Design Out Maintenance (DOM)

Need for DOM

 Condition based maintenance (CBM) and time based
maintenance (TBM)
 Ongoing with recurring costs
 Aims at reducing the effects of unreliability
 Does not aim to improve reliability
 Need to tackle root that causes the problems not the
symptoms cause
Failures
 Improving reliability means freedom from failures
 Improving the life of
 Component
 Machine
 Event
 Types of failures
 Equipment failure
 Quality failure
 Process failure
 Product failure
 Safety failure
What RCM does?
 Reliability centered maintenance
 Studying ways in which a system’s functions can fail
 Consequences of those failures
 Determine the most appropriate, cost-effective proactive
maintenance strategies to counter the effects or consequences
of such failures
 RCM is a method of living with the imperfect which leads
to reducing operating costs from their present levels but
rarely tackles the root design imperfections
Design Out for Reliability (DOFR)
 DOFR approach goes straight to the core of reliability
issue to address design shortcomings by introducing
improvements
 Better approach because one only needs to make the
improvement once to gain ongoing benefits and reduce
maintenance activities
Why DOFR is better than CBM and TBM?
 CBM
 Focuses on detection of various faults that develop during
operation
 Tackles a part of the problem but not the whole
 More concerned with detection rather than aim for a
permanent solution to the problem
 TBM
 Concerned with discarding/replacing a machinery element at
predetermined interval with the assumption that the useful life
of the element is over
 Does not attempt to improve or extend the useful life to the
maximum possible limit.
Reasons for Equipment failures
 Natural Degradation
 Human Factors
 Tolerance Stacking
 Variation in Operating Parameters
 Material Incompatibility of spares.
 Local factors
 Root Design Imperfections like unclear parameter
definition, material incompatibility, energy transfer, design
morphology, inappropriate signals etc
Design of an Industrial Machine
 Industrial equipment design cannot be standardized
 Functional requirements and local requirement vary from case
to case.
 Hence design of an industrial machine is a matter of trade
offs, compromises and optimization
 At times invalid assumptions leading to imperfections
 Underlying cause of the first six causes is Root Design
Imperfections
Why to worry about root design
imperfections?
 Failures, delays and wastages all are due to the six reasons
 One way to counter this is by scaling up (economies of
scale)
 Scaling up has its own problem
 Space, capital & efficiency constraints
 DOFR tries to remove root design imperfections step by
step in a systematic but flexible method
Cases and examples of DOFR
 Problem: A shaft fractures within 3 to 6 months of
operation from the bearing shoulder area
Method Actions Cost Effects

Traditional Replace shaft as it High Loss of productivity, Recurring

breaks cost
RCM Monitor the shaft for Cost lower than If opportunities are not
fractures and replace traditional available then there is a loss of
during opportunity method but not productivity otherwise only a
eliminated cost of replacement is
incurred. Recurring Cost

DOFR Redesign the shaft with One time cost. Life enhanced to 10 years. No
shoulders < 5% change Cost equal to loss of productivity due to
in diameter & change original shaft shaft breakage. No recurring
material cost. Life cycle costs much
lower, low inventory.
Maintenance free
Problem: A grease lubricated bearing of a high speed
fan seizes frequently. Life approximately one year
Method Actions Cost Effects
Traditional Replace bearing as High Loss of productivity.
and when it breaks Recurring cost
RCM Monitor bearing life Cost lower than If opportunities are not
with vibration Traditional method available then there is a
monitoring and (since opportunity loss of productivity
replace during utilized) but not otherwise only a cost of
opportunity eliminated. Recurring replacement is incurred.
cost remains Recurring Cost.
DOFR Redesign with oil One time cost Life enhanced to three
lubricating system years. No loss of
since D x N > 3500 productivity No
recurring cost. Life cycle
cost much lower; low
inventory. Maintenance
free
 Problem: In a steel mill, journal bearings seized rather
randomly. There were 28 reported cases in a period of one
year
Method Actions
Traditional Pay attention to lubrication. Pay
attention to fitting and tolerances.
Replace when damaged
RCM No definite answer. Probably
monitor cleanliness levels and
monitor wear of bearings, which
was not possible due to
inaccessibility and costs. Pay
attention to tolerances and
eccentricity during fitting.
DOFR Use heater in the lubrication sump
to lower viscosity of the oil
entering the bearings within 93 to
95 cSt.
Cost Effects
High Loss of productivity.
Recurring cost, High
inventory. High maintenance
efforts.
High Productivity loss continues.
No solution. High and costly
inventory. No reduction in
maintenance efforts.
No Life enhanced to more than 4
cost years. No loss of productivity.
No recurring cost.Very low
inventory. No maintenance
effort.
DOFR case study : Chemical company

Before After

 This company was having  After an integrated effort

on the average of 24
failures a month with their
critical machines.
of the application of
DOFR the number of
failures came down to one
failure per month for the
critical machines (46 in
number)
DOFR case study graph
DOFR case study : parameters improvement
Advantages of DOFR
 Improvements done only once but ongoing benefits
 Nil or minimum recurring cost
 Minimum maintenance effort and minimum maintenance
planning
 Quality improved and process stabilized
Prerequisites for DOFR
 It needs a management team that believes in innovation
and is market driven. Without market demands innovation
is not possible since innovation is a response to customer
demands

 DOFR would need investigators who are competent and

knowledgeable and are provided the time and funds to do
the analysis/synthesis to make the desired improvements
To conclude
 DOFR’s concept of redesign may be applied to all types of
potential failures so that the intrinsic life (reliability) is
enhanced
 DOFR extends this to all modes of failures affecting business
performance thru the understanding of the complex
interrelationships between different modes of failures,
observing the system as a whole and design thinking
 Operational cost is minimized, so are the delays and wastages.
Quality losses due to malfunctioning of equipment are
minimized. Therefore, the companies would be not only be
able to reduce their operating costs to the minimum but also
achieve and sustain a very high level of quality (6σ).
 Thru the application of DOFR, maintenance effort is
greatly reduced and maintenance planning is simplified
and optimized to the barest possible. Potentially this
feature may useful to downsized companies.
 On continuing application organizations would become
highly competent to engineer new technology as and
when the need comes to gain competitive advantage
 Engineering knowledge base (a new factor of production)
of the organization is greatly improved