Read an Excerpt
Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices, Second Editionby Ramesh Gulati
Foreword to the Second Edition
By Terence O'Hanlon, CMRP
Publisher, Reliabilityweb.com, Uptime Magazine
July 2012
I first met Ramesh when we were both volunteering at a Society of Maintenance & Reliability Professionals executive board meeting. The first thing I noticed was his intensity.
He was intensely interested in contributing what he knew to the best practices being collected by the organization. He was intensely working to connect people who might be able to help each other. He was interested in making sure those around him were not simply passively supportive of a reliability-based maintenance strategy. They had to be fully committed to a reliability-based way of life!
I eventually made it to the Air Force base where Ramesh worked, and I noticed something completely different about the way maintenance was regarded. I could not detect the usual sense of maintenance as a "necessary evil" or a "cost center," even from the base's leadership. Instead, maintenance was viewed as an important enabler of the mission. Reliability was the context and aim of the maintenance program.
Since that day almost ten years ago, I have been privileged to work with Ramesh, who taught me that one can only gain through contributing. I've also learned from his entire team, including a series of leaders over the last decade that represent the best of what America is all about.
There is a common thread I have found from all the best practice programs like the one where Ramesh works. That is the thread of sharing. You would expect best practice organizations to be learning organizations, like knowledge sponges absorbing every bit of beneficial information they can find. Instead, it is almost the exact opposite. These organizations share and teach everything they know and everything they have learned; somehow this contributes to their getting better and improving even more.
Before this book appeared, only those who worked and volunteered with Ramesh or those who heard him at an industry conference, had been touched by his work. With this book, and now this new edition, the wider world will have a chance to benefit from his experience and knowledge.
If you are a maintenance professional, dive in and savor this book. Try not to make too many dog-eared pages because I suggest that you lend it to your boss as soon as you are done with it or, better yet, buy him or her a copy. Then ask your boss to pass it up the line so everyone can start to see the important work done by some of the best people on the planet — maintenance professionals.
In the second edition, you will benefit from a streamlined flow to allow easier study and reference. In addition there are now "assessment" questions at the end of each chapter to test how well you absorbed the material. This is one of the first books to discuss the asset-management-related standards — including the new "ISO-55000 Asset Management Standard," which Ramesh has been developing with a global team from 24 nations. Other new material includes corrosion control, risk management and operator-driven reliability.
This award-winning book has become one of the de facto standards for those preparing to sit for maintenance-reliability professional exams. It is also used in college-level courses throughout the world.
If the lights are on as you read this book — you owe thanks to a maintenance professional.
I know I owe thanks to Ramesh for being a personal and professional mentor for me. I am a much better person as a result of having him as a friend.
Terence O'Hanlon
Excerpt from Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices
Chapter 1.3 What Do Best Practices Have to Do with Maintenance and Reliability?
In any organization, assets are needed to produce products or provide services. An item or asset, as defined here, could be an electronic or mechanical hardware component or device, a software product, or a manufacturing system or process. The objective of performing better maintenance and improving reliability of assets in an organization is to ensure that the assets are available to perform required functions, when needed, in a cost-effective manner. The performance of an asset is based on three factors (see Figure 1.1):
- Inherent reliability — how it was designed?
- Operating environment — how it will be operated?
- Maintenance plan — how it will be maintained?
Usually assets are designed with a certain level of reliability. This designed-in (or built-in) reliability is the result of individual components’ reliability and the way they are configured. This level of reliability is called inherent reliability. We cannot change or improve the reliability of an asset after it has been installed without replacing or modifying it with better and improved components (with the exception of redesigning it).
The second factor, the operating environment of the asset, considers operating conditions under which the asset has to operate along with the operator’s skills. Several studies have indicated that 40% or more failures are the result of operational errors. Organizations need to ensure that operators are appropriately educated and trained in operating these assets without causing operational errors that lead to failures. In fact, operators should be the first line of defense in monitoring the asset’s performance and any abnormal conditions, and in initiating timely corrective actions.
The third factor is a maintenance plan that defines how the asset will be maintained. The objective of a good maintenance plan is to sustain asset reliability and to improve its availability. The plan should include the necessary maintenance and service-type actions needed to detect potential failures before they lead to unscheduled downtime.
So what do best practices have to do with these principles of maintenance and reliability? Throughout the many years of the maintenance and reliability industry, good and bad practices have been identified. These good and bad practices have been briefed at international conferences, discussed in person and over the airwaves, and written in magazines, books, websites, and blogs. The best of these practices are now becoming more accepted and published throughout local, national, and international industries, becoming the benchmarks that companies seek to achieve. Throughout this book, we will be discussing these factors and what best practices can be used to improve asset performance.
