Maintenance: problem and solution
Equipment that is often unique, machines that are as old as the Laboratory, continuous and demanding performance requirements: these are the challenges faced by CERN’s accelerator maintenance teams. There are some twenty such teams, attached to different departments. A new project aims to standardise their procedures to make their work easier, and you can be a part of it.
“For the past year or so, the Accelerator and Technologies Sector and the GS Department have been working together on identifying the needs of the different teams that perform maintenance on CERN’s equipment. We are now ready to provide computer support with detailed specifics about the processes that need to be set up,” explains Goran Perinić, one of the leaders in CERN’s new Maintenance Management project (MMP).
Since the LHC entered operation, the responsibilities of the technical teams have been broadened to cover maintenance of the collider and that of its injectors and infrastructure. This includes managing hardware, documentation, procedures, spare parts and the associated software, essentially the CAMM (Computer-Assisted Maintenance Management) systems used to control the maintenance processes. “CAMM tools are indispensable for developing ways to predict and reduce equipment wear and tear, minimising the associated risk of malfunction,” explains Christophe Mugnier, head of the TE maintenance project and of the MFIO office. “The long-term goal of our project is to reduce the number of technical stops of machines by optimising the teams' interventions.”
Commercial software exists, of course, but it requires customisation and integration into the CERN environment. There is no package that can be implemented straight off the shelf. “We have complex equipment and a very special environment,” underlines Christophe Delamare, head of the EAM development project. "Furthermore, we have to ensure high performance throughout the machinery’s lifetime, which may be several years or even decades. The solution will be to provide a shared database, centralised documentation management and, above all, a common language that all trades and teams can use."
The working group in charge of the Management Maintenance project celebrate the successful progress of the project.
The working group in charge of the Management Maintenance project is working hard to identify the best maintenance practices at CERN and in industry, so as to give the technical teams an effective CAMM system and assistance with their optimisation plans. The plan is to make the different modules of the new tool available to the teams progressively during the LHC’s first long shutdown (LS1). “In the longer term, the new tool could be used to optimise parts management and procurement, which would further improve the quality of the service,” notes Ingo Rühl, the project leader.
On 1 July a new office, the Maintenance Framework Implementation Office (MFIO), was opened in Building 272; this has become the nerve centre of the MMP working group. Its experts are ready to provide you with information and assistance for maintenance-related projects. Feel free to contact them by sending an e-mail to mfio.info@cern.ch, dialling 62185 or opening the CERN service portal.
