CMMS Software Training

Tracking Equipment Downtime

cmmsun5_wp — Sat, 01 Jul 2017 03:25:25 +0000

Tracking Equipment Downtime is Worth the Effort

Equipment downtime or unexpected equipment failures should be tracked in an effort to isolate and correct these destabilizing occurrences. This post focuses on using the report builder to generate powerful statistical analysis reports in seconds.

The Dangers of Ignoring Downtime Data

Unexpected equipment failures (downtime) lead to costly interruptions in the process flow, additional damage to expensive equipment and product losses. Downtime may also divert limited maintenance resources away from preventive maintenance (PM) duties. These consequences of downtime lead to expensive overtime hours and reduced preventive maintenance completion rates. In extreme cases, this can eventually lead to a chaotic “run-to-fail” cycle.

How to Collect Downtime Data

The best way to track equipment downtime is with a CMMS software system. Most CMMS systems do not have a dedicated downtime module but use the work order system to track downtime. This is sometimes adequate, however using a CMMS with a dedicated downtime module leads to better analysis and reporting of equipment problems and trends. It does not make sense to record an instance of equipment failure as work. Of course, a corresponding work order is usually created to correct the failure; however, an instance of work and an instance of failure should be kept as separate records.

When collecting downtime data it is important to determine how the downtime is logged. Are downtime cause fields user-defined and easy to understand? Some maintenance operations prefer a more general failure cause naming convention. Examples might be ‘Electrical’, ‘Mechanical’, ‘Operational’ and so on. Others managers might prefer more descriptive cause definitions such as ‘Blown Fuse(s)’, ‘Operator Error’ or ‘Water in Electrical’. Either way is fine if it suits the maintenance manager’s requirements. However, a more descriptive failure cause leads to a more accurate analysis of downtime later.

Logging the actual equipment time down is obviously important. But what about other losses attributed to this event? In many cases product losses due to equipment failures, remaking product, damage to associated equipment, production employee overtime and other company bottom line factors outweigh the direct maintenance costs for downtime. A good downtime tracking software system must consider all of these factors.

https://cmms-university.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/CMMS-down-time-analysis.mp4

Downtime Analysis Training Video

https://cmms-university.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/CMMS-software-OLAP.mp4

Downtime Analysis Data Cubes Video

Benefits of Downtime Tracking

Equipment downtime data is valuable for multiple reasons. First, by understanding trends in downtime, corrective action is prioritized and implemented to prevent additional unexpected equipment failures. Selecting a CMMS that tracks downtime fields such as employee shift, maintenance shift, functional and geographical locations further empowers the maintenance manager in decision-making. Perhaps downtime is disproportionate during a certain production shift. This could be resolved with training and have nothing to do with maintenance efforts.

By tracking downtime, KPIs for tracking reliability, opportunity cost and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) become possible. Additionally downtime data guides the maintenance manager in prioritizing preventive maintenance and equipment replacement. Justification of equipment replacement is now verifiable and simplified. Statistical analysis, reporting and charting of downtime history reveals equipment breakdown trends. These trends guide preventive and remedial efforts with real data that solves real problems. Tracking downtime has a profound effect on how, when and where maintenance resources are used. Time invested in logging equipment downtime is certainly justified by the time and money saving benefits to the maintenance department and the organization as a whole.

About the Author

Daniel Cook, Vice President of Development for MaintSmart CMMS Software, Inc. spent over twenty-five years in maintenance, the last fifteen years as a maintenance manager. Mr. Cook recognized the need for a CMMS solution that worked not only from the perspective of the maintenance manager, but also considered the bottom line of the organization served by maintenance. Working at a large commercial food-processing facility, his cross training in software engineering took place in the high-tech world of the Silicon Valley during the 1990’s.

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Preventive Maintenance Software Shortcuts

cmmsun5_wp — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 20:50:10 +0000

Preventive Maintenance Shortcuts Save Time

MaintSmart preventive maintenance software handles PM either as a work order or from the special calendar-based PM screen. From this preventive maintenance screen each preventive maintenance item is a separate equipment, task, assigned person, start date and due date. By managing PMs this way preventive maintenance may be tracked more precisely and reliability analysis MTBF may be sued to suggest failure-preventing preventive maintenance. It may seem that the time to close PMs could be much greater than if these same PMs were handled within a work order as detailed text. This really in not the case because of the available shortcuts in the preventive maintenance software.

Here is a listing of the shortcuts:

Multiple select preventive maintenance items with the SHIFT+LEFT-MOUSE or CTRL+LEFT-MOUSE.
Check the Use Due Date switch to force PMs to close on the due date regardless of when actually closed. This may be blocked for limited users.
Check the Use Average Hours switch to cause the preventive maintenance software to use historical average hours for each PM being closed. In many cases this is close enough.

These shortcuts can greatly lower the amount of time required to close calendar-based PMs while still providing the benefits of using this method for preventive maintenance.

Preventative Maintenance Software Training

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Preventative Maintenance Work Orders

cmmsun5_wp — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 18:22:05 +0000

Preventative Maintenance Tasks vs PM Work Orders

This CMMS has two ways to create a preventative maintenance work order. The work order screen is the default way that all work is issued and managed for all CMMS software systems. This CMMS can work this same way. For the purposes of this discussion, we will consider preventative maintenance (PMs) to be repetitive work performed during specific intervals or work triggered by elapsed time, cycles or other interval. This post covers PM work orders created from work order templates only. A future post discusses preventative maintenance for the program’s exclusive calendar-based PM screen.

Differences between a preventive maintenance work order and a preventative maintenance task list:

Preventive Maintenance Software Shortcuts

Work Order Example

Preventative Maintenance Task List (gray oilcan on yellow background icon)

1. Contains multiple tasks in one assignment sheet(s).
2. Contains unlimited details/task.
3. Parts are listed on PM task list and may be used automatically when PM is closed.
4. Link to schedules or manually create.

Preventative Maintenance Work Order (gray wrench icon)

1. Generated from the work order screen.
2. One primary task with unlimited detailed instructions per work order.
3. Unlimited file attachments for each work order template.
4. Use linked parts automatically when work order is created from template.
5. Link to schedule or meter.

This is used to create a PM task list format where many separate PMs are included on a single sheet.
Preventative maintenance is generated from the work order screen by creating work order templates from existing work orders then linking these templates to schedules or meters. Meters are a user-defined unit of something. Some examples of user-defined meters might be 100 cycles, 500 hours, 6000 miles, etc. To create a work order template begin by creating a new work order or find a suitable existing work order in the work order data grid.

How to Create a Preventative Maintenance Work Order

Create a preventative maintenance work order:

1. From the work order data entry screen left-click the row containing the targeted work order.
2. Right-click to display the context menu then choose ‘Save Work Order As Template’ menu item.
3. This saves the work order template in the work order templates data table.
Now that this preventative maintenance work order has been created, it may be triggered to create a new preventative maintenance work order at any time, either manually or automatically. To create a new work order from this template manually choose (from the main work order screen) the menus ‘Templates>>Create Work Order From Template’. The utility of work order templates is evident when these templates are linked to either a meter or a schedule.

Create work orders from templates as follows (example):

1. Every Monday at 8:00 AM, create a new preventative maintenance work order for replacing filter.
2. Every 10 days test compressor oil acidity.
3. On the third Tuesday of each month, perform a system check on the electrical back-up system.
4. Every 3 months or 1000 hours create a work order to service the #3 Forklift.
5. Change blades every 5000 cuts. (This value is received by the CMMS automatically through an OPC compliant network directly from the PLC controlling this slicer.)
A future post discusses how to link these work order templates to triggering events of schedules. This site contains videos that discuss the above procedures. Alternatively, demo users of the CMMS software may call or email for a personal demonstration of how to accomplish this.

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CMMS Purchasing Dashboard Upgrades for Version 5.0

cmmsun5_wp — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 16:47:47 +0000

Version 5.0's Hot Sheet (CMMS dashboard) has a greatly enhanced purchasing section. The Hot Sheet identifies the users' permission levels and provides the ability to drag and drop requisition approvals, requisitions and purchase orders.

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