Machine maintenance: the rules of the game

GCO, GMIO, GSPO – ever heard of them? These acronyms stand for the “roles” that best practices identify as vital to successful maintenance management. CERN’s Maintenance Management Project (MMP) team is working with the technical departments to ensure that they implement these procedures when they deal with the maintenance of the collider and its injectors and infrastructure.

 

The participants of the workshop on asset and maintenance management (AMMW2013), which took place at CERN in November.

Since its creation in 2012, CERN’s Maintenance Framework Implementation Office (MFIO) has been promoting the deployment of harmonised maintenance management methods across the BE, GS, EN and TE Departments. “The definition and identification of the Group Coding Officers (GCO), Group Maintenance Information Officers (GMIO) and Group Spare Part Officers (GSPO) are one of the best practices that should be adopted each time a maintenance programme is started at CERN,” explains Goran Perinić, one of the leaders of CERN’s Maintenance Management Project (MMP).

Thanks to the project, today CERN can count on methods and tools developed to facilitate the management of maintenance documentation and spare parts. In addition, the technical teams involved in machine maintenance programmes can now use EAM Light, a new user-friendly Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) interface that has a number of functionalities including an improved link with the planning and scheduling tools.

Although very young, the MMP was mature enough in 2013 for its performance to be reviewed and future plans to be discussed. “2013 was a good time for the MMP team to verify how well we are doing in asset and maintenance management compared with other organisations,” confirms Goran Perinić. “Therefore, we decided to hold a three-day workshop on asset and maintenance management (AMMW2013) in November to gain an insight into the problems and solutions of other organisations and to review the situation at CERN at the same time.”

The AMMW2013 workshop welcomed 77 participants from 12 organisations, mostly European accelerator laboratories. The event featured 40 technical presentations and – as a unique highlight - a keynote speech by former ESA astronaut Michel Tognini who spoke of the challenges associated with the maintenance of space equipment and instruments. “The workshop allowed us to share best practices with other organisations that face similar challenges,” concludes Goran Perinić. “One of the recurrent messages underlined in various presentations was the importance of common databases for asset and maintenance management data as the starting point for further improvements.” The goals of MMP for 2014 are therefore already set!

by Antonella Del Rosso