Maintenance Support

Maintenance Support includes all the considerations necessary to ensure an optimally maintainable materiel system with a defined maintenance support structure.

Integrated Logistics Support

 Subjects related to Australia, Computer Support, Engineering Support, Facility Support, Integated Logistics Support, Maintenance Support, New Zealand, Personnel, PHST, Supply Support, Support and Test Equipment, Technical Data, Training Support, USA
Sep 012016
 

Integrated Logistics Support Services

The ten ILS elements

The ten ILS elements

 

The ten areas of ILS:

Why is ILS Important to Defence ?
For Defence, it’s ensuring that:

  •  we provide the optimum Mission System to the user
  •  it’s provided to:
    •  the right person
    •  at the right place
    •  at the right time
  •  deliver it in best possible condition with the ability to fulfil its designed mission role under the stated operational conditions as per it’s mission profile.

Why is ILS Important to the Contractor / Service Provider ?
Knowing and understanding the ILS requirements permits the contractor to deliver what Defence needs to:

  •  accurately acquire and sustain the Materiel System through life at the greatest Operational Availability (Ao) for the best Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to Defence and the Tax payer.

To do this in a cost effective manner, the contractor must be able to deliver equipment and supporting documentation:

  •  without duplication of effort or continuous rework
  •  delivering best ILS practice and product to Defence thereby enabling them to be viewed by Defence as a preferred tenderer for future work (Scorecard), and
  •  be internationally competitive in the Defence arena

The most attractive part for the contractors:

  •  Sustainment activities or Through Life Support (TLS) contracts for Defence materiel are often more lucrative than the supply of the original equipment
  •  TLS of the Mission System and many of the Support Systems are now being managed and maintained by the OEM.
  •  Generally, 20% to 30% of funds are spent in Acquisition and 70% to 80% spent in Sustainment.

How do you do ILS ?
You don’t “DO” ILS; you perform Logistic Support Analysis (LSA) tasks that allows you to achieve the ILS outcomes.
Those LSA Disciplines include:

  •  Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM)
  •  Failure Modes, Effects & Criticality Analysis (FMECA) (done during design)
  •  Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA) (done after design to determine maintenance tasks)
  •  Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM)
  •  Level Of Repair Analysis (LORA)
  •  Verification and Validation (V&V)
  •  Life Cycle Costing Analysis (LCCA)

So what is Logistics Support Analysis (LSA)?

LSA is a selected group of analytical techniques.
It is conducted continually throughout the Materiel Life Cycle (MLC).
It provides the data to support improvements to the efficiency of the Materiel System.
All data from the analysis is stored in the Logistic Support Analysis Record (LSAR).

Maintenance Engineering Analysis – MEA

 Subjects related to Engineering Support, Failure Modes Effects Analysis, FMEA, Maintenance Engineering Analysis, Maintenance Task Analysis, MEA, MTA, MTA, RCM, Reliability Centred Maintenance
Sep 012016
 

Maintenance Engineering Analysis (MEA).

FMEA, RCM, and MTA are also referred to as Maintenance Engineering Analysis (MEA).

  • FMEA  Failure Modes Effects Analysis – How can the equipment fail and what is the effect of failure.
  • RCM    Reliability Centred Maintenance – Maintenance focused on preventive replacements in order to maximise the operational period.
  • MTA    Maintenance Task Analysis – What specific tasks need to be performed to maintain the equipment

Maintenance Support

 Subjects related to Integated Logistics Support, Maintenance Support
Sep 012016
 

Maintenance Support
Maintenance support includes all the considerations necessary to ensure:

  • an optimally maintainable materiel system;
  • with a defined maintenance support structure.

In Service Maintenance Support includes:

  • Processes / Procedures
  • Maintenance data collection / management
  • Training for the Personnel
  • Manuals
  • Tools and support equipment (calibration)
  •  Personnel to do the maintenance

Maintenance Requirements Determination

 Subjects related to Integated Logistics Support, Maintenance Requirements Determination, MRD
Sep 012016
 

Maintenance Requirements Determination or MRD is a fundamental part of Integrated Logistic Support.

MRD is the umbrella term for: Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM), Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA) and Level of Repair Analysis (LORA).
FMEA, RCM, and MTA are also referred to as Maintenance Engineering Analysis (MEA).

 

Maintenance Requirements Determination Software: eMRD

Corrective Maintenance

 Subjects related to Corrective Maintenance, Integated Logistics Support
Sep 012016
 

Corrective Maintenance is the repair of a piece of equipment to return it to a serviceable condition.
It is usually:

  • unplanned and
  • performed upon the failure of the equipment.

Corrective maintenance does not include:

  • planned maintenance such as oil or filter changes,
  • hour/ time based maintenance or overhauls.

 

Preventive Maintenance

 Subjects related to Integated Logistics Support, Preventive Maintenance
Sep 012016
 

Preventive Maintenance is the servicing of a piece of equipment to maintain it in an operable condition that allows it to meet the specifications of its operational requirements.

It is usually:

  • planned and
  • performed before the failure of the equipment,
  • performed as insurance against equipment failure.

Preventive maintenance includes:

  • planned maintenance such as oil or filter changes,
  • hour/ time (calendar days / months/ years) based maintenance or overhauls.
    • eg monthly, 3 monthly, 6 monthly, 12 monthly, 250 hrs, 500 hrs, 2000 hrs, 6000 hrs

It is important to understand that the intention of preventive maintenance is to prolong the operating life of the equipment by replacing components before they fail, however preventive maintenance cannot stop failure  completely.

 

Preventive Maintenance Video

Design For Maintainability - NASA YouTube play

Facility and Asset Management

 Subjects related to Facility Support, Integated Logistics Support, Logistic Support Analysis, Maintenance Engineering Analysis, Melbourne
Sep 012016
 

Facility and Asset Management

Facility, Asset and Fleet Management are very similar in many ways to Integrated Logistic Support (ILS).

They have the same sub functions as ILS:

  •  Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM)
  •  Failure Modes, Effects & Criticality Analysis (FMECA) (done during design)
  •  Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA) (done after design to determine maintenance tasks)
  •  Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM)
  •  Level Of Repair Analysis (LORA)
  •  Verification and Validation (V&V)
  •  Life Cycle Costing Analysis (LCCA)

Consider a ship or sub marine, which is essentially a building on / in a hull, it constitutes many common systems that require the same analysis and support that any facility or equipment might need:

Electrical

  • Electrical Generation systems
  • Electrical Distribution systems
  • Lighting systems
  • Emergency Lighting systems
  • Backup power systems / UPS / batteries

Electronic systems

  • Communication systems
  • Electronic Control systems
  • Information systems

Water

  • Water purification / desalination
  • Water storage / supply
  • Hot water production and storage
  • Water distribution / plumbing
  • Fire fighting system

Waste water

  • Grey water system / recyclable / alternate use
    • Distribution, treatment and storage
  • Black water system / Sewage
    • Distribution, treatment and storage

Power Plant / Engine

  • Engine mechanics
  • Fuel system
  • Intake air filtering system
  • Exhaust system
  • Lubrication system
  • Hydraulic system
  • Cooling system

Transmission

  • Gearbox
  • Drive shafts
  • Output drive (propeller)

Stowage

  • Tanks (fuel / water / supplies / cargo)
  • Storage compartments and shelving (supplies, cargo, support equipment)

Structure

  • Hull / frame
  • Walls
  • Flooring
  • Roof

Ancillary equipment

  • Support boats / inflatables
  • Lifting equipment
  • Winches
  • Weaponry

Ancillary Support equipment

  • Repair workshops
  • Food preparation, handling and cooking equipment.

Safety systems

  • Fire fighting system
  • Smoke / gas detection
  • Emergency escape systems –
    • slides / ladders / life boats
  • Life preserving systems
    • Life vests, Emergency Breathing apparatus, Defibrillators

The majority of the above also apply to aircraft and to many vehicle systems and of course to land based buildings.

Thus the same integrated logistic support techniques can be applied to non military equipment and facilities with the same benefits in terms of minimising down time and through life costs while maximising availability and performance.

Australian Asset Management

Asset Integrity

 

Failure Modes Effects Analysis

 Subjects related to Failure Modes Effects Analysis, FMEA, Logistic Support, Logistic Support Analysis, Maintenance Engineering Analysis, MEA
Aug 312016
 

Failure Modes Effects Analysis
Failure Modes Effects Analysisis is the analysis of HOW the equipment can fail and what is the effect of failure.

It is designed to identify potential failure modes for an item or system, to assess the risks involved with those failures, to categorise and order in terms of importance, and to identify and either put in place mitigations or institute corrective actions to address those that can be addressed.

Reliability Centred Maintenance

 Subjects related to Logistic Support, Logistic Support Analysis, Maintenance Engineering Analysis, MEA, MRD, RCM, RCM, Reliability Centred Maintenance
Aug 312016
 

Reliability Centred Maintenance
Reliability Centred Maintenance is the analysis and execution of Maintenance tasks focused on preventive replacements in order to maximise the operational period.

The focus on preventive maintenance is easily understood when consideration is given to the typical reactive type maintenance, ie “fix it when it breaks”.

In the typical reactive maintenance situation, the planned preventive maintenance gets delayed while resources are sidetracked performing emergency repairs to keep the system running after something has failed.

The delayed or cancelled preventive maintenance tasks then cause the system to be put at further risk due to it now operating beyond the planned / calculated maintenance periods. These operations beyond expected maintenance periods may place extra stress on the system, resulting in failure, diversion of maintenance resources to fix the failure, and a constant downward spiral in reliability. eg

  • An oil change that is normally scheduled to be performed at 250 operating hours gets postponed due to a separate failure elsewhere in the system.
  • The system is put back into service but the planned maintenance window for oil change has been missed and the system is now unable to be taken off-line for another 250 hours due to operational requirements.
  • So now the equipment has to run on the same oil for 500 hours rather than the planned 250.
  • If the original design did not allow for a maintenance period of twice the planned period, this may result in higher levels of contaminants and lower lubrication performance, and hence higher wear.
  • This higher level of wear may show up quickly in terms of an earlier failure of an associated piece of equipment, or it may not show up for years, instead resulting in perhaps a major overhaul at 5 years instead of the planned 10 year expected life.
  • Repeated maintenance delays may compound the unseen wear or degradation.
  • Had the oil change been able to be performed at the same time as the initial failure, the costs involved as a result of the early overhaul, or equipment failure, could probably have been avoided.

It is the desire to avoid this type of downward spiral that drives Reliability Centred Maintenance, particularly for system critical functions. (Sometimes a failure in a piece of equipment is not critical to the operation of the system, so repair on failure is acceptable. eg a light bulb failure when there is sufficient light from surrounding light bulbs to allow operations in the area to continue.)