Maintenance and Management Communication Study

Part 2

Study Developed By

Howard W Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP

President, SUCCESS by DESIGN
howard@motordoc.net

SUCCESS by DESIGN
5 Dogwood Ln
Old Saybrook, CT 06475
info@motordoc.net
Ph: 860-575-3087
Fax: 860-577-8537
Copyright 2006, SUCCESS by DESIGN
All Rights Reserved

Use and citation of this study is encouraged. Presentation must be as a full copy of the
document with all copyrights and citations included. Partial presentation of the material
must have permission from the author.

Howard W Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP

President, SUCCESS by DESIGN
5 Dogwood Ln, Old Saybrook, CT 06475

howard@motordoc.net
Ph: 860-575-3087
Fax: 860-577-8537

http://www.motordoc.org
http://www.motordoc.net
http://www.motordiagnostics.com
Dear Reader:

This is Part 2 of an intensive study on Maintenance and Management Communication.

The purpose is to provide a roadmap to assist the Reliability and Maintenance (R&M)
professional in understanding and communicating with management and management in
understanding and communicating with R&M. This involved a tremendous amount of
research into the history of management and skilled trades all the way back to 714BC to
the present day and modern day technology issues.

A PROACT Root-Cause-Analysis (RCA) was performed on the question of

Maintenance and Management Communication issues and then a guide was developed
for the findings that R&M can address. Future parts of this study will include an
extended RCA analysis.

In Part 2, we focus on one of the most important areas that came out of the study, the
development of a report that will generate action by decision makers.

Enjoy the study and please feel free to comment directly to howard@motordoc.net with
any questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Howard W Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP

President SUCCESS by DESIGN
 Maintenance and Management Communication Part 2

Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................... 2
Communication Considerations.......................................................................................... 3
Calculating a Value for Chance of Failure ..................................................................... 4
Graphical Representations .............................................................................................. 5
Priority of Recommendations ......................................................................................... 7
Layout of a Report .............................................................................................................. 7
Conclusions......................................................................................................................... 9

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Loose Coil Signature Full FFT............................................................................ 6

Figure 2: Loose Coil Signature Focused FFT..................................................................... 6

2006, SUCCESS by DESIGN Page 1 of 9 Penrose

 Maintenance and Management Communication Part 2

Introduction
In Part 1 of the Maintenance and Management Communication Project, we covered 21 of
the root causes for the loss of communication between maintenance and management. In
Part 2, we begin the discussion and instruction of how to improve communication from
the maintenance perspective. Part 2 will discuss best practices in report and presentation
development using techniques to convince management of the direction that you are
recommending, thereby improving the chance that those recommendations will be
followed.

One of the significant areas of loss in the chain of communication between the analyst
and the decision maker is the report. The steps in the chain of communication should
look something like:

1. Maintenance and management select equipment for periodic testing and analysis;
2. Baselines are taken and alarms set based upon selected technologies and
inspections;
3. Periodic testing is performed;
4. At some point, analysis is performed based upon unusual operating conditions or
tripped alarms;
5. The analyst(s) review data and other evidence and develop recommendations and
reports;
6. The reports are entered into software and/or are provided to decision makers; and
7. The decision maker determines if action will be taken on the recommendations.

Mind you, this is a short summary of the chain of communication, which we will cover
more in-depth in Part 3. However, for the purposes of this report, we can use this basic
chain to identify one of the key points of the break in this chain, the report and
presentation.

2006, SUCCESS by DESIGN Page 2 of 9 Penrose

 Maintenance and Management Communication Part 2

Communication Considerations
Human beings act upon conditions that they view as urgent and requiring immediate
action in order to avoid some level of discomfort. How we avoid this discomfort varies
from person to person and can be designated as the Whats In It For Me? (WIIFM).

The purpose of proper communication, in the form of a report and presentation, is to

convince the decision maker that some action meets their WIIFM. This requires more
work from the analyst than just determining cost avoidance.

Most managers consider the term cost avoidance as imaginary money, as it does not fit
into any budget column. Instead, the areas that management may consider would include
the following, and/or additional, issues:

; Profitability
; Throughput
; Ontime deliver
; JIT capability
; Bottleneck reduction
; Improved workforce effectiveness
; Reduced overtime
; Fear of risk

Maintenance often presents condition-based findings in terms of cost avoidance or

complex monetary calculations. In many cases, the faults are not prioritized based upon
severity, criticality or other risk components. The result is that management does not act
upon the recommendations or places them as a lower priority than other management
priorities.

Up until 1936, with the Hawthorne Studies of Western Electric in Cicero, Illinois, general
management practice was based upon the philosophy that workers worked for pay only.
The 1936 conclusions initiated the profession of Human Resources by identifying that
there are other socio-economic reasons for work. For instance, other than the occasional
rate-busters, many workers will slow their pace to a balance with other workers.

Reliability and Maintenance (R&M) personnel are making the same error. The
assumption of most, if not all, books, manuals or training is that citing cost avoidance for
potential faults will prompt action. In reality, the incentive for management is rarely
cost avoidance. Instead, the question and opportunity is how to present risk and
opportunity for R&M findings.

In order to present a successful report, you must identify the problem in terms that the
manager can understand, present the risk if action is not taken, prioritize the corrective
actions and detail the corrective action required. Much like a medical doctor providing
information on your health following a checkup, the R&M professional must provide

2006, SUCCESS by DESIGN Page 3 of 9 Penrose

 Maintenance and Management Communication Part 2

information on the health of the systems at his or her facility. For instance, a bearing
problem is detected on a main drive motor that could shut down 20% of production for 12
hours and the vibration analyst uses experience to determine that there is a 50/50 chance
that the bearing will survive for the next 6 weeks. In this case, the report should state that
during machine evaluation a mechanical problem was detected that has 50% chance of
failure in the next 6 weeks and 85% of failure in 10 weeks. The result will be a reduction
in production of 20% for twelve hours if allowed to continue operating. At the next
downturn in the next 6 weeks, the machine must be shut down and removed for overhaul.
A spare motor should be installed and commissioned. If the analyst knows the impact on
other operations measurements including delivery, etc., these should be noted.

Calculating a Value for Chance of Failure

While this can be a complex topic, the purpose of calculating a value for chance of failure
is to convince someone to act on the reliability recommendation. In this case, the value
can be an estimate of the chance for failure in which assumptions can be made. For
instance, one of the assumptions is that the predictive maintenance frequency is based
upon half of the average time to failure from the point of fault detection to functional
failure. For instance, if the alarms are set such that a bearing fault can be detected up to
six months ahead of a fault, the frequency of test would be quarterly.

We then would assume the worst case, that the fault was detected towards the half-way
point before failure. The rest involves knowing the operating hours per year for the
component tested and determining the severity of the problem.

Table 1: Severity of Fault Detected

Severity Multiplier Description
1 0.75 The problem detected is severe and exceeds the alarm levels
quickly or significantly as compared to the trended data. The
result is that the failure may happen quicker than would be
hoped.
2 1.00 The problem detected is serious and exceeds the alarm levels set
by the analyst. The equipment is in failure, at this point.
3 1.25 The problem detected is approaching or just passing into the
alarm levels set by the analyst. The equipment is entering failure
mode at this point.

Equation 1: Reliability Equation

( a )
(1 e b ) * 100 = % Failure
Where a = average severity failure; b = MTBF from detection point

2006, SUCCESS by DESIGN Page 4 of 9 Penrose

 Maintenance and Management Communication Part 2

Equation 2: Average Severity Failure

alarmtofai lurepo int
b= * SeverityMultiplier
2

Equation 3: MTBF from detection point

TestFrequency
a=
2

Using the above table and figures, if we were to have a machine that operates 7600 hours
per year, an impending winding failure that is checked Quarterly that meets the criteria
for a Severity of 2, then we would figure the chance of failure as:

Quarterly Hours = (7600hours/year)/4 Quarters = 1900 hours/quarter

b = (1900 hours/2)*1.00 = 950 hours

a = (1900 hours/2) = 950 hours

( 950 )
(1 e 950
) * 100 = 63%

The chance of failure for this machine is 63% in 950 hours, which would be ~7 weeks.
To determine the chance of a time period longer or shorter would be to replace a, or 950
hours, with the time you are interested in. So, if we wanted to see what the chance of
failure would be in 2 weeks, we would select 12 days * 24 hours = 288 hours. This
would then show a 26% chance of failure in the next two weeks.

Graphical Representations

Human beings are visual creatures. If we are told something is severe, but visually the
problem shows a smaller visual value than other things around it, then the written
evaluation will be ignored and the condition will be re-evaluated in the mind of the
decision-maker.

On the following page, there are two images of the same condition. Both are the current
signature analysis results of coil movement in an electric motor from the exact same FFT.
If you look at both graphics, which appears to be more severe than the other? Note that
the decision maker will normally not look at the values on the side of the graphic.

2006, SUCCESS by DESIGN Page 5 of 9 Penrose

 Maintenance and Management Communication Part 2

Figure 1: Loose Coil Signature Full FFT

Figure 2: Loose Coil Signature Focused FFT

2006, SUCCESS by DESIGN Page 6 of 9 Penrose

 Maintenance and Management Communication Part 2

Priority of Recommendations

Setting priorities for recommendations is important as it involves letting the decision

maker(s) know what order to perform repairs or corrective actions. Prioritization can
come in many forms. However, for this study, we are going to break it down to three
levels, as well:

1. Priority 1 (Red): This should be reserved for machines that impact personnel
safety, environment, regulations, production levels or for expensive to repair or
replace. Priority 1 would be those critical machines that have multiple faults or
severe defects. This should indicate immediate repairs are required.
2. Priority 2 (Orange): This should be used for non-critical machines that have
multiple faults or severe defects and critical machines that require repair as it can
be scheduled.
3. Priority 3 (Yellow): This should be used for non-critical machines that can be
repaired as they can be scheduled and for situations where an increase in
frequency of testing would be used to maximize the useful life of the equipment.

Layout of a Report
The report should be written in such a way that it includes all of the information required
to make a decision and the steps to perform the corrective action recommended. Key
components should include:

1. Name and location of the equipment;

2. Priority of the repair;
3. Description of the fault (ie: loose connection, not hot spot);
4. Risk of fault occurring over a period of time;
5. Consequence of not acting on the fault should the equipment fail;
6. Graphical representation of location of fault, or of the fault itself (more than one
image is acceptable); and,
7. Description of steps to perform corrective action including recommended timing
and estimated time to perform the action.

Example: A loose coil signature is detected in a critical fan motor. Visual inspection
shows contamination on the cooling coils of the system. Electrical Signature Analysis
is performed on these machines quarterly and they operate 8000 hours per year.
Loss of the fan reduces operations by 20% and impacts on-time delivery to customers.
The loose coil signature historically shows up prior to a winding fault. The value of
the change in the signature requires that repairs are scheduled as soon as possible.

Following is a sample of a report that can be used:

2006, SUCCESS by DESIGN Page 7 of 9 Penrose

 Maintenance and Management Communication Part 2

Name #1 Fan Motor on Production Machine Severity 1 Priority 1

Description The #1 Fan Motor on the Production Machine has loose coils in the motor
windings. This problem has led to failure of the electric motor and loss of 20%
of the production machine operation resulting in late product deliveries in the
past. Additionally, contaminants are blocking the cooling system of the electric
motor accelerating the failure. There is a 74% chance that the machine will fail
in the next five weeks resulting in a 20% loss of production and late deliveries.

Coil Signature Identifying Loose Coils

Blocked Cooling Ports

Corrective The motor needs to be removed during the planned outage in three weeks, or
Action sooner, for rewind and a replacement motor is available to be installed. Total
time to remove and install the spare, align and commission the motor is 14
hours. The condition of the other fan motors has identified that cooling port
contamination is an issue and a maintenance procedure on cleaning the cooling
ports needs to be developed and scheduled immediately. Repair of this motor
and return to spare stocks normally takes 6 weeks in the local motor repair shop.
Date July 27, 2006
Follow-Up

2006, SUCCESS by DESIGN Page 8 of 9 Penrose

 Maintenance and Management Communication Part 2

Conclusions
Most reliability and maintenance professionals have been trained into the concept of
providing numbers related to cost avoidance. This is primarily ineffective as the primary
motivation for action by a decision maker is WIIFM. Normally, this has to do with any
number of business and professional related items that impact the decision maker
directly.

Most management professionals are not trained in the area of reliability and maintenance
and may not have any experience at all. This places the responsibility of initiating
communication on the R&M professional to convince management to make positive
decisions related to R&M. This includes identifying the areas of WIIFM related to such
topics as throughput, operating costs, ontime delivery, reducing bottlenecks, etc.

A convincing R&M report will include such items as location, priority, severity, an
estimate of risk of failure, consequences, a description of the actual problem, graphics,
how to resolve the problem and an estimate of time to take steps. Such a report will have
the impact of generating activity in completing detected R&M tasks proactively.

2006, SUCCESS by DESIGN Page 9 of 9 Penrose