Reliability Availability Maintainability Studies
RAM studies are used to assess a systems capability in order to optimise assets and limit costs throughout the lifecycle of a service. A design might satisfy a short term requirement, however is inefficient in the long term in areas such as supportability, operability and maintainability.
A RAM study is broken down into:
- Reliability – the ability for a system to achieve results repeatedly without failure
- Availability – the percentage of working time a system is available to respond to a demand
- Maintainability – the ease in which a system is able to stay operational without failure
We would consider that detailed Reliability Availability Maintainability (RAM) modelling and studies are an integral and necessary part of those early stages and not an optional extra. However, a RAM model can be constructed without real-life data using generic data modified to local conditions providing a valuable insight into when the step changes in availability are considered and proves the robustness (or not) of the design to varying equipment performance.
Criticality, Production Loss Analysis (PLA), Capacity Optimisation Models (COM)
Having a clear view of an asset’s risk profile is vital for assessing its reliability and operating it with confidence. Optimal utilises several techniques to provide businesses with this line of sight. Our techniques are scalable and can be used in a variety of business contexts; they are clear and auditable; allowing you to rank your assets based on their potential risk and make effective decisions for your operations.
Techniques
- Top Down Functional Criticality Analysis
- Bottom-up Analysis
- FMECA
- Root Cause Analysis
Why Criticality Analysis?
Our analysis covers various areas of your organisation including impact on safety and environment, customer impact, isolation of single-point failures, historical preventive and corrective maintenance, MTBF, probability of failure, and spares lead time. Criticality plays a key role in nearly all types of maintenance and the benefits include:
- To target reliability improvement efforts to your most “critical” equipment
- Ascertain the priority for performing maintenance tasks
- Determine optimal spare parts holdings
- Establish a high-level risk mitigation strategy for your equipment
- Ensure your most “critical” equipment are given a higher priority for replacement or upgrade
Production Loss Analysis (PLA) & Capacity Optimisation Models (COM)
Do you have a culture focused on extracting maximum value from your assets? At Optimal we can help you develop Supportability / Availability models and implement an Asset Management culture that improves the bottom-line.
- Introduce a Reliability Policy to facilitate Defect Elimination / Root Cause Analysis / Mass observation programme to deliver Bug Reports
- Operational RAM Models to determine future investment scenarios
- Review improvement in uptime and hence production efficiency improvements
- Modelling equipment configurations to support the CAPEX / OPEX decisions to establish future through life costs
- Integrate Reliability Engineering into the organisation’s value chain.
Contact us to find out about our RAM, Criticality and Lifecycle Study experience and how we can help your organisation to incorporate this into your Asset Management Strategy.
