PM optimization is a valuable tool for any organization, but it is especially useful for plants that are facing budget and expertise constraints. Done right, preventive maintenance optimization helps ensure that you always make the most of your resources.
Keep reading to learn about PM optimization how it relates to other continuous improvement strategies, like Ranking Index for Maintenance Expenditures (RIME) and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA). Plus, learn how eMaint can help with preventive maintenance optimization.
What is PM Optimization?
PM optimization is a step-by-step process that assesses your preventive maintenance tasks. By the end of the optimization process, you’ll know which tasks are adding value, and which are just draining your resources.
Preventive maintenance optimization relies on historical data, failure mode, and asset criticality analysis to evaluate each maintenance task. The goal is to eliminate unnecessary tasks and increase efficiency throughout your operation.
Most organizations spend time and money on preventive maintenance tasks that aren’t really necessary. Teams tend to schedule recurring tasks and then stick to a time-based program, without re-examining whether those tasks are really necessary.
Ideally, your teams should be focusing their resources on the tasks that keep your most critical assets up and running. You don’t want them getting bogged down in time-consuming jobs that don’t add value. Preventive maintenance optimization helps your teams make the best possible use of their time.
How Does PM Optimization Work?
PM optimization builds on FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis) to analyze whether your maintenance program is meeting its goals.
FMEA determines all the different potential failure modes throughout your operation – in other words, all the possible ways that your assets can fail. FMEA then studies the impact of each failure mode, looking at how each failure would affect your overall productivity and safety.
PM optimization uses FMEA as a guideline for evaluating your preventive maintenance tasks. The optimization process looks at each preventive maintenance task, one by one, and asks:
- Is this task eliminating a potential failure mode?
- If so, is that failure mode worth eliminating?
- Does the cost of preventive maintenance outweigh the value of preventing this particular failure?
The Relationship Between RIME, FMEA, FMECA, and PM Optimization
RIME, FMEA, FMECA, and PM optimization all flow naturally into each other. Together, they make up a highly structured, effective approach to maintenance spend.
RIME (ranking index for maintenance expenditures) is the first step of this process. RIME creates a scale to determine which assets are most crucial to your operation and assess which maintenance tasks are the most important to keep your plant running. RIME will show you which of your assets are truly critical. In a typical operation, critical assets make up about 20% of the total equipment.
FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis) enables you to identify all the potential failure modes for those critical assets.
FMECA (failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis) studies the consequences and costs of each potential failure and determines exactly which failure modes pose the most risk to your operation.
Finally, PM optimization uses the FMEA and FMECA findings to create the most effective maintenance program possible. Preventive maintenance optimization eliminates unnecessary maintenance activities, cuts back on the frequency of other tasks, and helps you find more efficient ways to get maintenance jobs done.
PM Optimization and Predictive Maintenance
PM optimization usually refers to optimizing your preventive maintenance strategy. But the approach works just as well with a predictive maintenance approach.
Preventive maintenance optimization tools can also show you where your predictive maintenance strategies are most effective, and where they’re not as useful. If you’re using wireless sensors to monitor vibration levels, PM optimization can tell you where to place those sensors.
Similarly, if your sensors pick up on a new issue, PM optimization tools can help you decide when to address that issue. It’s a great way to make sure you’re getting the most possible value out of your maintenance resources.
Using eMaint for PM Optimization
PM optimization relies on historical data to assess the impact of preventive maintenance tasks. Because it’s such a data-driven approach, it works best when paired with eMaint CMMS.
eMaint’s search and reporting features make it easy to measure the success of different preventive maintenance tasks. eMaint stores maintenance schedules, work orders, and failure data, so you can cross-check your data and see the outcome of every different maintenance task.
The result? It’s clear which tasks serve your operation, and which need to go. Before long, your teams will be free to focus on the jobs that really matter, so that your organization can experience greater productivity and less downtime, all at a lower cost.