Tracking equipment reliability is a vital task for Maintenance, Operations, Repair (MRO) teams; it helps them manage resources more efficiently and drive major improvements in asset productivity and lifespan. That said, there is much that falls under the umbrella of equipment reliability.
In this article, we’ll talk about some of the best metrics to use to help you gauge equipment reliability so you can improve the health of your assets, avoid costly unplanned downtime, and keep operations running safely and smoothly.
Equipment Reliability Explained
Equipment reliability is the likelihood that an asset will break down or otherwise fail to perform its normal function. A high level of equipment reliability indicates that an asset will operate correctly, without needing emergency repairs. Conversely, low equipment reliability means that the asset breaks down frequently. However, MRO teams don’t use a singular formula to determine this likelihood. Instead, they analyze a variety of different metrics in order to estimate equipment reliability.
Because there are multiple types of data and metrics that inform equipment reliability, it’s good practice to use Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS), like eMaint, to track this data and other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Using a CMMS also enables your team to implement data-based maintenance strategies that support greater equipment reliability.
When combined with using the right CMMS, it’s hard to overstate the benefits of improving equipment reliability. Reliable equipment performs better, producing high-quality goods at a consistent rate. It requires less maintenance, uses less fuel, and operates without excess noise or vibration.
What Is the Difference Between Reliability and Availability?
It’s easy to confuse reliability and availability. Afterall, both metrics are concerned with asset performance and uptime, and both metrics help teams plan their production schedules. However, reliability and availability measure asset uptime very differently.
Reliability measures the likelihood that an asset will operate without breakdowns or stoppages during a particular period of time.
Availability, on the other hand, measures the length of time that an asset operates correctly. Availability can also be expressed as a percentage of total operational time.
Both reliability and availability are useful ways to understand asset health, plan production schedules, and determine maintenance priorities. Therefore, it’s always a good practice to use metrics related to both in your maintenance strategy.
How To Measure Equipment Reliability: KPIs and Metrics
As we mentioned earlier, maintenance teams use a number of metrics and KPIs to gauge overall equipment reliability. While teams in some specific industries may rely on additional metrics, overall, most MRO teams monitor the following to gauge equipment reliability.
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), as the term suggests, is the average length of time that an asset operates without interruption between failures within a given window of time, such as a month or a financial quarter. (This timeframe can vary depending on a team’s operations and industry.) To calculate the MTBF for an asset, take the number of hours that the machine is operational and divide that by the how often the same machine has failed during that time frame:
MTBF = Hours of operation / Number of failures
Mean Time to Failure (MTTF)
Mean Time to Failure (MTTF) represents the reliability of non-repairable assets like lightbulbs, fan belts, or rollers. The metric tracks the length of time until the machinery or component fails and needs to be replaced. In other words, MTTF tells you the average number of hours that an asset will last before breaking down, so you can plan your maintenance schedule and inventory.
Calculate MTTF by dividing the total number of operational hours by the number of assets in use:
MTTF = Total number of hours before failure / Total number of assets in use
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
OEE indicates the performance of each piece of equipment based on three key factors: availability, performance, and quality.
- Availability refers to the asset’s ability to function as expected, without unplanned stoppages. The formula for availability is: Availability = Asset run time / Planned production time
- Performance refers to the asset’s ability to produce items quickly, within what’s called an Ideal Cycle Time (i.e., the quickest amount of time that the asset can produce something under perfect conditions). The formula for performance is: Performance = (Ideal cycle time x Total production count) / Run time
- Quality refers to the asset’s ability to produce consistent products without defects. These products are also sometimes called Good Parts. The formula for quality is: Quality = Number of good parts / Total parts produced
Calculate OEE by multiplying each of the above three factors:
OEE = Availability x Performance x Quality
Factors Impacting Equipment Reliability
There are many variables that can have a significant impact on equipment reliability. For instance, environmental factors like high levels of dust, extreme temperatures, and corrosive elements can have severely negative consequences on a machine’s reliability. Excessive asset utilization and improper installation can also impact your equipment’s reliability.
Maintenance strategies can make a huge difference to improving and maintaining good equipment reliability. If your maintenance team is stuck in firefighting mode and constantly battling emergencies, then your equipment reliability score will suffer. When you’re overwhelmed, it can be tempting to postpone preventive maintenance tasks and inspections. In the long run, though, neglecting preventive maintenance will degrade your equipment and lead to more frequent, unexpected breakdowns.
Steps to Improve Equipment Reliability
Improving equipment reliability is a long-term project. Here are some of the most important steps to help you successfully complete that project:
1. Shift to a Data-Based Maintenance Strategy
Adopting a data-based maintenance approach, like condition-based maintenance (CBM) or predictive maintenance, alerts you to the earliest signs of equipment malfunction. That means repairs are fast and affordable, with minimal downtime.
A CMMS can collect asset health data, like vibration levels and temperature, and analyze it for signs of an emerging fault. CMMS can even automatically generate work orders when vibration levels cross a certain threshold. And it can track preventive maintenance tasks to ensure they’re completed on time.
2. Create and Enforce Standardized Maintenance Workflows
Standardizing maintenance procedures ensures that tasks get done the right way, every time. You can use a CMMS to create detailed, step-by-step instructions in your work orders; attach all the relevant asset data, and leave space for crews to add photos or comments. Work order tracking makes it easy to verify that your teams are performing tasks correctly, too.
3. Track Reliability Metrics
Monitoring KPIs like MTBF, MTTR, and OEE helps you measure progress towards improving equipment reliability and identify areas that need additional support and attention. A good CMMS, like eMaint, makes it easy to collect and analyze all the relevant data. Robust reporting functions mean you can drill down into the data and extract insights to share with decision makers throughout the organization.
Find the Right CMMS for Your Equipment Reliability Needs
When MRO teams can ensure equipment reliability, good things happen. Uptime increases, the lifespan of critical assets improves, and teams can optimize their operations — all of which combine to improve the financial health of your facility. And the right CMMS platform is one of the most powerful tools for ensuring equipment reliability.
As the central hub for all things maintenance, eMaint is the holistic CMMS solution that enables MRO teams to do everything from monitoring vital machine performance data like vibration and temperature levels to tracking KPIs like MTTF and MTBF that are central to assessing equipment reliability.
Want to learn more about how eMaint can help your facility truly tackle equipment reliability? Read this case study to see how one organization improved visibility into their asset maintenance metrics and lowered maintenance costs. Or contact our team to schedule a demo today.