Page 271 - Improving Machinery Reliability
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Chapter 4
Maintenance and
Benchmarking Reliability
Maintenance Measurement*
Enterprise assets are used to produce the products and services that enable an
organization to achieve its ultimate goal-to expand and sustain the business. The
effective use of these assets is the responsibility of everyone in the organization.
Measurements, or metrics, are used to ascertain how efficiently the assets are
being used. They identify where and when assets are being used inefficiently and
require change. They also reveal if applied changes have positively or negatively
affected the enterprise. Without measurements, the company has no perspective of
the impact or direction of a change. Measurements help set and adjust enterprise
direction.
Many elements affect the direction of an enterprise and therefore its asset utiliza-
tion. Customers, competition, and change itself drive the need for assets to be main-
tained and continually improved.
Continually changing customer product and service demands determine the speed
and direction of asset utilization.
To meet demand, competitors change and improve their assets. The asset utiliza-
tion of a business should exceed its competitors’ capabilities or the enterprise will
not grow and sustain itself.
Technology changes require continuous measurement of asset utilization to deter-
mine when improvements are required. Both the timing and complexity of asset
changes are critical to the success of an enterprise. Measurements guide and direct
that change.
Plant and equipment maintenance is an important enterprise function. Mainte-
nance affects all enterprise assets, whether they are production equipment on the
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*Adapted, by permission, from Bewig, Lou, “Maintenance Measurement,” Mnirirenm~ce Tecli~rology,
December, 1966.
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