RCM Blitz - The Art of Redesign

Redesign as a part of Reliability Centered Maintenance is often a field that gets a lot of attention. Some people would have you believe that the only way Reliability Centered Maintenance improves equipment reliability is through the identification and elimination of poorly designed equipment.

This could not be further than the truth!

When we look at the word Redesign in RCM terms it means any change in equipment, process or procedures so in reality most redesigns that come out of a RCM Blitz analysis are procedural. They address how we operate, set up and maintain our assets so when a RCM analysis is complete and the customer sees six pages of redesigns with 6 items listed on each page I tell them to relax and read the document as nearly 85% of all redesigns are procedural and cost very little to implement.

As an example I recently performed a RCM analysis on a box erector and the finished analysis identified 58 redesign tasks. Of those 58 tasks, fifty-two required a redesign or creation of a procedure of how to properly set the box erector up, how to smoothly transition from one size case to the next and how to maintain each set up over a period of time. Of the remaining 6 redesigns, five addressed a physical redesign to manufacture set-up blanks for each case size and the last was the addition of an additional photo eye to prevent a catastrophic crash of the erector shuttle.

The total cost to implement the 58 redesigns was less than $5,000.00 and tool less than two weeks time to complete. The newly implemented equipment maintenance plan improved the equipment OEE from 62% to 93% proving once again RCM Blitz delivers!

Who Said Youth is Wasted on the Young?

It was George Bernard Shaw and I think he was trying to express that young people have everything going for them physically; their minds should sharp and clear but because of their youth and inexperience they lack the patience and experience to make sound decisions. After a week of teaching the youth of Schlumberger at the Training Center in Sugar Land, Texas I have a different view than Mr. Shaw.

I think Old George would think differently if he had spent a week instructing young engineers from around the world on the process and benefits of Reliability Centered Maintenance. If I have said it once in the last 15 years I have said it one hundred times, Reliability Centered Maintenance at first glance doesn't seem like a difficult process but try once to facilitate an analysis and you will soon be lost in the subtle complexities of how to word a proper failure mode and the importance of good failure effect statements.

Looking at ten faces all under the age of 30 on a Monday morning I was staring into the bright young face of inexperience and impatience and wondering if they had the pluck required to conquer such a course.

Over the next several days I tested their patience and pushed the limits of what someone with 30 years experience would expect from someone with two and by Friday noon I was pleased to report that the youth of today are not what old George Bernard Shaw believed them to be. If anything is wasted today it's the time we don't spend as experienced professionals asking those with less what they think or believe caused a failure.

If youth is wasted on the young, could it be true that experience is wasted on the old? Experience after all can sometimes make us believe that we have tried everything we need to in order to improve. The youth my friends are willing to try those same things over again with more focus and precision.

If you have forgotten to include youth in your RCM effort, there is no time better than today!