CMMS, EAM and Big Data

[dkjfnvfd]

Hi All,

I'm not 100% sure if this is the appropriate board, so my sincere apologies if I'm asking in the wrong place.

I currently work on a very big site, and my biggest bug bear ever is the total lack of information. I have done some reading on this site and others, and I get the impression we are quite far off the 'baseline' of what a modern company should know and do about its assets.

The system as it stands is:

[ol 1]
[li]The CMMS says we did/did not deliver scheduled work, if it's preventative or breakdown work, number of hours (not person-hours) - not all work is scheduled and it doesn't store results of work[/li]
[li]We have a bespoke EAM that has a hierachy. It includes the responsible engineer's estimates for when things need replaced, how confident we are of the engineer's judgement and how unsafe the asset currently is[/li]
[li]Design information is somewhere else - either on network drives or a filing cabinet on the other side of the country (things like SLDs are easy to get a hold of, but TRAM, design intent etc quite hard)[/li]
[/ol]

We don't keep good records, so for example when electricians go check a fuseboard, they get given a written instruction that'll say "pass if <Z, fail if >Z" so we don't necessarily track or even know what the actual impedance is. Same kind of thing goes for many different assets, and where we do have records it's usually a report from a contractor that floats around the department until someone claims it. Records are really poor, so for example it's impossible to even find out how many defibrilators we have - all entries in the CMMS are inconsistent so you can't rely on looking in there, and our EAM doesn't do those kinds of facts and figures. I can't tell you the Mean Time To Failure or Mean Time to Repair or any assets or systems. I can't tell you how much they cost to own, how much to run, how much to fix. I can't tell you if they meet their design life, if they overperform; most of the time I don't even know when things go obsolete unless I check with the OEM myself.

Everybody seems to know this is a problem, and in my time not much has actually changed, but we have loads of people - Asset Managers, Engineers, Maintenance Managers, Data Scientists, Statisticians - who are all "working on it" in some capacity.

The senior management recently started pushing Big Data, and have a couple of trial networked devices with webpages up that let me see the real-time state of some electrical assets. Although this sounds really impressive, it's a new system in addition to the others, and it doesn't integrate, so it's up to me to check it to see how my assets are doing, and then enter data into the CMMS and EAM myself.

Now, on the surface this sounds like a big improvement, but I'm really cynical. I'm not sure having the numbers up on a screen is really going to help me make better decisions. I think the benefit would come from integrating systems, and using them properly so I can track a breakdown or patterns of breakdowns across common models or manufactures or parts of plant. I don't need to know how my fuseboards or batteries are doing every minute of every day - but I would have liked to know their measurements when they get taken and have these trended.

Am I making sense? I don't think we need this Internet of Things or Big Data stuff, I reckon my employer just needs to use the tools it already has, properly.

After Christmas I have an opportunity to talk to the chap who manages our company and I'm tempted to bring it up since sitting here in isolation, I've convinced myself that I'm totally right and can save us squillions. But before I dare do that I think I need a sanity check.

 

[Turn_of_the_Screw]

Big Data is a nice buzzword that gets upper management to spend money on all sorts of things that may or may not work. "Six Sigma" is another one of those from the past, though it is still hanging on today.

For you personally, I seriously doubt that you bringing up how you think that their idea is a waste of money and if they just did what you think is best, everything would be better off. That sounds like a great way to get labelled as someone who is afraid of change and isn't a team player, rightly or wrongly.

I would be interested in seeing more specifics, but it sounds like they are edging closer to implementing some type of OEE system, which can be a very good thing.

If anything, bring your concerns up to your immediate supervisor. If they don't bite, then upper management surely will not.

 

[BrianPetersen]

I've been through ISO 9000, "lean manufacturing", and the like. While the actual buzzword and the associated paperwork might not seem like they are worth the trouble on their own, and improper implementation can certainly cause side effects, they do force you to think things in the right direction.

Not everyone can be presumed to understand every acronym that you use ... I don't know what "CMMS", "EAM", "SLD", "TRAM" mean. Define them.

 

[IRstuff]

Now, on the surface this sounds like a big improvement, but I'm really cynical. I'm not sure having the numbers up on a screen is really going to help me make better decisions. I think the benefit would come from integrating systems, and using them properly so I can track a breakdown or patterns of breakdowns across common models or manufactures or parts of plant. I don't need to know how my fuseboards or batteries are doing every minute of every day - but I would have liked to know their measurements when they get taken and have these trended.

Am I making sense? I don't think we need this Internet of Things or Big Data stuff, I reckon my employer just needs to use the tools it already has, properly.

Baby steps... Your phraseology suggests that you are indeed fearful of change. The fact that your online data requires manual transfer is the bigger issue. With proper integration, you can trend data/performance and, eventually, be able to spot issues while, or before, they occur, which is a good thing, and which improves overall efficiency and performance.

I'm not sure having the numbers up on a screen is really going to help me make better decisions. I think the benefit would come from integrating systems, and using them properly so I can track a breakdown or patterns of breakdowns across common models or manufactures or parts of plant.

The goal isn't necessarily to make better decisions, per se, but possibly additional, or new, decisions that you might not have been able to make at all; your second sentence hints at that

I don't need to know how my fuseboards or batteries are doing every minute of every day - but I would have liked to know their measurements when they get taken and have these trended.

You seem to be conflicted here; big data is for doing precisely the latter, but it does require more than manually entering data; you need to have people that create the applications that ingest the data, provide the tools to process it as desired, and present it in a meaningful way.



TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[dkjfnvfd]

Hi All,

Thanks for the responses.

CMMS = Centralised Maintenance Management System
EAM = Enterprise Asset Management
SLD Single Line Drawing
TRAM = Throughput, Reliability, Availability, Maintenance (Design come up with a document estimating plant throughput and how reliable it is when they come up with a new facility)

I totally agree that networking devices could be a good thing, but I do not believe my employer will implement it properly. I think it will be yet another system that doesn't integrate with the rest, so I'll have to spend even more time glueing information from different systems together to come up with something useful.

I know the technology we're going to use for networked data analysis won't integrate with any of our other systems, so I'll have one system to check if things are being maintained or broken, one to check the design information, one to check if there's a plan to replace it, and another one to see the voltages, currents and impedances. It'll still require my human time and judgement to see if there are patterns of failure across multiple systems or products.

 

[Turn_of_the_Screw]

I understand your struggle with multiple systems that are not integrated and I sympathize with the idea that it is going to be more work for you. It can be very frustrating jumping from one place to another just to gather information. However, it has been my experience that a catch-all system that is available off-the-shelf does not exist, or is always going to be cost-prohibitive. If you want some software to get these programs to talk to each other, you are going to have to develop it yourself.

For the record, a larger quantity of (and more accurate) data is very rarely a bad thing. Eventually, you may see how to use this information better, and I will argue that the fact that it requires your human time and judgment means that you are still valuable as an employee.

 

[dkjfnvfd]

Well, it's good that it's a step in the right direction. I get frustrated at the money we keep wasting replacing assets we shouldn't have to.

I was offered the job of being trained to write the data analysis scripts, but I handed my notice in instead. My next job pays quite a lot more and I wouldn't have got a raise for writing the scripts, so I'm not too sad but it would have been exciting to learn and do something new and leading-edge.

One part of my job was collecting all of the different data and putting it together in a big spreadsheet to say if assets were performing correctly or not. It was alright at first but I keep on having to update it and my employer won't give me some help (even an admin assistant would be helpful), so I feel like I'm more of a data entry clerk than an engineer. Scripts or no scripts my spreadsheet would have still gotten even bigger.

 

[CWB1]

Situations like this happen regularly in engineering. My advice is to get used to change and give the next one an honest chance. The IoT, lean/agile work methodologies, and many other forms of progress aren't going away bc they offer significant competitive advantages. Management also isn't nearly as ignorant as you think, they wouldn't spend big bucks on improvements if their minions couldn't integrate/implement the change and improve current processes. Their job is to give you the tools, your job is to figure out how to use them properly and make the necessary tweaks. Very few software tools play nicely together out of the box yet most companies have highly integrated systems bc a smart engineer or two imagineered the big picture then drug in the necessary folks to finish the integration. Usually you can tell a lot about a company by how they implement change. Companies with weak leadership often have employees ignorant of modern work methods who resist the change, half-ass or don't even attempt to integrate/implement it, and in a few years the cycle begins anew with another piece of software or work method. Consequently change never happens, employees never develop, and the business eventually dies. Companies with strong leadership shitcan those who resist change, implement/integrate change quickly, and continually improve their processes. Consequently, their employees are usually experts on modern technology and work methods, and their offices a joy to work in bc every bit of data imaginable is readily available.

One other bit of advice - avoid being "that guy" scoffing at technology or modern work methods like lean/agile/etc. Its a quick way to make yourself look really ignorant and inexperienced.

 

[IRstuff]

but I do not believe my employer will implement it properly.

Rather than to be a naysayer, you could be an agent for real and valid change. It's patently clear that if your company does nothing, then you'll get zero benefits. Even if your initial implementation is poor or improper, it's a start, and continuous process improvement can be applied.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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