4 Essentials for Determining True Asset Criticality
Don't score asset criticality just yet. Make sure these four things are in order first.
Measuring criticality has given asset-intensive businesses greater control over what to repair and when. But this pillar of predictive maintenance requires careful attention to a few fundamental laws that determine its efficacy. Failure to meet them will topple any PdM-powered enterprise asset management program, collapsing under the weight of malfunctioning equipment and the pieces of shattered productivity goals.
What is asset criticality again?
Asset criticality is the value a business assigns to its most vital equipment based on schema of its own design. Usually, criticality is visualized on a ranked list of work orders and orders in progress known as an asset criticality ranking (ACR).
So long as users set up ACRs properly, they create a dynamic hierarchy of maintenance repairs that tells technicians which asset is most deserving of their attention and what, when fixed, will return the greatest value to the organization when compared to the labor costs expended.
What four essentials must exist before stakeholders begin scoring assets based on criticality?
1. Master asset list
How can you gauge the importance of any given asset in real time without a full list of assets under your watch? Master asset lists must include the name of the asset and an easily understood description of its location. Maintenance supervisors charged with curating MALs may also choose to segment multiple components housed within a single asset into separate list items.
2. Knowledge of asset interplay
The criticality of one asset may change depending on what is in need of repair and/or what has already been repaired. Even the most seemingly important machinery may take second seat to more general assets under the right conditions.
Never assume. When criticality assesses asset value and shifts work orders in the repair pipeline, maintenance planning and scheduling becomes far more sensible and cost-efficient.
3. Cross-functional awareness of criticality
In an asset-intensive business, all departments have a stake in asset reliability. Engineers, maintenance and operations teams should all weigh in on how to score the criticality of certain assets and deliberate on how best to reach consensus that serves the company objectives, not their individual professional opinions.
These technical experts may even decide to collaborate on criticality with other departments indirectly related to productivity – logistics, finance, sales, etc. – to further round out their conclusions.
4. Optimized MRO management
No business can fully realize and capitalize on its ACR with an unorganized inventory of critical spares. Consummate criticality scores will include considerations pertaining to the availability and cost of spare parts, so the speed at which those parts are found and the shape those pasts are in when found should not be left out of the equation, either.
ACR stakeholders must develop strategies if, for instance, an asset requires a replacement part, but one is unavailable or unusable. Of course, better MRO management can all but eliminate the issue, but having a backup plan always helps.
In the end, a deeper understanding and follow-through with asset criticality strengthens maintenance planning and scheduling operations as industrial businesses learn how best to leverage predictive analytics through their CMMS. IBM Maximo and Infor EAM are two such asset and maintenance management software solutions that allow technicians to create detailed, standardized profiles for each asset under their collective purview, then define them according to custom in-house criticality criteria.
Already mastered the basics of criticality and looking for more detailed descriptions of how asset criticality impacts the success of the businesses that utilize it best? View our Asset Reliability Solutions.