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One of the most misused terms in the maintenance reliability world is criticality. Organizations
often use the word criticality when what they are really talking about is criticalness. The fact
that an item of equipment is critical to an organization’s success doesn’t define its criticality.
This article will clarify the difference between critical items and criticality of items.
Why It Matters
Maintenance reliability efforts consist of two different types of work. There is the daily work of
keeping equipment running by managing work orders and responding to emergencies, and
the long-range work of activities designed to improve overall performance. The daily work
requires a set of priorities to ensure the most important work is done first. The long-range
work also requires a set of priorities that ensure improvement efforts are focused on where
the most benefit can be gained for the least cost and effort.
Criticality is a function of probability and consequence of failure. It, therefore, can change
based on efforts that either reduce probability, consequence, or both. Criticalness is a
singular property and does not change unless another, more essential, item of equipment is
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installed in the system. It is possible for an extremely critical item to have a low criticality. In
other words, criticality is useful for setting strategic priorities so long-term reliability efforts are
focused on the right things; criticalness is useful for setting daily work priorities so the most
important daily work is accomplished on the most essential items.
An Example
Everyone would agree that a turbine compressor in a primary gas compression train is
essential to successfully compress and export natural gas. If it fails and there is no backup,
the system will be unable to produce output. Its criticalness is high and the priority of daily
work scheduled for it should be high as well. However, it may be well maintained by an
effective combination of preventive maintenance (PM) and condition monitoring activities that
reduce its probability of failure to an extremely low number, which means its criticality can be
low compared to other items of equipment. Focusing reliability improvement efforts on the unit
would likely be a waste of valuable resources that could better be used to improve reliability in
other items of equipment.
Criticalness (Process
Item Type
Importance)
Safety/Environmental Protection 10
Utilities – Spared 8
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Personnel Comfort 2
WO Type Priority
Immediate Threat to Health, Safety, or Environment 10
Corrective Maintenance 5
Modification 4
Painting 3
Relocation 2
These rankings are multiplied together to produce a priority number that can be managed
based on local policy. This should be determined by a cross-functional team consisting of
operations, maintenance and appropriate health, safety and environment (HSE) personnel.
Daily work now can be prioritized so the critical few work orders are accomplished first. It is
important to not let work languish at the bottom of the index. This work can be managed be
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either designating a certain percentage of planned jobs to be done on work that has a priority
number below a certain value, or by adding some specified number to a work order’s priority
ranking each week so it floats upward (Figure 1).
Criticality is added from layer to layer in the hierarchy, so a good method is to do criticality at
a high level with just a few questions (Figure 2). For instance, it is possible to divide a large
facility into areas and determine area criticality first. The team can then drill down into the
most critical areas by identifying system level criticality. The most critical systems or items
can be then focused on using tools, such as reliability centered maintenance (RCM), to
determine the best improvement strategy.
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The severity rankings used should be in alignment with corporate guidelines for safety and
environmental performance. Again, a cross-functional team of appropriate personnel is
required to achieve consensus on rankings.
It is a simple process to rank each failure by maximum severity in each area and add them
together to get an overall severity. The organization can then sort from highest to lowest to
help prioritize performance improvement initiatives.
Conclusion
Prioritizing daily and strategic work efforts ensures that the limited resources in the
organization are used as efficiently and effectively as possible. Using separate systems to
perform prioritization ensures that a constant property is used to manage daily work and that
long-range efforts are adjusted based on the reduction in criticality that comes from those
efforts.
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