Mobile Maintenance Overview

MOBILE MAINTENANCE OVERVIEW
THE PROJECT
Over the last decade, we have seen the pace of technology development increase hugely. From mobile phones to tablet devices to ‘smart’ televisions, right up to connected vehicles and homes. This technology shift is inevitably moving into aviation travel sector. Both the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380 require connectivity, and digital tools, to maintain them. Engineering needs to have integrated systems and hardware within the business to keep pace. Achieving such integration will provide us with the latest tools in support of our drive for greater efficiency and improved productivity. Our goal is to use technology to help us become market competitive.
The Mobile Maintenance project is one of Engineering’s primary Tier 1 programmes and forms part of the ‘Our Plan’ business objective to “use digital technology to transform our business”. It aligns with the work we are doing under the banner of the Capella change programme.
With investment being made in mobile hardware, a new content management solution and significant enhancements to the SAP, the project will roll out over the next 18 months. Beginning in the ramp arena, online/mobile working will cascade on into hangar maintenance, and then component workshops. The new content management solution will come on stream one aircraft type at a time, with component maintenance manuals shortly thereafter.
INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE
In the current financial climate, the decision by BA’s Capital Investment Committee to approve this capital investment should be seen as a fantastic endorsement of everything Engineering intends to achieve via the project. Once the cost of the original mobile working trial is added in, the total capex underpinning Mobile Maintenance comes to some £8million. The graphic below provides an indication of how the funds have been invested.
33%
22%
45%
INVESTMENT BREAKDOWN
Hardware
SAP Enhancements
INVESTMENT EXPLAINED
BENEFITS
Of course, the investment decision was driven by the compelling benefits case Engineering were able to make. As well as the obvious productivity and efficiency opportunities, successful implementation opens up the possibility of achieving a wide variety of non-financial gains across Engineering.
PEOPLE AND PROCESSES

Drive up the quality of information underpinning resource and load planning activities.
Reduce the frustration caused by having to leave the aircraft side mid-job.

SAFETY AND QUALITY

Improve access, and adherence, to maintenance manuals, procedures and processes.
Reduce the risk of unrecorded work.

OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Reduce ADDs and delays through easier, quicker and more accurate access to technical information.
Vastly improved situational awareness – both in the satellite control and for the production teams.

SAP Enhancements

Just over 1/5 of the investment has gone into the largest single group of changes to SAP since it was introduced in 2004. Resulting in new transactions and improvements to exisiting ones, in addition to the new eTask app.

Hardware

1/3 of the investment has been on hardware. From the devices to servers and WIFi infranstructure. This portion of the investment was vital in ensuring the implementation becomes a success.

ICMS

The largest portion of the investiment is in the new integrated content management system. A replacement for the TI Portal and Knowledge warehouse, ICMS will provide remote, direct, accurate technical documentation to all engineers.
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Ensure colleagues carry out their role with the most up-to-date information at their fingertips.
Increase the productivity and efficiency of the delivery and support teams in the organisation.
Provide the opportunity for greater visibility of task work steps.
Remove SAP data entry lag, and risk of data transcription errors, to improve compliance data timeliness and quality.
Better quality data will provide greater richness of information to improve the quality, and delivery, of the daily production plan.

DELIVERABLES
DELIVERABLES OVERVIEW
Mobile maintenance often attracts the immediate thought of iPads and the eTask app, mobile maintenance is a huge amount more than just an app on a device. The SAP enhancements upstream all interlink with one another, from enhancing the notifications we rely on for compliance, to creating a balanced plan and managing our operation. The information produced upstream of the app allows the engineer to work with accurate, well planned information on his device, while the app offers him/her immediate benefits with the functionality offered by eTask.
DEFECT WORKBENCH
The defect workbench is a new SAP transaction available for use by both production and the EOCC. It allows a user to search, review and fully define a D3 or D7. The transaction is data rich and allows accurate definition of notifications ensuring the user has all the information available to make informed decisions on what action should be taken. Notifications can be directed to relevant departments using the new milestone function while communication lines between planning, production and the engineer at the aircraft side are opened up with the remarks function.
SLOT PLAN
The slot plan is an engineering version of the airops software we use today to monitor the operation, it is a graphical display of our aircrafts flying schedule allowing a planner to select and analyse maintenance opportunities to plan revisions. The slot plan is the point of entry to the planning workbench and is the first step in the process to creating a new revision or editing an existing one.
PLANNING WORKBENCH
A data rich transaction allowing a planner to analyse the outstanding notifications of an aircraft. A compliance pane, defect pane and modification pane organise the notifications in a logical manner while quick review columns offer immediate information about a notification including; material status, life rule and number of re-assess alongside many others. The main function of the planning workbench is to create accurate plans for work in the production environment.
LOAD AND CAPACITY
Once the notification definition process we will have going forward with mobile maintenance improves and the data is more accurate the load and capacity tool will be a very important tool for engineering. The load and capacity tool will offer a graphical representation of the capacity (resource available) vs the Load (the planned work). This will allow a planner to balance revisions and ensure the plan is achievable. The tool depends on engineering working together to define notifications properly, most importantly defining man hours on ADD’s.
RESOURCE PLANNING DASHBOARD (RPD)
The resource planning dashboard is a digital T card board and interlinks with both the load and capacity tool and the TACD. The RPD (resource planning dashboard) allows a shift manager to organise a shifts colleagues in to teams based on who is available. The transaction offers information of the colleague’s skills, cover and availability and so the teams can be planned accurately and efficiently. There will also be a crew room view which will show everyone which teams they are allocated to. The RPD relies on data fed from the HR system and time manager, with this in mind, it is vital that any time manager data is entered in advance of the event, this includes overtime, leave, sickness and any other absence. Failure to do so will result in the colleagues absent or on overtime failing to show correctly in the RPD. This is important as the RPD feeds the allocation system in the TACD which allocates work to the engineer’s devices.
TASK ALLOCATION AND CONTROL DASHBOARD (TACD)
TACD is the new version of the electronic whiteboard we use today to manage our operation in the satellites. It allows the FSDE to view and analyse the progress of the work being carried out by the engineers on the aircraft, while having the ability to create tasks from VHF calls and allocating them directly to an engineer’s device instantly. The TACD interlinks directly with the eTask app and the functionality provided allows the progress of tasks and revisions to be monitored in real time offering a substantial operational awareness improvement.
ETASK APP (IPAD BASED)
The eTask app is the next generation Ramp app. Following on from the trial version, the eTask app has an abundance of functionalities available that allow an engineer to work more efficiently and effectively. Greater task detail, allocation flexibility, stores integration and reporting functions offer huge improvements to the initial ramp app. The major benefit being increased engagement time at the aircraft side, integration to the content management system and access to up to date technical documentation supports the information already on offer within each task pushed to the device.
INTEGRATED CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (ICMS)
The new content management system is engineering’s single solution for technical documentation and procedures. ICMS replaces the TI Portal and knowledge warehouse bringing considerable aesthetic, control and accessibility improvements. Desktop and device access provides aircraft manuals in the same format, hyperlinked and integrated with the eTask app whilst offering smart search functionality. Offline content also allows manuals to be saved to a device for review with automated updates adding in any TR’s directly to the manual ensuring adherence to the most recent version.
TRAINING
TRAINING SOLUTION
With engineering investing in one of the biggest change projects since the introduction of SAP it is vital that the training solution provided gives all colleagues the most support in the movement towards mobile working. This section will explain the training solution offered as well as where supplementary information and support can be found.
TRAINING DEVELOPMENT
Mobile maintenance training was developed in house by a team of hard working experienced engineering colleagues. They are volunteers who devoted their time to the project to ensure that the content developed was in the best interests of their own colleagues and engineering as a whole. The training concepts were developed alongside the GLA and their own experts to ensure it adhered to training guidelines. In respect of the practical training the colleagues whom deliver the courses are also engineering production colleagues who volunteered to support the work areas in the road towards mobile working.
ASCEND
British Airways’ corporate learning tool is Ascend, it allows courses to be built and stored online for completion at a time that suits without being off lined from the work areas. Ascend also allows learning to be tracked and audited by quality.
SAP ENHANCEMENTS ASCEND COURSES
The mobile maintenance ascend courses were designed to give a ‘how to’ demonstration of the new SAP enhancements. Software is a difficult product to train and the team toyed with different methods. One being the use of screenshots and annotations, however, when analysed, it was found that around 2000 screenshots would need to be produced which was both unmanageable and counterproductive as a training tool. The chosen method was to use videos of the transaction actually in a realistic scenario. Many software products use this method for training and a professional software was sourced to produce the content over a period of 2 months. The videos can be stopped, paused and scrolled through if further time is required on a certain point or notes need to be taken.
ETASK ASCEND COURSE & BALEARNING APP
The eTask ascend course is a little different to that of the SAP Enhancements, the ascend course serves as a placeholder for the competency assessment but the content itself is based on a BA corporate app named BALearning on the iPad device itself.
The BALearning app allows an identical mimic of the real eTask app to be created. The content can then be manipulated to direct a user to choose the correct process and function resulting in the user
becoming familiar and aware of how the eTask app works. If a user makes an error it is not a problem as the learning app offers a safe environment to practice in.
The eTask training app that is released is available at any time allowing a user to refresh on functionality when required.
BALEARNING APP FIX
Some users have reported the BALearning app is malfunctioning and the screen blanks on opening. This is due to a problem Mobile Enabled Operations encountered in March with corporate apps across the BA network having issues.
The fix: Delete BALogin App and Device Doctor App and then reinstall, following that enter the BA App store and ensure all apps are up to date including the BALearning app. This should remedy the fault.
ASCEND COMPETENCY ASSESSEMENTS
The ascend competency assessments are a quality requirement.
PRACTICAL TRAINING
The training team were very keen to have a practical element of training included in the solution, one that allows candidates to practice using the new tools in a safe environment with instructors who are experts in the developments. The solutions were again developed by the SME team alongside the GLA.
EOCC PRACTICAL TRAINING
The EOCC have developed a comprehensive practical training and readiness programme. This includes a full 1 day training course using the new tools in a safe environment while learning new processes and procedures attached to those tools. They also assess individuals on a 1 on 1 basis prior to going live ensuring the candidates are capable and ready to use the tools, assessing competency in addition to setting up layouts and variants applicable to their role.
MVS – MAINTENANCE VISIT SIMULATION
Production colleagues, once they have completed the mandatory ascend modules will be allocated to an MVS course. A Maintenance Visit Simulation course is a 1 day offline course where a candidate will experience and use all of the tools produced from mobile maintenance in a simulated aircraft visit. The simulation begins prior to the aircraft visit highlighting the process of data enrichment and timely entering of HR data, from there the simulation moves through the satellite to the aircraft arrival and through to the aircraft departure. At each point of the aircraft visit the instructors demonstrate functionality and highlight any key points while the candidates actually work the aircraft on the devices like they would in a real life scenario. The candidates are assessed by monitoring their engagement throughout the session as well as a written exam at the end of the session.
POST TRAINING SUPPORT
For additions or queries regarding the MMHandbook contact carl.harris@ba.com
As with any training programme there are often further questions and clarity required by a candidate. For that reason a post training support structure has been implemented.
KEY USERS
Key users in each area are the first port of call for any clarifications or questions regarding mobile maintenance and they will be on hand to every shift to aid in the process of implementation and beyond. Again key users are engineering colleagues and have candidates’ best interests in mind.
YAMMER
Yammer is BA’s business social media option. There is a mobile maintenance group which is monitored daily by the project team. Any questions or queries will be answered in a timely and accurate manner so don’t hesitate to ask for any clarity or report any issues found. Yammer is available via a desktop or via the app store on the iPad.
KEY FUNCTIONS QRH
This mobile maintenance handbook offers an overview of the project, deliverables, training as well as offering a comprehensive quick reference handbook (QRH) for functionality of the new deliverables. It is a working document so if there is anything that is missing please report it to the owner or mobile maintenance yammer page.
ENGINEERING PROCEDURES
BA ENGINEERING TECHNICAL PROCEDURES AND WORK INSTRUCTIONS
Mobile Maintenance is now part of British Airways Engineering Technical Procedures/Work Instructions. Alongside this there will be local procedures which will be briefed and cascaded by your business area representatives. Follow the instructions below to access the engineering procedures and work instructions related to Mobile Maintenance

Description of a Maintenance Organisation

This report provides analysis of the Ervia Facilities department and investigates options for improving cost effectiveness. Ervia is Ireland’s biggest utility provider and has 2,000 office based employees in 19 locations across the country.
Ervia has availed of the Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) model for delivery of maintenance with OCS Management Services being the chosen provider. The cost to Ervia of this service is £3,000,000 per annum. This 3 year contract is set to expire at the end of 2017.
Industrial relations (IR)
Mention overall savings expected. £500,000 in total with a £100,000 reduction of the IFM contract value.
The Maintenance Organisation that I have chosen to base this report on exists within the facilities department of Ervia.
Ervia is Ireland’s biggest utility provider. It is a semi-state body, formed in 2014 and is the parent company of Irish Water and Gas Networks Ireland. Through its business, Aurora Telecom, it is also a provider of dark fibre broadband infrastructure.
A Shared Services business unit was created within Ervia that comprises of Facilities, Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT), Accounts Payable, Procurement and Major Projects departments. Shared Services would count Irish Water and Gas Networks Ireland as de facto customers.
The Facilities department are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of 19 offices throughout Ireland. There are some 2,000 employees working from these offices. Site security, cleaning, catering, capital projects and fleet management also fall within the remit of the department but for this report, we will focus solely on the maintenance of the office buildings.
The maintenance or ‘hard services’ of the offices is outsourced to the IFM company, OCS Management Services as part of a 3 year contract that is due to expire at the end of 2017.
OCS Management Services is part of the wider OCS group. The acronym was originally defined as Office Cleaning Services but is now interchangeably explained as being either One Complete Solution or Outsourced Client Solutions. It has a truly global reach with operations in over 50 countries and provides a full range of facilities related services.
For simplicity, we will refer to the OCS Management Services team as OCS for the remainder of this report.
The changes I suggest will be recommended for implementation at the beginning of the next IFM contract in January, 2018 and will involve structural overhaul of both Ervia and OCS’s facilities maintenance teams. This next IFM contract is set to last 5 years.
2.1 Office Locations
One of the main challenges for managing maintenance on the Ervia contract is the geographical spread with offices dotted throughout the country. See Figure 1 for all office locations.
It would be far easier to deliver Facilities service if the office staff were more centrally located but being a national utility, Ervia must tie in with the multitude of county and city councils spread throughout the country.

Figure 1: Ervia Offices Locations
Figure 1 shows the locations of Ervia offices throughout Ireland.
2.2 Contract Value
The hard services maintenance contract comes at a cost of £3,000,000 per year to Ervia.
It is based on a Cost Plus model i.e. all Preventive Maintenance (PM) is delivered as part of the contract value with Corrective Maintenance (CM) activities charged as additional costs.
Additional costs can accumulate up to a value of £500,000 per year.
2.3 Work Quantities and Types
Facilities maintenance differs from industrial maintenance in that items that require attention may be observed by either office or maintenance staff. Office staff will generally tend to report less serious matters, while maintenance staff typically report the issues which require more urgent attention.
In order to separate the ‘noise’ of often trivial matters observed by office staff from the technical issues observed by maintenance staff, Ervia has developed an Incident Management process. Issues are raised by the office staff using an online incident management system. The raised incidents are dealt with by the maintenance staff along the following lines:

If the item involves a non-technical fix e.g. increase in room temperature or lubricating a squeaking door hinge, the incident can be closed once this action is completed.
If the item requires a technical fix e.g. a water leak or failed light fitting, the incident is escalated by raising a CM Work Order (WO) in the Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS).

Equipment running issues or breakdowns are raised directly as CM WOs in the CMMS by Facilities staff.
In terms of PM, there are 903 schedules across the Ervia office portfolio. These in turn generate multiples of weekly and monthly PM WOs.
The following charts break out the annual mix of maintenance activities by types, quantities and whether they are actioned through self-delivery or out-sourcing.

Figure 2: Quantities of Maintenance Activities by Type
Figure 2 shows the various types and approximate quantities of Maintenance Activities that are raised annually within the Ervia Facilities department.

Figure 3: Self Delivered v Outsourced Maintenance Activities
Figure 3 shows the percentage split in terms of delivery of Maintenance Activities.

Figure 4: Ervia Organisation Chart
Figure 4 displays the Ervia maintenance team Organisation Chart.
The 6 employees in the above chart are the Ervia staff in the Facilities department that have responsibility over the maintenance function. There are other staff in the department but we will only consider the above for this report.
The Systems Engineer, despite the implication in the job title, sits at a middle management level and is considered to be a peer of the Facilities Managers.
The General Operator (GO) stands out as being the only person of that rank that is a member of the Ervia team. The GO in question is a long serving staff member of Gas Networks Ireland and chose not to transfer to OCS when the first IFM contract was awarded. This situation presents a complication as the GO will not take direction from OCS staff and instead all orders have to be channelled through the NSC & Regional Sites Facilities Manager.

Figure 5: OCS Organisation Chart
Figure 5 displays the OCS maintenance team Organisation Chart (based on the Ervia FM contract).
The 24 employees in the above chart are the OCS staff that are embedded on the Ervia IFM contract. All roles are subject to Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations and will move to the new service provider should OCS not be successful in their efforts at contract renewal in 2018.
As with Ervia, the OCS Systems Engineer sits at a middle management level and is considered to be a peer of the Facilities Managers.
We can see from the above chart that the DCC Facilities Manager has a far bigger team at his disposal than the other mangers. This is because over half of the Ervia office staff are situated in the buildings within his remit.
In isolation, the Ervia and OCS organisation charts seem to represent an acceptable scenario. However when we combine them in Figure 6, we can instantly see that improvement steps need to be taken. There is obvious duplication of roles at Facilities Manager and Systems Engineer level. Dual reporting is also apparent with the OCS Facilities Managers and Systems Engineers having to ‘answer’ to both Ervia and OCS management.

Figure 6: Combined Ervia and OCS Organisation Chart
Figure 6 displays the Combined Ervia and OCS maintenance team Organisation Chart.
The above Organisation Chart may in parts seem both confusing and utterly unbelievable, especially when linking the OCS structure to Ervia. The aim of Table 2 is to further explain the duality of the reporting structure.
Table 2: OCS to Ervia Reporting Structure

OCS Staff Members

Report To

OCS Senior Key Account Manager

Ervia National Facilities Operations Manager

NSC Facilities Manager

OCS Senior Key Account Manager

Ervia NSC & Regional Sites Facilities Manager

Regional Sites Facilities Manager

OCS Senior Key Account Manager

Ervia NSC & Regional Sites Facilities Manager

DCC Facilities Manager

OCS Senior Key Account Manager

Ervia DCC Facilities Manager

Southern Region Facilities Manager

OCS Senior Key Account Manager

Ervia Southern Region Facilities Manager

Systems Engineer

OCS Senior Key Account Manager

Ervia Systems Engineer

The most remarkable fact about this combined structure is that, somehow, it actually works. It can be safely said that it is both collaborative and operationally effective. Even though each mid-level manager has two persons to report to, somehow the contract proceeds with very little conflict to the extent that at times the relationship between Ervia and OCS has been described as ‘incestuous’!
However it is clear that it could not be effective from a cost perspective. For instance there are more managers than technicians. The superfluous layer of middle management will be the initial focus when it comes to suggesting improvements in cost effectiveness.
From the above we can also conclude, with certainty, that operational efficiency requires improvement. For example, if any of the OCS Facilities Managers or Systems Engineer needs approval to take an action, they will have to seek this from two persons. This can turn into a game of ping-pong as the approving managers may not initially agree on the same course of action. Usually in this scenario, the Ervia approving manager’s opinion will prevail due to the ‘customer is always right’ philosophy.
The structure as portrayed in Figure 4 is not unknown in the Irish semi-state/public sectors where there have long been accusations by print and broadcast media of wasteful spending (McConnell, 2015).
It is a fair question to ask as to how this situation developed. Among the reasons are:

As Ervia came into being by virtue of decisions made at government level, the result was the virtual overnight creation of the biggest utility company in Ireland that had rapidly expanding responsibilities.
Employees transferred from the Gas Networks Ireland Facilities department to Ervia without an assessment being made on whether they were required or not.
Because of the above, it was more pressing at the time to simply get a Facilities department up and running without considering the most efficient means of doing so.

6.1 Phase 1 Development – Losing Fat in the Midsection

Figure 7: Proposed Phase 1 Combined Ervia and OCS Organisation Chart
Figure 7 displays the Proposed Combined Ervia and OCS maintenance team Organisation Chart at the Phase 1 level of development.
We can see in Figure 7 that the structure looks less convoluted and is starting to develop a balance. The first task in this development will be to remove the duplicate layer of middle management. The second task will be to change who the Ervia GO reports to.
The following two actions will have to be taken to enable this:

The Ervia Facilities Managers and Systems Engineer roles will have to be made redundant.
The Ervia GO will have to transfer to OCS.

6.2 Phase 2 Development – The Rise of the Systems Engineer

Figure 8: Proposed Phase 2 Combined Ervia and OCS Organisation Chart
Figure 8 displays the Proposed Combined Ervia and OCS maintenance team Organisation Chart at the Phase 2 level of development.
We can see in Figure 8 that the maintenance organisation now looks to be much more ordered and has a well-balanced structure. Duplication of roles and dual reporting has been removed.
To enable this change, the role of the Systems Engineer will have to be considerably expanded. Up to this point the focus of this role was to collate asset data, install both a CMMS and an incident management system.
The Systems Engineer can now fully take the reins regarding a systematic approach to improving work management. To do this, the support of an administrator will be required once the system becomes operational. Once fully realised, this system will negate the need for the 3 administrators that report to the Facilities managers.
The reduction in administrators is possible because the new CMMS is configured for paperless WOs and much increased automation of reporting. The maintenance staff will now carry tablet computers to execute completion of WOs.
From this point onwards, the Systems Engineer’s office will become the nerve centre of maintenance activities for the Facilities department with the following items featured prominently:

Planning and scheduling of maintenance activities will be managed from there in conjunction with the site based technical staff. This is detailed further in Section 7.
The CMMS will be fully managed from there with PM WOs for all sites generated by the administrator on a weekly basis.
Reports from the Incident Management systems and CMMS will also be compiled at this office. These will be channelled directly to senior management at OCS and Ervia.
The Systems Engineer will chair a monthly meeting with the Facilities Managers and cover upcoming works and resources requirements/availability.
Implementation of work prioritisation. Again this is drilled into further in Section 7.

6.3 Phase 3 Development – Breaking Down the Barriers
Something that is not visible from the above organisation charts is the discreet walls that exist between the various site teams. It could even be said that they operate almost as autonomous groups.
It is hoped that Systems Engineer’s increasing prominence will organically bring about change in this area and pull the teams together. There is much to be gained by sharing both knowledge and resources when possible. For instance one of the Facilities Technicians in the Dublin City Centre (DCC) sites is a qualified refrigeration engineer, he could provide technical assistance and advice regarding air conditioning equipment to the other sites.
In the longer term, once the maintenance organisation has settled following the period of enforced change, consideration should be given to reviewing how maintenance activities are performed. There are likely to be opportunities for improvement of cost effectiveness in this area also.
7.1 Ranking Index for Maintenance Expenditure (RIME)
It is envisaged that a system for prioritisation of maintenance activities will be introduced to the Facilities organisation. In RIME, expenditure refers to both time and cost.
RIME works by assigning scores for the following factors:

Asset criticality.
WO criticality.
Amount of time a WO is open.

These scores are then multiplied which will, if the system is configured properly, ensure the most important work gets the highest total score.
The newly installed CMMS at Ervia supports RIME and automatically provides total scores for WOs. This will allow maintenance staff to see a list of activities assigned to them in high-to-low order of priority.
7.2 Developing the Planning Function
Sound planning practices are essential for any maintenance organisation and implementation of such is considered best practice.
In the Ervia Facilities department, the OCS Systems Engineer will lead the charge in rolling out planning across the maintenance team. As detailed earlier, The Systems Engineer will chair a monthly meeting with the Facilities Managers and work planning will take centre stage at this meeting.
A further aim of these meetings will be to knock down the discreet walls that exist between the different site teams. There should be opportunities to share both learning and indeed resources but proper lines of communication need to be established first.
The changes that can be implemented have now been suggested but what are they going to achieve in terms of improving cost effectiveness? The bullet points below will attempt to quantify expected savings:

Removing Layer of Middle Management

The Facilities Managers and System Engineer each come at a cost of £100,000 to Ervia. Removing the 4 as proposed, will bring a saving of £400,000.

Reducing Number of Administrators

Each administrator comes at a cost of £50,000 to Ervia. Removing 3 as proposed, while transferring 1 to support the Systems Engineer will bring a saving of £100,000.

Any savings to be generated here are difficult to quantify at this juncture but a system for prioritising work can only be a good thing and will surely result in at least some cost avoidance by getting the important work done at the right time.

Again any savings garnered by taking this measure are difficult to quantify at present but will help ensure maintenance best practice is followed.

It is worth noting however that the rule of thumb in industry is unplanned maintenance can cost at least 3 times as much as planned maintenance (Strawn, n.d.).

In terms of staff resources, savings are calculated based on the cost to Ervia which takes into account such items as Pay Related Social Insurance and Management Fees charged by OCS as part of the IFM contract. Detailed resource costs are tabulated in Appendix A.
It must be noted that only the savings in relation to reducing the number of administrators will impact the IFM contract costs. The removal of the Ervia middle management does not impact the IFM contract value.

To quote Jack Welch (2001), the person regarded by many as the greatest company leader of his generation “Change before you have to”.
Ervia needs to get its house in order if there are external changes introduced such as reduced budgets and/or an increase in the number of sites to maintain.
At present there is much volatility in Irish political circles with funding of public/semi state companies a constant hot topic. Ervia could be faced with the possibility of having its funding slashed at government level and in tough times the maintenance department of any organisation is often seen as a soft target.
Since there is an IFM contract renewal coming at the beginning of 2018, this could be used as an opportunity to begin the implementation of changes. It would mean that the proposed structures could be built in to the new contract which would avoid having to use the change control process that applies during contract ‘run time’.
Again, to draw from the famed former head of General Electric (GE), Jack Welch, “Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while” (Slater, 1998).
Let’s consider, in the following sub-sections, the two main points of impact as a result of implementing the proposed changes. We will also consider on how to mitigate the effects.
10.1 Staff Reductions and Transfers
These decisions will not be easy to implement. There will be considerable resistance from the Ervia Facilities Managers and Systems Engineer. Should the situation become intractable, it may be necessary to remove the layer of middle management from OCS instead. The Ervia staff would then transfer to OCS and report to the Senior Key Account Manager. The path of least resistance may have to be followed. It could well turn out that the Facilities Managers and Systems Engineer team are made up out of a combination of OCS and former Ervia staff that have transferred.
The Ervia GO may take umbrage at having to transfer to OCS. The last time these attempts were made resulted in failure.
The shakeup at administration level could also cause rancour. Because the Systems Engineer is based in one of the Cork offices, the administrator that supports this role will likely come as a transfer from the Southern Regional Sites Facilities Manager’s team. The two Dublin based administrators will have to be made redundant.
Willing to make changes is one thing but successfully managing the change will be crucial. A rocky road will have to be travelled with the possibility of staff morale taking a hit. Potential resentment from the soon-to-be unemployed staff towards retained staff is also likely during the transition phase.
The strength that Welch speaks of will have to come from senior management in both Ervia and OCS. Considerable resolve will have to be displayed when communicating to employees that they no longer have a job. A silver lining can be added to the cloud by ensuring favourable severance packages for those made redundant and committing to TUPE regulations for any employee that transfers to OCS.
10.2 Introduction of Work Management Systems
It could be perceived by the Facilities Mangers that a power grab is taking place by the Systems Engineer. The onus will be on the Senior Key Account Manager to sell the benefits of the changes in practice.
Over time, the benefits should then start to become self-evident as management of work improves, shared learnings disseminate and client contentment increases as a result of a better run contract.
10.3 Industrial Relations Concerns
The changes proposed above will not be encumbered by IR action. Neither Ervia nor OCS staff are union affiliated so as long as the employee’s legally held rights are observed, there should be no issue.
The Facilities department could be presented with a dramatic widening of its scope in the next number of years. It is envisaged that Ervia, through Irish Water, will eventually absorb all county and city council staff that are currently involved in maintaining the water services infrastructure. This could involve the transfer of up to an additional 2,500 staff. The knock-on effects for the maintenance team within the Facilities department would be considerable. The multitude of premises that house all these employees would then be in scope for upkeep and repair.
There is currently a team charged with developing a plan to allow for the transfer of these staff and premises to the Ervia parent utility group. The Water Industry Operating Framework (WIOF) will contain the new obligations that the Facilities department will be required to meet.
Both Ervia and OCS, should they retain the IFM contract, will have to ready themselves for the huge challenges coming down the tracks. The best way to achieve this is to allow for scalability in the systems that are designed and built.
While extra staff will no doubt have to be recruited, duplication of roles as per the current situation will have to be avoided. The time is right at present to ensure a solid foundation is laid to accommodate this forecasted expansion.
In the predicted scenario, additional costs are going to be incurred. The measures proposed in this report, if implemented, will serve to keep these extra costs to a minimum.
At a higher level, there are additional changes that could be made to improve cost effectiveness. As mentioned earlier, the current IFM contract with OCS falls under the Cost Plus model.
Detailed below is an alternative to this contract type known as Fixed Price/Output Based. The author of this report has previous experience of this type of IFM contract. The bullet points below show advantages and potential shortcomings:

Headline Information (based on example):

10% up-front savings guaranteed over costs incurred by client to deliver maintenance.
Built in ‘glide path’ which consisted of a 1% year-on-year reduction in cost of overall contract.
IFM absorbed costs of up to £5,000 per breakdown.
IFM had full authority on staff numbers and how maintenance was delivered.
Contract was ‘5 + 5’ i.e. initial duration of 5 years with option by client to extend for a further 5 years without re-tendering.

Advantages:

Costs for client are tied down.
Incentive for IFM provider to implement cost effective maintenance.

Disadvantages:

Instead of what Emmet and Wheelhouse (2011) describe as collaborative, the relationship can instead become transactional and often even adversarial.
Risk that IFM may cut corners regarding maintenance in order to deliver on-budget.
‘Race to the bottom’ mentality can pervade during tendering where prospective service providers will submit unrealistically low pricing in order to win the contract.

Requirements to make it work:

Watertight contract with relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to accurately monitor IFM contract compliance.
Condition of equipment in contract scope needs to be thoroughly evaluated during the tender process and the client must have an ‘open book’ policy regarding historical failure data.

Enough financial head room in the contract to allow the IFM provider to make a profit. If this is not present, the contract will inevitably collapse with possible adverse consequences for business continuity.

In the example above, the contract was terminated by the client after 2 years due to poor service delivery and repeated KPI failures. The main cause of this, in the author’s opinion, would be that the IFM provider submitted such a low price at tendering that they could not meet the agreed contract conditions while generating a profit.
To open the conclusion, it’s fair to say the above analysis may seem cold but it is approached from a business perspective with a view to achieving a sustainable maintenance organisation that is capable of surviving more stringent cost controls that may lie ahead.
On the face of it, it would seem that the maintenance organisation within the Ervia Facilities department is ripe for change. And to sustain the analogy, there may even be some low hanging fruit!
Listed below are the positives that will come with introducing change:

Staff reductions alone will bring £500,000 in savings and if all goes according to plan, there will no reduction in the level of service to the wider organisation.
The introduction of advanced Work Management systems should also improve cost effectiveness but it’s hard to quantify the level of such at present.
Ultimately what is required is to achieve the same level of performance for reduced expenditure or in the utopian situation, an increas 

Maintenance Strategy for an Emergency Lighting System

One could be forgiven for thinking that compiling a maintenance strategy for an emergency lighting system would be a trivial matter to execute.
This may possibly be the case with a small office building but our challenge at Novartis was not a task that could be underestimated.
The first thing to consider is the scale of the site at approximately 150 acres and that emergency lighting by its nature permeates every nook and cranny. The second is the huge emphasis placed on safety which is understandable when Seveso directives are factored in.
Adding to this was the fact that until VEIS arrived on site there was no existing strategy for the maintenance of the emergency lighting system. Once the remit passed to VEIS, literally overnight, we inherited the mammoth task of restoring the system to full operation and ensuring regulatory compliance in terms of inspection and testing.
This all was being played out under the watchful gaze of existing site staff that may not have been openly welcome to the notion of an IFM company’s arrival on site.
There was minimum time for VEIS staff to ease into their roles in this challenging environment. Needless to say the first six months on site were a baptism of fire (but thankfully not in the literal sense!).
Besides immediately assuming inspection and testing duties, the initial stages involved gathering data on both the quantities of light fittings present and the extent of repair work required. The next stage required meeting with suppliers to arrange for parts supply. Full restoration of the system would then take place in tandem with ongoing inspection and testing.
Regarding inspection and testing, there was little leeway for VEIS to create a customised approach as the regulations in I.S. 3217 2013 are quite prescriptive. We simply had to figure out the most effective and efficient way to deliver the required performance of such a safety critical system.
I believe the expertise required from VEIS was not to reinvent a method of maintaining an emergency lighting system. Instead it was to implement a strategy, where none existed before, that worked both in terms of compliance to regulations and ensuring maximum availability of a safety critical system. On this front, we certainly delivered.
Novartis Ringaskiddy Limited is an API manufacturing plant located in Co. Cork Ireland.
It is part of the Novartis global healthcare company which is based in Switzerland.
In January 2014, VEIS assumed responsibility for the provision of an Integrated Facilities Management contract of 5 years duration. This encompassed the following equipment/services:

Utilities – steam boilers, air compressors, air dryers, cooling towers, water treatment, purified water systems.
Hard Services – fire alarm, gas detection system, CCTV, roller shutter doors, clean room sliding doors, dock lifts, passenger and freight elevators, emergency lighting.
Soft Services – catering, cleaning, security, landscaping, pest control, internal plants.

This was the first venture into the outsourcing of Facilities Management services by Novartis so there was a steep learning curve for all concerned.
My role with VEIS was Technical Team Lead with primary responsibility over Utilities and Hard Services.
Our most immediate Task was to implement a Maintenance Strategy for site wide Emergency Lighting. This had fallen into neglect over the years; mainly due to a lack of a dedicated team to oversee its maintenance – there had almost been an ad hoc approach to testing and repair.
Besides my role as Team Lead, the VEIS maintenance crew consisted of 2 Facilities Technicians, both with strong past electrical experience.
It was decided that upkeep of the Emergency Lighting system would be fully self-delivered with no outside contractor involvement.

Figure 1: Novartis Ringaskiddy Limited (Source: PM Group)
Figure 1 is an aerial view of the Novartis Ringaskiddy Limited site (PM Group).
Table 2

A

Main Switch Room

B

Pump House

C

Tank Farm

D

Solvent Recovery

E

LVI

F

Contractor’s Compound (not in IFM contract scope)

G

Project Stores (not in IFM contract scope)

H

PB 2

I

PB 1

J

PB 1A

K

Waste Water

L

Utilities

M

Technical Services

N

QA Labs

O

Warehouse

P

Canteen/HR/Administration

Q

NIPBI Labs

R

Security Gate House

Table 2 defines alphabetically labelled points in Figure 1.
Novartis Ringaskiddy Limited is subject to Seveso directives. These directives are put in place to help prevent major industrial accidents and ensure that sites are prepared, in terms of response, for when accidents occur (European Commission, 2016).
Sites are categorised according to the amount of hazardous chemicals in storage (Lawlor Technology, 2015). NRL is an upper tier Seveso site – there are up to 4000m3 of solvent chemicals stored on site.
There are also several Zone 1 and 2 ATEX areas. The HSA (n.d.) defines these as:
“Zone 1 – That part of a hazardous area in which a flammable atmosphere is likely to occur in normal operation.”
“Zone 2 – That part of a hazardous area in which a flammable atmosphere is not likely to occur in normal operation and, if it occurs, will exist for a short period.”
Another example of a hazardous area is the Dryer Unloading area in PB1. During certain production campaigns, there is the presence of Category 3 chemicals here. Access to the area is strictly prohibited during these times. Contact with minute amounts of Category 3 chemicals can have severe health consequences for a person (Ader et al, 2005).
Because of the highly dangerous operating context of the emergency lighting system, safe work practices were essential for the VEIS team on the Novartis site.
We were required to develop a method statement for emergency lighting maintenance activities. This was reviewed by the HSE department and a site electrical engineer. Edits were performed where necessary prior to final approval.
The use or carrying of cellular phones was prohibited at all times at NRL.
It’s worth noting for this exercise the challenging IR environment that VEIS entered at the beginning of the IFM contract. It was seen by many on site that moving to an outsourced service provider would result in lay-offs for NRL maintenance staff.
In reality VEIS were tasked at delivering in areas that were either previously neglected or lacked central control.
Until this realisation had sunk in, maximum discretion and diplomacy was required from the VEIS team in order to gain acceptance from the existing site staff.
During the initial stages of the VEIS team’s arrival onsite, there was an unwavering focus on all aspects of our conduct. It was of prime importance that the team displayed the upmost professionalism and adherence to safe working practices at all times.
It was essential that, for our maintenance strategy to work, full cooperation was received from existing site staff. This involved gaining trust from both management and ‘floor’ staff.
The Novartis Ringaskiddy site, under the surface, functions as a group of almost autonomous areas. The production buildings, utilities, warehouse, tank farm & waste water areas all have designated management teams who all have in turn subtle but distinct differences in methods of operation.
As emergency lighting is a utility that features across the site, the VEIS team had to find a way to adapt to the varying cultural practices in order to make our strategy work.
Engaging in a respectful and sometimes almost deferential manner was the order of the day. Here are some of the bridges that had to be crossed:
Method Statement development

The method statement for emergency lighting maintenance activities required review and approval from both the HSE process safety manager and PB1 electrical engineer.
The peculiar aspect to this is that neither of the other two site electrical engineers opted to review or approve the method statement despite being presented with it.
See Appendix A for cover page of Method Statement.

Planning Meetings

Again there was a variance here in that VEIS attended weekly maintenance planning meetings in the PB2 production building only.
This was to ensure that production and maintenance coordinators were aware of upcoming works. This obviously extended beyond emergency lighting to all VEIS related maintenance.
It also helped ensure that the work permitters for the building had advanced notice as resources were tight in this area.
For other areas on site, email notification was sufficient to alert NRL staff of pending activities.

Client Meetings

As part of our customer engagement strategy, we arranged separate monthly meetings with key staff from the PB1, PB2 and Technical Services areas.
This provided a forum for all parties to express opinions on any issues or indeed the good news stories.

KPI Score Card
Client interaction was critical here. See section 13.0 for specific detail.
ATEX areas
It was vital for VEIS to gain the confidence of the client in our ability to work safely and competently in the ATEX areas. As an embedded contractor, we were subject to more intense scrutiny than any sub-contractor that provided services to the client. An example would be the purchase of a Fluke Ex multi-meter that we made. This came at a cost of €1000. All other electrical maintenance staff used the non-Ex €300 version.
Asset Register
Individual emergency light fittings were not listed on the NRL asset register. The lowest level the register went to was the Central Test Units. The Novartis engineers were keen to have a full schedule of emergency light fittings included in the asset register so it made sense for VEIS to assist them. Aiding the NRL engineers with this task was not in the scope of the IFM contract but providing this service did much to solidify the relationship and further build trust. This was practically a mini project and involved the following activities:

Compiling the full list of fittings.
Listing the fittings accurately by type and by area.
‘Redlining’ the lighting plans to reflect moved, removed or newly installed fittings.
Confirming the correct CTUs, Distribution Boards and MCBs.
Liaising with the site electrical engineers to agree on a naming/tagging convention.
Supplying redlined lighting plans to site drawing office for printing and uploading to the Novartis COMOS system.

Site Manual (Play Book)
A site manual or ‘play book’ was developed which outlined the scope of the VEIS IFM contract. This was a live document which evolved as the contract progressed and reflected any new services that were added to the remit of VEIS. The site manual was subject to periodic review by the Novartis IFM lead. High level maintenance strategies were also stored in in this book.
In order to comply with rigorous onsite HSE policies, VEIS technical staff required training/certification with the following:

ATEX Awareness.
Emergency Lighting Commissioning & Inspection.
Confined Space Entry.
Mobile Access Tower assembly.
Current Good Manufacturing Practice.
Fire Watch.
Lock-out/Tag-out/Isolation.
Mobile Elevated Work Platform operation.
Permitting – hot and cold works.
SAP CMMS

User level for FTs.
Maintenance Planner level for Technical Team Lead.

Working at Heights.
Manual Handling.
Safety Harness.

As previously mentioned, the Emergency Lighting system had fallen into a state of disrepair on the Ringaskiddy site. With the arrival of VEIS onsite as the IFM provider, a new impetus was put on restoring the system to full operating order and maintaining it to a proper and compliant standard.
In addition, it was quickly noticed by the VEIS team that list of emergency light fittings in the contract tender was not correct. There had been several additions and modifications to the system without proper records to reflect the changes.
After a thorough appraisal, it was found that more than €100,000 would be required in parts purchasing to carry out the necessary repairs. This would have to be actioned by VEIS as it was within scope of the contract.
Appendix B lists the costs of parts required to achieve a fully functioning emergency lighting system.
All of the emergency light fittings on the NRL site are of the Self-Contained Emergency Luminaire variant.
This type is defined as having all components such as the lamp, control unit and battery either inside or not more than one metre from the fitting (Ventilux, n.d.).
8.1 Various Types Used
Figures 2 and 3 show both the most commonly used and most expensive to replace fittings used at NRL.
There are other types also such as ‘Exit/Running Man’ and ‘Twin Spot’. Although these are equally critical from a safety perspective, they came at a fraction of the cost to replace.
It was decided because of the preferential pricing available for purchasing complete Stahl fittings that these would be used to replace defective CEAG units that were economically unrepairable.
CEAG fittings were kept in service only when the repairs didn’t extend beyond tube and battery replacement.

Figure 2: Stahl Ex Emergency Light Fitting (Source: Stahl)
Figure 2 shows the types of Stahl light fittings used on the Novartis site (Stahl).
Figure 3: CEAG Ex Emergency Light Fitting (Source: Atex)
Figure 3 shows the type of CEAG light fitting used on the Novartis site (Atex).
8.2 Quantities of Fittings by Area & Zone
Table 3

Fitting Type

Ex Zone 1

Ex Zone 2

Safe Area

Main Switch Room

6

Pump House

15

Tank Farm

28

57

28

Solvent Recovery

33

69

LVI

16

35

PB 2

563

130

PB 1

530

145

PB 1A

285

78

Waste Water

58

31

Utilities

55

Technical Services

95

QA Labs

88

Warehouse

93

Canteen/HR/Administration

125

NIPBI Labs

168

Security Gate House

7

Sub Totals

1455

219

1064

Grand Total

2738

Table 3 list the corrected amounts of light fittings by zone and by area.
The more correct way to classify equipment suitable for use in Ex Zone 1 and Zone 2 areas is by CAT 2 and CAT 3 respectively. However it is normal in Industry to reference them by Ex Zone numbers only.
Safe Area refers to type of light fittings used outside of the hazardous areas.
8.3 Components Failure Information
The one benefit of taking on a dilapidated system, from a maintenance perspective, is that you have the data to hand on the reasons why the assets have failed. Figure 4 displays a breakdown of these failure modes for the emergency light fittings on the Novartis site.
This information was a key driver in deciding the amounts and types of spare parts to be held on site.

Figure 4: Reasons for Light Fitting Failure
Figure 4 illustrates failure data compiled on the NRL site.
The Inspection and Maintenance activities evolved as the contract progressed on the Novartis site. The initial stages comprised of inspection and data gathering. This advanced to inspection, testing and repairs.
9.1 Structure and Administration of PMs on CMMS
Novartis utilises the SAP CMMS to administrate all of its maintenance activities. VEIS staff were trained onsite in the use of this system. The Facilities Technicians were trained to
User level while the Technical Team Lead was trained to Planner level.
As effective owners of the assets and systems that were in scope for the IFM contract, it was agreed that we would manage maintenance activities end-to-end.
Here is a synopsis of how we ran this aspect of our operation for the emergency lighting system:

PMs were built against the Asset IDs of the CTUs.
The CMMS Created a PM01 Preventive Maintenance Work Order in advance of the Due Date based on the Call Horizon settings.
The VEIS Planner Released the Work Order in advance of the activity being carried out.
One of the FTs printed the resultant Job Card.
The FTs had a predetermined period of time from the Due Date to complete the activity so as not to exceed the Late Date.
PMs that overshot the Late Date required Deviation Reports to be submitted.
Corrective activities were recorded using PM11 Deferred Maintenance or PM12 Immediate Maintenance Work Orders depending on the severity of the issue.
Completed Job Cards and reports, where applicable, were uploaded to the CMMS and attached to the relevant Work Order before changing its status to Complete.

See Appendix C for definitions of the terms used by the SAP CMMS.
See Appendix D for an example of a Novartis Work Order raised on the SAP CMMS.
9.2 Permitting for Works
There was variance across the NRL site in how permits to work were processed. Again it was an example of how at a high level there was standard practice but the reality on the ground was different.
This was another area where VEIS had to adapt to the different procedures and ensure both safety compliance and a timely manner for delivering works. The time concern stems from lengthy delays that could occur if one did not follow the specific permitting guidelines for a particular area.
See Appendix F for a table displaying the differences per area in processing of permits to work on the NRL site.
9.3 Inspection and Testing
Daily Test
The following is the procedure employed for the daily test:

To complete the daily test of the emergency lighting system, one of the Facilities Technicians walks the site and checks the CTUs for presence of any faults.
Permitting is not required for this activity.

Any faults are recorded in the VEIS Emergency Lighting Logbook and repairs are put into the work queue.

Visual Inspection of Emergency Lights
Under the previous I.S. 3217 standard, all emergency light fittings had to be visually inspected weekly. This would have been near impossible for the VEIS team to deliver.
The current standard stipulates that 25% of fittings are to be visually inspected weekly resulting in 100% being checked in a four week period.
The following is the procedure employed for the visual inspection:

When conducting a visual inspection of the emergency lights in an area, the Facilities Technicians will first contact the area supervisor to inform them of the intention to carry out an inspection.
A permit and countersignature will then be requested if it is deemed necessary.
Technicians will use the access card swipe-in system or the sign-in logbook when entering the area if such systems are present.
The Technicians will then walk the area and record their results in the VEIS Emergency Lighting Logbook.
The area will be left in a clean and tidy state.
They will swipe or sign out when leaving the area if such systems are present.
If a permit was received then it will be returned and signed off.
See Appendix E for Risk Assessment table.

Three Monthly Inspection (for a 3 hour self-contained system)
The following is the procedure employed for a 3 monthly inspection:

When conducting the Three Monthly Inspection of the emergency lights in an area, the Facilities Technicians will first contact the area supervisor to inform them of the intention to carry out an inspection.
A permit and countersignature will then be requested.
Signs will be placed at the entrances to the area to advise personnel that an inspection is taking place.
Technicians will use the access swipe-in system or the sign-in logbook when entering the area if such systems are present.
The emergency lighting Central Test Unit will then be activated, or in cases where a circuit is not on a CTU, the MCB will be switched off which will result in the emergency lighting going into fault mode.
The Technicians will then walk the area and record their results in the VEIS Emergency Lighting Logbook.
When complete the CTU will be reset and any MCBs that were switched off will be switched on.
Faults that have been recorded will then be addressed.
A suitable ladder will be used for the repairs.
Where the step ladder is used, FTs should not exceed hip height to the top rung of the ladder.
A safety harness will be worn where required.
A scaffold will be used where required.
Care is to be taken when using hand tools.
A Hot Work Permit will be required to work near live exposed parts such as using a meter to check for power.
If replacing internal parts of the light or where a wiring fault needs to be rectified, then the circuit will be locked out at the lighting supply board with a MCB locking device and a padlock. VEIS staff will refer to Novartis SOP 000.926.0479 – Isolation of electrically driven equipment.
Before disconnecting any cable the FT must always confirm that the internal mains wiring is ‘dead’ using a digital multi-meter.
When work is complete then the area is to be left clean and tidy and all circuits should be powered up.
They will swipe or sign out when leaving the area if such systems are present.
The permit will be returned and signed off.
See Appendix E for Risk Assessment table.
Upon completion of the Three Monthly Inspection and testing, a report for inspection, testing and servicing as detailed in Annex C1 and Annex C7 of I.S. 3217:2013 shall be attached to the relevant SAP Work Order where it can be viewed/printed by the PU Manager and electrical engineer of (PB1,PB2,TS). As per 16.2.4.1 of I.S. 3217:2013. A copy of the report shall be placed in the VEIS Emergency Lighting Logbook.

Annual Load Test (for a 3 hour self-contained system)
The following is the procedure employed for the annual load test:

When conducting the Annual Load Test of the emergency lights in an area, the Facilities Technicians will first contact the area supervisor to inform them of the intention to carry out an inspection.
A permit and countersignature will then be requested.
Signs will be placed at the entrances to the area to advise personnel that an inspection is taking place.
Technicians will use the access swipe-in system or the sign-in logbook when entering the area if such systems are present.
The emergency lighting Central Test Unit will then be activated, or in cases where a circuit is not on the CTU the MCB will be switched off, which will result in the emergency lighting going into fault mode.
The Technicians will then walk the area and record their results in the VEIS Emergency Lighting Logbook.
When complete the CTU will be reset and any MCBs that were switched off will be switched on.
Faults that have been recorded will then be addressed.
A suitable ladder will be used for the repairs.
Where the step ladder is used, Technicians should not exceed hip height to the top rung of the ladder.
A safety harness will be worn where required.
A scaffold will be used where required.
Care is to be taken when using hand tools.
A Hot Work Permit will be required to work near live exposed parts such as using a meter to check for power.
If replacing internal parts of the light or where a wiring fault needs to be rectified, then the circuit will be locked out at the lighting supply board with a MCB locking device and a padlock. VEIS staff will refer to Novartis SOP 000.926.0479 – Isolation of electrically driven equipment.
Before disconnecting any cable the FT must always confirm that the internal mains wiring is ‘dead’ using a digital multi- 

Maintenance and Operation of Lubricant Systems

Activity 1 Explain the purpose and the applications of three different types of lubricant.

Greases: are solid or semisolid lubricants and generally consist of soaps, mineral oil, and various additives. These are highly viscous ad adhere well to metal surfaces. Although used extensively in machinery, greases are of limited use in manufacturing processes.
Graphite: is weak in shear alone its basal planes and therefore has a low coefficient of friction in that direction. It is an effective solid lubricant, particularly at elevated temperatures. In a vacuum or an inertgas atmosphere, friction is very high; in fact, graphite can be abrasive in these situations. We can apply graphite either by rubbing it on surfaces or by making it part of a colloidal (dispersion of small particles).
Glasses: is a solid material, glass becomes viscous at elevated temperatures and, therefore, can serve as a liquid lubricant. Viscosity is a function of temperatures, but not of pressure, and depends on the type of glass. Poor thermal conductivity also makes glass attractive, since it acts as a thermal barrier between hot work pieces and relatively cool dies. Glass lubrication is typically used in such applications as hot extrusion and forging.

Activity 2 Describe the operation and maintenance of three different lubrications systems.
Oil circulatory systems:
In Oil circulatory systems, the oil is continuously supplied to various moving parts and bearings. In such systems, oil acts both as lubricant and also as coolant by earning away heat generated in the bearings/moving parts. The oil after lubrication is returned to reservoir either directly or through filters. These systems are large, employing reservoirs of capacity ranging from few hundreds of liters to thousands of liters. The pumps are heavy duty, intended for continuous running, with flow rate ranging from few tens of LPM to few thousands of LPM. These systems are widely used for plants like Cement, Sugar, Paper, Power generation. Steel as well as heavy duty machineries.
Full Force Feed systems:
In a full force-feed lubrication system, the main bearings, rod bearings, camshaft bearings, and the complete valve mechanism are lubricated by oil under pressure. In addition, the full force-feed lubrication system provides lubrication under pressure to the pistons and the piston pins. This is accomplished by holes drilled the length of the connecting rod, creating an oil passage from the connecting rod bearing
To the piston pin bearing. This passage not only feeds the piston pin bearings but also provides lubrication for the pistons and cylinder walls. This system is used in virtually all engines that are equipped with full-floating piston pins.
Force Feed systems:
A fairly more complete pressurization of lubrication is achieved in the force-feed lubrication system Oil is forced by the oil pump from the crankcase to the main bearings and the camshaft bearings. Unlike the combination system the connecting-rod bearings are also fed oil under pressure from the pump.
Oil passages are drilled in the crankshaft to lead oil to the connecting-rod bearings. The passages deliver oil from the main bearing journals to the rod bearing journals. In some engines, these opening are holes that line up once for every crankshaft revolution. In other engines, there are annular grooves in the main bearings through which oil can feed constantly into the hole in the crankshaft.
The pressurized oil that lubricates the connecting-rod bearings goes on to lubricate the pistons and walls by squirting out through strategically drilled holes. This lubrication system is used in virtually all engines that are equipped with semifloating piston pins.
Activity 3: Describe the operation of one seal, one type of packing and two different types of bearing with a typical application for each one.
Seal: End face seals: This type of seal uses both rigid and flexible fundamentals that maintain contact at a sealing interface and slide on each other, allowing a rotating element to a pass through a sealed case. The elements are hydraulically and mechanically loaded with a spring or other device to maintain contact.
In general the end face seal is sealed to the pump end plate by a gasket or O- ring and also the rotating seal face runs against the stationary seat (the opposing surface lapped to high degree of flatness).
An end face mechanical seal, also known as a mechanical face seal but usually simply as a mechanical seal, is a type of seal utilised in rotating equipment, such as pumps and compressors.
Packing: O-ring: Is a packing and it is also known as tonic joint, it is a mechanical gasket in the shape of a torus. It has a cross-section with a disc-shaped; it is also a loop of elastomer. O-rings are one of the most common seals used in machine design because they are inexpensive and easy to make, reliable, and have simple mounting requirements. They can seal tens of megapascals (thousands of psi) pressure.
An O-ring is basically defined by its section diameter and the inner diameter of the O-Ring.
O rings have many advantageous features including

Low cost suit static
dynamic duties
space efficient
seals in both directions
fluid pressure assists sealing
Suitable for all fluids-using appropriate elastomers.

Two different types of bearings:
Plain bearing:
In general plain bearing have rubbing surfaces usually with lubricants. The stiffness of plain bearing are Good, provided wear is low, but some slack is normally present. It also has a very low speed to a very high sleep. Plain bearing is the simplest type of bearing, widely used, relatively high friction, suffers from stiction in some applications. Some bearings use pumped lubrication and behave similarly to fluid bearings. At high speeds life can be very short.
Rolling-element bearing:
A rolling-element rotary bearing uses a shaft in a much larger hole, and cylinders called “rollers” tightly fill the space between the shaft and hole. As the shaft turns, each roller acts as the logs in the above example. Yet, since the bearing is round, the rollers never fall out from under the load. A rolling-element bearing is a bearing which carries a load by placing round elements between the two pieces. The relative motion of the pieces causes the round elements to roll with very little rolling resistance and with little sliding. It is the earliest and best-known rolling-element bearings are sets of logs laid on the ground with a large stone block on top. As the stone is pulled, the logs roll along the ground with little sliding friction. As each log comes out the back, it is moved to the front where the block then rolls on to it.
Activity 4: Describe two different types of screwed fasting and two different types of rivet giving a typical application for each one.
Two different types of screwed fasting:
Bolts and Nuts:
Bolts and nuts can be made from steel, brass, aluminum alloys and plastic.
There are all sorts of bolts and nuts with different sizes for example:

M6x25 high tensile bolt BZP
M2 full not zinc

The above metric blots and nuts and specified as steel.
The specifications for bolts and nuts:
Example: M8x1.5×50:
‘M’ specifies that it is metric.
The number next to the letter ‘M’ which is ‘8’ specifies the diameter in millimeters.
‘1.5’ specifies the tread pitch in millimeters.
’50’ specifies the length of the shank in millimeters.
There are other bolts for example:

Tap bolt
A bolt that is threaded all the way to the head.
Eye bolt
A bolt with a looped head.
Toggle bolt

A bolt with a special nut known as a wing. It is designed to be used where there is no access to side of the material where the nut is located. Usually the wing is spring loaded and expands after being inserted into the hole.
The strength of the bolts
Can be identified by reading the numbers stamped on the head of the bolts, these are referred to the grad of the bolt used in certain applications with the strength of the bolt.
High-strength steel bolts usually have a hexagonal head with an International Organization for Standardization(ISO) strength rating stamped on the head.
Studs and nuts:
Studs:

Road studs: These are generally used on hard surfaces, such as roads or very had ground. They are normally 4 to 6 sided, small and flat in size and blunt.
Ice studs: these are also designed for use on hard surfaces, but generally have a longer, sharper point than road studs, to provide traction on slippery surfaces.
Grass studs: are also known as bullet studs , they come in many different lengths but are always larger and shaper than road studs and generally narrow so they can dig into hard, dry ground.
Mud Studs: are used on extremely soft or wet riding surfaces where deep traction is needed. They are bigger thanRoad Studsbut often rounded on top and come in several different lengths.Mud Studscan also be square in shape, known asBlock Studs.SomeMud Studsare knownasOlympic Studs*which are long and sharp and used for extremely slippery ground

Two different types of rivets:
Blind rivets.
These types of blind rivets have non-locking mandrels and are avoided for critical structural joints because the mandrels may fall out, due to vibration or other reasons, leaving a hollow rivet that will have a significantly lower load carrying capability than solid rivets. In addition, because of the mandrel they are more horizontal to failure from corrosion and vibration.
A drive rivet:
A drive rivet is an appearance of blind rivet that has a little mandrel protruding from the head that is driven in with a hammer to flicker out the end inserted in the hole. This is usually used to rivet wood panels into place since the hole does not need to be drilled all the way through the panel, producing a beautiful pleasing appearance.
They can also be used with

plastic,
metal,
Other materials and require no special setting tool other than a hammer and possibly a backing block.

P5-Decribe the operation of two different types of cam and followers and two different types of linage mechanism.
Two different types of cam and followers:
Cam followers are comparable to needle or cylindrical roller bearings with a thick-walled external ring.
The crowned outer surface of the outer ring prevents border stresses if the roller runs in a twisted or inclined location. They are grease full ready-to-mount units appropriate for all types of cam drives, tracks and conveyor systems.
In its place of an inner ring cam followers have a hard threaded pin to permit the cam follower to be quickly and easily attached to the machine mechanism by means of a hexagonal nut. Axial guidance is provided through an essential flange on the external ring at the top of the pin and a side.
Cam followers are obtainable in three different internal designs. Usually, the cam followers have concentric seating on the pin, but some are also accessible with a strange collar shrunk on to the stud. Cam follower bearings with collar allow an optimum interaction with the cam and allow fewer stringent developed tolerances for the mechanism.
Two different types of linkage mechanism:
A mechanical linkage is a sequence of rigid links linked through joints to shape a closed series, or a series of closed chains. Every linkage has two or more joints, and the joints have a variety of degrees of freedom to allow movement between the relations. A linkage is called a mechanism if two or more links are movable with respect to a fixed link.

Four-bar linkage mechanisms:

The four-bar linkage is one more mechanism which finds general uses. It is establish in applications such as

windscreen wiper drives,
Vehicle suspension units and
Everyday uses such as the hinges on kitchen cupboard doors and squeeze-mop mechanisms.

Two of the links spin about fixed centers and are connected by a coupler linkage. The fourth link is shaped by the frame or bed plate that contains the permanent centers of rotary motion. It must be noted that the number of inversion of machinery is equal to the number of links, which in this case is four links.

Reverse motion linkage.

As the top bar moves to the left the base bar moves to the right. The bars move in reverse directions. an additional way of describing this linkage is the direction of movement in one bar is reversed in the other rod. The fixed pivot is the centre of rotation.
(P6): describe the arrangement and operation of
Two different kinds of belt drive:
Flat belts:
Flat belts are used mostly for transmitting light tons. Since they are flexible, this makes them appropriate for applications where there is some misalignment among shafts; they possibly will be crossed to give opposition directions of turning round to the pulleys. They can also be twisted to attach shaft which are not in the same plane.
Vee belts:
Vee belts (also recognized as V-belt or wedge rope) solved the slippage and arrangement problem. It is currently the essential belt for power transmission. They offer the best mixture of grip, pace of movement, load of the bearings, and long service life. They are usually continuous, and their common cross-section shape is trapezoidal. The “V” shape of the belt tracks in a mating groove in the pulley (or sheave), with the effect that the belt cannot slip off. The belt also tends to hold into the groove as the load increases the larger the load, the larger the wedging action improving torque transmission and making the vee belt an helpful solution, needing less width and tension than flat belts.
Two different kinds of chain drive:
A chain is a method of transferring rotary motion between two parallel shafts. The chain drive is positive, efficient and high torques can be transmitted. The chain is generally made from steel although plastic chains have been developed.
Roller Chain: Roller chain or bush roller chain is the type of chain most frequently used for transmission of mechanical power on

bicycles,
motorcycles,
and in industrial and agricultural machinery.

It is a straightforward, dependable, and efficient means of power transmission.
Two different kinds of gear train.
Epicyclic gearing or planetary gearing is a gear system that consists of one or more external gears, or planet mechanism, rotating about a central, or sun gear. Typically, the planet gears are mounted on a movable arm or carrier which itself may rotate relative to the sun gear. Epicyclic gearing systems may also incorporate the use of an outer ring gear or annulus, which meshes with the planet gears.
(P7): Describe the arrangement and operation of:
Two different kinds of transmission shaft

Power transmission shafts are mainly used in two wheeler and four wheeler vehicles. These shafts consist of metal joint elements and a metal pipe connected to each other. To provide more rigidity to shafts, a plastic pipe is inserted into metal pipe thus forming a composite power transmission shaft having more strength and rigidity.
Automotive transmission shafts are especially designed and used in two wheelers as well as four wheelers. These shafts are integral hollow type shafts that maintain a perfect balance between static strength and fatigue strength.

Two different types of Couplings: Shaft couplings are used in machinery for several purposes, the most common ones are:

To provide for the connection of shafts of units those are manufactured separately such as a motor and generator and to provide for disconnection for repairs or alternations.
To provide for misalignment of the shafts or to introduce mechanical flexibility.
To reduce the transmission of shock loads from one shaft to another.

Rigid Slip Couplings: This type of coupling has no flexibility; therefore it is necessary for the shafts that aretobe connected to be in good alignment, both laterally and angularity, in order excessive loadson the coupling, on the shafts, or on the shaft bearings.Rigid couplings do not accommodate misalignment and consequently should not be usedindiscriminately.
Types of Rigid Couplings:

Sleeve or muff coupling: It is the simplest type of rigid coupling, made of cast iron. Itconsists of a hollow cylinder whose innerdiameter is the same as that of the shaft. It is fitted over the ends of the two shafts by means of a gibhead key.
Clamp coupling: Clamp coupling is sometimes called a compression coupling or a ribbed coupling. Clamp coupling is a modification and an improvement of the sleeve coupling. This coupling is made in two parts which are machined to fit the shaft and are finished off around the periphery and on both ends.
Flange coupling: A flange coupling usually applies to a coupling having two separate cast iron flanges. Each flange is mounted on the shaft end and keyed to it. The faces are turned up at right angle to the axis of the shaft.

Two different kinds of clutch:

Dog clutch: is a type ofclutchthat couples two turning shafts or other rotating mechanism not byfrictionbut by interference. The two parts of the clutch are designed such that one will push the other, causing both to rotate at the same speed and will never slip. Dog clutches are used inside manual automotive transmissions to lock different gears to the rotating input and output shafts.
Cone clutch: serves the same purpose as a disk or plateclutch. However, instead of mating two spinning disks, the cone clutch uses two conical surfaces to transmit torque by friction. The cone clutch transfers a higher torque than plate or disk clutches of the same size due to the wedging action and increased surface area. Cone clutches are generally now only used in low peripheral speed applications although they were once common in automobiles and other combustion engine transmissions.

Two different kinds of breaks:

Disc brakes: are made of cast iron or ceramic composites. The use of these types of breaks ate to stop or slow the rotation of a wheel.
Hydraulic brakes: use brake fluid, and normally containing ethylene glycol the reason for this is because to transfer pressure from the controlling unit and also to brake mechanism which is normally near the wheel.

(P8): Describe with the aid of diagrams the general layout operation of a Pneumatic actuation system:
Pneumatic systems provide a softer action and are also not able to deliver such large forces. Besides the disadvantages pneumatic systems have some advantages which are:

Simplicity of Design and Control

Machines are easily designed using standard cylinders & other components. Control is as easy as it is simple ON – OFF type control.

Pneumatic systems tend to have long operating lives and require very little maintenance. Because gas is compressible, the equipment is less likely to be damaged by shock. The gas in pneumatics absorbs excessive force, whereas the fluid of hydraulics directly transfers force.

Compressed Gas can be stored, allowing the use of machines when electrical power is lost.

Very low chance of fire (compared to hydraulic oil). Machines can be designed to be overload safe.
The process of the pneumatic system that is shown above:
The compressor receives filtered air form air filter and delivers through an after-cooler to the compressed air receiver. Then the air is distributed to different applications as well as the pneumatic cylinder. Pneumatic systems employ gas that is compressed under extremely high pressure. For some applications where the air must be perfectly dry, the system also contains a moisture separator. The practical use of pneumatics comes in putting that compressed gas to use, at its most basic level a pneumatic system holds compressed gas in a specially designed tank and then we release some of that gas into an expandable chamber. The expandable part of the chamber has a rod attached to it so that as it expands the rod moves outward.

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Hydraulic actuation systems:
Air has a low density and is compressible at the same time as hydraulic oil has a much higher density and is almost incompressible. Therefore, hydraulic systems are capable to function at much advanced pressure and deliver the very huge positive forces which are necessary in applications such as hydraulic presses and lifts. Hydraulic actuation system has advantages which are listed below:
Advantages of hydraulics

Liquid (as a gas is also a ‘fluid’) does not absorb any of the supplied energy.
Capable of moving much higher loads and providing much higher forces due to the incompressibility.
The hydraulic working fluid is basically incompressible, leading to a minimum ofspringaction. When hydraulic fluid flow is stopped, the slightest motion of the load releases the pressure on the load; there is no need to “bleed off” pressurized air to release the pressure on the load.

The process of the Hydraulic actuation systems that is shown above:
The system has motor-driven pump which draws filtered oil from the tank and distributes it through a pressure regulator to the positions where it is necessary. The pump runs constantly and the excess oil which is not necessary for procedures is diverted back to the tank by the pressure regulator. It must be noted that the organization generally supplies a relatively little work area in the locality of the pump and tank. It is not realistic to provide oil under pressure over large distances for the reason that of pressure drop and the need for a return pipe. A manual or automatic control valve supplies oil to the actuation cylinder and directs return oil to the reservoir.
A mechanical handling system:
The transfer of material, components and assemblies through the manufacturing stages often takes position on roller or belt conveyors.
Mechanical handling has a broad variety of handling. Lifting gear used in developing business is broad and in some cases it is extremely meticulous.
The roller conveyer is most expected the easiest form where manufactured goods are passed among work stations along a track having rollers. Materials are regularly shifted through a motor-driven belts conveyer. The belts are from frequently maintained on concave roller so that is falls in the center.
(P9): Describe with the aid of diagrams the general layout and operation of
Steam power generation plant: Though the main process in steam power station is the conversion of heat energy into electrical energy, it comprises of many steps for its proper working and good efficiency. The whole arrangement of a steam power station could be divided into following steps: The steam generating plant consist of boiler and its auxiliary equipments for the utilisation of flue gases.
Boiler: The heat produced by the burning of coal in the boiler is used to produce steam at high temperature and pressure. The flue gases produced at the time of combustion is passed through the super heater, economiser, air- preheater and finally exhausted into the atmosphere through chimney.
Super Heater: The steam produced in the boiler has got moisture content so it is dried and superheated (i.e. steam temperature is increased above boiling point of water)by the flue gases on the way to chimney. Super heating ensures two benefits at first the overall efficiency of the system is increased and secondly the corrosion to the turbine blades due to condensation in later stages is prevented. The superheated steam from superheater is fed to steam turbine by means of a main valve.
Air preheater: Air preheater increases the temperature of the air supplied to coal for combustion using flue gases. Air is drawn in using a forced draught fan and is passed through preheater before supplying it to the boiler. This process increases the thermal efficiency and steam capacity per square meter of the boiler surface.
Steam Turbine: The dry and super heated steam from superheater is fed to the turbine by means of a main valve. Due to the striking or reaction impact of the steam on the blades of turbine it starts rotating i.e. heat energy is converted to mechanical energy. After giving heat energy to the turbine the steam is exhausted to a condenser which condenses the exhausted steam by means of a cold water circulation.
Alternator: The steam turbine is coupled to an alternator; the alternator converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy. The electrical output is transferred to the bus bars through transformer, circuit breaker and isolators.
Feed Water: The condensed water produced in the condenser is used as feed water, some amount of water may be lost in the cycle but it is compensated using an external source and the cycle repeats and gives a better efficiency to the system.
Cooling Arrangement: Inorder to increase the efficiency of the plant the steam coming from the turbine is condensed using a condenser. The water circulation for cooling steam in condenser is take from a natural source like river, stream etc and the out coming hot water from condenser is discharged in some lower portion of the water source. In scarcity of water the water from the condenser is cooled and reused with the help of a cooling tower.
Refrigeration system:
There are several heat transfer loops in a refrigeration system as shown above. Thermal energy moves from left to right as it is extracted from the space and expelled into the outdoors through five loops of heat transfer:

Indoor air loop. In the left loop, indoor air is driven by the supply air fan through cooling coil, where it transfers its heat to chilled water. The cool air then cools the building space.
Chilled water loop. Driven by the chilled water pump, water returns from the cooling coil to the chiller’s evaporator to be re-cooled.
Refrigerant loop. Using a phase-change refrigerant, the chiller’s compressor pumps heat from the chilled water to the condenser water.
Condenser water loop. Water absorbs heat from the chiller’s condenser, and the condenser water pump sends it to the cooling tower.
Cooling tower loop. The cooling tower’s fan drives air across an open flow of the hot condenser water, transferring the heat to the outdoors.

There are two fundamental types of refrigeration system. They are the;

Vapour-compression system
The vapour-absorption system.

The two types are used for commercial purposes and domestic refrigerators and the two of them work on the standard that when a liquid vanishes, it takes in concealed heat from its surroundings. The liquids used in refrigerators and freezers are called refrigerants. They are made to evaporate at a temperature below 0 degrees Celsius and in doing so; they take in latent heat and maintain the cold space at a sub-zero temperature.
A refrigerant must have a low freezing point so that it does not solidify or form slush in the low temperature part of the refrigeration cycle. Also it should have a high value for its latent heat of vaporisation to maximise the transfer of heat energy during the cycle.
Compression refrigeration cycles take advantage of the fact that highly compressed fluids at a certain temperature tend to get colder when they are allowed to expand. If the pressure change is high enough, then the compressed gas will be hotter than our source of cooling (outside air, for instance) and the expanded gas will be cooler than our desired cold temperature. In this case, fluid is used to cool a low temperature environment and reject the heat to a high temperature environment. Vapour compression refrigeration cycles have two advantages. First, a large amount of thermal energy is required to change a liquid to a vapor, and therefore a lot of heat can be removed from the air-conditioned space. Second, the isothermal nature of the vaporization allows extraction of heat without raising the temperature of the working fluid to the temperature of whatever is being cooled. This means that the heat transfer rate remains high, because the closer the working fluid temperature approaches that of the surroundings, the lower the rate of heat transfer.
An air condition system: An Air-condition system is the full automatic control of the indoor atmosphere to maintain comfortable and healthy conditions. Its objective is to provide clean, fresh air at a temperature and humidity level that is comfortable to the occupants. The essential ingredients in an air conditioning system are a fan to blow air around, a cold surface to cool and dehumidify the air, a warm surface and a source of water vapour. In a large system there will also be a tangle of tubes to distribute the air and collect it again. Notice that the cold surface has two independent jobs to do: it is used to cool the air and it is also used to dehumidify, by condensing water from the air.
Advantages of Pneumatic systems over Hydraulic systems:

Extremely cheaper then hydraulic systems.
The force transmitter, air, is freely available.
Cleaner systems as air leakage do not create a mess.
Due to high pressure Hydraulic oil becomes very hot after continuous use. It can cause injury/burns if someone comes in contact with it.
Usually has open circuits and we don’t have to worry about the return circuit.

(D1): Justify the use of shell tellus oil 27 lubricant and the splash lubrication system in the lathe machines in the college machine shop:
Shell tellus oil 27and 37 lubricants:
Shell Tellus Oils oil 27 are premium quality hydraulic oils generally acknowledged to be the ‘standard-setter’ in the field of engineering hydraulic and fluid power lubrication. Shell tellus oil 27 has high lubrication properties and excellent low friction characteristics in hydraulic systems operating at low or high speed. Prevents stick-slip problems in critical applications enabling very fine control of machinery.Because of the reasons mentioned above shell tellus oil 27 is rated one of the best lubricant for lathe machine.
Shell Tellus Oil 37 is an improved version of shell tellus oil 27. Shell Tellus Oi
 

Integumentary System Essay – Functions and Maintenance

The integumentary system is made up of skin, hair, nails, and glands. It is the most visible organ system and one of the most complex. The integumentary system protects the body from the outside world and harmful substances. The word integument means a covering, and the skin of an organ, an average adult covers well over 3000 square inches of surface area of the body. The skin weighs about six pounds which is nearly twice the weight of the brain or liver. It receives approximately one third of all the blood circulating through the body. It participates in the dissipation of water through sweating and helps regulate our body temperatures.

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The functions of the integumentary system are sensation, protection, thermoregulation, and secretion. In sensation receptor sites in the skin detect changes in the eternal environment for temperature and pressure. Temperature receptors produce the sensations of hot and cold. Pressure receptor sites allow us to interpret excessive pressure that results in the sensation of pain when we get pinched. Protection of the skin is an elastic resistant covering. It prevents passage of harmful physical and chemical agents. The melanin produced by the melanocytes in the stratum germinatium protects us from the damaging ultraviolet rays of sunlight. Keratin, in abundance in this outer layer, waterproofs the body. Without it handling household chemicals, swimming in pool, or taking a shower would be disastrous to the underlying cells of the body.
Excessive evaporation or loss of body fluids would result in dehydration and eventual death. Sebum serves a further protective function by keeping the skin and hair moist; dry skin would crack, allowing viruses and bacteria to enter. Even though the skin forms a protective barrier, it is still slightly permeable or allow certain substances to pass through it. Vitamins A,D,E, and K all pass through the skin and are absorbed in the capillaries of the dermis. Nails protect the exposed tips of fingers and toes from physical injury. Fingernails also, aid the fingers in picking up small objects. The hair protects the scalp from damaging ultraviolet radiation from the skin, cushions the head from physical blows and insulates the scalp to a degree. The protection afforded by melanin, however, is limited. Prolonged or excessive exposure to UV radiation eventually damages the skin. In thermoregulation the normal body temperature is maintained at approximately 98.6 F (37C). The heat regulating functions of the body are extremely important. If the internal temperature varies more than a few degrees from normal, life- threatening changes take place in the body. Temperature regulation is critical to our survival because changes in temperature affect the functioning of enzymes. When people get high fevers they can die because the heat of a fever destroys the enzymes by breaking up their chemical structure. Without enzymes, chemical reactions cannot occur, and our cellular machinery breaks down and death results. When external temperatures increase, blood vessels in the dermis dilate to bring more blood flow to the surface of the body from deeper tissue beneath.
Eccrine glands play an important part in maintaining normal body temperature. When the temperature of the body rises due to physical exercise or environmental conditions, the hypothalamus sends signals to the eccrine glands to secrete sweat. When sweat evaporates on the skin surface it carries large amount of body heat with it and the skin surface cools. Because blood carries heat, blood flow is another regulator of body temperature. In secretion the skin produces two secretions: sebum and sweat. Sebum is secreted by the sebaceous glands. It helps prevent infection and maintains the texture and integrity of the skin. Sweat is produced by the sweat glands and is essential in the cooling process of the body. The skin is actively involved in the production of vitamin D. Vitamin D is necessary for our bodies because it stimulates the intake of calcium and phosphate in our intestines. Calcium is necessary for muscle contraction and bone development. Phosphorus is an essential part of adenosine triphosphate. The integumentary system is essential to the body’s homeostasis or ability to maintain the internal balance of its functions regardless of outside conditions.
The skin is the largest and heaviest in the body. In an average adult, the skin covers about 21.5 square feet and accounts for approximately seven percent of body weight, or about eleven pounds. The skin has two principal layers: the epidermis and the dermis. The epidermis is the thin, outer layer, and the dermis is the thick, inner layer. Beneath the dermis lies the subcutaneous layer or hypodermis, which is composed of adipose or fatty tissue. Although, not technically part of the skin, it does anchor the skin to the underlying muscles. The epidermis is made of stratified squamous epithelial tissue. Squamous cells are thin and flat like fish scales. Stratified simply means having two or more layers. The epidermis can be divided into four or five layers. Most important of these are the inner and outer layers. The inner or deepest cell layer is the only layer of the epidermis that receives nutrients. The cells of this layer called basal cells, are constantly dividing and creating new cells daily, which push the older cells toward the surface. Basal cells produce keratin, an extremely durable and water- resistant fibrous protein. Another type of cell found in the lower dermis is the melanocyte. Melanocytes produce melanin, a protein pigment that ranges in color from yellow to brown to black. The dermis, the second layer of skin lies between the epidermis and the subcutaneous layer. Hair, sweat glands, and sebaceous glands are all rooted in the dermis. Connective tissue forms the dermis. Bundles of elastic, and collagen fibrous blend into the connective tissue. These fibers provide the dermis strength and flexibility.
The accessory structures of the integumentary system include hair, sweat and sebaceous glands. Epithelial membranes are composed of epithelial tissue and an underlying layer of specialized connective tissue. Roughly five million hairs cover the body of an average individual. About 100,000 of those hairs appear on the scalp. Hair shafts differ in size, shape, and color. Each individual hair is composed of three parts: the cuticle, the cortex, and the medulla. The outermost portion is the cuticle, which consists of several layers of overlapping scale like cells. The cortex is the principle portion of the hair. The middle or central part of the hair is called the medulla. The shaft is the visible portion of the hair. The shaft is the visible portion of the hair. The root is found in an epidermal tube called the hair follicle. The follicle is made up of an outer connective tissue sheath and an inner epithelial membrane continuous with the stratum germinatium. Nails are produced by nail follicles just as hair produced by hair follicles. Health fingernails grow about 0.04 inches per week, slightly faster than toenails. There are more than 2.5 million sweat glands and distributed over most surfaces of the human body. They are divided into two types: eccrine sweat glands and apocrine sweat glands. Eccrine glands produce sweat or perspiration, a clear secretion that is 99 percent water. An average individual losses 0.6 to 1.7 quarts of water every day through sweating. During rigorous physical activity or on a hot day, that amount could rise to 5.3 to 7.4 quarts. Apocrine glands are found in the armpits, around the nipples, and in the groin. Appocrine glands do not function until puberty. Sebaceous glands, also known as oil glands, are found in the dermis all over the body, except for the palms and soles. They secrete sebum, a mixture of lipids, proteins, and fragments of dead fat producing cells. Chemistry is important to the healing of burns and the froming of melanin and melanocytes. Melanin produces pigment and melanocytes are responsible for producing skin color.
The three types of membranes are cutaneous, serous, and mucous. The cutaneous membrane is the primary organ of the integumentary system. It is one of the most important and certainly one of the largest and most visible organs. In most individuals the skin composes some sixteen percent of the body weight. The serous membrane is composed of two distinct layers of tissue. Serous membrane secrete a thin, watery fluid that helps reduce friction and serves as a lubricant when organs rules against one another, and against the walls of the cavities that contain them. Mucous membranes are epithelial membranes that line body surfaces opening directly to the exterior.
There are three types of burns, first degree, second degree and third degree burns. Burns are injuries to tissues caused by intense heat, electricity, UV, radiation, or certain chemicals. When skin is burned and cells are destroyed, the body readily loses its precious supply of fluids. Dehydration can follow, leading to a shutdown of the kidneys, a life threatening condition. Infection is the leading cause of death in burn victims. First- degree burns occur when only the epidermis is damaged. Sunburns are usually first- degree burns. These minor burns are usually not serious and heal within a few days. Second- degree burns occur when the epidermis and the upper region of the dermis are damaged. In second- degree burns blisters may form and take longer to heal. In third- degree burns the skins is destroyed. Often skin grafting is necessary for third- degree burns. Third- degree burns take weeks to heal and will leave permanent scarring.
In the current research on anti- aging treatments is on anti- aging. Research has taught us that by using components that are already found in the skin can help restore youth. We have yet to see the long term effects of some anti- aging products such as Botox and Restylane. In certain treatments can help to restore the skin of anti- aging. Botox is injected into the skin to treat severe underarm sweating. When medicines used on the skin do not work well enough. Restylane use hyaluronic acid to replace lost volumes and restore youthful skin contains to smooth away, moderate to severe facial wrinkles, and folds such as the lines from your nose to the corners of your mouth.
 

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling for Company Development

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling.

    “Success in all tasks relies on prior preparing, and failure chances are more without prior preparing.”

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling plays an important role in the company because it helps in increasing the efficiency and productivity of the plant and also focus on the vision and mission of the organization. It also provides the safe atmosphere to do the maintenance in proper sequence by reducing wastage of time. It enables a maintenance tradesperson to get ready in advance with the tools, parts, devices and equipments as suitable for the job or breakdown. By doing this one should save time when someone demands work to be done, a maintenance organizer would basically decide and collect the necessary tools sometime recently the work is allotted. The organizer might indeed write instructions on how to do the work. With this type of approach in work, the person actually attending the problem would not have to waste time in getting everything prepared. This arranging strategy would be thought to increase plant productivity along with maintenance efficiency. Overall it contributes is by minimizing the waste of time and asset so that efficiency can be increased.

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Maintenance Planning and Scheduling is a major technique to progress maintenance efficiency with respect to ineffective maintenance time.  Its function is to deliver a good plant capacity. But it could be discipline that is hard to achieve and hard to maintain specially in the large industries. It requires be supporting and creating carefully on regular intervals. If an organization wants to do anything effectively and efficiently then planning and scheduling must be a significant activity. For effectively implemented of any strategy or procedure there must be strong planning and scheduling. In addition to ensuring successful results, a well planned and scheduled maintenance approach also saves a lot of money and time. It also helps solve issues and prevent failures as we can find out what went wrong and how we will solve it as it is a step by step method. Anybody who is having knowledge of the organization’s infrastructure can enhance efficiency, effectiveness and reduce general maintenance cost over time for the organization. For this we have to do the work breakdown structure as shown:

 

      What to do?         ( Identify Work)

      How to do?           (Plan Work)

      When to do?         (Schedule work)

      Who will do?         (Execute work)

      Monitoring.            (Records)     

      Analysis for better results in future.

http://www.lifetime-reliability.com/tutorials/maintenance-planning-scheduling/MPS_Day2_World_Class_Maintenance_Planning.pdf

Benefits.

      Reduce store inventory and save money.

      Record of the work for future analysis.

      Improve wrench time and improve workflow.

      Improve efficiency due to effective use of working hours.

      Provide safe work place and reduce accidents and stress on shop floor.

What’s the Difference between Maintenance Planning and Scheduling?

Work Identification.

Work identification is the first step of successful maintenance management. Indentifying the work to be accomplished is a main component of the successful implementation of maintenance management. This contains the estimated information about the effort of the work and equipments to complete the task along with time and effectiveness. It also gives the idea for the upcoming issues, constraints and obstacles which may disturb the work in future.

For example, We have change the chuck jaws of lathe machines, work identification will tell us where we have to do work, on which machine, what are the descriptions of the machine, what are the safety precautions we have to take while changing jaws and estimated time along with the step by step methods involve in changing the jaws.

Planning.

“Successful Organizations are run by system not by persons.”

Planning give the information regarding objectives and procedures through which a person can achieve those objectives. The purpose of planning is to get good efficiency and effectiveness.

      What is the task?

      How will we do the task?

      What equipments we need to perform this task?

For example, we have to change the chuck jaws of lathe machines, planning will tell us that task is to change the jaws then it tell us the method to change the jaws and what will be the time required for this changing the chuck jaws.

Scheduling.

Scheduling give the information regarding the worker who is going to be responsible for the task along with particular site or location with the specific period of time. The purpose of scheduling is prevent failure by doing proper maintenance by putting least effect on production and selecting appropriate equipments and skilled persons to the task at right time.

      When the works start to do the task?

      Who will be responsible to do the task?

For example, we will replace the chuck jaws should be replaced when its length decrease by 75 % of its original length and operator is responsible for the replacement of the chuck jaws.

Work planning should be performed before a work is scheduled. The planner is going to plan the strategy, the scheduler is going to coordinate this plan with tradesperson and then tradesperson is going to do the work and this is how the work is completed.

Executing.

“The work which is not checked is not done.”

Work execution is a scheduled method of performing the planned maintenance. Once the task has been allocated, the maintenance persons are responsible for completing the task according to the planning in scheduled ways. It is hard to implement because it is tuff to measure and manage a concept.

 For effective execution of the work we have to use some tools as mentioned below :

      Reminders to let people when things are coming due.

      Triggers are action based so that if one action occurs, its triggers another action in work flow.

      Automation will be there to reduce the fatigue and stress.

      Breaking work into small portions.

      Aligning work as scheduled.

      Positive and creative environment.

      Discussing running work with experts.

Recording.

Recording and monitoring is the tool in which we collect and save all the data, methods or ways which are adopted to complete the task. Records are often depends on previous methods, techniques and strategies by which it utilize essential sources and other proof to investigate or research further. This is the written collective information which is store for years and years.

Analysing.

Analyse of the work is to study the previous history of the problem and find the more accurate and effective way to improve the methods in solving the problem. It is important in business to understand the problems and take an appropriate action to solve the problem. It also helps in decision making and operating task in easy way with more efficiency.

Let have an example to get more understanding of the Maintenance planning and scheduling.

We have to replace the set of jaw from Hydraulic chuck of Cincinnati Milacron TC -22 Shed 4 Axle turning line.

Front view of TC – 22 with closed door

 

Front view of TC – 22 with open door

 

Machine Description

Machine Make

Cincinnati Milacron

Machine Number

TC-22 Shed 4 Axle Turning Line

Model

8 C ( 1948)

Type

Computerized Numerical Controlled  Turning Lathe

Chuck Size

203.2 mm / 8 inches

Chuck Bore

76.2 mm / 3 inches

Chuck pressure

400 PSI / 28 Bar

Jaws

MT 4  Standard Soft Jaws

Swing

558.8 mm

Power

14.9 Kw

Maximum RPM

4000

Spindle Motor

20 HP

Turret Travel

1016 mm

Turret Position (tool holders)

12

 

Building Maintenance Review for University

Strategy
As Plymouth University strives to distinguish its legacy through excellence in facility offerings, the maintenance of such structures becomes an essential part of the strategy. Refurbishment has already been undertaken across the campus in the past five years, as major additions and facelifts have offered dimension and expanded capabilities for an expanding student and faculty body. Ultimately in the preservation of this legacy, a proactive revision to campus maintenance is needed, one which will ensure that the lifecycle costs of the multiple structures are limited and appropriate. Reactionary maintenance programmes dramatically detract from such principles; therefore, by following the programmed outlined herein, officials will effectively navigate the broad spectrum of repair and maintenance projects which will develop in the coming decades.

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Exemplary of campus revisions in the past several years, perhaps the most noticeable addition has been that of the Roland Levinsky building. A remarkable new structure boasting 12,711m2 of spatial area and housing an expanded Faculty of the Arts, this building is representative of all that the university plans for the future of the campus façade and its legacy. These developments include meritorious architecture, active facility management, and long term preservation techniques as structural retention among both new and historic participants becomes an essential part of the long term process.
Supplemental rehabilitations and expansions have included the Rolle Building development and the Nacy Astor building programme. A combined total area of over 11,000 m2, these two structures represent a campus evolution which retains history while at the same time, boasts a progressive vision. Incorporating new student housing and offers substantial revisions to common areas, sports facilities, and office space, the maintenance of such facilities will become a pivotal role in the university reputation for quality and consistency.
To define appropriate and effective maintenance strategies, it become essential to identify the structural frailties which will be encountered over the coming years. A case study conducted of homes in the Midlands area determined that the predominant cause of structural deterioration is underground movement and shifting, while material defects and superstructure decay fill in the remaining sources.[1] Recognising that such variables are essential to maintenance of a building’s lifecycle directs the maintenance programme towards structural components, specifically those of the super and substructures and their material integrity.
In considering that maintaining only such areas would not fully integrate the much broader aesthetic and range of functional components within university buildings, there are other factors which must be considered as well. Similar surveys and studies have identified inadequacy defects within the structure itself which stem from roofing failure (42.9%), walls and column deficiencies (21.2%), lintel failure (18.5), and beam and joist overloading (17.5%).[2] These components broaden the scope of maintenance operations; however, recognition of their frailties and the potential for system-wide failure given component collapse enables maintenance crews to seriously consider structural deviance and proactively reform and refurbish according to the prescribed strategy.
Determining which areas will offer the greatest challenge and thereby warrant the most attention becomes a more difficult task. Material defects are also of considerable concern when designing a maintenance programme, as deterioration stemming from biological, chemical, and physical attack can substantially reduce the longevity of a structure and dramatically increase long term maintenance costs.[3] Understanding that while new structures may incorporate the most advanced materials and construction techniques, recognition of material failure, could highlight additional system deviance such as elemental concerns that undermine functional operation of the building. Similarly, within historic campus structures, the potential for material deterioration is substantially higher, detracting from longevity and reducing functionality without proactive initiatives.
Perhaps the most substantial concern given the prevalence of inclement weather, identifying key seepage points and wet areas will assist maintenance crews in stopping problems before they increase in both cost and severity. The maintenance cost of wet areas within a building’s substructure can extract between 35 and 50% of a building’s annual maintenance cost, in spite of their limited area occupation (10% in most cases).[4] Within the structural elements which are contained in wet areas, studies have demonstrated that there are three main causes of system failure, highlighting water leakages, corrosion of pipes, and the spalling of concrete as substantial modes of foundation decay.[5] From this perspective, regular maintenance and constant evaluation of wet area structures will also be an essential part of the maintenance programme.
The team involved in such initiatives must be one of substantial talent, including abilities directly related to those concerns which will most occupy their time, including routine building maintenance, minor construction, repair, and general upkeep. An in-house team whose number is dictated by the scope of the short term maintenance programme should be able to assume the role of daily operator in terms of duties such as light bulb replacement, leak management in pipe couplings, plumbing blockage, door hinge failure, minor boiler issues, tap washer changes, sign erection, and a host of other duties. Along these lines, internal team members must be coached in awareness faculties, ensuring that they can recognise and act when presented with system frailties or structural deviance. Such identification should include slipped tiling, dampness and wet areas, unnatural ageing, rot or mould, cracking, discolouration, and many other signs that the integrity of each building is being negatively affected by some element. These in house participants should also be versed in decoration and design principles, enabling their participation in an ongoing aesthetic awareness programme where they adjust and alter the decorum to suit university objectives.
In spite of the high costs associated with emergency repairs, the best maintenance programme cannot prevent their incidence; therefore maintenance contracts must be designed to ensure cost effectiveness while at the same time encourage a rapid response time. Such partnerships should entail a specific cost basis dependent on the required task, and revolve around a long term relationship in which the maintenance contractors become familiar with the university. A twenty-four hour guideline should be in place for response rates; however, given a major system failure such as a boiler break or plumbing backup, emergency teams must be immediately available.
The maintenance programme will entail a rotation of short, medium, and long term tasks, each assigned to either an in-house participant or contracted to an external maintenance team. As these responsibilities happen at regular intervals, long term contracts can remain in place on a specific rotation to ensure that participants are acting proactively and in accordance with the programme needs, not reaction based hiring. Teams should be qualified according to skill set and appropriateness for the stage of the maintenance programme, ensuring that contractor responsibilities do not exceed their scope of normal operation. As structural and systematic problems are identified during the regular review periods and daily operations, maintenance teams must recognise the severity of the damage or wear on the structure and inform a supervisory team of their findings. From this control position, the team will either instruct on internal repair or will hire out the duty to an outside firm. Managing costs through the maintenance chain will ensure that the university meets their long term cost objectives and yet remains active in the scope of their building maintenance.
Maintenance Policy Review
To develop an effective maintenance programme, the university must adopt a perspective of preventative maintenance, one which while often perceived as costly in the short term, will dramatically reduce the systematic failure in the long term. Holmes and Droop (1982) recognised that periodic maintenance is most often directed according to budget instead of aligning with the needs of the building in question.[6] As university expenditure expectations are oftentimes maligned with real working scenarios, the determination of a predictive budget and maintenance policy will enable referral and discussion to be directed towards a proactive scenario. The reality is that instead of developing a systematic maintenance framework, decision makers will often choose to weigh budgeting concerns against the severity of the needed service prior to attempting any form of work.[7] Maintenance of a university campus is not about severity or reactionist tendencies. Instead, the maintenance of school facilities must be directed towards a long term focus of preservation and conservation, ensuring that sustainability is an ultimate objective. The following charts detail the short, medium, and long term focus through which maintenance projects will directly reduce the overall cost basis for renovation and repair over the life of school structures. The representative building is the Reynolds Building, although this plan could be repositioned for any of the many structures on campus with minimal adjustment. In spite of the fact that the costing data is only a general estimate, it places into perspective just how overwhelming major projects can be. Therefore, following a set maintenance plan and integrating professional labour to ensure its validity will enable the university to reduce costs and adequately maintain their diverse structural offering.
It should be noted that all three sections contain a complete interior and exterior survey during which any potential problems are identified long before they become emergency repairs. Such analyses should be performed by a licensed surveyor and entail differing levels of comprehensiveness according to the length of time in between reviews. This process is essential to the preventative maintenance scheme of the university, as in spite of other review, the educated perspective of the surveyor could catch concerns before they escalate into much larger challenges. The relatively low cost of this process would be escalated if problems were found; however, the overall long term savings due to a proactive methodology is substantial
Short Term Costs
The following chart details the short term maintenance costs which will enhance the overall operations of university buildings while at the same time ensure that major systems are checked and repaired prior to major collapse. For the purpose of this plan, short term can be considered a one to two year variable in which the repetition of action is essential to preventative techniques. Each of these segments will not individually contribute to costly renovations; however, when considered as a unit, the cost basis for rehabilitating a distressed structure would be substantial and should be avoided at all costs.
Primary Systems Maintenance
To begin to exploit the systems which most influence the structural security and stability of a building, a composite of form and function must be evaluated and long term costs prohibited. The key systems within the university building structures include heating and cooling systems, gutters and down pipes and fire protection tools. Aligning these systems around a schedule of regular repair will elongate the life of these instrumental participants and ensure that building stability is upheld.
The consideration within this model for gutters and down pipes as essential modes of preservation is directly due to the nature of groundwater seepage and runoff. In order to ensure a long lifecycle for each structure, the water diversion systems must be intimately linked to a maintenance schedule. By cleaning on a 6 month frequency, maintenance technicians are ensuring that any foreign debris that might have filled those units, particularly during the Autumn season, is removed prior to more wet and rain-filled weather.
Secondly, ensuring that heating and cooling systems operate at maximum efficiency over their lifecycle assists the university budget on many levels. First and foremost, efficiency measures reduce the overall energy costs associated with maintaining an appropriate temperature within the structure. As global concern regarding energy usage continues to overwhelm headlines and Parliamentary initiatives, complying with social and political expectations places the university at the forefront of ‘green’ supporters. Alternately, when considering the costs of unit replacement in comparison with the minor costs of unit overhaul and monitoring, the potential for unforeseen budgeting problems is very prevalent. Through preventative maintenance on these units which includes a cleaning of the ducts and system components in addition to oiling the motor and replacing belts, the university will ensure that systems operate at extreme efficiency. This maintenance should be done in accordance with season frequencies, including the Winter and Summer seasons during which units will be taxed to their maximum capacity.
Secondary Systems Maintenance
Within the scope of this maintenance schedule, there are other systems which are essential for appropriate functioning of building operations as well as those, that if not well maintained, can cause higher long term costs for the university. Lighting, weather proofing, and drainage are all within this category, and although their functions can easily be considered a primary concern to daily campus life, their long term impact on the university budget is limited in the scope of material costs and lifecycle.
Lighting replacement and repair is an essential step to ensuring that daily operations are performed in an attractive and well supplied environment, encouraging patrons to continue their use of university facilities. When replacing bulbs within a regular cycle, maintenance crews are identifying any faults within the lighting system which could turn into critical electrical failure at a later date. Similarly, the replacement of bulbs enables the most efficient and environmentally friendly units to be placed into rotation at regular intervals. This expected maintenance will need to be altered according to technological advances and lifecycle.
Within the whole life cost cycle of a structure, the potential for inclement weather and more importantly, the failure of structural systems to prevent penetration by this weather, can dramatically reduce the longevity and efficiency of a building. Therefore, checking the weather stripping and ensuring that all door and window seals function appropriately ensures that time sensitive erosion and wear on the structure does not occur. This maintenance also ensures that the crew evaluates a variety of key entry and exit points for rodent or insect incursions and eliminates the potential for such future problems.
Finally, within the secondary modes of short term maintenance, drainage systems are an oft ignored reactive form of maintenance which, when properly maintained, can substantially contribute to structure longevity and limit the propensity for future problems. Ensuring that the proper flow of waste waters away from the building is regular and consistent eliminates the costly reactive calls to plumbing contractors after emergency situations have dictated refurbishment. Similarly, proactive evaluation of this system offers plumbers the opportunity to note any potential cracks, fissures, or weak points within the piping system and ensure that all drive mechanisms are appropriately synced for efficient operation.

Short Term

Maintenance Item

Description

Frequency

Additional Equipment

Anticip. Cost

Notes

Gutters

Cleaning and debris removal

6 Months (After Autumn/Spring)

Scaffolding

£270.00

Price Includes Scaffolding

Down Pipes

Cleaning and debris removal

6 Months (After Autumn/Spring)

Scaffolding

Included in Gutter Cost

Price Includes Scaffolding

Fire Equipment

System evaluation, recharge, and certification

3 Months (Seasonal)

Replacement Extingusihers

£180.00

Price includes system certification

Heating System

System evaluation, vent cleaning and tubing refurbish (As Needed)

6 Months (Prior to Winter and After Summer)

Ladder, Replacement Parts

£240.00

Price includes cleaning

Fire/Smoke Alarms

Check batteries, test function, and replace if needed

3 Months (Seasonal)

Replacement alarm

£115.00

Indicates replacement

Cooling System

System Evaluation, recharge, system cleaning

(6 Months Prior to Summer and After Winter)

Ladder, Replacement Parts

£310.00

Includes Recharge

Lighting

Light bulb replacement, system overhaul as needed

Monthly as Needed, 6 months for major systems

Ladder, Replacement Bulbs, Replacement Housing

£85.00

Includes Replacement of bulbs at 6 month interval

Weather proofing

Reapply stripping to interior and exterior door and window seals

Anuual (Prior to Winter)

Weather Stripping, Sealant

£110.00

Includes replacement throughout building

Windows

Cleaned, debris removed, function certified

3 Months (Seasonal)

Ladder, Scaffolding

£270.00

Includes Cleaning and scaffolding rental

Drainage Analysis

All drains inspected for free flow action and plumbing repaired as needed

Annual (Prior to Summer)

Snaking system, chemical unblock system

£320.00

Includes Cleaning of problem areas

Interior Eval

Full analysis of problem areas and survey of interior

Annual (Prior to Spring)

Ladder

£180.00

Full inspection

Exterior Eval

Full analysis of problem areas and survey of exterior (Includes ground variance and nearby incidences)

Annual (After Autum)

Ladder

£180.00

Full inspection

 

TOTAL ANNUAL COST

£2,260.00

 

Medium Term
The medium term responsibilities offer an ideal time frame for replacement and refurbishment that includes more substantial, and generally, more costly repairs than those attempted in the short term. The expectation remains that any problem which arises during routine inspections must be dealt with according to the needs of the university, not the maintenance schedule or proposed budget. Through adherence to this strategy throughout the whole life costing of the structure, quality will be maintained and the overall lifecycle costs will be reduced.
Primary Systems Maintenance
The primary systems evaluated during the medium term are directly related to the essential operations of the structure, including those systems which can debilitate and detract from the consistent workings of the building, including the boiler, the electrical system, and the gutter system. Recognising that the replacement of these systems at the medium term interval will substantially improve cost savings over emergency repair and expensive maintenance projects is a priority for committee members.
The boiler replacement is most likely one of the most expensive, but most rewarding measures to be taken at the medium term interval. Given that the average life-span of a boiler could potentially last longer than the ten year period listed here, the maintenance team must be able to recognise the characteristics of a well-functioning or suffering unit and offer advice regarding its condition during standard evaluations before and after this period. Replacement is highly recommended at the ten year mark because this essential systems component could substantially increase costs of a disaster repair in the event of its failure.
Analysis of the electrical system will be included within the survey report conducted at the short-term intervals and expanded into the full spectrum 10 year evaluation in the medium term. Those systems which are deemed faulty during this period should be replaced immediately, as malfunctioning electrical systems can become an unanticipated fire hazard. Replacing the electrical system at ten year intervals ensures that the insulation efficacy is maintained and that updated wiring is installed for new technology to function properly.
Finally, within the primary systems, the gutter and down pipe components become an essential mode of structural preservation, as the water transport away from the building limits the amount of erosion and decay over a lengthy period of time. At the ten year period, however, the prediction is that most of the system will have begun to demonstrate signs of wear, specifically around the hardware and jointing sections of the unit. Repair teams should undergo substantial overhaul to replace mounting brackets and pipe couplings as well as replacing any sections of the system which are cracking or developing holes due to exposure to the elements.
Secondary Systems Maintenance
The medium term secondary systems are represented by those that both enhance the standard operations of the structure and offer the most cost versus value refurbishment within the maintenance system. Although primary systems are deemed essential components, the high visibility of the secondary systems ensures that they are of an essential nature to the continued functioning of the structure.
The building decoration, and in essence, the prescribed character of the interior structure is a maintenance project that requires substantial investment and vision. External contractors participating in the decoration revision every six years should replace drapes and visible accessories, alter furniture to match the expected period representation, and dramatically alter any additional components which add to the building aesthetics. The cost in this plan is a best case scenario cost and will have to be updated according to the broad range of needs.
Aligned with redecoration, the repair and replacement of both internal and external finishes dramatically improves the user perception of the building, supporting operations and ensuring that during this activity that walls and beams are in good repair. While the costs in these sections are an estimate, paint quality must be chosen of a high enough grade to endure elements and use over the coming decade, and of a colouring that matches the prescribed decoration aesthetics of the contractors’ vision.
Finally, within the medium term, updating carpet and repairing the flooring become enhancement variables which ensure both function and aesthetics are aligned throughout the building. Although the wear lifecycle of both of these systems may offer a longer term operation, by replacing these components within the medium interval sustains the overall appearance of the building as well as identifies any underfoot rot or decay which could cause substantial problems later in the building lifecycle. These costs are only estimates, and depending on the quality or installation costs, the replacement of these elements could be substantially higher.

Medium Term

Maintenance Item

Description

Frequency

Additional Equipment

Anticip. Cost

Notes

Decoration

All interior and exterior decorative features cleaned or retouched as needed, application of desired new features

6 Years

Added moulding and New decoration features

£1,400.00

Includes interior design revision

Interior Wall Finish

Paint or stain alteration throughout interior of structure

8 Years

New Paint colours

£2,800.00

Includes new paint for all surfaces

Exterior Wall Finish

Paint or stain alteration throughout exterior of structure

8 Years

New Paint colours

£3,200.00

Includes new paint for all surfaces

Gutters

Gutters repaired or replaced as needed

10 Years

Remove and Replace hardware

£1,100.00

Includes hardware replacement and repair to system

Boiler

Boiler system cleaned, repaired, or replaced

10 Years

New Boiler System

£2,200.00

Replacement of Boiler System

Heating System

System Features and couplings replaced, vent system replaced

10 Years

New vent system

£2,700.00

Includes labour and cost of new venting system

Flooring

All Flooring examined for structural soundness and replaced as needed

7 Years

New Flooring

£1,700.00

Includes New Flooring

Carpeting

All carpeting examined for fraying and stains and replaced as needed

7 Years

Replacement Carpet

£1,400.00

Includes New Carpeting

Interior Eval

Full analysis of problem areas and survey of interior

10 Years

Structural Modifications

£240.00

Includes in-depth survey only

Exterior Eval

Full analysis of problem areas and survey of exterior (Includes ground variance and nearby incidences)

10 Years

Structural Modifications

£240.00

Includes in-depth survey only

Electrical Eval

Explore electrical system and replace any frayed wiring or non-working areas

8 Years

New Wiring system

£1,700.00

Includes cost of new wiring system

Roofing Repatch

Patch and fill areas demonstrating extensive wear or lack of structural stability

5 years

Roofing shingles or covering

£400.00

Includes labour and new shingles

Damp proofing

Analyse all areas for wet seepage, fill and fix problem areas

7 Years

Mastic replacement and filling

£700.00

Includes replacement of all mastic and fillings

Drainage Clear

Drains cleaned and pumped through ensuring proper rate of flow

4 years

Pressurised Cleaning

£350.00

Complete system cleaning and pumping

 

TOTAL MEDIUM TERM COSTS

£20,130.00

 

Long Term
As the building lifecycle reaches the long term variables of the maintenance plan, substantial wear and repair throughout the passage of time will have altered many of the structural variables within the system. From this perspective, an according chart of timelines must be maintained to identify when particular items have been replaced prior to the lifecycle prediction. Overall, the long term costs will be substantially higher than either the short or medium term; however, the replacement of major systems offers an improved structural integrity and preserves the structure for many more decades of use.
Primary Systems Maintenance
As with the other timeline components,
 

Different Types of Maintenance Methodologies

INTRODUCTION

Maintenance can be defined as the process of maintaining, retaining or restoring it to a state in which it can perform a required function which is considered decisive to provide the given service. The course of action could be technical, administrative and managerial. An optimum approach to maintenance is extremely critical because it brings about the most important maintenance objectives such as increasing safety, maximizing equipment life and lowering overall maintenance costs.

TYPES OF MAINTENANCE

Maintenance is categorized into two main categories which are further divided into subcategories. Given below is a chart explaining different types of maintenances which are employed in various industries.

Source:https://www.roadtoreliability.com/types-of-maintenance/

PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

The approach of proactively maintaining the assets in working conditions and preventing untimely breakdown can be termed as preventive maintenance. The intention of this type of maintenance is increasing assets lifetime and reducing unscheduled repairs. Preventive maintenance usually combats with the issue that might put the workforce on hold. A classic example of such a strategy would be of a timely scheduling of refiling of the printer in an organization before the ink runs out. In this way, it would not stop the workflow and call the company’s reputation into question. Preventive maintenance schedules may include cleaning, lubrication, oil modifications, corrections, repairs, inspections and replacement components, and partial or total overhauls that are routinely performed

Example of Preventive Maintenance

Change engine oil and oil filter of a car every six months.

 

Advantages of Preventive Maintenance

      Equipment and building are checked regularly, they are less likely to break down without notice. Hence creating a more secure work environment for employees.

      Tracking of all your facilities at all times and precisely know when your device needs to be replaced.

      Less money is spent because you don’t have to replace equipment as much as last-minute breakdowns.

      There will be far fewer disruptions as all the facilities are well maintained and serviced.

      Reliability of the equipment is greatly increased.

      Productivity is increased as unexpected downtimes are significantly reduced.

Disadvantages of Preventive Maintenance

      It will cost you more to keep the machinery and the structure maintained when you start a preventive maintenance scheme.

      Equipment may not have to be inspected as often as planned leading to over maintenance.

      More workforce is required in case of preventive maintenance as it requires workers to be on-site and perform regular checks

Preventive maintenance is further divided into five sub-categories as follows:

 

Time-Based

Failure Finding

Condition Based

Predictive

Risk-Based

Time-Based Maintenance

The frequency of maintenance is based on the experience or on the manufacturer’s instructions regarding the equipment. Time-based maintenance involves periodic checking, monitoring and cleaning and replacement of components to avoid sudden failure and process issues. Scheduled maintenance activities like routine checks help identify minor issues before they lead to system failure. Maintenance engineers can identify issues by following periodic, well-designed maintenance timetable. This helps in avoiding long unplanned downtime and makes it possible to perform a repair job in minimum possible time. If these downtimes ever happen, they can be fixed without involving long downtime.

Example of Time-Based Maintenance

 

In an air conditioner, the air filter needs to be cleaned at regular intervals of time to maintain optimum cooling and maintain its energy efficiency.

In a car, their air filter, fuel filter, brake pads, engine oil, gear oil and brake fluids need to be replaced at definite intervals of time.

Advantages of Time-Based Maintenance

 

      The higher life expectancy of assets as breakdowns are avoided.

      Lower maintenance costs as time are utilized efficiently and major problems are prevented by regular maintenance.

      Liability is significantly reduced as assets are safely maintained.

      It is cost-effective in many capital-intensive processes.

      It is extremely effective in increasing workplace safety.

Disadvantages of Time-Based maintenance

 

      Disastrous failures are still probable to happen.

      It is extremely labour-intensive.

      It is not as efficient as maintenance is carried out even if it is not needed.

      Possibility for unintentional damage to components in performing unneeded maintenance.

Failure Finding Maintenance

This type of maintenance is employed to detect machine failures which are not identified in ordinary planned activities. Because failures result from these kinds of hidden faults, condition monitoring or planned maintenance activities are typically not an efficient strategy for maintenance management. Every piece of machinery that has to work in an emergency or as a backup should be subject to failure finding maintenance. These devices or systems are designed to do the following operations.

      Alert

      Relieve

      Shutdown

      Mitigate

      Replace

      Guard

Example of Failure Finding Maintenance

One example would be the machine shut-down pressure switch if the oil pressure drops to a dangerous level. The technician should actually drop the oil pressure to see if it triggers the right response to test this switch.

Advantages of Failure Finding Maintenance

      Can greatly reduce the risk of catastrophic failure.

      Reduces the overhaul frequency

      Reduces the likelihood of sudden equipment failures.

      Focus maintenance on critical system components.

      Increases component reliability

Disadvantages of Failure Finding Maintenance

      Can have major start-up costs for training and equipment needs.

      Management can’t easily see savings potential. 

 

Condition Based Maintenance

Condition-based maintenance is a maintenance approach that performs maintenance activities depending on your assets ‘ present situation. The condition of the data is known by performing visual inspections, tests and the relevant data gathered by different sensors. These measurements and evaluation will show outcomes that allow diagnosis of the state of the equipment. The maintenance team can, therefore, schedule suitable maintenance actions to avoid failure and ensure regular availability of the equipment The information collected

above demonstrates you when a specific item of machinery may fail so that you can plan maintenance job just before that occurs. The primary objective of condition-based maintenance is to assist you to optimize your maintenance resources by maintaining maintenance work when needed. Some of the common conditions used to measure are mention below:

      Vibrations.

      Temperature

      Pressure

      Oil

      Noise    Understanding the P-F interval and the P-F curve

Source: https://limblecmms.com/blog/condition-based-maintenance/

Example of Condition Based  Maintenance

A sensor could be mounted that measures vibrations of certain rotating equipment. That

the moving piece will degrade with time and begin to fall out of alignment resulting in an increased amount of vibration. Then the mounted sensor can inform when a limit is crossed

by the vibrations so you understand that part of the should be replaced in the future.

 

 

Advantages of Condition Based  Maintenance

      The number of unplanned failures is reduced.

      Reliability and availability of equipment are increased significantly.

      Time spent on maintenance is reduced drastically.

      Repairs can be planned during non-peak phases.

      The lifetime of the assets is increased.

      Performance of the assets is increased.

Disadvantages of Condition Based  Maintenance.

      Tools for condition monitoring can be expensive to install.

      You need to spend a lot of time and money training your staff so that they can efficiently use CBM technology.

      Sensors may have trouble working under severe operating circumstances, notably when fatigue damage is observed

      Working in severe operating circumstances can also compromise the sensors, forcing you to regularly replace them, which is often not inexpensive

Predictive Maintenance

Predictive maintenance is a set of operations that detect variations in the state of the machinery to conduct a suitable maintenance job to maximize the service life of the appliances without raising the likelihood of error. Predictive maintenance is a constructive maintenance approach that attempts to estimate when a piece of machinery may fail to perform a maintenance job just before it occurs. These estimates are based on the situation of the machinery being assessed based on the information collected through the use of multiple tools and methods for condition monitoring.

It is categorized into two types based on the methods of identifying signs of failure:

      Condition Based Predictive Maintenance

This type of maintenance relies on regular condition monitoring facilities to identify signs of failure.

      Statistical Based Predictive Maintenance

This type of repair relies on statistical data from a thorough recording of stoppages of in-plant components to develop models for predicting errors.

 

Example of Predictive Maintenance

When a car is serviced, it is checked whether the alignment of the vehicle suspension is proper or not. This is done to ensure that the tyres make a normal angle with the road. The improper wheel can lead to uneven and premature wear of your tyres

Advantages of Predictive  Maintenance

      The benefits of predictive maintenance from a cost-effective view are enormous.

      Minimizing planned downtime.

      Maximizing equipment lifespan.

      Optimizing Employee productivity and increasing revenue.

 

Disadvantages of Predictive  Maintenance

      A lot of time taken to asses and implement predictive maintenance schedule.

      Plant staff must be educated on how to use the analytics or data.

      The cost of implementing various predictive tools and the related training is very high.

      Savings potential not readily seen by management.

Risk-Based Maintenance

 

Risk-based management facilitates maintenance resources to assets that carry the most risk if they fail. It is a technique for the most economical utilization of maintenance resources. This is performed in order to optimize maintenance effort to minimize any risk of failure. The type and frequency of maintenance are given priority depending on the danger of failure. Assets with higher risk and failure implications are maintained and monitored more regularly. Assets that carry a lower risk are subjected to less stringent maintenance programs. Implementation of risk-based maintenance ensures that the total risk of failure is kept to a minimum in the most economical manner throughout the plant.

Source: https://www.fiixsoftware.com/maintenance-strategies/risk-based-maintenance/

Example of Risk-Based Maintenance

 

An example of this approach will be to replace the components of the machinery that carries the maximum risk if it fails such as brake pads in case of a car.

 

Advantages of Risk-Based Maintenance

      It defines issues before they occur, minimizing downtime as maintenance can be scheduled.

      When risk-based maintenance is scheduled, reactive maintenance can be avoided, with many overhead costs, more downtime of equipment, higher parts and shipping costs, and more time lost to respond and troubleshoot equipment.

      Improves safety because machinery breaks down less.

      Contributes favourably to company reputation as the adverse effect of machinery failure reaches far down the supply chain.

 

Disadvantages of Risk-Based Maintenance

      More complex than other types of maintenance

      Parts are replaced before the end of life, which cost more than waiting until they fail.

Corrective Maintenance

 

Corrective maintenance is described as any maintenance conducted in order to restore machinery to adequate functioning. Due to a breakdown or maintenance recognized through a condition monitoring program, it may refer to maintenance depending on the nature of its use. Due to a breakdown, corrective maintenance could fall under one of two classifications: planned or unplanned. The planned corrective maintenance is the result of a maintenance plan on a run-to-

failure basis. In this case, the maintenance team decided that certain equipment will be serviced when the plan breaks down. Unplanned changes are generally the consequence of accidental failure. For instance, a component machine would break down because of the failure of a replacement component following substitution during routine maintenance.

Advantages of Corrective maintenance

      When corrective maintenance is scheduled as a portion of a maintenance approach, it enables those accountable for reliability to concentrate on other efforts until a breakdown occurs.

      Less capital and staff is required in case of corrective maintenance

Disadvantages of Corrective maintenance

      Decreased productivity due to unplanned downtime of equipment.

      There is a possibility of damage to secondary equipment or process.

Deferred Corrective Maintenance

When scheduling the maintenance of machinery, we accept the impact of failure or malfunction. When we do not have adequate resources to carry out the planned maintenance as expected, these tasks become a backlog or deferred until later. Tasks are delayed when they still have to be done, yet we are waiting for components, properly qualified technicians or required instruments. The maintenance job does not occur when the possibility of failure should be minimized, so deferred. The task may include a new date when it will be completed, but the chance of failure is higher than desired between when it should have been done and when done. The function of deferred maintenance is to balance resources, expenses and accessibility of equipment. Therefore, the deferred maintenance list offers a buffer while maintaining the priorities for the required maintenance operations.

Example of Deferred Maintenance

An example of deferred maintenance would be putting the calibration of measuring devices in the industry due to the shortage of funds.

Advantages of Deferred Maintenance

      The deferred program may be intended to push costs into future periods.

      By implementing a Predictive maintenance program in conjunction with a deferred maintenance program, you can better estimate future costs and even mitigate their impact on your budget.

 

Disadvantages of Deferred Maintenance

      Increased safety hazards

      Poor service.

      Higher costs in the future

      Inefficient operations

Emergency Maintenance

Emergency maintenance is needed in an industrial environment when life, property, or assets are under instant threat. For example, Emergency maintenance is applied in a processing plant to keep a facility safe and operational. Emergency maintenance protects the health and safety of employees as well as the resources of the building. Returning a facility to full operation as soon as possible is essential for a company’s continued viability, profitability, and enhancing public perception of the responsiveness of the company.

Advantages of Emergency Maintenance

      A lack of initial costs involved in the first key advantage to run a reactive maintenance system.

      The strategy needs fewer employees to handle a portfolio or client due to the decreased planning, management and organizational time engaged in emergency maintenance.

Disadvantages of Emergency maintenance

      One of the major drawbacks of reactive management is the unpredictability of when problems may arise.

      This type of maintenance does not protect or care for equipment, thus reducing the lifetime of the unit.

      This type of maintenance could lead to catastrophic failure inside the facility.

      Indirect expenses are identified with reactive servicing with machinery downtime or unreliable machinery that has adverse impacts on reputation, safety and company efficiency.

Conclusion

 

In a nutshell, I would like to state that preventive maintenance is leaps and bounds ahead of corrective maintenance. Catastrophic disaster and failures could be avoided if good preventive maintenance techniques are put into perspective. Apart from avoiding complete failure, it can also increase productivity, increase efficiency, decrease downtime and increase safety within the facility. Preventive maintenance techniques such as time-based maintenance keep the facilities and equipment in an optimum condition. Preventive maintenance techniques such as predictive maintenance provide the average mean life of tools so that they can be replaced before failure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

 

      https://www.onupkeep.com/learning/maintenance-types/scheduled-maintenance

      https://www.roadtoreliability.com/types-of-maintenance/#failure_finding_maintenance

      https://limblecmms.com/blog/condition-based-maintenance/

      https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/12495/preventive-predictive-maintenance

      https://www.fiixsoftware.com/corrective-maintenance/

      https://accendoreliability.com/basics-planned-deferred-maintenance/

      https://specialties.bayt.com/en/specialties/q/204305/what-is-the-advantages-and-dis-advantages-for-the-emergency-maintenance-plane-due-to-the-increase-of-the-profit-margin/

      https://www.fiixsoftware.com/breakdown-maintenance/

 

Design Factors Affecting Building Maintenance

The factors of design which will influence the levels of future maintenance of public buildings and works.
1. Introduction
Maintenance of public buildings is concern for the continuous development and preservation of the major infrastructure systems such as public and private-owned buildings within the county which includes janitorial services, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), plumbing, electrical, landscaping, and lawn care services. Public works, on the other hand, deals with safeguarding of sewer, solid waste, drainage and parks, etc. Both public buildings and works are grouped together and represented by the County Administrator. Their activities are inter-connected and require cross-departmental and pre-maintenance coordination.

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As the community grows constantly with time, the challenge facing the public buildings and works department at the County Council is to provide and maintain the above adequate infrastructure and facilities regularly. Assuring and completing maintenance to keep pace with concurrency requirements for a variety of works continues to be a huge problem for the County. The County has historically been unable to keep up with the need of society within its premises. Although the public works is still partially funded by the UK Government, the County’s Public Works Trust Fund (PWTF) loans remained at near high record levels. In this report, we will be discussing the design factors influencing the levels of maintenance of public buildings and works.
2. Different levels of maintenance for public works at different zones
The County has tried to maintain a uniform and consistent level of maintenance throughout, for example, the more important and prominent landscaped areas and parks around public and private-owned buildings. Under County Council regulations, it can only use funds collected from neighbourhood property owners and private agencies within a zone for costs associated directly and within that specified zone. In some zone areas, the evaluations allowed by law have not been sufficient to pay for basic maintenance costs, so essentially, some zones have been less funded for maintenance coverage. This is especially true when considering the costs necessary to replace dying plants and trees, replace or repair vandalized equipment or renovate older parks and irrigation systems [1]
Decisions for funding in certain zones were based on mailed ballots while others were not in favour of paying for extra maintenance and repair covers. Therefore, in order to keep the maintenance budget balanced, cuts and reductions have been made in the frequency and type of maintenance being performed in each of the under-funded zones. Essentially, the maintenance levels (or standards) are different as a result of the variance in available funds. Property owners and agencies will continue to see a difference in the levels of maintenance being provided throughout the various zones in the County.
The Council has developed priorities for services that most affect the community, particularly when budgets are tight. In those zones where funding is not sufficient to pay for all of the maintenance required, the County Council has set the following levels of maintenance: low, medium and high, based on maintenance priorities: (i) safety items considered first and primary, (ii) keeping parks safe, open and available to the public, (ii) responding to vandalism, (iii) keeping turf and plant materials in healthy condition and (iv) removing, but not replacing, dead and dying plant materials and (v) thinning and scaling back landscaping to lower maintenance requirements [2].
The County will also be making some enhancements to a number of median landscaped areas. The aim is to make a one-time improvement, such as the installation of low-maintenance ground covering. These efforts will eventually reduce future maintenance costs and help all zones to remain within their own budgets.
3. Factors of design for public buildings: A Case-Study Approach
Successfully designing, constructing and operating high-performance buildings requires the building owner and all members of the design team to set goals to minimize future levels of maintenance via minimization of energy consumption and environmental impact. The team should establish these goals as early as possible in the design process and maintain them through the building occupation. One method for achieving high-performance building goals is to follow the energy design process. This process begins in the pre-design phase and continues after the building is commissioned and occupied. Understanding which strategies are best suited for the building site and function, setting aggressive energy targets early and relying on advanced computer simulations to evaluate building design options are essential to the overall reliability process. The building envelope is designed first to minimize energy consumption. The mechanical, electrical and control systems are designed after optimizing the envelope design. Detailed specifications must accurately reflect the design intent. After construction, the building is commissioned, the owner and operators are instructed on the optimal operation of the building and building operation documents are provided for future maintenance reference. A case-study on an actual high-performance building demonstrates how to apply the design process to all public buildings of the future This building incorporates energy-efficient and renewable energy design features including day-lighting, passive heating and cooling and improved thermal envelope. All this energy saving considerations is being intentionally put in place to significantly reduce future maintenance needs and increase reliability of building functionalities [5]
In a traditional design process, the architectural team determines the building form and articulation of the façade, including orientation, colour, window area and window placement. This architectural design is then handed off to the engineering team, who designs the heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system, ensures compliance with applicable energy codes, and ensures acceptable levels of environmental comfort for building occupants. From an engineer’s point of view, energy dependability occurs by improving the design of the HVAC system. It is then the engineer’s goal to create an efficient system within the context of the building envelope that has been previously designed—the architectural decisions have been finalized and few changes can be made to the envelope design [4]
For successful realization of low-energy buildings which are less susceptible to failures, an efficient design team must establish a cost-effective energy goal. Once a commitment to energy minimization has been made, the energy-design process can be used to guide the team towards good decision making and trade-off analysis without sacrificing the building’s programmatic requirements. The building must incorporate disaster resistant (e.g., able to function if no grid-power is available). The design should meet or exceed all the functional and comfort requirements of the building. Low-energy design does not imply that building occupants endure conditions that are considered unacceptable in traditional buildings.
The design team develops a thorough understanding of the building site and building functional requirements. A qualitative evaluation of these issues early in the design process often leads to later solutions for minimizing potential building maintenance needs Many design strategies are applicable to most buildings however, each building is unique, and thus, will have unique reliability design solutions [9].
Simulation of a base-case model of the building is done to identify maintenance minimization opportunities via low energy consumption using an hourly building simulation computer tool. This computer model simulates annual loads and peak demands for heating, cooling, lighting, plug loads and for HVAC system fans and pumps to determine the energy-use profile and the likelihood of possible failures of the base-case building.
The design team brainstorms possible solutions to dependability problems. At this stage, the emphasis is on solutions relating to building geometry. Simulations are performed on variants of the base-case building relating to the list of possible solutions. Issues that will have a profound influence on the architectural aspects of the building are quantitatively explored prior to the conceptual design phase. The energy impact of each variant is determined by comparison to the original base-case building and to the other variants. Computerized design tools bring all the architectural and engineering pieces together to predict how the building’s components will interact. In other words, day-lighting systems, thermal issues and building control strategies may be addressed by different
building disciplines but successful integrated building performance can only be achieved by examining the interrelation between these components.
The conceptual design is the most difficult part of the building design process. It is essential that the dependability features be integrated into the architecture of the building. The objective is to use the architectural and envelope features to minimize energy costs for heating, cooling, and lighting. Often, energy features that effect the visual impact of the building can also serve as the main architectural aesthetic features, thereby saving costs. If the addition of an energy feature substantially increases the building cost, it is evaluated with the cost-effectiveness criteria already established [6]
After the architectural features impacting energy use have been determined, the computer model simulating the performance of the proposed building is updated to reflect those decisions. A set of simulations is then performed to guide decisions regarding the HVAC system and associated controls. These simulations are primarily to optimize annual dependability of building lighting functions and the occupant comfort. The simulations can also be used to help properly size the equipment. Low-energy buildings defy the industry norms used for equipment sizing. First cost savings in substantially downsized equipment can often be used to pay for improved envelope energy features. At this point, there will be some iteration or trade-off between mechanical system decisions and architectural features; however, it is best to optimize the architectural features first. Although the energy design process may increase the cost to design the building compared to the traditional design process, the increased design cost is often offset by reductions in errors and decreased mechanical system cost. Fewer errors occur because careful attention was paid throughout the design process and more effort is placed on checking and review. Also, small mechanical systems require less space in the building (requiring less building to be built), and therefore, lower capital costs.
Once the simulation work has been completed, occasional simulations will need to be performed as needed in response to unanticipated circumstances. This might include the need to determine if a substitute component really meets the energy related specifications or review of a construction detail that must be modified because of a problem on the construction site. Scheduled plan reviews and site inspections are crucial to ensure that specified details omitted from the plans do not compromise the energy design. A clear communication path between the constructor, building operator and the design team will help ensure that components are installed properly [10] In many cases, once construction on a particular area is incorrectly completed, it cannot be reinstalled and the building owner is forced to live with the reliability performance consequences.
The commissioning process includes testing all subsystems in the building to ensure that they operate as intended. For example, poorly calibrated economizer controls can bring in excess air or poorly calibrated daylight sensors may not turn off the lights, thus causing failure to the equipments. Occasional simulations will be required to help solve problems that emerge during this final phase and to respond to changes in building use that may occur once the building is occupied. The key is that the controls function with the design intent of the building. A good building quickly becomes a bad building with improper control strategies. In addition, it is important to educate the building owner, occupants and the maintenance staff to properly use the building systems as conceived by the design team. The building’s performance can only be optimized if the people running the systems understand how the systems interact. This would save cost of system errors leading to malfunctions and would eventually reduce the need for future building maintenance.
4. Conclusion
Good construction practices provide protection and minimum maintenance required for existing high-tech buildings and other features. Continued good appearance of these buildings depends upon the extent and quality of maintenance. The choice of materials and their use, together with the types of finishes and other protective measures should be conducive to easy maintenance and upkeep.
An integrated design approach for private high performance buildings have been discussed from construction to commission. A low energy cost reduction was ideally established early and maintained throughout the design process. An integrated set of solutions for architectural design and energy efficiency was determined, including extensive day-lighting, natural ventilation, evaporative cooling and passive solar radiant heating. It is important to design a building that works with the environment in which it is located to minimize the need for maintenance in the long run. The building architecture was formed based on the programmatic and energy goals for the project. Tall vertical elements are naturally preferred to harmonize the building with the surrounding natural environment. The towers were also used to passively cool the building. An HVAC system was designed to work with the building. A PV system was installed to provide emergency power and supplemental power when utility power is available. The building construction and energy costs was significantly less and more reliable than a conventional one. This shows that sustainable buildings need not cost more with no level maintenance requirements
REFERENCES
[1] A. H. Molof, C. J. Turkstra (1984). Infrastructure, maintenance and repair of public works. New York Academy of Sciences.
[2] A. P. Chrest (2001). Parking Structures: Planning, design, construction, maintenance and repair. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
[3] Aia Pr (1993). Confronting the changes: New considerations in the design and management of public-sector facilities.
[4] B. Chanter and P. Swallow (2000). Building Maintenance Management. Blackwell Science.
[5] D. Hunns (1986). Human Factors in Reliability and the Psychology of Communications. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, pp 22-37.
[6] E. D. Mills (1980). Building maintenance and preservation: a guide for design and management. Boston, Butterworths.
[7] E. Teicholz (2001). Facility Design and Management Handbook. Mc-Graw Hill Companies.
[8] M. Ruff (1998). Sewer, gas and electric: The Public Works trilogy. Grove/Atlantic Press
[9] R. Lee and P. Wordsworth (2000). Lee’s Building Maintenance Management. Blackwell Publishers.
[10] S. B. Birch, Jr, Craftsman Book Co, R. Price and L. Nicholson (2001). Public Works Inspector Manual. Building News.
 

How are Social Penetration Theory and Computer Mediated Communication used in relational development and relational maintenance

Introduction
Technology today has changed the way people communicate with one another, creating an abundance of new methods to self-disclose information to people in a faster and less stressful way. A large part of studying the Social Penetration Theory is trying to understand how much or what kind of impact self-disclosure and the Social Penetration Theory have on relationships. It has been discussed that the more information you can self-disclose in a relationship and have that self-disclosure be reciprocated will improve the closeness in the relationship.

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What is more commonly being researched now and days is how technology and Computer Mediated Communication play a role in relational development. However, with the use of Computer Mediated Communication, the quality of self-disclosure that is being communicated may not be received as efficiently as it would in a face-to-face interaction. The Social Penetration Theory is a very useful and important tool in being able to predict and explain how self-disclosure produces relational development and how it can also be used to maintain relationships. Whether it is maintaining friendships, family relationships or even romantic relationships.
This paper will discuss how the Social Penetration Theory and Computer Mediated Communication are used in relational development and relational maintenance.  Topics that will be covered throughout this paper are self-disclosure through Computer Mediated Communication; how Computer Mediated Communication is used in relational development and how Computer Mediated Communication is used to maintain relationships.
Theoretical Discussion
Social Penetration Theory assumes that self-disclosure over time helps develop relationships. Social Penetration theory attempts to predict and explain how the use of self-disclosure directly impacts relational development. Self –disclosure is defined as “The voluntary sharing of personal history, preferences, attitudes, feelings, values, secrets, etc., with another person; transparency” (Griffin, 2012, pg. 114). Theorists Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor, use “The Onion Metaphor” to further explain that people are more complex than what might originally meet the eye (Griffin, Ledbetter, & Sparks, 2019).
Like an onion, the qualities and attributes of a person that are clearly visible for society to see, are the outer layers of the onion (Griffin et al., 2019). With the process of social penetration, relationships are developed when the amount of self-disclosure is high. The more people can self-disclose in a relationship creates a better opportunity for the relationship to become more intimate.  Each time a person discloses more about his or herself in a relationship is another layer of the Onion being peeled back. As more layers are exposed, just like an onion you will eventually find the core. Someone’s inner core involves one’s values, insecurities, self-image, and deeply felt emotions (Griffin et al., 2019).
However, investing in self-disclosure to advance a relationship can be scary. When people disclose personal information about themselves, it is natural to assume that the other person in the relationship will do the same. This is known as the “Law of reciprocity”, meaning that one’s transparency with others should be lead to an equal return, creating closeness in the relationship (Griffin et al., 2019).  Technology, in today’s world, is creating a more comfortable space for self-disclosure to happen. Dating sites, text messaging, Facebook and Instagram are some examples of how people today are choosing to communicate. This form of communication is being seen between friends, family members and even romantic couples. Technology is not only being used to develop relationships but also maintaining relationships.
Synthesis of Scholarship: Self disclosure
A large part of the Social Penetration Theory is looking to understand how self-disclosure works in regards to relational development. Technology in today’s world is allowing people to take an impersonal approach to self-disclosing information instead of face-to-face communication. Removing cues that you would normally gain from face-to-face interaction could make it more complicated to convey emotion, but technology seems to be creating what some might describe as a more comfortable environment to self-disclose and open up to others. This enables people to use hyper personal communication, which occurs when individuals find it easier to self-disclose through technology rather than in face-to-face interaction. “Those who find their voices through computer-mediated communication (CMC) engage in hyper personal communication” (Walther, 1996, p. 4).
Ayash, Sidelinger and Tibbles state that “Despite the fact that CMC has generally been classified as a relational maintenance behavior. CMC has offered an alternate channel of communication for interactants. Whether by e-mail or IM, computer mediation allows relational development to occur in similar fashion to face-to-face communication”. There is also a correlation between Self-disclosure and relationship satisfaction, in that the more self-disclosure there is in a relationship will lead to a higher level of commitment and relationship satisfaction (Hendricks & Sprecher, 2004). The amount of information that someone is willing to self-disclose in a relationship is influenced by the amount of self-disclosure his or her partner can reciprocate (Hendricks & Sprecher, 2004). This means Self-disclosure is imperative to ensure relational development and relational growth.
Many studies suggest that the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships is one of the main reasons for Internet use (Bargh & McKenna, 2004). Through numerous studies researchers are also finding out that relationships that are developed through Computer Mediated Communication are similar to relationships developed through face-to-face interactions. Estrada, Fleuriet and Houser (2012 P.3) stated, “relationships developed and maintained through Computer Mediated Communication can be as deep as those fostered in a solely Face-to-Face context”. Text messaging has become a significant form of communication amongst couples, family members, co-workers, etc. Also noted by Estrada, Fleuriet and Houser (2012), even though research supports the notion that Computer Mediated Communication is used to introduce and develop new relationships, it is important to understand how individuals use different forms of mediated communication to improve them and maintain them.
In today’s world, “People are continuously using a variety of behaviors to effectively maintain their relationships” (Ayash, G., Godorhazy, A., Sidelinger, R. J.  & Tibbles, D. 2008 P. 342). Computer Mediated Communication is even more imperative for relational maintenance in long distance relationships. Whether two people live far apart or one person in the relationship travels a lot, people have to find and easy way to communicate. Email and text messaging have proven to be a leader in forms of Computer Mediated Communication used in relational maintenance.               “The rapid advancement of technology has changed the way the world operates. Technology now allows people the opportunity to communicate from opposite ends of the globe” (Ayash, Sidelinger and Tibbles p. 3). Per Hendricks and Spreecher “Relationship maintenance is the process that occurs after a relationship begins and until a relationship ends, and it can be described as all the behaviors that keep relational partners satisfied and that contribute to relationship continuation” (Hendricks & Sprecher, 2004 p. 860).
Conclusion
Self-disclosure is imperative in regards to relational development and relational growth. Developing a relationship through self-disclosure can be tough because it takes courage and trust to put your self out there and open up. Having to self-disclose through Computer Mediated Communication does not make the process any easier. It might actually make it more difficult in the beginning because it is removing the normal cues one is used to getting through face-to-face interactions. However, now and days this form of communication is becoming ever more popular and is becoming the norm for the new generation. The articles provide useful information in comparing the differences between self-disclosing in face-to-face and Computer Mediated Communication. However, more research needs to be done on the similarities between the two and the benefits that can come from self-disclosure through Computer Mediated Communication. One example of a benefit would be the relational development that can evolve through Computer Mediated Communication.  As technology in the world today continues to develop, it is important to learn how to use these new forms of communication in order to maximize relational development.
References

Bargh, J. A., & McKenna, K. Y. A. (2004). The Internet and social life. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 573–590. http://www.uvm.edu/pdodds/files/papers/others/2004/bargh2004a.pdf
Ayash, G., Godorhazy, A., Sidelinger, R. J.  & Tibbles, D. (2008). Couples Go Online: Relational      Maintenance Behaviors and Relational Characteristics Use in Dating Relationships. Human Communication, 11(3), 341–355.https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=34919166&site=ehost-live
Estrada, D., Fleuriet, C., & Houser, M. (2012). The Cyber Factor: An Analysis of Relational Maintenance Through the Use of Computer-Mediated Communication. Communication Research Reports, 29(1), 34–43. https://doi-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1080/08824096.2011.639911
Ramirez, A., & Broneck, K. (2009). “IM me”: Instant messaging as relational maintenance and everyday communication. Journal of Social & Personal Relationships, 26(2/3), 291–314. https://doi-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1177/0265407509106719
Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyper personal interaction. Communication Research, 23(1), 3. https://doi-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1177/009365096023001001