The outcome of Asset Criticality Ranking

In the previous step of our journey towards reliability excellence, we saw how to build a proper Master Equipment List in a CMMS and what are the benefits of such a project. Depending on your site’s size, that list might contain from a few hundred to more than 20,000 functional locations. 

The question now is: how do we prioritize our preventive maintenance, planning and asset management efforts based on this list? The answer is Asset Criticality Ranking (ACR).

What is Asset Criticality Ranking and asset criticality assessment?

If you ask your boiler area manager the question “what is the most important piece of equipment on our site”, chances are he will answer “the boiler”. Now ask the same question to your paper machine area manager. The answer will probably be “the Fourdrinier bed” or “the couch roller”.

They are both right and wrong at the same time. 

At this point, criticality ranking is a perception, or an emotion, based on their experience with these pieces of equipment. The idea of ACR is to remove that emotion and to quantify it into more objective criteria. This is achieved through asset criticality analysis, a systematic process in asset management that evaluates and ranks assets based on their potential impact on operations, maintenance, environment, quality and safety. Asset criticality analysis helps organizations identify critical equipment, prioritize maintenance, allocate resources efficiently, and mitigate risks.

Chances are the “couch roller” and “the boiler” will rank very high in the criticality matrix once the exercise is done, as organizations use a risk matrix to rank assets by quantifying risk through the likelihood and impact of failure. But at least, the rationale will be objectively documented.

For a complete view of what is an Asset criticality Ranking, feel free to check this article : What is Asset Criticality Ranking? The Complete Guide.

Cross Functional Team

A cross-functional team plays a pivotal role in the criticality analysis process by bringing together expertise from various departments, including maintenance, operations, safety, and engineering. This collaborative approach ensures that asset criticality is evaluated from multiple perspectives, capturing the full range of potential failure modes and their impact on operational efficiency, safety, and regulatory compliance.

By involving a cross-functional team, organizations can achieve a more comprehensive understanding of asset importance and the risks associated with asset failures. This team-based approach allows for the identification and mitigation of potential risks that might otherwise be overlooked, leading to more effective maintenance strategies and reduced downtime. Ultimately, leveraging the collective knowledge and experience of a cross-functional team ensures that maintenance efforts are prioritized accurately and that the organization’s most critical assets are protected.

Criticality Score

A criticality score is a quantitative measure assigned to each asset as a result of the criticality assessment process. This score reflects the asset’s importance by considering the 5 key factors : environment, maintenance, operation, quality and safety. Criticality scores provide maintenance managers with a clear, data-driven basis for prioritizing maintenance efforts and allocating resources.

Assets with high criticality scores are deemed highly critical and require more frequent or intensive maintenance to prevent failures that could disrupt operations or compromise safety. Conversely, assets with lower criticality scores may be scheduled for less frequent maintenance, allowing resources to be focused where they are needed most. By utilizing criticality scores, organizations can develop maintenance strategies that optimize maintenance efforts, reduce downtime, and minimize both financial and operational risks.

Why does Asset Criticality Ranking matter? 

Asset Criticality Ranking holds significance as it aids organizations in prioritizing their maintenance efforts and effectively allocating resources. Through the assessment and ranking of assets based on their criticality, organizations can pinpoint those assets with the greatest influence on operations, safety, and profitability. Maintenance teams use asset criticality ranking to identify potential failure events and failure modes, and to assess failure risks for each asset.

This enables them to concentrate their maintenance activities on the most crucial assets, ensuring they receive the necessary attention and resources to forestall asset failure and equipment failure, and minimize downtime. Maintenance strategy should be tailored based on asset criticality, with less critical assets typically receiving less intensive approaches compared to high risk or critical equipment.

Examples of criteria used to do ACR

Furthermore, Asset Criticality Ranking supports organizations in making well-informed decisions regarding risk management. By comprehending the criticality of each asset, organizations can evaluate the potential risks linked to asset failures and formulate appropriate strategies for risk mitigation. This includes developing mitigation strategies to address high risk assets and prevent asset failure and equipment failure.

This includes the implementation of proactive maintenance approaches, like condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, and preventive maintenance, for highly critical assets, aimed at reducing the likelihood of failures and their impact on operations. Aligning maintenance activities with operational priorities not only optimizes resource allocation but also enhances customer satisfaction and ensures health and safety.

The outcome of Asset Criticality Ranking for maintenance efforts 

Once the scope of work has been defined, and criteria validated by the team, a ranking is assigned to each asset in the asset hierarchy. Structuring assets within an asset hierarchy is essential for effective assessment and prioritization, ensuring that each asset’s importance is accurately evaluated.

Example of ACR on a converting section of a tissue plant  

In the end, the team will decide the values and quantity of necessary thresholds to finalize the ranking (A, B, C, D, etc.). Identifying each critical asset and conducting criticality assessments are key steps to determine the appropriate criticality rating for every asset. Equipment criticality assessment often involves the use of risk matrices to collaboratively evaluate and prioritize the most critical equipment, ensuring that resources are focused on assets with the highest impact on operations. Do not forget that an ACR exercise should highlight the most important assets in your organization. In other words, if you end up with 50% of your assets as “criticality A” it means something is wrong in your evaluation or the thresholds you set up.

Conclusion

ACR in the industrial world is a systematic process of evaluating and categorizing assets within an organization based on their importance or criticality to the overall operation. The purpose of asset criticality ranking is to identify and prioritize assets that are most crucial to an organization’s success and to allocate resources and efforts accordingly.  

Yoann Urruty, Eng., CMRP
Director of Technologies – Spartakus Technologies
[email protected]