February 05, 2025
Intermittent Asset Failures: Understanding and Resolving Equipment Issues
Asset management includes many aspects. Most of the time, you plan and schedule both regular preventive maintenance (PM) or general repairs for a breakdown. You track equipment reading to help shape your PMs. You track depreciation values.
Your goal: To keep assets operating at a baseline level. Over the years, of course, that level lowers due to age and other factors.
One of the challenges you might encounter involves intermittent failures. These often perplex technicians and engineers alike, continually teasing with their elusive nature. They stand as the enigmatic disruptors, sporadically impeding operations, playing a game of hide-and-seek with the root cause.
Unlike straightforward, persistent failures, you find intermittent failures capricious and unpredictable. Example: A system or component functions as designed for an extended period, only to falter unexpectedly, before inexplicably resuming normalcy.
You must understand intermittent failures, unravel their complex causes, and implement effective strategies.
Also, establish a system to track failures. Document their history. This helps root out the root causes and can affect asset life.
It definitely affects costs. Production losses, inventory purchases, and more.
Common Causes of Intermittent Equipment Failures
You could list numerous causes for these types of failures. Anything from:
- Faulty wiring.
- Loose connections.
- Worn or damaged components.
These might be pretty common causes. Others include:
- Software bugs and glitches.
- Environmental factors such as inclement weather or extreme temperatures.
- Sensor fluctuations.
Consider a manufacturing plant. A conveyor belt intermittently halts its operation, leading to production delays. Upon closer inspection, technicians discover a loose wire connection that intermittently disrupts the power supply to the conveyor motor.
An automotive assembly line robotic arm fails due to a worn-out gear, causing erratic movements during assembly processes.
You cannot overstate the importance of tracking intermittent failures. Look beyond the inconvenience of sporadic downtimes. You have significant risks to productivity, product quality, and even safety.
Example: In the aerospace industry, intermittent failures in critical systems like avionics can jeopardize flight safety.
Example: Healthcare facilities. Intermittent failures in medical equipment can compromise patient care and safety, raising ethical and legal concerns.
Leveraging CMMS Software to Track Intermittent Asset Failures
If you see continuous failures of this type, you might review your maintenance operations. Perhaps your PM strategy needs enhancing or even better organization.
Implementing a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) benefits a maintenance team and helps with intermittent failures. How?
- Digitizing workflows.
- Scheduling preventive maintenance tasks.
- Facilitating real-time monitoring of equipment health.
- Keeping a history of equipment readings.
- Keep records of maintenance history.
- Offering failure/cause/action codes.
- Generating relevant reports honed to your specifications.
Maximizing CMMS Features to Address Equipment Failures
Let's discuss one of these points a bit more. Since we're looking at intermittent failures, you need to know the nature of the failure. Then you need to find the cause of the failure. Then you should implement a solution to restore asset functionality.
Failure/Cause/Action codes in a CMMS help you document the issue.
Failure: Machine jammed.
Cause: Operator error. Running the machine beyond design parameters.
Action: Further operator training.
The above example shows the nature of a problem. You would develop recognizable codes for each of these. A technician inputs these into the CMMS.
Later, when a supervisor reviews work orders, he sees this. If further problems arise, one looks at the history of the jobs and the codes and discusses further action.
By logging and analyzing maintenance data, a CMMS can help identify patterns in intermittent failures.
Example: A manufacturing plant. Through the system's sophisticated analytics, maintenance managers notice a recurring pattern of intermittent failures in a particular machine. Further investigation reveals that these failures coincide with increased vibration levels during specific production runs.
Maintenance personnel preemptively inspect and replace worn bearings, averting potential breakdowns and production losses.
Furthermore, a CMMS can facilitate the documentation of maintenance activities and associated costs. These records provide valuable insights for optimizing maintenance strategies and allocating resources effectively.
Steps to Mitigate Intermittent Failures in Equipment
While intermittent failures pose annoying challenges, you must tend to them. Don't take them Lightly. Recall that we're talking about possible production losses and potential safety hazards.
Develop a preventive maintenance plan. Work with your team and production personnel to establish an effective strategy that covers all assets.
List your assets. Create your record of PMs. Assign both labor and material resources.
For failures, seek out the root causes and properly address them. Don't just "fix the asset." Find why it failed in the first place.
Intermittent failures might pose more of a challenge because they come at unexpected times. Watch for patterns. These could include:
- Time of day.
- Weather.
- Operator.
- Temperature.
- Shifts.
- …and many other actors that affect machine operation.
With more information on hand, you'll have better success with the resolutions.
Keep everything documented in a central database—a CMMS. The system also brings extra value when you use it on a mobile device.
Mapcon Technologies brings a world-class CMMS to numerous industries. 800-922-4336.
MAPCON CMMS software empowers you to plan and execute PM tasks flawlessly, thanks to its wealth of features and customizable options. Want to see it for yourself? Click the button below to get your FREE 30-day trial of MAPCON!
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