Question

An audit was conducted on a large food processing plant and it revealed poor maintenance practices resulting in numerous and repeated equipment failures, low reliability and availability. You are required to recommend the key elements of an effective, optimal and proactive maintenance programme that will ensure sustained and continuous improvement which will result in world class standards of reliability and availability.

Answer 1

One route for managing these challenges is a proactive and well-implemented preventive maintenance strategy supported by a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and properly trained staff. CMMS is designed to help you schedule, monitor, and automate your proactive maintenance work which enables you to stay in complete control of your maintenance operations at all times.

Three of the most common maintenance challenges being experienced in the food industry and some recommendations on how to deal with them.

1. Maintaining Complex Equipment

A typical food plant today would be fitted with an array of complicated and highly sensitive equipment. From peeling machines to refrigeration plants and very complex packing machinery, every component demands constant attention.

Each one of these assets is part of a fast-moving production line that require specialized skills to monitor and keep in peak operating condition. In addition, this industry is under constant pressure to both improve and modify existing machinery, while also adopting new technology (especially automation).

Many food processors need to run their production 24/7 to stay competitive. It is apparent that the maintenance team has a lot to handle under such conditions,

To maintain the highly automated systems and keep equipment running optimally, food production and maintenance managers must stay on top of new techniques. They need to research, provide ideas and adopt newer and better maintenance strategies. Although it’s expected that there would already be some maintenance schedule in place, just any old routine will not work.

To run such a sensitive system on reactive maintenance alone where components are left to fail before repairs are carried out. Downtime would be disproportionately high and the enterprise runs the risk of shortening the lifespan of their assets. Instead, it is advisable to switch from reactive to preventive maintenance or look to implement any of the other proactive maintenance strategies like predictive maintenance or reliability-centered maintenance.

RCM is a structured process that identifies problems which when solved increases the productivity of your equipment and assets while reducing maintenance costs. Reliability centered maintenance isn’t necessarily a maintenance method, it’s more of a method of analyzing breakdowns to identify which maintenance methods will work best for each piece of machinery.

The primary RCM principles are:

1. RCM is Function Oriented – It seeks to preserve system or equipment function, not just operability for operability's sake. Redundancy of function, through multiple equipment, improves functional reliability, but increases life cycle cost in terms of procurement and operating costs.

2. RCM is System Focused – It is more concerned with maintaining system function than individual component function.

3. RCM is Reliability Centered – It treats failure statistics in an actuarial manner. The relationship between operating age and the failures experienced is important. RCM is not overly concerned with simple failure rate; it seeks to know the conditional probability of failure at specific ages.

4. RCM Acknowledges Design Limitations – Its objective is to maintain the inherent reliability of the equipment design, recognizing that changes in inherent reliability are the province of design rather than maintenance. Maintenance can, at best, only achieve and maintain the level of reliability for equipment, which is provided for by design. However, RCM recognizes that maintenance feedback can improve on the original design. In addition, RCM recognizes that a difference often exists between the perceived design life and the intrinsic or actual design life, and addresses this through the Age Exploration (AE) process.

5. RCM is Driven by Safety and Economics – Safety must be ensured at any cost; thereafter, cost-effectiveness becomes the criterion.

6. RCM Defines Failure as Any Unsatisfactory Condition – Therefore, failure may be either a loss of function (operation ceases) or a loss of acceptable quality (operation continues).

7. RCM Uses a Logic Tree to Screen Maintenance Tasks – This provides a consistent approach to the maintenance of all kinds of equipment.

8. RCM Tasks Must Be Applicable – The tasks must address the failure mode and consider the failure mode characteristics.

9. RCM Tasks Must Be Effective – The tasks must reduce the probability of failure and be cost effective.

10. RCM Acknowledges Three Types of Maintenance Tasks a. Time-directed (PM) – Scheduled when appropriate b. Condition-directed (PdM and real-time monitoring) – Performed when conditions indicate they are needed c. Failure finding (one of several aspects of Proactive Maintenance) – Equipment is run-tofailure. This is acceptable for some situations and some types of equipment.

11. RCM is a Living System – It gathers data from the results achieved and feeds this data back to improve design and future maintenance. This feedback is an important part of the Proactive Maintenance element of the RCM program.

The RCM analysis carefully considers the following questions:

1. What does the system or equipment do; what is its function?

2. What functional failures are likely to occur?

3. What are the likely consequences of these functional failures?

4. What can be done to reduce the probability of the failure, identify the onset of failure, or reduce the consequences of the failure?

2. Extremely Hygienic Workplace

Because they make products for human consumption, food manufacturers must enforce hygienic practices and maintain their equipment under the highest standards of food safety.

Failure to do this can lead to many serious problems like producing contaminated food, product recalls, foreign material complaints, lawsuits, outbreaks and infections (botulism, E. coli, Listeria, etc.).

To avoid the above, food manufacturers should pay attention to the following:

• Pest control. Adopt pest detection, monitoring and control with or without the use of chemicals. Where chemicals are used, there should be extra care to avoid food and drink contamination.
• Cleaning. Constant cleaning and disinfection is necessary to maintain high hygiene standards and reduce any risks of foreign materials complaints and foodborne illnesses outbreak. Cleaning also helps prevent injuries to workers particularly in the processing and packing areas where the risk of slips, trips and falls increases due to wet floors. Wet floors alone account for the second highest cause of injuries in the food industry, according to Health and Safety Executive.
• Personal hygiene. Establish written and strict protocols for personal cleanliness of staff that include the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
• Waste management. Prompt removal of waste materials to control odor and deter pests and rodents.
• Overall maintenance. Adopt proactive maintenance schedules for the entire plant and all food processing machinery.
• Staff training. Employees should be educated and trained for their own safety and to preserve the integrity of the plant and its products. This is vital for success because procedures will only be as good as the team that will implement them.

3. Compliance With Regulatory Standard

Manufacturers of edible products are subject to the regulations imposed by the relevant authorities in every country in which they operate. This means food manufacturers must:

• Deal with a wide range of regulations regarding food safety.
• Ensure strict enforcement with policies and procedures that could vary from country to country.

Officials from agencies are authorized to carry out unannounced routine inspections or complaints-based inspections. There are some critical food safety non-compliance issues they typically look out for. Maintenance managers must be aware of them and they include:

• General cleaning. To minimize the risk of food contamination.
• Machine safety. Machinery must be safe to use, all electrical faults should be corrected quickly, and any safety guards must be in place. Safety breaches in this regard can lead to serious injuries.
  ● Food Safety. Machinery must run efficiently, be clean, keep food and drinks at the right temperature, be free of rust, etc.
  ● Pest Control.

computerized maintenance management system(CMMS)

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a software package that maintains a computer database of information about an organization’s maintenance operations, and is used to help maintenance workers do their jobs more effectively.

Computerized maintenance management software is used for a number of reasons. It streamlines all relevant data for assets, making it easy to determine which pieces of equipment require maintenance and which warehouses contain spare parts needed. Maintenance staff utilize CMMS to create and manage work orders, create work requests, perform inventory control functions and much more. Its use of real-time data and robust reporting functionality also helps management make smarter asset management decisions. For example, management can calculate the cost of equipment replacements and compare it to preventative maintenance costs for each asset. CMMS data may also be utilized to demonstrate regulatory compliance.

Typical CMMS Features:

• Work Orders
• Work Requests
• Preventive Maintenance
• Scheduling
• Assets
• Parts & Inventory
• Purchasing
• Projects
• Reports & Graphs
• Cost Tracking & Budgeting

Benefits of CMMS for Food Manufacturing

Comply with Food Safety Regulations

There are a number of entities that regulate the food manufacturing industry—United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the ISO 22000 family of International Standards just to name a few. To ensure food manufacturers are meeting health and regulations, these entities conduct inspections and audits. CMMS software provides a means to store detailed documentation such as safety manuals, standard operating procedures and important records related to equipment and assets. A few clicks (or taps, if you’re using a mobile device) is all it takes to retrieve pertinent data needed to demonstrate compliance. You can even generate custom reports for inspectors and auditors using CMMS for food manufacturing.

Reduce Food Waste

Aside from affecting production, interruptions in the food manufacturing process can cause significant waste. Food that can’t be processed in a timely manner due to an equipment malfunction or failure must be scrapped due to health and safety concerns. CMMS for food manufacturing decreases the likelihood of equipment breakdowns by ensuring preventive maintenance is performed on a regular basis. This helps maintenance teams operate more efficiently and reduce waste. Access to real-time information also allows staff to also track inventory levels more effectively, which helps prevent over-ordering.

Maximize Equipment Reliability

Food manufacturers require reliable equipment to succeed. Any interruption in food processing can seriously affect production and, more importantly, profits. Regular preventive maintenance is necessary in order to maximize equipment reliability. CMMS for food manufacturing allows users to effectively plan, schedule and record preventive maintenance activities on each piece of equipment. Maintenance software helps maximize uptime and keep equipment operating in peak condition.

Make Smarter Asset Management Decisions

Access to a comprehensive history on each asset, including dates when failures occurred and repairs were performed, helps management make smarter asset management decisions. For example, each asset has an average lifecycle and budgets typically allocate funds toward replacement when that asset has reached its end of life. However, with regular preventive maintenance performed and very few unplanned repairs, that asset may well exceed its average lifecycle. Management may opt to delay equipment replacement and instead allocate those available funds toward other pressing matters.

Modernize Your Maintenance Operations

CMMS software provides automation of tasks, centralization of data, detailed analysis, advanced reporting and more. Most reputable maintenance software solutions offer the ability to access the program on any web-based device, including mobile. Maintenance staff can manage work orders, work requests, and parts inventory on the go with ease. Dashboard features within CMMS software enable companies to view real-time data on a number of key performance indicators (KPIs) graphically at any time. This allows management to keep a finger on the pulse of their organization, spot trends and improve efficiency.

How to Select the Best CMMS for Food Manufacturing

1. Assemble a CMMS Team

To begin the selection process, organizations should put together a CMMS selection and implementation team to work through selection criteria. This enables representatives from management, maintenance, operations and accounting functions to work together and determine critical requirements for CMMS software.

Consider questions like:

• How many pieces and types of equipment will be tracked in the system?
• How many users will there be and how will they access the system (mobile devices or workstations)?
• What type of deployment option is best: an on-premise system with a private cloud option or a hosted cloud-based system?
• What are the critical reports and key performance indicators (KPIs) that we need to track using the system
• Will the CMMS system need to integrate with our other business applications?

2. Develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Another very important consideration when selecting a CMMS system are your asset management standard operating procedures (SOPs). Once SOPs are defined, different CMMS products can be appropriately evaluated to ensure they meet your requirements. Can you easily customize the CMMS product to meet your specific needs? A common reason CMMS implementations fail is a mismatch between how a system is designed and how your work is actually performed.

3. Narrow Down List of CMMS Vendors

Determine the requirements for your business and the key deliverables of the CMMS, you can easily develop a shortlist of vendors to evaluate before a final selection is made.

The following criteria can help determine whether a vendor should be placed on the short list:

• Does the product have the features that meet your list of requirements?
• Does the vendor have a proven track record in the CMMS industry, and do they obtain input from customers for product improvements?
• Does the vendor provide training and support services at a level that meets your expectations?
• What is the user interface like, and how easily can your staff become familiar with the functionality?
• Can the user interface be easily modified by you?
• Does the product and services match your budget?