The airline industry has established a useful framework for adopting a rigorous and intentional maintenance program. This is something useful to think about because you may be able to adopt practices for your own shop’s maintenance operations.
Many people in maintenance cite RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) -- which is considered a breakthrough in maintenance -- as the reason for reliability. That is certainly true. But beyond this reliability, RCM requires you to think about the reason behind the condition in order to avoid that issue in the future.
In RCM, if a failure mode results in death or some environmental catastrophe, shops are obligated to fix the failure mode. This can be done one of three ways: by finding a detection task by way of PM inspection, through a condition-based inspection (such as a like a low oil pressure gauge) or by going back to the drawing board and designing away the condition. We certainly have that situation in the automotive world with dual braking systems and trailer braking systems (will brake on loss of air).
Other remedies for addressing failures include establishing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and a deep understanding of operating conditions and specifications.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
SOPs can eliminate accidents and breakdowns. In the airline industry, there are a number of examples where SOPs are followed. For instance, the pilot’s walkaround is choreographed to uncover vulnerable points. How the plane is handled on the ramp is highly engineered. The fueler does certain steps to reduce static as well as test the tanks for water contamination.
Even how the cabin attendants pour your morning coffee is defined by an SOP (to minimize the probability that you or another passenger will get burned). Each of these SOPs promotes reliability and safety.
The rules of the road are well-defined and tested (as part of recertification). There are rigorous rules of airplane separation, operating ceiling, altitude assignments depending on direction, emergency procedures and communication protocols. They calculate routing, fuel loading, spare fuel and backup airports. There are rules for bad weather, cross winds, cloud cover and visibility. All this taken together makes the time in the air safer.
Unfortunately, many of the SOPs were developed as the result of incidents, accidents and breakdowns leading to crashes and near misses. To the industries’ credit, incidents lead directly to improvements. This is a core reason why air travel is so safe.
Operating conditions and specifications
The second reason for reliability is a deep understanding of the operating envelope of the aircraft. The planes are tested and certified for certain dive rates, banking angles, climb rates, landing speeds and takeoff speeds. Every weight loading and ambient temperature defines the takeoff speed, as well as the point of no return on the runway where the pilot is committed to takeoff.
Airplanes are rigorously tested so the manufacturers know their limits.
Now back to our industry. We have some protocols for pre-trip inspections. We have rules of the road, and we also have rules of thumb, like stopping distances at various speeds.
What we are missing is rigor and intentionality. How many of us spot check that all the steps of the pre-trip inspection are done? We also don’t know the operating envelope for sure or the actual engineering impact of environmental changes (like temperature, rain, crosswinds).
Consider your practices and procedures. Are the pre-trip inspections taught, encouraged, defined, timed and generally attended to? Do your senior mechanics have the ability to add items after appropriate review? Is all this backed by policy?
We depend on experience instead of rules and checklists. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does introduce variability to the equation.
Joel Levitt is director of projects for Reliabilityweb.com’s Reliability Leadership Institute. Reliabilityweb.com provides the latest reliability and uptime maintenance news and educational information to help make asset managers, reliability leaders and maintenance professionals safer and more successful. The Reliability Leadership Institute is a community of practice to improve how organizations deliver asset performance through the use of Uptime Elements, a reliability framework.