facilities had four different sets of guidelines for recording
Managing Availability for
Improved Bottom-Line Results
© 2002 by Bill Keeter
ARMS Reliability Engineers – USA, LLC
Affiliated with ARMS Reliability Engineers – Australia
www.reliability.com.au
Abstract
During the past five to eight years, the role of maintenance
manager has evolved from merely keeping equipment
running to that of physical asset manager. The goal of the
physical asset manager is to maximize profits by managing
physical assets in a way that provides the optimum level of
physical availability. This paper provides a framework for
managing availability goals to help meet the financial goals
of an organization.
Introduction
Over the last several years, managers up through the CEO
have come to recognize equipment uptime as a key part of
any successful operating strategy. Recognition of this need
has generated the use of equipment availability as one of
the key performance indicators of a maintenance
organization. Goals are set based on “gut feel,” or by
benchmarking with similar facilities within the organization
or with similar organizations within the same industry.
Both these methods involve high levels of uncertainty that
can lead to overspending for maintenance and overtaxing of
maintenance resources. The uncertainty of “gut feel”
speaks for itself. Benchmarking involves high levels of
uncertainty due to the difficulties created by not knowing
the exact guidelines each facility uses for recording
unavailability. The author has worked at a site where four
Figure 1. The Three Types of Availability
Percent
Operational
Availabili
ty
Under-Maintained
Failure Induced Downtime
Scheduled Maintenance
Bill Keeter – Page 1 of 14
downtime.
This paper examines availability in detail: the three types of
availability and how they relate to each other, the factors
that determine availability, and recommendations for
improving the setting of goals.
Availability Types
The three subtypes of availability are inherent, achievable,
and operational (see Figure 1). Each subtype has specific
characteristics determined by several top-level factors.
• Inherent Availability (Ai) — The
expected level of availability for the performance
of corrective maintenance only. Inherent
availability is determined purely by the design of
the equipment. It assumes that spare parts and
manpower are 100 percent available with no
delays.
• Achievable Availability (Aa ) — The
expected level of availability for the performance
of corrective and preventive maintenance.
Achievable availability is determined by the hard
design of the equipment and the facility. Aa also
assumes that spare parts and manpower are 100
percent available with no delays.
• Operational Availability (Ao) — The
bottom line of availability. It is the actual level of
availability realized in the day-to-day operation
of the facility. It reflects plant maintenance
resource levels and organizational effectiveness.
Inherent
Achievable
Over-Maintained
Maintenance Induced Downtime
Hours
 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results
It is important to understand the distinctions among
the three subtypes in order to design, measure, and
manage integrated subgoals:
• Achievable availability fulfills the need to
distinguish availability when planned
shutdowns are included.
• Inherent availability fulfills the need to
distinguish expected performance between
planned shutdowns.
• Operational availability is required to isolate
the effectiveness and efficiency of
maintenance operations.
These definitions and distinctions lead to crucial
recognitions:
• The shape and location of the achievable
availability curve is determined by the
plant’s hard design.
• An operation is at a given point on Aa,
based on whether scheduled versus
unscheduled maintenance strategies are
selected for each failure. A goal of
availability-based maintenance operations is
to find the peak of the curve and operate at
that level.
• Operational availability is the bottom line of
performance. It is the performance
experienced as the plant operates at a given
production level.
• The vertical location of the Ao is controlled
by decisions for resource levels and the
organizational effectiveness of maintenance
operations. By definition, its location cannot
rise above Aa.
These factors have the following strategic
implications:
• It is crucial to know the location and shape
of the achievable availability curve.
Otherwise, it is not possible to determine
what is reasonable and possible for
operational availability and, therefore, plant
production.
• If the Aa curve is not known, manufacturing
operations management may unknowingly
attempt to achieve performance beyond that
which is possible. The result is the
Bill Keeter – Page 2 of 14
overspending and overtaxing of maintenance
resources.
• Management must make strategic decisions
for long-term relative positions of the two
curves. As plant production increases over
time, changing operating conditions will
place greater stress on equipment and drive
Aa down. Meanwhile, maintenance
operation management will progressively
move Ao upward to meet the demands of
production. Eventually the two will
converge to the point that additional
availability can be acquired only by
modifying plant design.
The conclusion from these factors is that eventually
Aa must be known. Otherwise, many of the current
goals to develop world-class maintenance operations
are not possible. It is the organization that makes the
most money — not the one with the highest
availability — that wins the game.
Factors That Determine Availability
Availability is a function of reliability and
maintainability — in other words, how often
equipment will fail and how long it takes to get the
equipment back to full production capability.
Reliability, maintainability, and therefore, availability
are determined by the interaction of the design,
production, and maintenance functions.
The implication is that availability is largely
determined by how well designers, operators, and
maintainers work together.
Optimizing Availability
Profitable plant availability is the result of optimizing
Ai, Aa, and Ao. Because no plant can achieve
availability higher than Aa, achievable availability is
the first to be optimized (see
Figure 2).
All equipment fails based on its design even when
operated and maintained perfectly. Every maintenance
activity, whether scheduled or unscheduled, is
representative of an equipment failure. Scheduled or
time-based maintenance seeks to correct failures
before they can affect equipment performance.
Unscheduled maintenance is corrective maintenance
performed as the result of breakdown or the detection
of incipient failure.
 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results

Table 1. Top Level Factors That Affect Availability

Reliability Maintainability
Is increased as the frequency of outages is reduced. Time Is increased as the duration of plant, subsystem or
between failures or shutdowns is increased. equipment downtime is reduced.
Factors Driven by Design Decisions
Operating Environment Accessibility to the work point.
Equipment Rated Capacity Features and design that determine the ease of
maintenance.
Maintenance while the system, subsystem or item of Plant ingress and egress.
equipment continues to function.
Installed spare components within an equipment item. Work environments.
Redundant equipment and subsystems.
Simplicity of design and presence of weak points.

Factors Driven by Maintenance Decisions

Preventive maintenance based on failure-trend data How maintenance tasks are detailed, developed, and
analysis. presented to the maintenance technician.
Trend diagnoses and inspection of equipment conditions Quality of the system of maintenance procedures.
to anticipate maintenance needs.
Quality of maintenance tasks (including inspections). The probability of human, material, and facility resources
being available to maintenance tasks.
Skills applied to maintenance tasks. Training programs.
Management, supervision, and organizational
effectiveness.
Durability of handling, support, and test equipment.
Factors Driven by Operations Decisions
Use of equipment relative to its rated capacity. Organizational effectiveness as a factor in the
troubleshooting process.
How spares are incorporated in normal process operation. Organizational effectiveness and procedures to ready
equipment for maintenance and startup.
Shutdown and Startup Procedures
(Availability Engineering and Management, Richard G. Lamb)

Achievable availability is the result of several factors:
• Plant hard design determines the shape and
location of the Aa curve. Therefore, this
design establishes the possible achievable
availability.
• Maintenance strategies determine the plant’s
location on the Aa curve. Therefore, these
strategies establish the actual achieved
availability.
• The right extreme of the Aa curve represents
100 percent scheduled maintenance. There
are no surprises, because all maintenance is
performed during a scheduled maintenance
period. Availability is well below optimum.
This extreme can be compared to coming
into the pits during every lap of a race to
ensure that you have no breakdowns on the
race course. It could be done, but you would
never win the race.
• Trading off scheduled maintenance for
unscheduled maintenance results in a climb
back up the availability curve to the left. A
nearly linear increase in availability occurs
until you reach the point where unscheduled
maintenance due to breakdowns takes away
from availability gains. Operating farther to
the left places the equipment under more
stress and increases organizational chaos.
• After reaching the left of the peak Aa,
further reductions in scheduled maintenance
become poor strategies.

Bill Keeter – Page 3 of 14

 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results

Figure 2. Optimal Availability/Cost

Dollars
Achievable Availability (Aa)
Availability (Revenue) Costs & Income

Loss Income Loss

Costs (Capital & Active Repair)

Hour
Degree of Scheduled Maintenance

The cost curve represents strategic decisions to invest
large amounts of capital up front to increase Aa
through hard design, or to spend operating dollars to
increase Aa through more intensive maintenance
strategies. These decisions are driven by many factors,
such as the need to get a product to market quickly,
the availability of capital, and the operating mentality
of the company.
The availability/cost curve relationship highlights the
fact that availability is a proxy of revenues. At some
point of either extreme of the cost curve or the
availability curve, the cost of availability will exceed
the income it allows. Without availability
management, operating beyond those intersections can
occur without management’s awareness; normal
accounting practices and other maintenance
performance indicators cannot easily reveal this
practice.
The difference between achievable and operational
availability is the inclusion of maintenance support.
Achievable availability assumes that resources are 100
percent available and no administrative delays occur
in their application. Therefore, maximum operational
availability theoretically goes to achievable
availability. In reality, every human endeavor has a
natural upper limit of obtainable perfection that
prevents Ao from reaching Aa.
The shape and location of the operational availability
curve are determined by the level of maintenance
operation resources and organizational effectives.
Resources and organizational effectiveness have upper
bounds above which additional spending will not yield
better results. At that point, achievable availability
must be increased to give Ao room to move upward.
Aa can be increased by new maintenance strategies,
provided that the plant is not operating at the peak of
the Aa curve. Capital investment is required to move
the Aa curve upward if the plant is operating on the
peak.
This is an important point. Without availability
engineering and management, it is easy to
unknowingly spend beyond the point of maximum
return. This may occur when plant performance falls
short of management’s desired productive capacity.
Management tries to achieve gains with increased
stress on maintenance support. However, the
operational availability curve has already been
unknowingly forced against the achievable availability
curve. The result is throwing good money after bad.
Spending is in the loss zone to the right of the
intersection of the achievable availability and cost
curves.

Bill Keeter – Page 4 of 14

 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results
Determining Achievable Availability
for an Existing Facility
Few physical asset managers have had the luxury of
being an integral part of the design phase of their
physical plant. Therefore, this section of the paper is
dedicated to analyzing the current physical plant to
determine its achievable availability.
Determining achievable availability is a four-step
process:
1. Build a reliability block diagram (RBD) of
the plant’s critical systems.
– Use publicly available reliability data
for failures. Using plant data skews the
results based on plant organizational
effectiveness.
– Use plant data or works estimation
techniques to determine mean time to
repair. Again, using plant data skews
the results based on plant
organizational effectiveness.
2. Determine logistical delays created by plant
hard design
– To/From shops.
– To/From stores.
– Accessing equipment.
3. Add in scheduled maintenance downtime for
the chosen preventive maintenance strategy.
4. Perform availability simulations.
The scope of the analysis is determined by resources,
time, and the desired quality of the result.
Building the Reliability Block
Diagram (RBD)
The reliability block diagram is a graphical
representation of the plant systems, subsystems, and
components arranged a way that reflects equipment
interdependence (see Figures 3 and 4). The RBD is the
cornerstone of the availability model because it shows
how failure in a plant element affects process uptime.
Bill Keeter – Page 5 of 14
Reliability in Serial and Parallel Fully
Redundant Systems
It is important to note the reliability implications of
the two types of systems presented in Figures 3 and 4.
Serial systems are inherently unreliable. The failure of
a single element in the system results in a stoppage of
the overall system. Fully redundant parallel systems
are inherently reliable. The system stops only if all the
redundant systems fail at the same time. Redundancy
is an important tool in improving overall system
reliability. See Improving Machinery Reliability, by
Heinz P. Bloch, for a more complete discussion.
Refining the RBD
All complex machines are built from the same few
basic machine elements of couplings, bearings, gears,
motors, belts, and so on. The RBD is refined by
breaking down the top-level RBD into several RBDs
that represent each top-level system (see Figures 5 to
7).
Obtaining Failure and Repair Data
After the RBDs are built, failure and repair data must
be obtained for use in availability simulations.
Obtaining these data is a time-consuming task. The
desired degree of certainty dictates the level of effort
required for this stage of building the model. It is
important to remember that this is not an exact
science. Perfection is not required. You need only be
better than your toughest competition.
There are many sources for failure data. This is by no
means an exhaustive list.Binomial and Weibull
distributions typically are used to present failure data
for modeling purposes. Most availability simulators
accept either type of data.
Obtaining repair data is a much more difficult task.
Repair data is typically not available anywhere in
tabular form. Repair times are very dependent on the
configuration of the equipment and the plant.
Equipment with a great deal of guarding and with
parts located in tight spots requires much longer repair
times than equipment with little guarding and plenty
of space in which to work. The two primary methods
of obtaining repair time data are analyzing current
plant data and using works estimation systems such as
MOST ® to estimate times. Each method has its own
set of difficulties.
 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results

Table 2. Sources of Failure Data

Source Data Available
Reliability Analysis Center Electronic Parts Reliability Data – EPRD
Non Electronic Parts Reliability Data – NPRD
Available in print and software versions.

Paul Barringer’s Web site: www.barringer1.com Weibull data for many components plus links to other
available data and reliability Web sites.

Improving Machinery Reliability (Practical Machinery Table of equipment failure data plus practical information on
Management for Process Plants, Volume 1). Heinz P. Bloch, improving equipment and system reliability.
ISBN: 087201455X.

Plant data Failure data depends on the robustness of the data-collection

system. Using plant data skews the analysis by including plant
organizational effectiveness.

Figure 3. Top-Level Reliability Diagram of a Serial System

Figure 4. Top-Level Reliability Diagram of a Parallel System

Bill Keeter – Page 6 of 14

 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results

Figure 5. System-Level RBD of a Printing Deck

Figure 6. Subsystem-Level RBD of an Inking System

Figure 7. Component-Level RBD of a Doctoring Subsystem

Bill Keeter – Page 7 of 14

 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results

Table 3. Sources of Repair Data

Method Advantages Disadvantages
Analyzing Plant Data • Usually does not require special • Data may be unreliable.
training. • Data is affected by organizational
• Data is usually available in plants effectiveness.
that have mature maintenance
reliability programs.

Works Estimation Systems
• Eliminate organizational • Require training on the system used.
effectiveness as a factor. • Require much time to analyze the
• Provide a good standard against equipment and break repairs into tasks.
which to judge actual achieved
repair times.
• Provides detailed work steps and
procedures.

Identifying and Removing Process maintenance and operating procedures. By making

Bottlenecks
Availability is a proxy for revenue and throughput.
The implication therefore, is that availability models
can be used to find process bottlenecks created by
equipment issues. This is in fact the case.
During the design phase the availability model can be
used to pinpoint changes in equipment design that will
increase plant throughput. The availability model
enables the design engineer to make decisions about
redundancy levels, plant access, and equipment
specifications based on their impact to overall
throughput and the cost-benefit ratio (CBR) of the
changes.
During the operating life of the plant the reliability
engineer and the process engineer can work together
using the availability model and Weibull Analysis to
ferret out process bottlenecks created by poor
maintenance strategies, poor initial design, and poor
changes in the availability model the engineers can
analyze the CBR of changes in strategy, design, and
operating parameters and make those changes which
optimize capacity and create the lowest life cycle costs
for the plant.
Organizational Implications
The need to understand and manage the top-level
factors that affect availability and to model and
understand the achievable availability of a plant has
important implications for the shape of the
maintenance and engineering organization. The typical
organization does not have the necessary resources to
accomplish these objectives. Industrial engineering
and reliability engineering functions are required.
Figures 8 and 9 illustrate the functional makeup of a
typical maintenance organization versus the functional
makeup of an Availability Management driven
organization.

Bill Keeter – Page 8 of 14

Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results

Figure 8. Typical Maintenance Organization

Typical Maintenance Organization

Figure 9. New Organization

New Skill Sets

Bill Keeter – Page 9 of 14

 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results
Closing the Gaps
Natural gaps exist between Ai and Aa and Aa and Ao.
Closing these gaps in a cost-effective way makes the
plant more successful. Closing the gaps requires a
thorough understanding of the top-level factors that
determine availability and finding ways to improve in
each aspect of those factors. The goal is to select
strategies that …
Improve Maintenance Operations
Optimize the Preventive/Predictive Maintenance
System
Use Predictive Maintenance Techniques
Improve Outage Planning & Scheduling
Bill Keeter – Page 10 of 14
• Minimize the number and length of scheduled
outages to drive Aa closer to Ai.
• Minimize the number and length of unscheduled
outages to drive Ao closer to Aa.
Minimizing the Number and Length
of Scheduled Outages
The number and length of scheduled outages can be
decreased by making operational and non-capital
equipment improvements:
Analyze failure data to target specific equipment for
specific tasks.
Analyze equipment using Reliability Centered
Maintenance techniques to determine the best PM/PdM
tasks to perform.
Perform Vibration Analysis
o Monitor new installations for minimum
vibration
o Monitor existing installations for overall
vibration level, signatures, and trends
o Monitor repaired equipment to insure that
repairs were done properly.
Use Thermography
o Monitor Electrical Equipment
o Monitor Like Mechanical Equipment for
Temperature Differences
Perform Lubricant Analysis
o Analyze incoming lubricants
o Track trends
Use Project Planning Techniques
o Gantt Charts
o CPM
o Reverse Planning
Ensure Good Planning for Every Job
o Parts Staged
o Good Written Procedures
o Adequate Resources
 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results

Improve Equipment
Modify equipment to allow for accomplishing PM’s on Lubrication
uptime Belt checks
Etc.
Modify equipment for easier access Quick-release guards
Open space around equipment

Minimizing the Number and Length maintenance techniques and making non-capital
equipment modifications:
of Unscheduled Outages
The number and length of unscheduled outages or
breakdowns can be decreased by using precision

Improve Maintenance Operations

Use predictive maintenance techniques Vibration analysis
Thermography
Lubricant analysis
Failure trend data

Manage spare parts Kanban

Poke-a-Yoke
Failure trend analysis
Storage standards
Repair standards for repairables
Remote spares locations
PM procedures for spares

Manage lubricants Lubricant list

Lubrication routes
Proper storage
Ensure clean lubricant of correct type in correct amount at
correct spot

Manage failures Use “canned procedures.”

Be prepared.
Analyze for root cause.
Physical root
Human root
Organizational root
Train Maintenance personnel
o Precision installation and repair techniques
o Equipment monitoring techniques
o Failure analysis
o Importance of being proactive
o Cost of failures
o Business goals
Front-line supervision and operators
o Proper equipment operation and its relationship
to availability
o Their role in achieving availability goals
o What to clean and how to clean it
o Equipment monitoring techniques
o Importance of being proactive
o Cost of failures
o Business goals

Bill Keeter – Page 11 of 14

 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results

Improve Equipment Capital Improvements for Increasing

Quick-release guarding Availability
Open space After achievable availability is optimized by
Better replacement parts improving maintenance operations and making non-
capital equipment modifications, the only recourse is
Further increases in availability may be obtained only to increase availability by capital investment in the
by capital investment to increase inherent availability plant or by capital investment in the equipment to
and achievable availability. increase inherent availability.

Increasing Achievable Availability

Modify surroundings Add space around equipment for easier access.
Improve ingress and egress.

Modify shops Relocate closer to equipment.

Improve shop and support equipment.
o Better cranes
o Better tools
o Better technology
Improve layout
Modify stores Relocate closer to equipment.
Improve storage equipment.
Improve stores’ management software.
Provide for controlled remote stores

Increasing Inherent Availability

Upgrade equipment Match equipment to production need.
Improve control system and embed troubleshooting tools
Modify equipment Reduce part count.
Modify guarding.
Modify lubricant delivery system.
Add redundancy

performance measure. Business decisions that either

Matching Availability Goals to
Annual Business Need
No business operates in a static environment.
Availability goals that are appropriate today may not
be appropriate next year, next month, next week, or
even tomorrow. Equipment availability is as sensitive
to the vagaries of the business climate as any other key
enhance or impair availability are made every day at
every level of the organization. Availability goals
must be reviewed and managed the same as any other
business goals because of their sensitivity to available
capital and operating funds. Figure 10 shows typical
inputs and outputs of the maintenance process.

Bill Keeter – Page 12 of 14

 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results

Figure 10. The Maintenance Process

Outputs
Inputs Availability
Manpower Maintenance Cost/Unit of Output
Materials Process Percent of CRV
Equipment MTBF
Contractors MTTR

The business situation determines whether inputs or

outputs are optimized. During times of overcapacity,
the business is cost constrained. The input side of the
process must be optimized to reduce costs. During
times of undercapacity, business is output constrained.
The output side of the process must be optimized to
increase business output. The important point to
remember is that at best, business output will remain
constant during periods in which process inputs are
being optimized. The longer inputs are constrained,
the more negative the effect on the outputs.
References
Availability Engineering & Management for
Manufacturing Plant Performance. Richard G. Lamb,
Prentice Hall Publishers, ISBN: 0-13-324112-2.
Improving Machinery Reliability (Practical
Machinery Management for Process Plants, Volume
1). Heinz P. Bloch, Gulf Publishing Company, ISBN:
087201455X.

Conclusion The Reliability Handbook From downtime to uptime –

in no time. John D. Campbell, editor; Plant
Using Availability Modeling and Simulation to Engineering and Maintenance; Volume 23, Issue 6.
engineer availability into a manufacturing facility by
laying out equipment and facilities for optimum
reliability and maintainability, installing reliable
Acknowledgements
equipment, and engineering maintenance procedures Thanks go to:
prior to startup will give an organization its best
• Perry Lovelace, Chief Associate, Nepenthe
chance of having a reliable plant that is optimally
Institute, 57 Don Jose Loop, Santa Fe, New
available from day one. Using Availability Modeling
Mexico for content advice and moral
and Simulation to continually monitor operational
support
needs, improve maintenance and operating
• My editor Fran Blauw, Owner, See Spot
procedures, and to thoroughly understand the three
Run, Indianapolis, IN.
subtypes of availability and the plants current status in
relationship to Achievable Availability will help
promote long term success by improving bottom-line
results throughout the life of the plant.

ARMS Reliability Engineers has successfully used

AvSim Plus® to and RCMCost® by Isograph, LTD to
model, analyze, and optimize facility designs and
maintenance strategies to help improve capacity and
reduce costs in a variety of industries. To find out
more about ARMS Reliability Engineers visit
www.reliability.com.au.

Bill Keeter – Page 13 of 14

 Managing Availability for Improved Bottom-Line Results

Contact Information
Australia
Mick Drew, Director
ARMS Reliability Engineers
PO Box 501
Ocean Grove
Victoria 3226
Phone: +61 (03) 5255 5357
mdrew@reliability.com.au

USA
Bill Keeter, President
ARMS Reliability Engineers – USA, LLC
8450 N. Devonshire Woods Place
Phone: 812-535-1445
bkeeter@armsreliabilityusa.com

Canada
John Byers
John-byers@shaw.ca

Bill Keeter – Page 14 of 14