For most plants, condition monitoring consists of multiple technologies that are cobbled together in an attempt to enhance machine reliability. Clearly, these efforts are founded in good intentions, and many such programs enjoy considerable success. Still others languish due to a lack of symmetry and central focus. Money is spent and efforts expended, but results are too often disappointing.

Condition monitoring requires a proper foundation from understanding and aligning criticality and failure mode analysis. Alignment greatly helps to optimize deployment of activities and spending to minimize waste and redundancy. Alignment also keeps the maintenance and reliability professionals on the same page by providing a clear understanding of what’s being done and why.

This column is Part 3 on this topic. In Part 1 “A New Look at Criticality Analysis for Machinery Lubrication”, I discussed the concept of Overall Machine Criticality (OMC) and its importance on a wide range of decisions relating to machinery lubrication and oil analysis. When optimized, these decisions define the Optimum Reference State (ORS) needed to achieve the desired level of machine reliability. It is intuitively obvious that smart maintenance decisions require a heightened sense of both the probability and consequences of machine failure.

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