Unit of competency details

Elements describe the essential outcomes of a unit of competency.

Performance criteria describe the performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element. Where bold italicised text is used, further information is detailed in the required skills and knowledge section and the range statement. Assessment of performance is to be consistent with the evidence guide.

1

Determine appropriate analytical techniques

1.1

Liaise with key stakeholders to determine objectives of maintenance strategy

1.2

Examine current maintenance situation to determine major areas requiring improvement

1.3

Compare possible strategies, techniques and tools against organisation needs

1.4

Select possible strategies, techniques and tools

1.5

Confirm selected strategies, techniques and tools with key stakeholders

2

Develop reliability strategies

2.1

Select preferred maintenance strategy

2.2

Examine and adapt strategy to organisation needs and priorities

2.3

Examine and adapt techniques and tools required to implement strategy

2.4

Liaise with key stakeholders to develop an implementation plan

2.5

Identify key information and performance indicators required

3

Implement strategy

3.1

Identify data collection required

3.2

Identify hardware and other resources required

3.3

Identify skill needs required in consultation with key stakeholders

3.4

Ensure all resources/training are available

3.5

Implement strategy

4

Monitor implementation of strategy

4.1

Compare information/performance indicators with desired levels

4.2

Liaise with key stakeholders regarding strategy issues

4.3

Identify areas requiring adjustment

4.4

Make required adjustments

This section describes the skills and knowledge required for this unit.

Required skills 

Required skills include:

• communicating with others using a variety of media and techniques
• adapting personal communication strategy to different levels of literacy and numeracy in target individuals and groups
• working in a team
• analysing quantitative and qualitative information to determine proactive maintenance strategy options
• solving problems to root cause
• applying basic arithmetic and statistical techniques
• planning complex strategies, including consideration of timelines, resources, benefit/cost, implementation requirements, and monitoring and adjustment considerations
• reading and interpreting engineering specifications, drawings and charts
• using information system terminals and computers
• prioritising options, including reasons and recommendations
• recording data

Required knowledge 

Required knowledge includes:

• characteristics and strengths of different types of strategies, techniques and tools, such as:

• TPM
• RCM
• mean time between failure (MBTF)
• failure mode effects analysis (FMEA)
• condition monitoring
• root cause analysis (RCA)

• holistic costs of different strategies combining cost of maintenance with costs of lost production, sales, and so on, as relevant to the organisation
• business goals sufficient to match the strategy to the business needs
• strategic thinking and its application to proactive maintenance
• principles of process equipment and how to improve its reliability
• resources required and how to obtain them

The evidence guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the performance criteria, required skills and knowledge, range statement and the Assessment Guidelines for the Training Package.

Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit 

A person who demonstrates competency in this unit must be able to provide evidence of the ability to:

• consider a variety of proactive maintenance strategies for suitability to an organisation
• consult operators, maintenance, management and other stakeholders in decisions on proactive maintenance strategies
• implement selected strategies
• monitor performance to selected indicators and make improvements to selected proactive maintenance strategies.

Context of and specific resources for assessment 

Assessment of performance must be undertaken in a workplace using or implementing one or more competitive systems and practices.

Access may be required to:

• workplace procedures and plans relevant to work area
• specifications and documentation relating to planned, currently being implemented, or implemented changes to work processes and procedures relevant to the assessee
• documentation and information in relation to production, waste, overheads and hazard control/management
• reports from supervisors/managers
• case studies and scenarios to assess responses to contingencies.

Method of assessment 

A holistic approach should be taken to the assessment.

Competence in this unit may be assessed by using a combination of the following to generate evidence:

• demonstration in the workplace
• workplace projects
• suitable simulation
• case studies/scenarios (particularly for assessment of contingencies, improvement scenarios, and so on)
• targeted questioning for appropriate portions
• reports from supervisors, peers and colleagues (third-party reports)
• portfolio of evidence.

In all cases it is expected that practical assessment will be combined with targeted questioning to assess underpinning knowledge.

Where applicable, reasonable adjustment must be made to work environments and training situations to accommodate ethnicity, age, gender, demographics and disability.

Guidance information for assessment 

Assessment processes and techniques must be culturally appropriate and appropriate to the oracy, language and literacy capacity of the candidate and the work being performed.

The range statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the performance criteria, is detailed below. Essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) may also be included.

Competitive systems and practices 

Competitive systems and practices may include, but are not limited to:

• lean operations
• agile operations
• preventative and predictive maintenance approaches
• monitoring and data gathering systems, such as Systems Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Materials Resource Planning (MRP) and proprietary systems
• statistical process control systems, including six sigma and three sigma
• Just in Time (JIT), kanban and other pull-related operations control systems
• supply, value, and demand chain monitoring and analysis
• 5S
• continuous improvement (kaizen)
• breakthrough improvement (kaizen blitz)
• cause/effect diagrams
• overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
• takt time
• process mapping
• problem solving
• run charts
• standard procedures
• current reality tree

Competitive systems and practices should be interpreted so as to take into account:

• the stage of implementation of competitive systems and practices
• the size of the enterprise
• the work organisation, culture, regulatory environment and the industry sector

OEE 

OEE is the combination of the main factors causing loss of productive capacity from equipment/plant and is:

OEE = availability x performance x quality rate

where:

• availability takes into account losses due to breakdown, set-up and adjustments
• performance takes into account losses due to minor stoppages, reduced speed and idling
• quality rate takes into account losses due to rejects, reworks and start-up waste

MTBF 

MTBF is one key measure of the effectiveness of a maintenance procedure, and is an indicator as to whether root causes are being found and resolved. If MTBF is reducing, then it is an indicator that the maintenance regime is failing.

There are many possible causes of any problem. Eliminating some will have no impact, others will ameliorate the problem. However, elimination of the root cause will eliminate the problem. There should only be one root cause for any problem and so the analysis should continue until this one cause is found. Elimination of the root cause permanently eliminates the problem.

Depending on the equipment, operations and procedures of the organisation, alternative statistical records of maintenance and maintenance-related events may be substituted for MTBF providing they relate strategies for improving OEE.

FMEA 

FMEA is a systematic approach that identifies potential failure modes in a system, product, or operations/assembly operation caused by either design or operations/assembly process deficiencies. It also identifies critical or significant design or process characteristics that require special controls to prevent or detect failure modes. FMEA is a tool used to prevent problems from occurring.

Some industry sectors have highly adapted forms of FMEA and may practice traditional FMEA in say their routine maintenance while using another technique, such as Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP) for design and modification.

HAZOP is a form of FMEA which has been practiced by the process industries for over 30 years and examines the implications of changes in process conditions to process stability.

Condition monitoring 

Condition monitoring is used to describe the process of analysing the implications of condition monitoring data for proactive maintenance whether it be obtained from non destructive testing (NDT) reports, visual assessment by experts, diagnostic reports obtained from SCADA or other enterprise or equipment software and product or process quality analyses. It does not require the actual undertaking of the NDT or condition monitoring assessment or test. If this is required appropriate units from other Training Packages will be required.

Unit sector

Competitive systems and practices