CASE STUDY

Maintenance Strategy Optimization delivers

56% reduction in maintenance spend for
confectionery company

Overview This confectionery company produces thousands of kilograms

of chocolate each week to cope with Australia’s insatiable
demand for their delicious sweets. Yet the processing plant was
experiencing problems, causing output to fall and maintenance
costs to rise.

To fix the ongoing interruptions and subsequent losses, the

company engaged ARMS Reliability to perform a Reliability
Centered Maintenance (RCM) study. This study is designed to
optimize a maintenance strategy, reduce maintenance costs and
increase uptime of key equipment.

The Issue The confectionery company mixes and produces all of its
chocolate in its Melbourne-based factory. It relies on continuous
operation to meet the high demand for its products. So when
the batch mixing facility started causing production upsets – and
product was wasted as a result of the failures – management
needed to find a solution.

The business decided to embark on a continuous improvement

path – firstly, to fully understand the equipment issues, and
secondly, to identify how to prevent them from recurring. The path
it chose was via RCM.
The Solution • Clear availability profile
The study revealed the availability profile of the system
ARMS Reliability recommended building an RCM model.
over its lifetime, highlighting periods of unavailability
First, information was gathered about the batch mixer. and the top 10 contributing component failure modes to
Equipment data, current maintenance strategies and tasks system unavailability.
were collated to build an equipment hierarchy.
• Failure data analysis
Then, a Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis
This revealed instances of infant mortality failures,
(FMECA) was performed in which all the likely and dominant
indicative of installation or fit-for-purpose type issues
failure modes were identified. To determine failure patterns
requiring root cause analysis investigation for further
across the batch mixer, work order history and performance
improvements.
data were analyzed.

The FMECA was then populated with the consequences of Outcomes

failure, in line with the company’s corporate risk matrix.
Finally, the model was run through a which determined the
impact of the maintenance tasks on the equipment lifecycle
costs and risk levels. This simulation enabled rapid analysis
and allowed further optimization and ‘what if’ scenarios to
be run.
Why perform an RCM study?
For the confectionery company, the RCM study delivered a
range of benefits:
The RCM study identified the appropriate maintenance
tasks required to keep the batch mixer up and running;
and to ensure the safe, reliable and economical use of the
equipment throughout its life.
Furthermore, 13 failure modes were identified as
opportunities for redesign, root cause analysis or
investigation – including a key high cost driver failure
mode. By identifying and acting upon these failure modes,
the company now has further opportunity for reliability
improvements and cost/risk reduction.

Two optimized maintenance strategies were produced

• Clear cost predictions
with predicted annual savings of 14% (no redesign) and
An annual maintenance budget (labor and spares cost
56% (with redesign). For the confectionery company, these
predictions) over the lifetime of the batch mix facility
savings are great news – giving them more budget to spend
was created.
on perfecting the recipe of everyone’s favorite treat.
• Cost/risk drivers are highlighted
The study also identified the top 10 contributing
component failure modes to cost, safety, environment
and operation risk, enabling the company to focus on
ongoing improvement activities.

• Comparison of different strategies

The study showed lifecycle cost comparisons for four
different scenarios: Run to Fail (RTF), Current Practice,
Optimized, and Optimized with Redesign.

• Identification of opportunities for redesign

The study also identified 13 opportunities for redesign of
the system to further improve reliability and availability,
and reduce costs.

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