolution, without precedents, in the capture and analysis of data and significant cost reduction of supporting technologies. CBM programs in industrial systems can become extremely complex, especially when considering the effective introduction of new capabilities provided by PHM (Prognostics and Health Management) and E-maintenance disciplines. In this scenario, any CBM solution involves the management of numerous technical aspects, that the maintenance manager needs to understand, in order to be implemented properly and effectively, according to the company’s strategy. This paper provides a comprehensive representation of the key components of a generic CBM solution, this is presented using a framework or supporting structure for an effective management of the CBM programs. The concept “symptom of failure”, its corresponding analysis techniques (introduced by ISO 13379-1 and linked with RCM/FMEA analysis), and other international standard for CBM open-software application development (for instance, ISO 13374 and OSA-CBM), are used in the paper for the development of the framework. An original template has been developed, adopting the formal structure of RCM analysis templates, to integrate the information of the PHM techniques used to capture the failure mode behaviour and to manage maintenance. Finally, a case study describes the framework using the referred template.

Criticality Analysis for Maintenance Purposes

The purpose of this paper is to establish a basis for a criticality analysis, considered here as a prerequisite, a first required step to review the current maintenance programs, of complex in-service engineering assets. Review is understood as a reality check, a testing of whether the current maintenance activities are well aligned to actual business objectives and needs. This paper describes an efficient and rational working process and a model resulting in a hierarchy of assets, based on risk analysis and cost–benefit principles, which will be ranked according to their importance for the business to meet specific goals. Starting from a multi-criteria analysis, the proposed model converts relevant criteria impacting equipment criticality into a single score presenting the criticality level. Although detailed implementation of techniques like root cause failure analysis (RCFA) and reliability centered maintenance (RCM) will be recommended for further optimization of the maintenance activities, the reasons why criticality analysis deserves the attention of the engineers, maintenance and reliability managers are here precisely explained. A case study is presented to help the reader to understand the process and to operationalize the model.