While facing increasing competition, an aluminum maker in the eastern Arabian Peninsula requested a detailed analysis to get a better understanding of their maintenance performance and to uncover untouched potentials to reduce costs. T.A. Cook applied industry specific industry benchmarks, analyzed selected preventive maintenance (PM) strategies in detail and evaluated the client’s existing PM program with the following results:

T.A. Cook compared client data with more than 30,000 data sets from 2,500 companies in the process industry to objectively identify realistic improvement potentials. Because the benchmarks came from T.A. Cook’s own MAINDEX database, client specific adjustments could be made to take process specifics into account. The analysis found that time spent on maintenance activities was not being used efficiently - just 50 percent was spent on preventive measures, yet resource requirements for unplanned maintenance activities was nearly four times higher than market leaders. This indicates an insufficiently defined PM program and numerous inefficiently spent maintenance hours.

Analyzing the 120,000 work orders p.a. with an average work execution duration of about three hours, T.A. Cook identified an improvement potential of around 36,000 working hours or 20 FTE p.a. - 10% of fixed annual labor costs could be saved. 'Hands-on Tool Time', meaning the true value-adding time of a technician, was in addition about 20 percentage points below industry 'best practice' of competitors. 

Main reasons were primarily maintenance process related. Gaps were identified especially in poor planning, insufficient scheduling / daily job sequencing, poor material kitting and insufficient work coordination among all involved departments. Based on the data, T.A. Cook's specialists streamlined the PM program and introduced preventive maintenance routines that are continuously documented and evaluated to firstly avoid recurring asset downtime and secondly identify and eliminate potential asset failures.

By applying improved Preventive Maintenance routines and increasing productivity of maintenance staff, two goals were achieved: First, technical availability (reliability) of the assets increased with a positive impact on product throughput and cost. The industry benchmark Maintenance Cost Indicator (MCI) decreased significantly. Today, this aluminum manufacturer’s technological and managerial processes are state-of-the-art. By implementing an effective asset management strategy, T.A Cook’s client increased their competitive advantages even further.