Having a good strategy in the maintenance management of the assets of the productive process will have a direct impact on the extension of their useful life, guaranteeing the performance of their function, mitigating risks, reducing costs due to unscheduled shutdowns and unexpected failures, optimizing maintenance plans and reducing intrusive interventions.

This strategy can be supported by different work philosophies already established in the industrial world, which ensure the path towards a world-class maintenance culture, such as CBM condition monitoring, RAM analysis, RCM, RBM, TPM, PMO, etc. In turn, implementing them under international norms and standards provides strength and continuous improvement, however, this represents a great challenge in terms of qualified data analysis for effective decision making, since a large amount will be generated, that is where the combination of Industry 4.0 tools such as IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things), Big Data, data analytics, etc., generate a source of competitiveness through digitization.

One of the critical points in the optimization of maintenance management is to determine the opportunities for improvement and which of the different methodologies would work for our needs, this is where the support of an external entity is strategic to identify and propose a cycle of continuous improvement, supported by characterization, indicators, statistical methods, training, certification, introduction of new technologies and other strategies that guarantee the path to a successful implementation.

One of the challenges we face when implementing a reliability-based strategy is the cultural and technological barrier, that is why in this article we will talk a little about the impact of these aspects in our maintenance management and how to align them to modern concepts such as Industry 4.0.

Change management The world is changing at breakneck speed and change management presents us with a structured approach that seeks to manage and facilitate the implementation of successful transformation processes, in personal and organizational aspects in order to achieve the desired results. Its objective is to help stakeholders embrace change in their current business environment.

When we talk about maintenance, some of the objectives we are looking for when framing ourselves in a reliability culture are the following:

• Maintenance Management aligned with the strategic priorities of the organization.
• Extending the useful life of assets and reducing unproductive time due to unscheduled shutdowns.
• Mitigate intrusive interventions through the optimization of maintenance plans and the implementation of new technologies.
• Optimize the inspection routes implemented.
• Have personnel trained in the different work philosophies aligned to maintenance management.
• Identify opportunities for improvement in the current structure of maintenance management.
• To visualize the maintenance of our assets as a business unit within the production process.
• To know the applicable norms and standards regarding maintenance management, which give solidity to the implementation and to the personnel in charge.
• Determine the critical and historical information that must be kept per asset in order to obtain indicators for effective maintenance management and develop a database that allows internal and external benchmarking.
• Probabilistically characterize failures to establish proactive actions to avoid or mitigate their effect.
• Identify the different data management methodologies for the optimization of information management.
• Identify technologies oriented to Industry 4.0 IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) that facilitate the timely identification and diagnosis of failures.

When human resources become aware of the need for organizational change, they increase their commitment to the company and guarantee the success of the different processes, thus developing self-confidence and fostering the ability to take on new challenges with leadership. For this, it is necessary to promote support from management, build a path of constant communication and generate environments that stimulate the emergence of new leaders.
Digital transformation Digital transformation has revolutionized the culture of companies and confirms the need for a prompt response from organizations to face rapid and important transformations. Digital transformation is the new business strategy opportunities that arise thanks to the emergence of technologies. When we talk about reliability engineering, digital transformation must be a support when condensing data and generating quality information that allows making decisions at operational, tactical and strategic levels. One of the points that we must look at with a magnifying glass are the condition monitoring systems, which will allow us to know the real-time behavior of our most critical assets, some of the benefits to be obtained with these systems are:

• Cost reduction with effective diagnostics avoiding unexpected failures.
• Effective scheduling of preventive and corrective maintenance activities.
• Project ideal operation and timely maintenance to avoid unscheduled shutdowns.
• Assurance of the integrity of monitored equipment.
• Information available to support the performance of the equipment before the assurance entities.
• Compliance with the standards applied to the control and evaluation of critical assets.
• Real-time knowledge of the operating conditions of the most influential machines in your production process.
• Protocols that allow communication with any SCADA control system.
• Unification of process variables with vibration measurements and other techniques, to achieve a complete and assertive analysis.
• Integration with the plant network, allowing the entire line of managers from the operator to the maintenance engineer to have timely access to information about their equipment.

This change is not only technological and is not only focused on the technology used (Big Data, cloud, Internet of things, mobility, social business), but its implementation in order to meet the objectives set, through corporate strategies, so these investments must be accompanied by a process of training people to enable their reinvention and that is where we talk about cultural transformation. Cultural transformation The consequences of transformations always fall on people, the main asset of organizations, and that is why their participation is essential to ensure success. People are generally reluctant to change because of the uncertainty that is generated and the ability to adapt and manage is a clear indicator of professional leadership.

Why? Because we live in a changing environment that demands constant adaptation and in a short time, the impact of culture on organizational performance is essential to achieve the objectives of the organization, which must be consistent with our development plan. The reality is that the perfect cultural transformation does not exist and each company works with a different model. Some objectives of a cultural transformation are:

• Establish a methodological basis for transforming the organization into a learning and continuous improvement unit.
• Clearly identify the opportunities for improvement and establish the action plan to carry them out.
• To lay the foundations of an internalization strategy for a cultural revolution that allows us to generate attachment to good practices and ingrained values during our daily activities.

We can summarize the cultural transformation in 4 stages, which must be born from the management and reach each actor of the organization:

1. Formulate: Here we define the strategic challenges for cultural transformation.
2. Manage the culture: Communication of the formulated challenges, defining where we are going and where we are, the results must be measured and managed to be sustainable.
3. Strategic plan: Updating the strategic plan, incorporating the objectives and indicators necessary to make our cultural transformation a reality.
4. Support to leaders: Implementation of self-assessment processes, context assessment, training and mentoring activities, which will help us to manage ourselves and our team.

“To implement a reliability strategy we must be reliable”.

When we start the development of the Life Cycle of an asset, questions arise such as: when do we really start thinking about maintenance, and on the other hand, when should we start thinking about maintenance? However, what usually happens is that the concept of maintenance starts to be taken into account when the asset is already in the operation stage, which is too late and can lead to cost overruns and increased repair times. If we take into account the concepts of maintainability and reliability of the assets from the conception and design stage of the projects, we will be able to mitigate risks and avoid surprises that affect the performance of the equipment and the productivity of the processes. The conception and design of the asset are the first phase of its life cycle and from there, aspects such as the following must be taken into account:

• The ease and access that the assets will have to ensure the execution of maintenance plans, environmental and regulatory aspects such as health and safety of those involved, demands of the operation, applicable national and international standards and other relevant aspects that must be met to ensure their productivity.
• Establish and know the modes and effects of failures that may occur in our assets, in order to consider the maintenance tasks that lead to a structured plan to ensure the reliability of the processes.
• Recognize the technological needs in terms of monitoring variables and protection of the integrity of the asset, allowing the adequate support of investments.

Likewise, it is essential that throughout the manufacturing and acquisition of the assets considered in the project, quality assurance and control activities are carried out, aimed at compliance with the standards and norms established in the design. These activities, tests and inspections must be carried out before shipping the equipment and prior to each stage of the project, ensuring that they work properly and avoiding reprocessing and non-compliance with the estimated project time and costs. This procedure will be complemented with on-site tests to validate the information previously provided and make timely decisions. The importance of considering the concepts of reliability in all stages of an asset’s life and how this will have a direct impact on the fulfillment of the objectives set by the organizations can be seen, being the path to follow to reach profitable productive processes and flexible enough to face the rapid changes of today’s world.