KPI development and obsolescence management in industrial maintenance

Abstract Since the industrialization of the mid-19th century, the role of maintenance has become increasingly important as time moved on. Proactive maintenance has gained a crucial role, even though a lot of organizations still view it as an expense and not an investment. This paper highlights the role of KPIs and obsolescence management in maintenance operations. The first step was to create a new KPI to assess the work done in maintenance, relating it to the work done in production. Although the ISO 15341:2007 maps out certain KPIs, the creation of a new one was necessary. The result was a two phases KPI, in which its values are matched to a decision matrix that gives a qualitative evaluation of the performed work. The second step was to create a decision-making tool to evaluate the obsolescence of electronic components and choose the mitigation approach. The IEC 62402:2007 shows some terminology and some conditions to check for obsolescence, but does not point out whether a proactive or a reactive approach should be used. Like the KPI developed, it is also composed of a two-phase process. The first phase helps to see which components are at a higher risk to become obsolescent, while the second phase evaluates the repercussions to mitigate its obsolescence. The values obtained are also connected to a decision matrix to decide whether the approach for its mitigation should be proactive or reactive. The novel KPI and obsolescence approach were successfully tested in practice in a dairy processing factory, showing perfectly fulfil the goals initially set.