Implementation of CBM

To implement the CBM effectively, efficiently and to operate correctly the information should be very transparent. In other words, the information, which the Maintenance Manager gets from the inspection/examination team, should flow essentially from the maintenance manager also to the maintenance foremen as well as the shop floor foremen and everybody concerned in the following aspects:

• Condition of machine
• Probable part of defective machine
• Probable defect
• Time during which the fault has to be repaired.

This can be better achieved by job report, which is another very important and fundamental feature in order to assure the success of the new philosophy. Perhaps, this could be made possible through the security and correction of diagnosis versus actual work.

CBM uses the lubrication team as the major source of information as this team systematically controls the machinery. Examination and lubrication therefore must be strictly connected as they may transfer each other information on the conditions of the machine. Flow of information under CBM is illustrated in the upper side of Figure 6.5. Hence, the organization of maintenance becomes more flexible as it is based on a daily input of data while the short-term programming becomes more important than the long term one. As a result of this, the estimation of maintenance budget becomes somewhat difficult, since most of the work will be done only after an examination instead of basing it on a rigid PM schedule. Therefore the budget can be based only on statistical data and probabilistic.

The role of the Maintenance Manager becomes very crucial from the moment the CBM is adopted. Hitherto, his main duties were the coordination and technical aid to his assistants in maintenance planning through a guesswork but now he becomes really the 'manager' of the service. However, three important functions are required to be performed by the chief of the maintenance, listed below.

• To control the examiners' training or his eventual deviations from instructions.
• To improve the correlation between parameters chosen and real defects.
• To get severity curves specific for each machine.