Asset Management and Design for Maintainability and Reliability Questions 2022

Asset Management and Design for Maintainability and Reliability
Solution 1
Introduction
Maintenance is a crucial process in the proper running and management of any organisation.
Maintenance can be broadly defined as combination of technical actions, additionally
supervised by the administrative actions, for the purpose of retaining an item or restoring it to
required functional state. The process of maintenance provides critical support for capital-
intensive and heavy industry by keeping the equipments in a good operating condition. It
would also be helpful for cost effective operation of the plant[1].
In our report, we assess the maintainability of an air compressor. An air compressor is an
essential equipment for most of the industrial applications. A typical air compressor would
intake ambient air and raise its pressure to a required value by doing work on the working
fluid which could be air or a gas. They are used in many industries to run major industrial or
manufacturing equipment.
Objectives of maintenance
To perform maintenance of an equipment or machinery, the objectives of the maintenance
should be outlined first. Following are the key objectives which need to be addressed while
performing maintenance.
Objectives of the maintenance as noted by various researches are as follows [2].
1. Keeping the equipment, machinery and plant in good efficient condition so they work
in minimum energy usage.
2. Provide support to operations by maintaining full efficiency so that maximum
production can be achieved.
3. To bring reduction in equipment and plant breakdown time
4. Ensuring maximum useful life of equipment at lower operating costs.
5. Executing its program while optimizing resource utilization with higher productivity.
6. Maintain plant & equipment in good condition so that there is minimum risk during
operation and improvement in safety
7. To improve plant & equipment productivity and reliability
8. To maintain lowest inventory and procurement of spares in time.
9. Anticipating needs and organizing flexibly to prepare for future changes.
10. Undertaking projects of engineering like equipment construction, installation, and
equipment relocation , any modifications
11. Performing tasks like performance evaluation, taking corrective actions and keeping
track of progress by measurements in order to achieve continued improvement.
Some of the issues and challenges which are faced while implementing these objectives are
as follow[1].
 Organizational issues – These issues consist of questions to be addressed like why
there’s a need to build a maintenance performance system? How it will be measured,

Asset Management and Design for Maintainability and Reliability
what will be measured, whom to report? Addressing the issue of ways in which the
communication can be improved within and outside the organisation with regards to
decision making and information? How to align the maintenance system with
company strategies.
Strategy. How does one
assess and respond to
stakeholders’ (internal and
external) needs? How does
one translate the corporate
goal and strategy into
targets and goals at the
operational level (converting
a subjective vision into
objective goals)? How does
one integrate the results and
outcomes from the
operational level to develop
MPIs at the corporate level
(converting objective
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Asset Management and Design for Maintainability and Reliability
outcomes into strategic MPIs
and linking them to strategic
goals and targets)?
How to support innovation
and training for the
employees to facilitate an
MPM-oriented culture?
. Organizational issues. How
to align the MPM system with
the corporate
strategy? Why there is a
need to develop a reliable
and meaningful MPM system?
What should be measured,
why it should be measured,
how it should be
measured, when it should be
measured and what should
be reported; when, how
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Asset Management and Design for Maintainability and Reliability
and to whom? How to
establish accountability at
various levels? How to
improve
communication within and
outside the organization on
issues related to
information and decision
making?
. How to measure? How to
select the right MPIs for
measuring MPM? How to
collect relevant data and
analyze? How to use MPM
reports for preventive and
predictive decisions?
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