If there are not any technically
feasible tasks to predict or prevent the failure in the work conditions, or
they are not cost-effective, we must perform actions.
These tasks can be Run-to-Failure or Redesign.
- Run-to-Failure, only if the risk of the failure is in acceptable
values and has not got safety or environmental consequences.
In these cases, we must prepare an emergency response to act once the failure has been. To design this
response to the probability of the failure and the time between failures must be
considered.
The emergency response must be based in a protocol
that can include work orders to
repair the failures, which allow acting immediately the failure is detected, the
actions to take when the failure is
detected to affect the failure affected, and the spare parts forecast to use to repair the failure.
- Redesign, if the risk of the failure is out acceptable values and has got a safety
or environmental consequences we must think in a redesign, the redesign can be
change in the design of equipment, change in process and change in operations. The redesign can be focused on prevention
of failures, avoiding them; detection
of failures, before the consequences of failure; control of the failures, reducing the probability of the failures
modes; or mitigation, reducing the
consequences of the failure.
These redesigns can affect both the equipment and the
operation conditions and the redesigns can include physical modifications of
equipment or the environment, changes in operation procedures, operation or
maintenance of staff training, etc.
Before starting the redesign we must check that they are
cost-effective, comparing the redesign and implantation cost and the estimated risk
reduction, this risk never can be reduced to zero but it is right if the risk
is reduced to reasonable values, or allows using effective condition based
maintenance, time-based maintenance or failure finding tasks.
The redesign must be considered as a project, with financial,
human and material resources that must be assigned, and must be time-limited. Finally,
to check the redesign meets the targets should be checked.
