By Jim Fitch
Practicing Oil Analysis Magazine
Experts agree that the best way to overcome a catastrophic machine failure is not to have one. However, those in the maintenance field understand that machine reliability comes at a price. Monitoring key performance indicators of machine reliability alone may fail to control wasteful and ineffective expenditures that were half-heartedly intended to reduce failure and downtime. To the other extreme, initiatives that slash current maintenance expenditures without considering long-term reliability consequences are frequently a penny wise and a pound foolish.
For most companies, you are what you measure. Metrics shape and define an organization. We’ve all been subject to various measurements since the days of our childhood. Those early experiences ranged from the winning score of our little league baseball game to the painfully serious day we brought home a low grade on a school report card.