Equipment maintenance policy in stressed manufacturing flow

The aim of maintenance policies is to draw up programs which, under the constraint of objective operational criteria and in order of priority, seek to :

• minimize corrective maintenance ;

• optimize systematic preventive maintenance ;

• implement preventive maintenance (conditional or predictive).

The last two points are designed to prevent erratic equipment unavailability, while optimizing the scheduling of maintenance activities, based on objective criteria such as :

• Costs ;

• cycle times ;

• quality, as well as the availability of resources or improvement programs based on these same criteria.

In order to be able to locate failures, diagnose or prognosticate, and implement corrective, preventive and control actions, the rational approach is used to acquire knowledge by answering the following questions:

• which ... failure or cause of failure appears? : knowledge of what to detect and/or prevent ;

• why... does a failure-induced effect occur? knowledge of the cause(s) of effects and failures ;

• how... does a failure or cause of failure occur? knowledge of appropriate detection and/or prevention ;

• when... will an effect-inducing failure occur? The question is: knowledge of the law(s) linking cause and effect.

A number of methodological tools have been developed and successfully implemented to implement the rational process within a scientific framework. FMECA is the tool of choice for tackling this type of problem, as its structure enables it to take into account the main aspects of the rational approach described by Immanuel Kant, within an operational experimental framework (see For more information):

• function ;

• value criteria ;

• failure modes ;

• causality-potential effects ;

• detection ;

• RISK ASSESSMENT ;

• prevention.