Eine unabhängige Ansicht darüber erhalten, wie Ihre Instandhaltungsorganisation aufgestellt ist und welche Verbesserungspotentiale sich bieten, ist für Unternehmen aus der anlagenintensiven Industrie von großem Vorteil. Denn ein neuer Blick auf Prozesse und Organisation zeigt unter anderem, ob Ihre Instandhaltung die Anforderungen der Produktion erfüllt, ob der Anteil ungeplanter Störungen und Ausfälle zu hoch ist, ob Ihre Instandhaltung das Budget überschreitet. 

Wenn Unternehmen an der Kostenschraube drehen, steht die Instandhaltung meistens oben auf der Liste und dort fokussieren sich die Budgetkürzungen oft auf die Reduzierung von Mitarbeitern. Der technologische Fortschritt und ein besseres Verständnis für die Treiber der Anlagenzuverlässigkeit bedeutet, dass weniger Mitarbeiter in der Lage sind, diesen Personalabbau auszugleichen - aber nur, wenn sie effizient organisiert sind, um Anforderungen zu identifizieren und diese in wirksame Maßnahmen umzusetzen. T.A.Cook unterstützt Unternehmen dabei sich zu einer leistungsstärken Benchmark-Organisation zu entwickeln. Dabei stellen wir sicher, dass die vorhandene Erfahrung der Belegschaft optimal genutzt wird, Mitarbeiter mit Potential zur Weiterentwicklung identifiziert sowie umfassende Schulungen und Coachings für alle angeboten werden.

Es ist wahrscheinlich, dass die Produktionsanlagen ab dem Zeitpunkt der Inbetriebnahme der ersten Anlage erheblich ausgebaut, erweitert und geändert wurden. Wenn die Asset-Struktur nicht vom ersten Tag an optimal eingerichtet und umfassend gewartet wurde, werden diese Änderungen wahrscheinlich nicht vollständig einbezogen. Das kann zu Verwirrung und Zeitverlust führen, wenn Arbeiten ausgeführt werden müssen. Außerdem wird die Ermittlung tatsächlicher Daten zur Leistung der Anlage erheblich erschwert. Diese Daten können aus einer kompletten Asset-Historie abgeleitet werden und sind nötig, um erfolgreiche Routinen für die Anlagenzuverlässigkeit zu entwickeln.

Unabhängig davon, ob es sich um SAP oder ein anderes CMMS handelt, erstellen unsere Experten ein Asset-Umfeld, in dem die besten Entscheidungen zu den niedrigsten Kosten erwartet werden können. Darüber hinaus bietet es eine hervorragende Basis für die Erstellung eines digitalen Zwillings und die Möglichkeit, Ressourcen weiter zu optimieren. ​

Die Experten von Cook kennen das betreffende CMMS wahrscheinlich und auf jeden Fall basieren die meisten Softwarepakete auf der gleichen grundlegenden Logik der Arbeitsreihenfolge und der Dateninteraktion mit anderen PaketeIt is almost a given that SAP provides the mechanism by which a company runs it business. As common as SAP is it is unusual to find a fully functioning suite of Plant Maintenance, MM and PP modules seamlessly interacting with the rest of the business. In fact, it is often an open secret within a company that these have been ignored or by-passed with many preferring to use their in-house or preferred alternative systems. This leads inevitably to significant rework and waste, but more importantly to a foregone opportunity to understand where and how money has been spent and, more significantly, how reliability can be improved. Now, even if one doesn’t have SAP, the T.A. Cook experts are likely to know the CMMS in question and, in any case most software packages rely on the same basic work order logic and data interaction with other packages so we can probably help anyone.

With so many pressures to keep production going and fix problems quickly it is no wonder that prioritization is often a synonym for who shouts loudest. In a typical arrangement Maintenance is there to do what’s needed to maintain production and this requires knowledge, experience and a cool head. If the planned, proven and scheduled list of predictive and preventive works are not rock-solid and don’t represent 75% of the total workload then there’s still plenty to do to reach best practice. If they don’t make up at least 50% minimum of the total workload, then the chances are prioritizing and gatekeeping is a vicious and stressful circle with many important jobs being moved to backlog. Should the number drop to 30% or less, then it’s highly probable that costs are spiraling and reliability is just a dream. Many can see the benefits but have no idea how to get there: our maintenance teams do.       ​

The basic mechanisms for creating a notification, turning this into a work order and ultimately closing it on some kind of automated system are pretty much the same wherever. What is noticeable, however, is just how often each step of the process throws up uncertainties, preferences and work-arounds so that a clear picture of what’s to be done and why cannot easily be matched to by whom, when and at what cost. Aside from general inefficiencies, wider repercussions can be lower reliability and a lack of confidence relating to compliance. Properly mapping out the entire workflow, assigning clear accountabilities and training people to follow rather than work the system has considerable benefits for maintenance productivity and production stability.  ​

Assuming a maintenance process is broadly able to identify the right work and prioritize it accordingly, it still needs to be planned to define the necessary activities, secure the correct parts and allocate the appropriate personnel. On a large site there could be hundreds of such jobs on any day and ensuring that these are prepared well is a considerable task which benefits greatly from experienced and diligent planners knowing for instance, how to compile and recall standard tasks and having a keen sense of value for money. Experience tells us that the combination is rare and relatively few standards and norms exist such that the exercise can quickly become overly subjective with relatively little objective challenge. If the plans are difficult to pin down then it is even less likely that a tight schedule can be relied upon to deliver the best combination of jobs in a shift. Our approach as well as a comprehensive library of standard reference jobs and access to user-friendly scheduling tools brings clarity and defines what is possible. ​

Having established a process with clear R&Rs, defined a standard planning process with an easy-to-use scheduling mechanism all that is missing is a team of technicians and supervisors capable and willing to fulfill the demand. Fortunately, most people in the field are skilled, enjoy their work and are keen to help. When the chips are down they’ll still pull out all the stops to get something up and running again, but doing so repeatedly is fatiguing and without the right supervision effort is wasted and productivity suffers. Our Hands on Tool Time studies (HoTT) objectively quantify the value-added time of technicians. Coupled with Supervisory Studies we define the active management content and can thus collectively determine the efficiency with which work requirements are turned into completed activities. This information generally reflects the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the maintenance process. The average number lies around 50% well short of the 65% process industry benchmark which is defines a realistic 30% improvement opportunity.​

Our MainMax benchmark provides an accurate picture of maintenance strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. The relative performance of the constituent elements are judged against strict criteria and also compared against thousands of similar organizations. Because our focus is implementation and the conversion of opportunities into realizable and sustainable performance improvement we are not just looking at theoretical elements but highlighting those aspects that really make a difference. Taken a step further and with a little extra effort the Dynamo software package encompasses all our knowledge into an expert system that indicates just how much money should be spent to achieve the best value reliability and if the company is over or underspending in critical areas.

With so many talking about digitalization and so few knowing how to achieve it, in conjunction with our expert Partner companies we offer the perfect solution – an all-encompassing digital Readiness Review. From asset structure through CMMS integration to equipment history, Root Cause Analysis and the execution of the right maintenance strategies, our comprehensive review determines not just the technical status, but also the organizational competence without which much of the potential intelligent analysis and recommendations is wasted. It should be noted that in our core industry sectors DCS systems have been in use for decades. Reasonably sophisticated data-gathering and analysis has thus been possible for just as long yet it is not common, but an excellence base does exist. With our Partners we will build a Digital Road Map that highlights the key options, demonstrates the benefits and supports a detailed program to achieve a viable platform and organizational structure  for sustainable digitalization in one area, site or even a geography in a fixed timescale.