Methods for optimizing maintenance strategies

In the current context of open markets, companies need to improve their competitiveness and therefore their productivity. "Producing more for less" means better availability of means of production and spending less.

Maintenance has an impact on both factors: better-targeted maintenance means less downtime, and better-controlled maintenance means lower costs.

In the manufacturing industry, the zero stock policy that has now become widespread has considerably weakened production. Without stock, the slightest breakdown can block production lines and render an entire facility unavailable. As a result, equipment reliability has taken on greater importance, and the "zero defects" formula was quick to catch on.

Greater productivity can also mean shorter working hours for a given production. What is sought is both a reduction in the number of jobs and greater efficiency. The organization must then be overhauled, and the old principle of division of labor is generally discredited. Dividing lines are broken down, functions are broadened, and greater emphasis is placed on teamwork. Decompartmentalization, motivation and better control of organization and technology are the order of the day.

In industries that present risks to people or the environment (nuclear and aeronautical, for example), the attitude is more rigorous. The aim is to better understand the limits of high-risk areas of use, in order to limit hazards as far as possible and reduce unnecessary intervention.

It's against this backdrop that the maintenance industry has adopted methods that consider both technique and organization, to a greater or lesser extent. Specialized journals, conferences, books, etc., have introduced acronyms such as MSG, RCM, SRCM, TPM, RB-ISI, RB-IST, or French acronyms such as MBF, OMF, SLI, or even terms like "benchmarking" and "asset management". The aim of this article is to give a general idea of these methods, without going into detail, by emphasizing their objectives, their differences and their preferred areas of application. The aim is to position them in the maintenance landscape, and to clarify their concepts.

It should be noted that some of these methods were originally developed for the aeronautics and power generation industries (in particular for nuclear power plants), but their principles are not specific to these industrial sectors and can be applied to others as well.

For further information, please refer to the more detailed articles referenced ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]).