Asset management consultants and business improvement specialists MCP, has mastered a benchmarking process that identifies weaknesses in the chain to improve operational performance.
“The benchmarking programme that we developed is called AMIS. It measures the effectiveness of the site or organisation with respect to its maintenance and it then identifies gaps on that site between best practice and the current performance,” said Peter Gagg, CEO, MCP Consulting Group.
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The AMIS Journey
MCP’s AMIS Journey focuses on key areas that make the biggest impact on an organisation’s performance: equipment reliability, performance and availability; business processes; organisation structure and development; data, document management and information systems; work planning and scheduling; spare parts and inventory; and training and skills development.
Reassess Your Maintenance Practices
Peter continued: “You should be asking yourself: what sort of maintenance are you doing and with what frequency? Where can you rationalise and improve reliability by reviewing the current preventive maintenance. Also, assess which tasks you can transfer, for example, to operators as part of a Total Productive Maintenance programme (TPM) so that the more complicated tasks are dedicated to the skills that you have. How can you improve productivity, are your processes effective or do they cause delays to production operations and maintenance teams?”
New Software for Predictive Maintenance
With new technology developments it is no longer necessary to hard wire sensors to equipment particularly if it is old equipment. Nowadays, an intelligent technology solution is available which can be retrofitted in 15 minutes and be ready to collect equipment performance data immediately and raise alarms if the equipment is beginning to fail.
Building on the latest technology AMIS now also features a software product for predictive maintenance that can complement existing infrastructure and integrate seamlessly into the operation to collect machine data such as abnormal vibration, pressure fluctuations and temperature changes.
“With our new software you can monitor individual pieces of equipment and identify anomalies. Our software can monitor and track each piece of equipment and treat as an individual item. Even if you have got pumps for example that are all the same, each one has a different history and the software can tell you what has gone wrong with that piece based on its history, which may be different than the one it is next to. It’s highly effective if used in the right way,” added Peter.
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Best Practices
MCP uses manufacturing best practice tool Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) to measure manufacturing productivity. It identifies the percentage of manufacturing time that is truly productive and gives important insights in how to systematically improve the manufacturing process.
“It uses a combined approach to understand why the output is low and what is causing the minor stops that are often ignored. A typical company OEE is 65%, if it is lucky, but it should be closer to 85%. Operators are key to closing that gap because they operate the machine every day. We can tap into the knowledge they have.”
Optimise Inventory
As pressures from the pandemic become more widely felt and the UK eases Covid restrictions, MCP also believes now is a good time to assess stock to optimise inventory.
“Companies are going through difficult periods and looking to save money. Stock is an item that is always an issue in companies: some of the right parts and too many of the wrong parts. And they just sit there – it is wasted money. Typically, you can save 20-25% of your inventory value by focusing on what you need to stock.”
Sponsoring Plant Engineer of the Year
Best practices can be implemented, and operational excellence achieved, however, this can only be done by the staff operating the equipment and managing the facilities. This is why MCP is delighted to be sponsoring the Plant Engineer of the Year award at the Society Safety and Sustainability Awards this autumn.
“We are very discerning when it comes to awards that we sponsor. This is one where the staff that we most engage with are recognised for their achievements, so it is well worth supporting” added Peter.
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