With Bruno Freitas, Olympio Netto, Iuri Pinto
Steel plants in the US face persistent challenges in optimizing asset performance, an issue that directly impacts operational excellence and long-term profitability. While the industry is focused on maximizing output, maintenance strategies often vary, with some facilities still operating under a reactive, run-to-failure approach. This contrasts with high-performing industrial environments where strong reliability programs are foundational to maintenance strategy. For manager-level and above professionals involved in asset management and maintenance, recognizing and addressing this foundational gap is the first step toward sustained reliability.
The Complication: An Asset Management System Built on Inconsistency.
The transition from reactive to proactive maintenance is often hindered by underlying problems within the plant’s existing Computerized Management Maintenance System (CMMS) system structure and operational culture. These inconsistencies—often decades in the making—prevent the organization from generating useful KPIs or obtaining decision-ready information across all operations.
Core complications typically include:
Lack of Standardization
Critical documentation, such as schematics, drawings, and basic equipment information, is often not centralized or readily available. Furthermore, internal standards are often lacking or inconsistently applied across different segments of the mill.
Poor Data Quality
A lack of uniform standards means there is no reliable data available. If different groups collect and structure data based on their individual view of the equipment or process, it becomes impossible to gain a truly clear, unified picture of facility-wide asset health.
Operational Gaps
The systems and processes often have gaps between how they are configured and the actual operational needs of the plant. These inefficiencies translate to lost time, as teams struggle with communication and waste time trying to find the right information or contact the correct person.
Cultural Resistance
Overcoming resistance to change is a significant hurdle, particularly in traditional organizations where employees who have worked there for decades may feel things are “working fine” and see no need for change.
The Resolution: A Structured Roadmap to Reliability
Timenow addresses these deep-seated system and cultural challenges by applying a structured methodology focused on centralization, standardization, and optimization. This approach is delivered as a logical roadmap designed to correctly set the CMMS foundation to support long-term asset performance management:
Diagnose and Standardize the Structure:
The initial phase involves tackling internal disorganization by identifying inconsistencies in existing asset hierarchy and maintenance logic. The team works to centralize and organize previously scattered drawings, manuals, and documentation across all areas.
Redesign the Asset Hierarchy:
A key structural change involves developing a more logical and standardized asset hierarchy. This redesign improves traceability and forms a robust basis for generating accurate reports and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Review and Optimize Maintenance Plans:
Maintenance plans are reviewed and aligned with asset performance objectives, often starting with a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). This analysis is linked directly to specific equipment within the new hierarchy, allowing for the optimization of maintenance plans by removing duplicate tasks and adding missing critical tasks.
Strengthen KPI Generation:
With a standardized structure, KPIs can be adjusted to meet production demands, and new metrics can be suggested to effectively track the daily maintenance routine with fewer impacts to uptime.
Address Cultural Change:
Throughout the process, the Timenow team maintains constant and clear communication to resolve cultural resistance. They demonstrate the project’s value and illustrate successful long-term results achieved in other companies to secure buy-in.
The Differentiation: Connecting System Structure to Real-World Performance
Timenow is positioned as a partner that combines deep industrial experience with a proven, structured methodology. What makes this approach distinctive is the ability to connect the internal structure of the CMMS system directly with real operational and maintenance needs, focusing on long-term asset performance, not just immediate software configuration.
Intermediate results from this structured process include new, actionable KPIs and optimized maintenance plans that focus effort on high-impact areas. The anticipated future benefits for the steel mill include:
- Increased Equipment Availability: Implementation of a robust reliability program increases uptime.
- Reduced Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): Focused preventive action decreases unexpected failures.
- Decreased Time to Repair: Better defined tasks and optimized maintenance plans speed up resolution.
- Improved Data Quality: The standardized asset structure provides the maintenance team with actionable data for proactive scheduling instead of reacting to unplanned downtime.
Timenow offers a partnership mindset, helping our clients plan and implement a full asset management strategy, map the asset hierarchy, and develop a maintenance plan that reduces downtime and increases asset life.
Contact us to learn more.