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A Systematic approach to reliability of ships |
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For any fleet, study the way assets are managed today. Evaluate the existing maintenance regime in terms of the hardware and software already in use. Study one ship in detail to understand the status quo evaluating the failure history of machinery and systems. Carry out a quick analysis to determine criticality of systems in terms of "High", "Medium" and "Low" criticality. Understand the various ways any system can become non functional - mechanically, electrically or in terms of loss of control functions. Consider all the variables including maintenance skills available on board, age of vessel and systems, spares availabilty, Class and Flag State requirements etc. Develop a project plan outlining the route map to reliability. Find the right people and systems to implement the plan. Consider maintenance management systems which will communicate with condition monitoring systems. Ensure maintenance systems have the facilities to accept diverse condition monitoring data. Essentially the final stages of implementation will normally result in monitoring the condition of mechanical and electrical equipment - by way of 24 hours on line systems, periodic surveillance systems or walkaround portable systems. Some low criticality systems may require run to destruction approach while others may require time or running hours based replacements. All these decisions will fall out of the systematic reliability study.
In order to help the management understand the benefits of such projects, adopt the evolutionary delivery method - which means the project plan will include a vertical slice implementation of any critical system. So for eg., if it is a passenger vessel implement the entire concept on their air conditoining system and illustrate the benefits before implemented fleetwide.
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