During the past decade, a revolution in asset management has occurred. Industry leaders are now seeking to optimize performance rather than increase capital spending. Today, timely and effective equipment maintenance is even more critical if you wish to avoid capital expenditures. Companies must implement a proactive maintenance strategy to maximize return on investment and utilize existing assets. This plan involves improving plant maintenance practices, instituting maintenance planning, and managing turnarounds. Together, these components form an efficient Reliability and Maintenance (RAM) Program.
Comparative Performance Analysis
Relying on our unique and proven benchmarking practice—Comparative Performance Analysis (CPA)—Solomon developed a comprehensive set of reliability and maintenance performance benchmarks and best practice indices. Our International Study of Plant Reliability and Maintenance Effectiveness (RAM Study) allows plants of any equipment profile and process severity to compare themselves with their best-performing peers, taking into account the plant's scale, complexity, and location.
 For example, the Materials Cost Gaps graph shows how total plant materials cost performance is compared to the industry leaders' average to identify gaps between a specific plant's performance and the Pacesetters. Total performance is then broken down into specific reliability and maintenance areas, and prioritized according to the areas where improvement would bring greatest benefit. In prioritizing, we consider the equipment group, cost component, and process.
With this unique vision of the plant's performance gaps and identified potential, Solomon's RAM Study can help improve performance by directing personnel in developing plant-specific programs. The program focuses on the following three areas:
- – We help you harvest the opportunities for reducing losses and costs by optimizing plant maintenance methods and increasing reliability.
- – Routine maintenance is the largest component of maintenance cost. By instituting effective maintenance planning and scheduling procedures, Solomon can show you how to control maintenance costs, and help you to determine the quality and timeliness of your essential condition monitoring, inspection, and repair tasks.
- – Turnaround strategies based on risk-based inspection can maximize intervals and halve your lost output due to maintenance. Solomon can assist you in developing reliable operations.
As margins continue to be squeezed, capital budgets cut, and competition increases, the value of existing assets and their safe operation becomes increasingly more important to your financial survival. Consider, for example, the financial impact of a shutdown and/or accident caused by equipment failure. Solomon’s RAM Study will allow you to optimize your combined reliability and maintenance activity because we know what “good” looks like through our best practices indices.
Reliability and maintenance functions span all capital-intensive process industries and Solomon’s proven CPA methodology can be applied successfully in each. The RAM Study focuses on the factors of plant reliability and maintenance effectiveness, based on our knowledge of the interrelationships between a plant’s physical parameters and its maintenance practices, and the indices used to measure safety, reliability, and maintenance effectiveness. Solomon provides this information via the following indices:
- – Measured by the percentage of productive capacity lost due to unplanned downtime, annualized planned shutdowns/turnarounds, and slowdowns for maintenance reasons. The loss is converted into the loss of return on investment expressed as a normalized percentage of plant replacement value.
- – Measured by the ratio of direct maintenance expenses to plant replacement value.
- – Measured by the ratio of maintenance support costs to plant replacement value.
- – Measured as the holding cost of spares inventory as a percentage of plant replacement value.
- – Measured as the cost of operators time spent on maintenance activities as a percentage of plant replacement value.
- – Measured as the number of accidents per worked hour and the number of reportable emissions per plant replacement value as an index.
- – Combines the above indices into a single global cost index attributable to unreliability and maintenance work.
Using these indices, you can determine the effectiveness of your maintenance dollars. Participation in Solomon's RAM Study will help you optimize your maintenance focus by concentrating on the areas that will provide you the most benefit in a prudent and safe manner.
Profit Improvement Consulting
To help you realize your potential, Solomon has developed consulting services that use your data to focus on improving those areas that have the most profound effect on your profits. By combining our benchmarking and consulting services, you are poised to maximize your potential. More focused programs are also available for other specific areas of operation such as Energy Management, Economics, Problem Solving, and Business Optimization. Click on the links at left to download information on these specific improvement programs.
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