Facilities Management

Maintenance management is a complicated business. Facility maintenance budgets are continually scrutinized by CFOs in a constant effort to trim budgets. Maintenance managers are under constant pressure to squeeze every last bit of productivity out of every maintenance dollar.

Blue Snow’s solution for facilities management team  is a comprehensive method of organizing an efficient maintenance program through applying the concepts of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). Combining professional intuition and a rigorous statistical approach,

RCM recognizes that there are different maintenance strategies followed for different facility equipment:

  • run-to-failure
  • preventive maintenance
  • predictive maintenance
  • proactive maintenance

Blue Snow applies these differing maintenance strategies in an optimal mix, to ensure that facility equipment is being maintained sufficient to accomplish the facility mission without wasting inordinate amounts of maintenance labor “baby sitting” facility equipment.

What is Reliability Centered Maintenance ?

IR Thermography - Motor Overheating

RCM can be defined as “an approach to maintenance that combines reactive, preventive, predictive, and proactive maintenancepractices and strategies to maximize the life that a piece of equipment functions in the required manner.” RCM does this at minimal cost. In effect, RCM strives to create the optimal mix of an intuitive approach and a rigorous statistical approach

to deciding how to maintain facility equipment.

The key to developing an effective RCM program lies in effectively combining the

intuitive and statistical approaches.

RCM Analysis

RCM analysis carefully considers the following questions:

  • What does the system or equipment do?
  • What functional failures are likely to occur?
  • What are the likely consequences of these functional failures?
  • What can be done to prevent these functional failures?

To implement RCM,  Blue Snow will train maintenance supervisor/managers and maintenance technicians  to think about their facilities in terms of function.

That means thinking about facility equipment in terms of systems, subsystems, components, and subcomponents.

RCM Principles used by Blue Snow

The primary RCM principles that we use to manage your facility are:

  1. We aim to Maintain System Functionality. P reserve system or equipment function, not just to maintain a piece of machinery’s operability for operability’s sake
  2. We are System Focused. Maintaining system function than individual component function
  3. We are Reliability Centered. We treat failure statistics in an actuarial manner.
  4. We Recognize Design Limitations. We maintain the inherent reliability of system function. A maintenance program can only maintain the level of reliability inherent in the system design; no amount of maintenance can overcome poor design.
  5. We are Driven a by Safety First, then Economics policy. Blue Snow ensures that safety is  maintained at any cost; the cost of maintaining safe working conditions is not calculated as a cost of RCM
  6. We Define Failure as an Unsatisfactory Condition. “Failure is not an option.”
  7. Our Tasks Must Produce a Tangible Result. Tasks performed must be shown to reduce the number of failures, or at least to reduce the damage due to failure.
  8. 8. We Recognize Four Maintenance Categories and Use  Logic Trees to Screen

Maintenance Tasks. Each piece of equipment is assigned to one of four categories:

  1. Run-to-Failure
  2. Calendar-Based Maintenance (PM)
  3. Condition Monitoring (CM
  4. Proactive Maintenance

The RCM Process used by Blue Snow :

  1. Define the major systems and components.
  2. For each system, define all “functions” of that system.
  3. For each of those functions, define the possible “functional failures” that could occur
  4. For each functional failure, define all possible “failure modes”
  5. For each failure mode, state whether it would be due to improper operation, improper maintenance, or both.

This process in done in a  RCM analysis sheet  or a RCM System Data Sheet that would be generated in applying a rigorous RCM analysis to a particular system

How Our RCM Method Benefits You ?

1. Improved Reliability. We obtain this  improvement through constant reappraisal of the existing maintenance program and improved communication between maintenance supervisors/managers, maintenance mechanics, facility planners, building engineering designers,and equipment manufacturers.

2. Reduced Cost. A new RCM program typically results in a short-term increase in maintenance costs.

The cost of reactive maintenance decreases as failures are prevented and preventive maintenance tasks are replaced by condition monitoring.The net effect is a reduction of reactive maintenance and a reduction in total maintenance costs.

3. Scheduling. Condition monitoring program reduces the unnecessary maintenance performed by a calendar-based preventive maintenance program.

4. Delayed Equipment/Parts Replacement. Obtain the maximum use from the equipment. With RCM, equipment replacement is based on equipment condition, not on the calendar.

5. Improved Efficiency/Productivity. Although Safety is the primary concern of RCM, the second most important concern is cost-effectiveness. The flexibility of the RCM approach to maintenance ensures that the proper type of maintenance is performed when it is needed. Maintenance that is not cost-effective is identified and not performed.

Key RCM Tool – Condition Monitoring (CM) Technologies provided by Blue Snow :

· vibration monitoring and analysis

· infrared thermography

· passive ultrasonics

· lubricant and particle wear analysis (oil analysis)

· electrical condition monitoring

· nondestructive testing

Blue Snow recognizes that management of maintenance activities at facilities a complex and expensive task. That is why Blue Snow can assist you in the following ways :

  1. Provide  in-house training to your team to set-up and manage their own RCM System
  2. Provide a comprehensive RCM Facilities Management Package ( with an option to include Cleaning and other non-technical services)
  3. Complement the above with Energy Audit and Energy Management ( we have 3 Certified Energy Managers within the firm)

 

Please contact us today for a free evaluation of your facilities and to provide with a RCM Facility Management proposal