Failure Causes

Although the Root Cause Summary overview we discussed in the previous chapter seems easy enough, we cannot just go charging forward into a Root Cause Analysis process without preparing the way to go about it. We need to put a troubleshooting plan in place, (which we will be discussing in our next chapter). First of all, however, we need to self-prepare by ensuring that we have a full understanding of the importance of several foundation stone aspects: 

• Industry Competition
• Best Maintenance Strategies
• Failure Causes and Implications

Let’s go through all these areas and explain them in more detail:

Industry Competition

Greater industry competition is demanding that organizations take more advanced steps in regard to asset maintenance. This is almost a vital necessity for the following reasons:

• Reduce costs
• Increase machine availability
• Improve reliability
• Product quality
• Timely shipping

Asset Management Systems are no longer an optional extra, they are fast becoming recognized as an international mandatory industry necessity and a key and vital aspect of successful maintenance management functions. Proactive maintenance and Predictive maintenance or maintenance based on asset reliability are key.

Some of the predictive techniques that can be introduced are:

Vibration analysis

Oil analysis

Ferrography (Particle wear)

Thermography

Ultrasound

Before jumping into a root cause analysis (RCA) process it is going to be hugely important to have the correct maintenance management function and disciplines in place. Without these, any RCA initiative will essentially just be a quick fix variant of a reactive maintenance process. It has to be and must be much more than that to secure a successful future for the organization.

Best Maintenance Strategies

Any maintenance strategy must focus on the achievement of all the elements shown in this image.

• Reliability
• Maintainability
• Safety
• Security
• Sustainability
• Availability

Above and beyond that, however, it becomes so important to implement the best maintenance strategy for each type of equipment. This is directly related to the use of resources such as spare parts and labor allocation as well as considerations about the risks that critical equipment failures represent to the organization. Overall impacts of production downtime, risk of accidents, and environmental impacts should be considered prior to adopting a given asset maintenance strategy.

Once again just to emphasize how important it is to have the correct strategy in place for each type of equipment. This can only enhance and make the ultimate RCA process more speedy and efficient.

Failure Causes and Implications

When a piece of machinery fails it inevitably costs the company resources, time, and money.

Unfortunately, machinery can fail for numerous reasons, and pinpointing the cause is not always easy. Perhaps a spring balancer has gone or a pump has failed and has seized up?

Whilst some causes of machine failure can be obscure and hard to detect, others are much more common.

Heavy equipment breakdown is costly, not just in terms of money, but also in time and the use of materials as well as human resources. Contributing to breakdown expense is that equipment failure usually seems to occur when least expected and when that particular piece of machinery is most needed. Equipment breakdowns are not just inefficient for a schedule either, they are stressful for the operator, aggravating for the supervisor, and a pain for the entire crew who are interdependent on all the machinery on the job to function properly as a team

The loss of operation of one single piece of machinery can bring the job site to a standstill and remain that way until repairs or replacement of the equipment take place. That downtime still has to be paid for in the project too. Other equipment and resources continue to absorb costs while idling by and waiting for the cause of the breakdown to be established, a heavy equipment repair procedure worked out and that piece of equipment was brought back into service.

Case Study

To further emphasize the failure implications, let us look at the example of a single excavator on a small commercial construction site.

• Poor maintenance of the systems can result in the machine suddenly going dead in its tracks.
• It sits there while trucks line up and drivers stand around.
• Other workers stop their tasks and stay dormant while the operator and mechanics begin troubleshooting the cause.
• Just because the excavator’s hour clock has stopped doesn’t mean the others have, and what starts with a few hundred dollars of interruption quickly leads into the thousands.

This may be an example of an excavator but it applies to incidents in every organization

Understanding failure modes is a vital step toward moving forward with success. We cannot ignore equipment failures but we can control them and minimize their impact through an effective RCA process. However, before commencing with our RCA process it is both vital and imperative that we obtain a full understanding and the impact of the three foundation stones aspects that we have just discussed.

• Industry Competition
• Best Maintenance Strategies
• Failure Causes and Implications

Now let’s move on further and discuss the design and implementation of an effective troubleshooting plan.

For more information email us at info@strobe-al.co.za or visit www.strobe-al.co.za