RCM Success Starts with CMMS

Scheduled shutdowns, however, can provide unique opportunities to a maintenance department not normally available during standard operation or even during short shutdown periods. Lost capacity can be restored to an overtaxed facility during an extended shutdown. Major equipment overhauls can be performed to help prevent future unscheduled shutdowns. Government mandated inspections and repairs can be accomplished during a shutdown, bringing a plant into better compliance.

Maintenance checklists have evolved from simple paper flyers to integrated computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) components. They are initially used as a fundamental tool to organize and standardize maintenance tasks. They ensure accuracy and promote safety, and their digital transformation within a CMMS offers many additional benefits.

A CMMS can be used in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, facilities management, healthcare, and transportation, to name a few. By using a CMMS, organizations can save time and resources by automating many manual tasks, improving communication between maintenance teams, and providing a centralized repository of information. This can lead to improved equipment availability, reduced maintenance costs, and increased efficiency.

We think that providing a mobile solution to our field staff will help them in some way. Whether it be for them to become more efficient or to communicate better, we have the idea that adding a tablet to their toolbox is a good thing. It certainly can be, but how does this new tool fit into their daily pattern of work?

The technical database plays a critical role as an enabler to the planning and scheduling process. The results of a poor technical database are often hidden but can be substantial. To function well, all eight components of the technical database need to be accurate, accessible, and applied during the planning and scheduling process. Benefits of complete bills of material, well labeled equipment in the field, and easy access to original equipment manufacturer procedures will lead to high quality standard job plans that are produced quickly and reliably.

Today's maintenance departments can benefit from autonomous maintenance functions in CMMS systems that go a step further in controlling the daily tasks of plant and machine operators. 

Digital measurement technology certainly has taken the test industry forward, mostly with giant strides. The exact opposite may be true, however, when it is applied to testing for aging-related failure modes such as intermittency or no fault found (NFF). Digital abstraction devices, perfect for parametric testing, rarely synchronize to real-time, randomly occurring, anomalous, or intermittent age-related failure events. This shortcoming is especially acute when large numbers of circuit nodes require testing.