FMEA: Adding Value to Maintenance Plan Optimisation

Maintenance Plan Optimisation is “a process to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the maintenance process” and ensuring the maintenance being conducted is value adding.

There is a difference between maintenance effectiveness and efficiency: “Effective maintenance addresses and reduces the consequences of specific, probable failure modes. Efficient maintenance is value-added tasks conducted using the least labour, downtime, and materials required to complete the task.”

By looking at this definition, we can get a clearer picture of the purpose of maintenance plan optimisation, it is to ensure that maintenance is adding value to the overall life of an asset or the system. It involves looking at each maintenance task and determining:

• Whether optimising this maintenance task is really needed (i.e., whether the process is value-added), and
• Whether it will have the effect on the overall performance that it is intended to have.

What is FMEA and its Function? 

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is not a new process. It is a qualitative reliability engineering method that can be applied to prioritise and avoid failures triggered in various asset life cycle phases such as design, manufacturing, installation, and operation. The best practice is to carry out specific FMEA for each asset life cycle such as DFMEA, PFMEA and SFMEA (Design / Process / System FMEA).

The image below shows steps in the entire process (you can also check out our one-page FMEA Process infographic):

• Systematically analyse the possible failure mode of each equipment and component, 
• Identify the possible failure cause and the failure mode frequency,  
• Inspect how easily the possible failures can be detected, as well as  
• Expect the resulting consequences of the failure mode effect on quality, safety, health and environment and asset performance.  

FMEA has been widely adopted in many ways for various purposes. By understanding the modes of failure and the effects that have on an asset or the system, it can contribute to improved designs for products and processes, resulting in higher reliability, better quality, increased safety, enhanced customer satisfaction, and reduced costs.  

What Role does FMEA Play in Maintenance Plan Optimisation?