Month: April 2022

Maintenance teams are commonly judged on how quickly they respond to asset failures. Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) is an important asset management metric used to help maintenance teams improve recovery times. This blog post shows you how to you calculate MTTR and how you can use it to improve your maintenance process.

What is Mean Time to Repair?

Defining mean time to repair (MTTR) is the first step in knowing how to use it. Mean Time to Repair is a maintenance metric that measures the average time required to repair an asset, from the moment an incident occurs until it is returned to service. It refers to the amount of wrench time that it takes to fix a problem. MTTR also demonstrates how quickly an organization responds when an unexpected breakdown occurs. This metric can bring visibility to problems with the maintenance process as it relates to making repairs.

The Benefits and Importance of Mean Time to Repair

There are several reasons that determining Mean Time to Repair is important, as well as benefits of doing so.

Discover Areas that Impact Downtime

Over time, comparing MTTR values helps maintenance teams assess whether there are issues with the asset, maintenance tasks, parts, staffing, scheduling, and/or employees. By making improvements in these areas, downtime can then be reduced. Responding to and resolving issues with assets quickly leads to more efficient production, which helps to retain customers and gain new ones.

Helps Evaluate Asset Performance

Mean Time to Repair provides a benchmark for maintenance managers to evaluate asset performance. It can also be used to identify assets that are candidates for replacement. Reports that display MTTR and related information can show how an asset is performing compared to similar assets. If one is performing significantly worse than others, the maintenance team can show there is cause for replacement.

Identifies Asset Outliers

One of the most important benefits is that Mean Time to Repair identifies asset repair outliers, assets that are significantly underperforming and the MTTR for them is high. Keep in mind that any number near the average of MTTR is not very helpful. It may be easier to determine outliers when more assets are being compared. If a few machines out of each similar group have a high MTTR, there is likely an underlying reason for it.

If an organization has many of the same kinds of assets, all assets of that type can be compared to see which of them have a high MTTR. Location and use of the machines matter as well, so the maintenance team needs to conduct a thorough analysis to find out why each of these machines’ MTTR is different.

Some questions to ask include, do these machines get misused by inexperienced technicians? Are some machines running beyond their rated capacity? It serves as a starting point to ask other subsequent questions, dig into the history of each asset, and examine what the causes of each asset failure were. If trying other ways to lower MTTR were unsuccessful, maintenance departments can question whether or not the assets need to be replaced.

Helps Shape Future Asset Buying Decisions

The results of calculating MTTR helps shape future asset buying decisions. They may get feedback from technicians as well since they are the ones doing the maintenance work. It’s worthwhile to ask if it is a make and model issue. If so, they can choose not to buy that same machine again. When an asset is brand new, it is will have an MTTR outlier, but it will usually be low, not high, so that number is not especially useful. But over the course of the asset’s lifecycle, looking for trends from a make and model perspective will help to identify outliers on the high end.

Who Uses Mean Time to Repair Information?

The information gathered from calculating mean time to repair is valuable to many people in an organization. It is especially relevant for maintenance managers, maintenance technicians, and production supervisors.

Maintenance Managers

Maintenance managers use MTTR to examine the maintenance jobs on certain machines that are taking the longest to complete and if there are ways to shorten the timeframe of these jobs. This can include a variety of assets and wrench times, but the key is finding outliers. If it’s determined that the MTTR is longer than desirable because of assets that are in poor condition, they may use that information to show upper management that the asset should be replaced.

Maintenance Technicians

Maintenance technicians may use MTTR to (informally) evaluate their own performance. It will help them reflect on what to improve that is in their control and what is out of their control. It allows them to see patterns in repairs that take longer or shorter periods of time. In some cases, it may help them to present a case for hiring more technicians. As a team, maintenance technicians can use MTTR information to set maintenance goals.

Production Supervisor

While the production manager or supervisor is not directly involved in the factors MTTR covers, they may be impacted by its results. If they are aware of the current state of MTTR on multiple types of repairs on specific assets, it can help them to understand that while there is an average downtime number on each type of machine, downtime overall will vary greatly depending on which asset is down, how major the repair is, and what it will take to fix the problem.

How to Calculate Mean Time to Repair

The Mean Time to Repair formula is shown below. Take the sum of all repair time (for similar repairs on an asset or group of assets) in hours and divide by the number of repairs that occurred within the specified time period.

It’s important to note that repair time can be defined as the time from the report of the problem to repair completion, or from the start of the actual repair work to completion. Most of the time, the latent period between when a problem occurs and when it is discovered is also included. Organizations will use one method or the other based on their needs.

The number of repairs is the total number of similar repairs done on the asset that MTTR is being calculated on within the specified time period. This formula gives the average time it takes to complete the repair process.

It’s worth noting that the MTTR calculation assumes that the tasks are performed sequentially (that is, in a standardized way and in the same order every time) and by appropriately trained personnel. Finding an ideal Mean Time to Repair heavily depends on the type of asset and the time required for each repair, which may vary greatly.  Desired timeframes for repairs to be completed must be adjusted for the asset’s complexity and age.

If you are just starting to calculate MTTR and don’t have multiple years worth of data to look back on, you can come up with a number by calculating MTTR for a group of similar assets and apply that number to a specific machine in that group. It may take two or three years to get a true benchmark, whereas initially, only educated guesses can be made. Getting a good number for each repair type on each particular asset or group of similar assets is the goal.

How to Interpret Mean Time to Repair

In order to benefit from the results of calculating mean time to repair, maintenance teams need to know how to interpret them. MTTR can serve as a benchmark for future comparison. Remember that the number will rise and fall over time based on the types of repairs that were done during the time period calculated. The number should be determined for each type of repair in an asset class or individual asset as they will be different. There is no one ideal MTTR number because it depends on the type of asset and type of repair.

Another thing to remember is that initial calculations are a benchmark. MTTR values in subsequent calculations may be higher or lower. A lower number may reflect that an asset is new, since less severe problems occur with newer assets. A lower MTTR number might also mean frequent, short repairs are being made, so it’s not necessarily an indicator of how well repairs are being performed.

If MTTR numbers are higher, that could mean more major repairs were completed during the last calculation period, or it could indicate other issues. It’s important to look into what might be causing an increase in those numbers to determine if those factors can be changed or not.

Calculating Mean Time to Repair should be done at longer intervals rather than shorter ones. For example, if MTTR was calculated for a year’s worth of repairs the first time, the maintenance team should wait at least another full year before calculating MTTR again. However, after the first two years, a smaller timeframe may be appropriate to use to get quicker feedback. Comparing MTTR numbers that are too close together will not give an accurate mean time, or average number when establishing a baseline, but after that point, a long time frame is not as crucial.

An MTTR report can show how an asset is performing relative to similar assets and help to build a case for asset replacement or reflect on maintenance efforts for that asset. Many underlying issues can impact MTTR, so it needs to be determined whether changes are needed to staffing, scheduling, or inventory management.

Ways to Improve Mean Time to Repair

The MTTR metric may also help to improve maintenance scheduling, which in turn will improve MTTR values. Maintenance managers may change the frequency of some preventive maintenance, allow more or less time to complete certain jobs, or make adjustments to which technicians complete which jobs. Other ways to improve Mean Time to Repair include:

• Provide more in-depth training on asset function and repair techniques for new employees or as a refresher for existing employees.
• Implement predictive maintenance sensors to alert maintenance departments of problems before they become emergencies, which will result in faster, easier maintenance jobs.
• Continually update repair procedures and instructions to ensure they are performed in a standardized way.

What are the Limitations of Mean Time to Repair?

As with all maintenance metrics, there are limitations to MTTR. It doesn’t tell you where in the process an error or failure occurred. If MTTR is calculated over too short of a time period, the results will not be accurate. For some assets and types of failure, it takes several months or a year to gather enough data and determine an accurate number. For others assets and failure types, there may be enough data to calculate MTTR after a much shorter time frame.

In many cases, an increase in MTTR can reveal issues and a decrease can indicate improvements. However, it depends on the types of repairs being made. Major repairs take more time and increase MTTR while quick repairs can lower MTTR. Only repairs that are comparable to each other (apples to apples) can be included in the same MTTR calculation. Therefore, multiple MTTR numbers can be calculated for different types of repairs for the same asset. Either way, keeping track of MTTR over time helps maintenance personnel know how they’re performing.

Steps Included in Calculating Repair Time

Now that we’ve covered what Mean Time to Repair is, why it’s important, who uses it, and how to interpret it, next is to learn what tasks are included in the repair time calculation.

Diagnosing the Issue

Once the technician has been notified of the problem, the timeframe for calculating MTTR begins. The technician will come over to the machine and attempt to determine the issue. They may do an inspection, speak to the machine operator to learn more about the problem, and perform diagnostics.

Fixing the Issue

After the cause of the problem has been found, it’s time to fix the issue. Depending on what the repair is, this may be the longest part of the process. The machine is has already broken down, so production downtime has already been occurring. However, the technician will have to shut down the machine fully to begin the maintenance work. The time it takes to actually do the repair is measured closely. Any form of a lockout tagout procedure would also be included here.

Reassembling and Calibrating the Asset

After the machine is repaired, if needed, the machine is reassembled, aligned, and calibrated. If the maintenance work requires any disassembly of the machine, the parts need to be replaced.

Setting Up, Testing, and Starting the Asset Back Up

Lastly, repair time includes setting up the asset for production, testing its operation to ensure the repair fixed the problem, and starting the machine again. When the machine is fully up and running again, the period of Mean Time to Repair ends.

Calculate MTTR with FTMaintenance Select

Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software helps maintenance teams easily calculate Mean Time to Repair because all work order information including labor time records and individual repair records are recorded. This creates maintenance history, which stores and displays information about how long repairs took. It also holds data on how many and what type of repairs were done on each asset, what solved each maintenance problem, and information on the condition of each asset.

CMMS software also allows maintenance managers to make adjustments in the maintenance schedule to accommodate unexpected corrective maintenance work. The maintenance reports available in CMMS software help maintenance teams to calculate MTTR accurately.

FTMaintenance Select is a complete maintenance management software solution that can be used to track asset maintenance and repair time, including MTTR, build a maintenance history, track labor hours, and run asset reports. Request a demo today to learn more.

Effective equipment management is the key to reliable production, reduced downtime, and extended asset life. However, many organizations struggle to properly manage their equipment, causing a ripple effect that negatively affects productivity and profitability. But what if these challenges could be minimized? By adopting equipment management best practices, maintenance teams can ensure equipment reliability and operational success. This article provides an overview of best practices to help you take your equipment management practices to the next level.

Why Equipment Management Matters

Equipment management is a critical component of a well-run maintenance operation. When done correctly, it leads to:

• Lower Equipment Costs: Strictly managed and maintained equipment is less likely to undergo unexpected failures, reducing the need for emergency repairs and costly unplanned downtime.
• Boosted Productivity: Reliable equipment ensures that organizations can maintain consistent operations and meet production deadlines with minimal disruption.
• Extended Asset Lifespans: Proactive, scheduled maintenance helps prevent excessive wear and tear, maximizing a machine’s useful life and delaying the need for costly replacements and repairs.
• Enhanced Safety: Effective equipment management mitigates potential risks and fosters a safer working environment.
• Regulatory Compliance: Detailed equipment and maintenance documentation helps organizations meet regulatory requirements and avoid penalties and liability.
• Better Decision-Making: Comprehensive equipment records provide valuable insights into performance, helping teams prioritize tasks and allocate resources.

In short, effective equipment management is not simply a suggestion – it is necessary for supporting the day-to-day and long-term goals of industrial organizations.

Equipment Management Best Practices

Maintenance organizations must adopt equipment management best practices to create a structured approach that enables them to maximize asset value, leverage performance data, and improve decision-making. While there are numerous best practices to consider, the following section highlights the most widely accepted tactics.

Invest in Equipment Management Software

Longstanding barriers, such as the perception of maintenance as a cost center, a reactive maintenance culture, and budget constraints have made organizations reluctant to invest in maintenance technology. However, as equipment becomes more complex, and organizations recognize the critical role of maintenance in minimizing downtime and controlling costs, attitudes have changed.

Today, organizations are investing in solutions that will empower them to operate more efficiently and maximize the value of their equipment at every stage of its lifecycle. There is a wide range of solutions available, of which computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software and enterprise asset management (EAM) software are the most common. Systems such as these centralize equipment information, providing instant access to critical data that allows you to automate maintenance schedules, allocate resources, and analyze performance to make data-driven decisions.

Inventory and Identify Your Equipment

To effectively manage equipment, you must have visibility of what equipment you have and where it is used or stored. To do this, maintenance teams create an asset register that lists every piece of equipment and its location. This ensures that every piece of equipment is accounted for, ensuring that none are overlooked for inspections, scheduled maintenance and repairs, or in reporting.

Further, it is critical that each piece of equipment is uniquely identified so that it is not confused with other, similar equipment and that maintenance activities can be linked to specific machines. Many companies create or follow an asset naming convention to generate meaningful ID numbers and provide a structure for future equipment identification. Our article, 3 Asset Naming Convention Designs to Consider, discusses 3 approaches to developing your naming convention.

Prioritize Your Equipment

Not all equipment contributes equally to business operations. That’s why it is important to prioritize equipment based on factors such as importance to core business functions or production processes, downtime cost, costs, and safety risks. Doing so allows you to put more focus on equipment that matters most to your organization and make strategic decisions about the maintenance frequency, labor resources and required skills, budget, and spare parts inventory devoted to critical equipment.

Create and Maintain Comprehensive Equipment Records

Creating and maintaining accurate and up-to-date equipment records is essential for effective equipment management. These records store critical information about your equipment, such as their location, warranty information, related vendors and suppliers, and performance data. A CMMS allows you to attach electronic files, like owner’s manuals and schematics, to records so they are readily available.

However, simply creating the records isn’t enough – keeping them up to date is equally important. As maintenance activities are performed, it’s crucial to update equipment records to ensure your team is always working with the most current information available. Equipment management software can automatically update records for you, such as attributing maintenance costs from work orders, generating a bill of materials based on repairs, tracking downtime, and more.

Understand the Big Picture

It can be common for maintenance teams to treat each piece of equipment as an individual, standalone unit. However, equipment often works as part of a large system, and treating each unit independently can cause teams to overlook how performance and failures affect others. Organizing equipment into an asset hierarchy that shows parent-child relationships helps maintenance teams understand equipment’s broader role in operations, and makes it easy to visualize the relationships between equipment, their subassemblies, bills of materials, and related components.

Identify and Stock Critical Spares

Critical spares are the parts most likely to cause significant downtime if they are unavailable when needed. For each piece of equipment, identify critical spares on the bill of materials and ensure these parts are kept in stock with proper inventory management support to maintain availability. A CMMS can simplify inventory management by tracking stock levels in real time and sending reorder notifications. By setting minimum stock levels and reorder point triggers, you can ensure timely restocking and avoid unexpected shortages.

Gather Baseline Performance Data

In addition to equipment details such as operating specifications and service history, maintenance teams should also collect some baseline data such as downtime, mean time between failures, replacement costs of parts, and technician’s response times. Doing so provides maintenance teams with valuable insights into machine performance, and establishes a benchmark against which you can measure improvements over time. These measurements may also prompt a change in maintenance strategy or help justify equipment replacement.

Develop a Preventive Maintenance Program

Developing a preventive maintenance (PM) program is a critical component of equipment management because it transitions maintenance teams from a reactive approach to a proactive strategy. A formal preventive maintenance plan provides structure and consistency in maintenance activities, and guides when maintenance should be performed, who should perform it, and what should be done. Base your PM program off of manufacturer recommendations and maintenance history, but be sure to adjust according to performance or operational changes.

Preventive maintenance planning and scheduling is where CMMS software really shines. An effective CMMS allows you to create work order templates for recurring maintenance work, ensuring that work is performed consistently and to the same standard each time. Flexible scheduling options allow you to automatically generate work orders by date-based or usage-based triggers, ensuring that maintenance is only performed when needed.

How CMMS Software Supports Equipment Management Best Practices

As mentioned throughout this article thus far, CMMS software increases your ability to implement and maintain equipment management best practices in ways that are just not possible using manual methods. Below are some ways a CMMS supports effective equipment management.

Centralized Equipment Data

CMMS software provides a centralized database that stores all information about your equipment in one location, serving as a sole source of truth for your maintenance team. From technical specifications to images, videos, and digital copies of owner’s manuals, the system allows you to access critical equipment information the moment you need it. This eliminates time wasted rifling through file cabinets or other systems for information.

Additionally, cloud-based CMMS software provides remote access to equipment data, ensuring your team has the information they need wherever they go.

Visualization of Equipment Relationships

Many CMMS solutions feature an asset hierarchy, showing the relationship between equipment and their related subcomponents in a tree view. These hierarchies not only help you visualize your equipment’s place within the facility, but allow you to pinpoint problem areas quickly and prioritize maintenance activities to areas of need.

Detailed Equipment Records

CMMS software allows you to log and organize detailed records for all of your managed equipment. These records encompass the entire asset lifecycle, including identification details, technical specifications, maintenance history, work order details, part usage, and vendor information. By integrating equipment records with other critical maintenance data, a CMMS provides you with a complete picture of your equipment’s performance and repair activity.

Spare Part Inventory Management

Successful equipment maintenance relies on equally successful spare parts management. A CMMS integrates these functions seamlessly, allowing you to identify the parts used to repair equipment and track their availability in real time. As parts are consumed through work orders, the system automatically updates inventory levels and notifies you when it’s time to reorder. This ensures that critical spares and other parts are available when – and before – you need them.

Automated Preventive Maintenance Scheduling

Maintenance scheduling software, like a CMMS, is essential for streamlining and automating your preventive maintenance program. A CMMS allows you to create a master preventive maintenance plan tailored for each piece of equipment, ensuring that maintenance tasks are scheduled at the right time based on manufacturer recommendations, usage patterns, or historical performance. As you collect data, you can fine-tune the schedule to minimize disruptions to daily operations and take advantage of opportunities for more comprehensive maintenance needs.

Equipment Performance Tracking

Tracking equipment in a CMMS allows you to make data-driven decisions about your equipment. Reporting and dashboard features make it easy to visualize and track the performance of your equipment, allowing you to identify trends and detect patterns in performance. With this data readily accessible, you can better identify which equipment is susceptible to failure and requires extra attention, or justify repair vs. replace decisions.

Improve Your Equipment Management Practices with FTMaintenance Select

Effective equipment management is essential for minimizing downtime and maximizing the value of your equipment and maintenance assets. By implementing best practices – in particular, investing in a CMMS – you can significantly improve your equipment management efforts.

A CMMS like FTMaintenance Select provides the tools necessary for documenting, tracking, and analyzing equipment performance and status, and empowering you to take a proactive approach to equipment maintenance. Request a demo today to see how FTMaintenance Select can improve your equipment management practices and provide value to your organization.