How Predictive Maintanance Reduces Both: Risks and Costs

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Risk-based Approaches

Probabilistic strategies also take into account the probabilities related to a defect or failure. Risk is quantified by the frequency of occurrence and the consequences of a defect, enabling measures and cost reductions to be prioritised.

However, exact determination of the data is not always possible, particularly in the case of complex events with complicated fault-tree analyses. This requires a high level of process-related and business know-how and expertise in the relevant causal mechanisms.

Today, risk-focused approaches are becoming more and more frequent in maintenance practice. Risk-based maintenance (RBM) and reliability-centred maintenance (RCM) determines the failure probability of components or plant units and the consequences associated therewith.

This approach enables the maintenance professionals to select and implement the necessary maintenance measures. This flexibility can increase the reliability of plants and reduce costs.

As process plants are complex systems, components and plant areas need to be analysed as parts of the overall system — an approach which is not always pursued in practice. Process-related and business know-how and expertise in the associated causal mechanisms are not always available to a sufficient extent.

Continuous Improvement

Total productive maintenance (TPM) is another maintenance strategy in increasing use. It pursues an integrated approach. The personnel’s experience and in-depth knowledge of the plant’s operating performance are built into the maintenance process by having employees carry out maintenance and service tasks at their workplaces at the plant.

This approach enables wear and other weaknesses to be detected at an early stage and malfunctions and performance losses to be avoided. The result is a continual improvement process that eases the workload of the maintenance team.

However, successful TPM depends on a strategic introduction of the process within the company because TPM requires involvement of a significantly higher number of employees than conventional maintenance strategies and the willingness to take on and delegate responsibility to employees.

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