MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT METHODS. ABB MicroSCADA

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3 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT METHODS

Maintenance contracts are an important part of engineering projects in ABB

Substation Automation Systems. In case of a problem the customer can immediately contact the company and engineers responsible for the maintenance.

In the best case scenario the problem can be fixed by using a phone and Remote

Desktop Connection but sometimes the problem demands repairing it on the location. By buying maintenance service the customer can shorten and prevent interruptions in their process or in service they are offering. This improves reliability and usability of the system, saves the customer’s money and also provides earnings to the deliverer of the system after the commissioning.

There are several maintenance management methods that could be considered.

Typically industrial plans use run-to-failure or preventive maintenance.

3.1 Run-to-Failure Management

The idea behind of run-to-failure is very simple. There is no preventive or predictive maintenance done, so if something breaks up, it will be fixed. This is a very old and still widely used method of maintenance. When run-to-failure management is used, there are no maintenance costs until the system fails to operate.

In run-to-failure management, there is actually no maintenance made. It is the most expensive maintenance method because of high spare parts inventory cost, high costs of labor overtime, high downtime of the system and low production availability. When this management method is used, a company must be able to react to all possible failures with spare parts inventories that include all critical components or even spare machines. Another option is to rely on equipment vendors that can provide quick delivery of all spare parts required. The maintenance personnel must also be available and react immediately to all system failures.