I was wondering what best practices people were using to link indicent data that comes from all different sources (ranging from people walking the plant to, sampling, measuring and testing, etc.) to the ultimate resolution of the problem.

It seems that there are two big gaps that I can see today that exist within my company. One is from the reporting of the indicent to how it gets entered into a EAM/CMMS system. We are just beginning to get a handle around how many incidents are either not reported or given the priority they need so we can reduce equipment failures and downtime.

The other is how the data and its resolution gets integrated in a way to promote continuous improvement. We repair the same equipment in different facilities for similar problems and don't seem to learn anything in the process.

Advise, links, etc. on this topic would be great. Thanks in advance for any help.

* Do your crew work on incidents without a maintenance order from your EAM/CMMS?
* Does anybody review periodically which equipment units have more orders generated (Pareto), then check out what the failures were and what can be done to prevent re-occurrence? Then later comeback to check which resulsts were obtained and if they are acceptable?

Check out CAPA systems.

Eugene, thanks for your reply. The crew does not work on incidents without a maintenance order. Also we are doing Pareto analysis on the equipment, though this information has just altered the frequency of preventative maintenance of the different equipment. The secondary analysis of what you suggest is just being started.

I'll check out CAPA systems. Thanks.

Elk,

What best practices to link incident data from different sources? - Integrated software?

Many incidents not reported & given priorities - What incidents are you referring to, safety incidents or equipment problems or failures? The latter is reported in CMMS. If some are not, maybe discipline is needed for the workforce to adhere to.

Integrate resolutions & not learning in the process - I guess there should be sharing of lessons learnt eg inter-facilities.

My company is in the proces to implement Trackwise for CAPA. There are many others in the market, review their capabilities and your needs and select the best solution for you. Just curious, in which industry are you in?
* http://www.sparta-systems.com/solutions/qms/capa/index.shtml
* http://www.harringtonsoftware.com/products/CorrectiveAction/ca6/default.asp
* http://www.metricstream.com/products/capa.htm
* http://www.remetrex.com/CAPA_software.html

Josh, yes it would be from different sources. Some from machinery, others from maintenance observation. The indicidents are not safety oriented but rather equipment problems and failures.

Yes we are trying to figure out how to impart some discipline to the staff.

Eugene, I'm in the power industry.

TrackWise is almost the standard CAPA tool in pharma. Not to turn this into all CAPA but other systems out there that control this kind of information are:

http://mastercontrol.com/solutions/capa_fb.html
http://www.pilgrimsoftware.com/
http://www.qumas.com/qumas/products/eprocess.html

Elk, are there any regulatory/licensure consequences?

Eugene, are you going to Sparta's user conference in October?

Elk, to ensure compliance, how about "No work permit without any wor order nos from the CMMS".

Patrick:
No , tight schedule, too busy with computer validation for a SAP R/3 support packages implementation project. Another of my team members is running the computer validation project for Trackwise.

Elk:
Selection of a CAPA software package is highly influenced by the regulatory compliance environment prevailing in the industry who will use the software. For pharmaceuticals companies compliance with 21 CFR 210 & 211 GMP and with Part 11 Electronic Records & Electronic Signatures impose some requirements that not all CAPA software packages provide. For power industry (which specific/applicable goverment regulations I do not know completely) Trackwise may be an overkill, but for pharma I agree with Patrick, it is becoming the standard. Take your time in the evaluation of CAPA systems and invite others from your staff dealing with regulations to give their feedback.

Patrick: No there are not any compliance/regulatory issues unless the problem forces a derate then issues of negligence, cause, etc. come into play.

Josh: We have that in place now. The problem is getting knowledge of the problem in the first place. The group I inhereted has few formal processes and from what I have seen from this thread and other research that folks have pointed out that we need to build our own set of processes, training procedures, etc. to get people more in turn.

Eugene: You are right about CAPA, much more a pharma type thing. Three are others out there that appear to be a better fit for my company and people. Thanks.

CAPA may be a pharma acronym but the process and vigor (albeit FDA-induced) that pharma has to follow the process is pretty amazing.

Eugene, are you at AZ? Mind if I send you an email?

quote:

The problem is getting knowledge of the problem in the first place.

What do you mean here? Do you mean you are not the first person to get the report?

Patrick:
You are welcome, I sent an e-mail to the address posted.

Elk:
* C/A from Harrington Group, Inc. seems (without deep analysis) a affordable system that may fullfill corrective actions management requirements if special requirement from regulations are not in the mix.

Let see an example:
Incident:
* An employee slip on wet floor and get injured. After required investigation it was found that the water on the floor came from raindrops falling from wet umbrellas carried from the building entrance to office areas or locker rooms.
Corrective Actions:
1. Install a dispenser of plastic "umbrella bags" at each plant building entrance.
2. Instruct housekeeping personnel to check and refill plastic "umbrella bags" dispensers as part of daily cleaning routine.
3. Train all plant employees to insert their umbrellas in a plastic bag after entering the building to avoid rain drops over them fall over the floors.
---
The first corrective action is clearly a maintenance order which can be easily tracked until completion with the CMMS. The others two corrective actions are not, they call for administrative actions that are out of the scope of maintenance orders. A database or spreadsheet maybe set out to record and manage open/closed corrective actions or use a CAPA application software. The first corrective action shall also be recorded in the database with its maintenance order number as reference.

Josh:
The situation described in my example would classified as an safety incident/accident, then it will be Safety the organizational unit to be alerted first. Maintenance Engineering would be "officially" informed when as a result of the investigation a maintenance request is created for the adquisition and installation of the "umbrella bag" dispensers. Early knowledge of the situation may be received if the team investigating safety incidents/accidents have a member of Maintenance Engineering in it.

Well done Eugene, I liked your explanation.

These "spreadsheet/databses" are in the HSE category Accident/Incident Management Systems, just like we have also QMS (Quality),
CMMS (Maintenance)

And all other things they invent to make $$$

"And all other things they invent to make $$$"
If there is a need, someone will invent a solution. The business need to manage information, each organizational unit has a little piece of the pie to manage. Can all use the same fork to eat their pie? Maybe some:
* Safety is welcomed to use the CMMS to track corrective actions from their inspections or accident investigations, as long as those corrective actions involve jobs (maintenance orders) to be done to the equipment or facilities,
* but I do not want the HR Training section use the CMMS maintenance orders to track who has attended a training event or not, they need to develop or purchase another fork or spoon for that pie slice.

quote:

but I do not want the HR Training section use the CMMS maintenance orders to track who has attended a training event or not, they need to develop or purchase another fork or spoon for that pie slice

Eugene sometimes, when people see how much data is in one typical CM/Quality/Safety/Financial Management System, they get visions of piling everything in it.
The opposite is also true, people try to stock "other people bussiness" in their own (database) management system.

quote:

If there is a need, someone will invent a solution

Saw once the mission statement of an IT company:
"To invent needs for solutions", and that was not a typo, the plain truth

quote:

"To invent needs for solutions"

Hmmm, designing in my job security ...
didn't I though of that before?

Hi All,
Unfortunately, I think that of all the processes maintenance does; Incident Management and Data Collection are the worst . I am not sure why that is. Most organisations have some processes and spreadsheets to try and manage things. Perhaps it is that as engineers, we think we can design anything we want and if someone has a computer and a spreadsheet application – then away things go. These two processes have a considerable number of stakeholders so they take quite a lot of work to get right – and then they only work if people use them – so there is a training element and the consideration of “what’s in it for me” at all levels. Maybe the engineers think only of the design and not the implementation.
I have not seen any company successfully use their OHS incident system for reliability. The time will happen but I think it is a long way from now. The approach to resolving problems in these two categories are sufficiently different to warrant independent systems.
Evidence we have and from independent sources shows that 2/3rds of opportunity lies in the area of redesign (process, people and plant) but few organisations have a systems that do this properly.
For those that are interested, we develop software for industrial maintenance activities outside of CMMS. We develop PMO / RCM tools as well as Incident Management and Data collection tools.
Specifically relating to Reliability Incident Management, we have downloads and info on our website for those who are interested.
Address is www.reliabilityassurance.com
There is free demo software at the link to RIMSys®.
There is a paper on ReliabilityWeb.com you can read at
http://www.reliabilityweb.com/art05/rims.htm
There is a iPresentation
Setting up a Reliability Assurance program for Physical AssetsPresentation 2 of 3. Using Reliability Incident ManagementBy Steve Turner, OMCS International
http://www.reliabilityweb.com/forms/omcs_reg.htm

Regards
Steve