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(1) Define the Right Work.in this highly competitive environment, plant staffs have been cut to keep costs down.  Unfortunately, many PM programs are based only upon vendor's recommendations which are most always over-specified.  The end result is that asset or equipment downtime remains unacceptably high.  AF employs our unique Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) program to identify the “Right Work.”  First, Functional Failure Analysis is performed to identify and prioritize all critical assets.  This is based upon the impact of equipment failure to the plant's mission (safety, environment, production, cost & quality) coupled with the probability that failure will occur.  In addition, Mean-Time-To-Repair (MTTR) is taken into account.  Every critical asset is evaluated and assigned a number we call the Asset Reliability Number (ARN).  The higher the value of ARN, the more critical the asset.  Assets with high ARN receive more attention and resources to ensure optimum plant reliability and profitability.  Second, critical assets are selected (highest ARN first) to receive a formal Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA).  FMEA considers how a critical asset can fail by identifying likely and reasonable failure modes.  Next, the cause of the failure is evaluated.  The pump may have failed due to a misaligned coupling, a bearing failure due to lack of lubrication, and so on.  The final step is to develop mitigations that will either prevent the failure from occurring, or mitigate the consequences should it occur.  Remember, equipment (asset) reliability is more than just maintenance. To understand all of the elements that impact asset reliability please click on our Reliability Circle. All of these elements mjst be addressed to optimize equipment and plant performance. Click on our Reliability Circle:

AF’s unique approach to asset reliability considers ALL factors that can impact equipment reliability.  Some examples:   

• A contractor performs inferior maintenance on a critical asset causing the asset to fail after operating for only 25% of its expected life (Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF)). Failure to manage contractor performance is paramount throughout U.S. industry.  AF shows our clients how to establish mitigations in the form of Acceptance Criteria and Post Maintenance Testing to validate the work of both contractors and in-house craft to ensure optimum MTBF is achieved.  This means a major reduction in asset downtime and a positive impact upon the bottom line
• Craft perform inferior maintenance.  Most of U.S. industry has eliminated 4-year apprentice programs.  Only a small percentage of craft are fully certified journeymen.  In many plants, there are no journeyman craft.  Our craft assessments, accredited by the National Center for Construction, Education and Research (NCCR), reveal that the average craft has less than 50% of the skills possessed by the journeyman craft.  AF will assess your craft skills and tailor fit a craft skills training program to ensure quality maintenance is performed right the first time.  Our approach focuses on what you need and therefore, can be accomplished in a matter of several weeks to several months.  The results include significant reduction in downtime and rework.
• Maintenance does a great job repairing an asset but the operator starts it improperly leading to an unnecessary failure.
• Maintenance does a great job repairing an asset but inferior spare parts were used leading to another unnecessary failure. 

It is vital that all elements impacting asset reliability be addressed.  As can be seen, this involves almost everyone. 
“It’s not just about maintenance.”