Define Failure Analysis Configuration – A summary of the activity

The failure of any equipment leads to production loss directly or indirectly. Maintenance expenditure must be incurred to make the equipment working again. Also the failure might lead to an accident for the personnel working in the plant or damage to the other machinery in the plant. So the impact of equipment failure can be production loss, expense for maintenance and safety related issues. The failure analysis is carried out to rate the impact of the failures of different equipment and/or the impact of different failure modes within equipment. This helps the plant maintenance team in taking failure management decisions.

In this activity, you can define the ratings for the various parameters used for failure analysis so that they can be later applied to the equipment or to the problems occurring on the equipment, while performing a failure analysis. The ratings are defined for a particular period, which is referred to as the base period.

The following are the various parameters for conducting a failure analysis:

• Severity – Severity denotes the seriousness of the failure of the equipment. This is derived from three factors. The production down hours of the equipment, the expenses that are incurred while carrying out maintenance on equipment and the safety rating. 

Severity indicated by the production down hours

You can define the different ranges of production down hours for a base period, and the system assigns a rating on a scale of 1 to 10 for the different ranges of production down hours. The higher the production down hours, the greater is the severity of failure. This rating is later applied in the “Analyze Failures” activity, to calculate the severity rating for the equipment, based on the actual number of hours the equipment was down. This rating can also be applied to a problem that occurs on the equipment, to calculate the severity rating for the problem, based on the actual number of hours the equipment was down due to the occurrence of the problem.

Severity indicated by maintenance expenses

You can define the different ranges of maintenance expenses for a base period, and the system assigns a rating on a scale of 1 to 10 for the different ranges of maintenance expenses. The higher the maintenance expenses, the greater is the severity of the failure. This rating is later applied in the “Analyze Failures” activity, to calculate the severity rating for the equipment, based on the maintenance expenses that were incurred. This rating can also be applied to a problem that occurs on the equipment, to calculate the severity rating for the problem, based on the maintenance expenses that were incurred for solving a specific problem on equipment.

Severity indicated by safety

This indicates the rating from the point of view of safety for the equipment. In this activity, you can define the safety rating for the equipment, where a higher rating is provided to equipment, the failure of which can lead to a hazard or fatal accident, and a lower rating is provided for equipment, the failure of which has a lesser impact from the point of view of safety. Safety rating can also be provided for every problem that occurs on the equipment, which eventually leads to the failure of the equipment. (Safety is a part of severity rating. This is one of the three factors deciding the severity rating.)

• Occurrence – The occurrence rating is determined by the number of occurrences of equipment failure or occurrence of particular problems on equipment. In this activity, you can define the different ranges of problem occurrences for a base period, and the system assigns a rating on a scale of 1 to 10 for the different ranges of problem occurrences. The higher the number of occurrences, the greater is the rating. This rating is later applied in the “Analyze Failures” activity, to calculate the occurrence rating for the equipment, based on the actual number of work orders raised on the equipment for solving the problems. This rating can also be applied to a problem that occurs on the equipment, to calculate its occurrence rating.

• Detectability – This indicates the ease with which problems can be detected on the equipment. In this activity, you can define the detectability rating for the equipment, where a lower rating is provided for equipment on which failure can be detected easily, and a higher rating is provided for equipment on which failure is very difficult to detect. Detectability rating can also be provided for every problem that occurs on the equipment, to denote the ease with which the particular problem can be detected.

The base period along with the severity and the occurrence ratings are referred to as the “Failure Configuration”. It is imperative to define the failure configuration with the details of the base period, the severity ratings and the occurrence ratings. Once the failure configuration is defined, a unique revision number is generated by the system for the configuration.

You can also modify the details of failure configuration in this activity. Whenever the configuration details are modified, the system generates the next revision number for the modified configuration by incrementing 1 to the current revision number.

Getting familiar with the pages inside

What you can do in this activity

Define the failure analysis configuration

Define detectability and safety ratings

Define the failure analysis configuration

The failure analysis configuration is a set of ratings that are provided for a base period and is used for analyzing the failure of equipment in a plant. Failure analysis configuration is a combination of severity and occurrence ratings. Severity indicates the seriousness of failure of the equipment and is indicated by the production down hours due to the equipment failure, the expenses that have been incurred while carrying out maintenance on the equipment and the safety rating. Occurrence refers to the number of occurrences of equipment failure or of problems on equipment.

• Use the “Failure Analysis Configuration” page to define the failure analysis configuration details.

Define detectability and safety ratings

Detectability indicates the ease with which problems can be detected on the equipment. Safety rating indicates safety implications of the equipment, in the event of its failure. You can define detectability and safety ratings in this activity.

• Use the “Define Detectability/Safety Ratings” page to define the detectability and safety ratings.