How can the right balance be reached between three key factors in order to achieve optimal performance in industries with high capital outlays?

• the performance of equipment,
• maintenance costs,
• equipment life time.

Good control of the total cost of ownership and the deployment of best maintenance practices are two of the key levers that can be used to achieve the best possible performance. Therefore, it is necessary to:

• allocate costs efficiently in order to control the cost of use, maintenance costs and renewal costs,
• implement a specific process to measure the benefits of repairing equipment,
• use internal levers for optimization (optimization of the sizing of assets to be maintained vs. the service contract to be honored, optimization of the servicing and renewal policy – choice between curative, preventive, predictive and conditional maintenance, optimization of maintenance practices – measurement of maintenance performance, activity planning, management of spare parts, control of subcontractors, etc., use of a CMMS to implement best practices in the long term.

Argon Consulting helps its customers in:

• the performance audit (maturity matrix, benchmarking, etc.) of maintenance and the management of industrial assets,
• the analysis of the cost of ownership,
• the identification of the challenges and estimate of the cost of overhauling the organization and tools (business case),
• the analysis and overhauling of processes so that they are adapted to the specifics of the company and apply best practices (products, constraints, production network, etc.),
• the clear definition of the target organization in terms of roles and responsibilities (central vs. local, make or buy decisions), skills and size,
• deployment of TPM, FMECA, 5S initiatives,
• the review of the maintenance activity control system (forecasts, planning, tracking of activities, reporting, meetings, indicators and scorecards, etc.),
• the implementation of alerts, KPIs and scorecards,
• the analysis and overhaul of spare parts management processes (organization, logistics network, stock levels, control parameters, etc.),
• the selection and implementation of CMMS tools (authoring of the specifications, management of calls for tender, deployment strategy, implementation assistance, project management and risk management, etc.),
• deploying plans for improvement (best practices, training, coaching, etc.) and change management (changes in culture, organizations, behavior, skills and communication).