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Design-In Maintainability: The Words Maintenance and Maintainability Are Often Used Interchangeably
Design-In Maintainability: The Words Maintenance and Maintainability Are Often Used Interchangeably
I teach thirty categories for Design for Maintainability. A sampling of four categories
that you should be considering are:
Visual Aids: Good visual controls facilitate fast and accurate maintenance. Do you
use bar coding on your assets and in your spare-parts storage? Are lubrication points
identified (color coded and alpha-numeric) with type of lubricant, amount, and
frequency? Are all maintenance points visually accessible from the side or end of
machine and have line-of-sight inspection capability?
Troubleshooting: Is key information quickly available, such as pressure, amperage,
fluid flow, component identification? Do you have self-checking features and/or built-
in test capability? Can hydraulic, electrical, and other systems be easily traced
throughout the machine? Are your engineers trained to include design-for-
maintainability concepts into machinery and equipment designs? Do you have
checklists on key items for areas such as routine maintenance, accessibility, and
hydraulic/mechanical/electric system design? Are there DfM (Design for
Maintainability) expectations written into your purchasing
specifications, i.e., statements such as, “all hydraulic lines should be replaceable in 10
to 15 minutes.”
There are numerous reliability and maintainability activities that should be done
during the planning phase through the operating and maintaining-equipment phases. If
you’re looking for checklists as they apply to the life cycle of machinery and
equipment and actions to be followed, refer to the Reliability and Maintainability
Guideline for Manufacturing Machinery and Equipment (SAE Order No. M-
110.2). EP