Efficient Plant April 2018 - 35

Answers to questions
facing today's reliability
& maintenance
professionals

N THIS MONTH'S "Implementations" column (p. 8), I present 25 true/
false questions designed to determine
how much you know about what makes a
successful R&M (reliability and maintenance) program. If you haven't answered
the questions, do that now, then return
to this page. If you have answered the
questions, now is the time to find out

department | on the floor

what you know and learn more about
why each answer is true or false. Be sure
to include the rest of your team and appropriate management personnel so you
can all learn and identify areas that need
addressing or adjustment. As always,
contact me at the email address at the
end of this column if you have additional
questions or would like more explanation.

Size of the facility has minimal impact on R&M.
True: Facility size has little or no impact on whether your R&M efforts can increase
efficiency and, therefore, profits.
Age of the machinery and equipment has a significant impact on R&M.
False: The age of machinery and equipment only has a significant impact if the
assets have not been properly maintained.
Moving from the 4th to the top quartile means being 7X less reactive.
True: My data indicate that moving from the 4th to the top quartile means you will
reduce your reactive activities by a factor of seven.
If your reported schedule compliance exceeds 90%, you know that your planning and
scheduling is working well.
False: Too many times I see schedule compliance reported to exceed 90%.
When the records are examined, I usually find inadequate planning and
scheduling, such as poor practices, high backlog, and unfinished work orders
that have been swept away.
R&M improvements are more possible in high-volume production versus
continuous-process manufacturing.
True: Whether your operation is high-volume production or continuousprocess manufacturing has essentially no impact on R&M program results.
Properly implemented R&M processes are effective in all types of facilities.
A maintenance cost as percentage of RAV (replacement asset value) of 2.0% is a
good number for a facility with average plant-floor best practices.
False: A maintenance cost as percentage of RAV of 2% indicates a top-quartile
operation. If plant floor best practices are average, then a 2% RAV is most likely a
result of cutting costs. You can't cost-cut your way to best practices. Keep spending
in-line with R&M process maturity.
Unionized organizations are better at R&M than non-union operations.
False: Whether an organization is unionized has little or no impact, provided
people are treated with respect. For example, organizations using Total Productive
Maintenance and autonomous maintenance/operator involvement programs

APRIL 2018

Your R&M
IQ Revealed
Dr. Klaus M. Blache
Univ. of Tennessee Reliability
& Maintainability Center
(RMC)

What is your R&M IQ?
Here are the answers to
the true/false statements
posed on p. 8.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Efficient Plant April 2018