Failure Capture for Work Order Assets

Capturing asset failures, causes, and resolutions helps organizations to measure and analyze asset reliability and availability that further helps in assessing maintenance effectiveness and efficiency. Failure data provides the necessary foundation to determine asset-specific maintenance strategies, optimize maintenance programs, and to support reliability tools like root cause analysis, failure modes and effects analysis, probability plotting, and statistical modelling.

Failure history data is required for gaining insights from machine learning prediction and recommendation. In essence, it's important to capture failure data.

Elements of the Failure capture:

• Condition Codes: This includes failure, cause, and resolution codes. These codes are created using a Manage Condition Event Codes task with code type as failure code, cause code, and resolution code respectively. If the condition codes aren't created, failure data can’t be captured in the maintenance work order.
• The Failure Set:
  • It's mandatory to define failure set before attempting to capture failure data for the work order asset. This is because failure set is a required attribute of the failure data capture. You need to have at least a default failure set for successful capture of failure data. Note that the failure set value is derived automatically when you set out to capture failure data for the asset.
  • When a failure set is associated to the failure data, the same is used until the work order is closed. Even if the failure set becomes invalid, the existing failure data where the failure set is associated continues to use the same.
  • Failure set also has a rule to mandate failure capture for the work orders associated with it. When failure capture is mandatory for a work order, you can't complete the work order without capturing the failure data.
• Failures:
  • Failure data is captured for a maintenance work order asset. Primary failure data set includes failure, cause, and resolution codes. Additionally, failed component or asset can be part of the captured failure data. Further, you can provide the comments for each data set. Any number of failure data sets can be recorded for a work order asset. Along with failures, you can record the failure date and also indicate whether the asset is functional or down after it failed.
  • The value of failure, cause and resolution codes during failure capture can be from the Condition code definitions or from the Failure chains in the failure set. If Use chains for failure capture is set to Yes, the values defined in failure chains are used during failure capture. Otherwise, all the valid condition codes are available during failure capture.
  • Failure data is mandatory for certain work orders and is based on the failure set definition. When the failure capture is mandatory you can't complete the work order without capturing the failure data.

Failure Sets

Failure set is designed to greatly enhance the accuracy and usability of failure capture process. Applying a failure set to an asset is failure association. The failure association is used to optionally mandate failure capture for an asset in a work order that's associated with a failure set. Failure chains are defined in the failure set, and each failure chain record is a combination of failure, cause, and resolution codes largely applicable for an asset or for group of assets. Usage of failure chains during failure capture is controlled by the Use chains for failure capture attribute.

Failure set can't be end dated, however, you can update it as needed. During failure capture, a failure set is derived for an asset based on its latest failure association details. When a failure set is used in a failure capture, it remains as is and can't be changed. For example, you can use failure set to predefine the valid set of failure, cause, and resolution codes specifically for grinding machines or even for a particular model of grinding machines. It's always easy and accurate to select failure, cause, and resolution codes from a failure set rather than from whole set of codes defined using the Manage Condition Event Codes task for all assets.

Components of Failure Sets

Failure Sets have following components:

• Associations
• Chains

Failure Associations

The failure set can become applicable to an asset based on one of the following four association types:

• Asset: Used when the failure set is defined for a specific asset. For an asset type association, asset number and description fields are displayed.
• Item: Used when the failure set is defined for assets associated with certain item number. For an item type association, the master organization, item number, and description fields are displayed.
• Item Category: Used when the failure set is defined for assets associated with certain item category associated with asset item number. For an item category type association, the category name and description are displayed.
• Default: This is a generic failure set that's used as default during failure capture when none of the other failure association exists for the work order asset.

For a work order asset, during the failure capture appropriate failure set is derived automatically in this order:

1. Asset type matching work order asset.
2. Item type matching item associated to the work order asset.
3. Item category type matching item category associated to the work order asset item.

If none of the above association types exists for an asset, the default failure set is used for the failure capture. You can define only one default failure set. Use the Failure Capture field to mandate failure capture for work orders that're associated with a failure set. You can select any of these options for the Failure Capture field:

• No: This is the default value. It sets failure capture as optional for the work orders that're associated with failure sets.
• Yes: Select Yes to make failure capture mandatory for work orders associated with failure sets.
• Corrective Work Only: Select this option to set failure capture as mandatory for work orders of Work Order Type, Corrective and are associated with failure sets.

Failure associations can't be edited except for the Failure capture required attribute. An association can be made inactive using deactivate action. After deactivation, you can't revert to an active status. Note that the active associations are only considered during asset failure capture.

Failure Chains

Failure chain is set of records with unique combinations of failure, cause, and resolution codes. It's recommended to define the failure set for an asset or group of assets, and therefore failure chains become automatically applicable for those specific assets. When these chains are used during a failure capture, it's not only easy to select the values for failure, cause, and resolution codes, it's also accurate for the asset in context. A failure chain record can't be updated, however, it can be made inactive using deactivate action. After deactivation, it can't be reverted to active status. Note that the active chains are only considered during asset failure capture.