5 Steps to Document Effective PMs

An effective Preventive Maintenance program should result in better equipment and production quality. What are the tasks you need to develop and manage your preventive maintenance program?

Imagine you are a Reliability Engineer in your first week in a new job. You have been tasked with documenting your own Preventive Maintenance Program (PMs) for the plant. Your deadline is 6 months to complete the project.

Here is some information to start:

• There are around 5,000 pieces of equipment in the plant.
• The reason for developing and documenting PM procedures is a corporate initiative to increase output and reliability of product deliveries.
• Depending on market demand, the plant runs from 5/24 to 7/24.

Practically Selecting and Documenting PMs

Along with managing this project and using a CMMS to manage and maintain procedures and history, you should focus on how to select and document preventative maintenance procedures in a practical way. Remember, most PM procedures should focus on equipment at a component level.

Some situations may call for RCM or FMEA on the most critical equipment. How do you decide when to use each method?

Selection Criteria for RCM or FMEA:

1.   The operation is complex and not fully understood

2.   Reliability performance is poor (consider doing RCPE first)

3.   Highly automated equipment (complexity)

4.   Equipment with multiple integrated functions (complexity)

5.   New equipment; low experience levels (nonstandard assets)

6.   Regulatory requirements

Want to speed up the process? Is your Preventive Maintenance program not functional? IDCON’s view is that it’s helpful to use IDCON’s Condition Monitoring Standards to document in those cases. 

CMS documents are very useful in that they describe both the “what” and the “how” of inspecting and caring for equipment at your plant, mill, or mine. They can be used for 95% of equipment. Download two FREE CMS documents.

5-Step PM Documentation Process

How do you start documenting PMs? We think it is best to start out in a pilot area as it will be less overwhelming. Once you have determined the area, it is time to use the 5-step PM documentation process. 

Step 1: Select equipment. 

Gather information: Find the equipment list/GA/P&ID, equipment number/name, and describe the operating context. 

Tools used: equipment list; general arrangement drawings; process, and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID); standard operating procedures (SOP).

How do we figure out the operating context? If the answer isn’t obvious, ask the operator, review the operating SOP, or look at the process diagram.

Ask these questions: What happens if the function is no longer working? Would there be a risk of environmental impact or personal injury, high cost due to lost production or damaged product, and preservation value of the equipment life?

You will also perform a criticality assessment as part of this step.

Step 2: Review the equipment in the field and divide it into components.  

Review the documentation for the equipment and confirm that the equipment and components are the same in the field. This is necessary because changes in the plant may not match the documentation, or it may not have been updated as built.

Take notes on which components you see as well as any other observations that impact the inspection. Taking pictures is a good way to document as you may need to review the information again. Save pictures of the equipment in the technical database as visual identification for equipment. 

Some other questions to ask: 

1.   How does the component work?

2.   How does the component fail?

3.   What essential care does it need?

4.   Is the life of the component predictable or unpredictable?

5.   Does it have a Failure Developing Period (FDP)?

Step 3: Select task. 

You need to determine which essential care and condition monitoring tasks need to be done for each component in the equipment.  

After reviewing the equipment in the field, confirm that the documentation is up to date. Another task we recommend is to assess the condition while developing the PMs simultaneously. 

IDCON’s CMS books contain instructions for how to care for and inspect equipment using keywords that can be referenced in your PM inspection or route. You can also use the OEM’s instructions. CAUTION: Sometimes the OEM’s frequencies may not be correct for your operating context. 

Step 4: Determine under which condition (on-the-run or stopped) the condition monitoring or essential care task can be done.

On-the-run inspections are much more economical as shutdown time means lost production. Running inspections will also tell you more about the equipment condition, such as pressure, temperature, vibration, noise, and visual observations. Of course, there are some tasks that must be done while the equipment is stopped. 

In Step 4 you will also determine the tools you need to use for the tasks, as well as the frequency of the inspections and care tasks.

Step 5: Determine who does the task.

Make a decision tree to determine who should do the tasks. The groups that should be considered are: Operators, Area Maintenance, In-house Specialists (Vibration Analysts, etc.), and Outside Specialists.

For a deeper look at developing your own Preventive Maintenance Program, download our free 8-Step Guide (and supplemental training video). 

Preventive Maintenance Assessments and Training

Developing a successful Preventive Maintenance program is critical to your plant’s success, but knowing whether you’re doing the right things at the right time can be hard.

IDCON can help your team with developing and documenting your Preventive Maintenance program, including using our technical consultants to document the PMs for you! We start by assessing your current program’s documentation and execution and help you develop a plan.

Even better, we can provide your team with customized or public, on-site or remote training.

Preventive Maintenance/Essential Care and Condition Monitoring Training Events

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November 7-8, 2023

March 18-19, 2023

September 16-17, 2024

Develop and Manage Preventive Maintenance 

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Do you have the right Preventive Maintenance Strategy? Never question if you know the right task, right frequency, or right tool again with IDCON’s “Develop and Manage Preventive Maintenance” training.

IDCON’s PM/ECCM philosophy adapts the documentation method and level of detail, depending on the consequence of breakdown (criticality of the equipment/process) You will practice the concepts learned in class using common components, equipment, and processes.