E-maintenance applied to planning and scheduling: Opportunities and value drivers

MAPLA/MANTEMIN, Santiago, 5-7 Sept. 2011

Peter Knights The University of Queensland, Australia, and CRCMining, Brisbane, Australia. Javier Prez Universidad Tcnica Federico Santa Mara, Chile

The context
The following technology drivers: Hand-held wireless computing, Global connectivity (real-time internet access) and Collaborative analytics are changing the way in which plant maintenance is carried out

Study objective
To analyse how tablet and smartphone technologies can be applied to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance planning and scheduling.

Methodology
The major capabilities of hand-held devices are mapped against the steps required to plan and schedule maintenance jobs.

These capabilities evaluated and ranked according to five main value drivers: cost, speed, quality, safety and environment.

What is e-Maintenance?
The monitoring, collection, recording and distribution of real-time system health data, maintenance generated data as well as other decision and performance support information to different stakeholders, independent of organisation or geographic location, 24 hours per day 7 days per week.
(Candell et al, 2009)

E-Maintenance Integration

Source: Muller et al, (2008)

Labor productivity
Time-on-tools varied between a low of 20% and a high of 55%, with average value of 36% across all industry sectors. Principal reported losses include:
time spent on non-routine work; partially reported work hours, gaps between recorded hours and best practice; poor inventory management; rework; misapplication of machinery; losses in parts, tools, instructions and travel, procedural delays; punctuality and tool preparedness.
Source: Knights, (2011b)

The maintenance planning and scheduling process

Adapted from: The Marshall Institute (1996)

Smartphone/tablet capabilities
Wireless connectivity Access to internet GPS location Camera and video recording Data entry and voice recording Timer, and Calendar

E-Maintenance Value drivers

Five value drivers were identified for improving the maintenance planning and execution processes;
Speed Quality Cost Safety, and Environment

Value driver mapping (sample)

Opportunities Planning
Embedding photos and/or video frames of actual equipment and site conditions can convey information to the planner beyond the capability of words

Time and resource requirements for each task can be determined with reference to historical work order records
Tracking of job completion times using the GPS and clock functions

Opportunities - Scheduling
Resource status (spares, tools, labour) can be checked using hand held devices. Barcode readers installed on smartphones could assist identification of parts and assessment of available spares.

Safety and competence certification of personnel can be checked using GPS location of personnel in relation to work zones

Opportunities - Execution
Time tracking of maintenance jobs, including more accurate time breakdown of diagnostic and repair times plus and quantification of logistical delay times.

Collaboration with subject matter experts outside of the mine in order to diagnose and repair complex components

Opportunities Close out

Voice recognition software provides for a means of more accurately recording the work performed during repairs. Photos and video frames taken during the repair job can be stored for later repair reference.

Conclusions
Hand-held computing capabilities were evaluated and ranked according to five main value drivers: cost, speed, quality, safety and environment.

High value leverage points were identified as: embedding photos and videos in work orders; scanning of barcodes in order to display spare part status.
E-maintenance has the potential to significantly lift maintenance labour productivity

Acknowledgement
The research outlined in this paper was performed by Sr Javier Perez under the supervision of Prof Peter Knights during a study visit to The University of Queensland financed by CONICYT.

References
Campbell, J.D and Jardine, A.K.S. (2001) Eds.Maintenance Excellence, 495 pp., Marcel Dekker Inc., New York. Knights, P. & Liang, L. (2011a) Mine Data Analytics: New Skills for Tomorrows Mines, 2nd Int. Future Mining Conference, pp.69-74, Nov 22-23, Sydney. Knights, P. (2011b) Doing More with Less: How to Improve Maintenance Labour Utilisation, 8th Int. Mining Plant Maintenance Meeting (MAPLA) Plenary Session, Antofagasta, 7-9 Sept. 2011b. Muller, A., Crespo Marquez, A. & Lung, B. (2008 ) On the concept of e-maintenance: Review and current research, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Vol.93, No.8.

Soderholm, P, Candell, O., Karim, R. (2009) eMaintenance - Information logistics for maintenance support, Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Vol.25, No.6, pp.937-944.

Embedded video

(Source: SAP Visual Enterprise Video, 2012, courtesy Windsor Business Solutions, Brisbane Australia)

Thank you!
Questions? Need more details?

To obtain related publications, write to: p.knights@uq.edu.au

20