*Maintenance and Asset Life Cycle for Reliability Systems DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85845*

*Reliability and Maintenance - An Overview of Cases*

failure modes, frequent causes), as will be explained later.

and the collection of performance indicators (KPI).

management incorporates five areas with defined global scope.

*3.1.3 Maintenance operative process management*

instructions and records must possess (see **Figure 3**). Once the processes and the way they are related are identified, the specific procedures of the key activities must be characterized and defined. This equally includes the instructions for technical operations (inspection routines, road maps, among others) and the formats of the records necessary for the analysis of data (asset resumes, fleet profile, failures,

The characterization involves documenting each of the processes designed for management, identifying the inputs, outputs, and activities in each of the stages of the improvement cycle proposed by Deming in 1950 (PDCA). For their part, the procedures detail the sequential steps to properly develop the processes, which in some cases are stored as part of a process manual. Roadmaps detail the procedures considered for maintenance management and are used at technical levels. These tools must show records of their execution necessary for the monitoring of activities

The management of operational processes from the tactical perspective refers to the need for a system that allows the administration of work, materials, and resources, in order to gain control over the maintenance processes while requiring planning and programming that include an established order of work, equipment stops, and the creation and development of preventive and predictive maintenance plans. Within the framework of this management, the performance of the work team must be measured at each level, and the performance of aspects such as the implementation of lubrication routines, inspection, condition monitoring, and activities for the prevention of failures must be evaluated. The scope of process

Work management guarantees well-established planning and programming that all tasks are planned at least 24 hours in advance and programmed with a week minimum margin, except emergency work. The adequate administration implies the existence of criteria for the creation and programming of work orders, which are used and respected, wherein the work flow is continuous and is not hindered by material or resource problems and in case of delays there are no major disturbances of the schedule. The latter implies that these are contained in 2 to 4 weeks of work. The indicator of worker efficiency is high, which leads to high staff performance.

**16**

**Figure 3.**

*Process map of maintenance asset proposed.*

For the adequate workflow, the design of the work order is necessary, which must act as a transversal mechanism to guarantee compliance with the Deming Cycle (PDCA) in the flow of maintenance activities. The work order must be standardized as a document that calls on the completion of a task or set of tasks and serves, among others. It should be considered as the nucleus for the compilation of data, for the attention as a whole or for the attention of individual components and their processes. The work order becomes a starting point for the control mechanism since it transmits information about the work carried out, the start dates, estimated completion, and actual completion.

The work order flow must involve all the maintenance and operation personnel. It shall reflect the prioritization of the needs where the most critical and urgent must be dealt with first. Another suggested point is to establish a hierarchical limit in the execution of the work order. Therefore, in this stage it is necessary to define among four options: a) include actions at the system level, b) include actions at the subsystem level, c) include specific part tasks, or d) include inspection routines. This hierarchical limit will allow the tracking of work orders within the operational model of excellence. In addition, a work order must be allocated to the personnel in charge, detailing, among others, the materials, resources, previous analysis of the situation, and static data such as manuals, inspection routines, catalogs, etc. Furthermore, it must give space for the order of opening, planning, programming, and finalization. In general, the cycle time of a maintenance work order can be reduced by incorporating the following activities:


• Planning and programming: It is the authors' view that adequate planning and programming should include short-term activities in the planning and scheduling of preventive maintenance. Activities of greater complexity can be addressed through root cause analysis. Likewise if, say, 80% of the total activities is scheduled in adequate time, then this may be regarded as demonstrating a stable maintenance operation. Another important point is to try planning in the long term and scheduling in the short term as much as possible.

Requirements for proper planning and programming include understanding the need to respond, properly preparing a work order with appropriate prioritization, and integrating operations to reduce programming delays due to nonavailability of the asset for maintenance [45]. Planning and programming involve:


The improvement cycle of planning and programming begins with an analysis of the existing maintenance plans and ends with a new plan, whose effectiveness is measured from the mean time between failures classified as critical systems. The implementation is progressive from the identification of the most critical systems, considering relevant indicators such as mean time between failures (MTBF) as input variable. The improvement process at its starting point cannot ignore the recommendations of the manufacturers.
