In Solar System the Breakdown Maintenance is a routine job which can be minimize if the preventive maintenance has been carried out with the high quality. Considering the breakdown maintenance if we use the CMMS then the quality layer for the workmanship automatically comes in place. The CMMS records all the information relating to the Geographical location, the report time, the response time and the resolution time of the breakdown. for any breakdown maintenance following are the KPI should be maintained.
1. Mean Time to Report
2. Mean Time to Response
3. Mean Time to Repair
4. Mean Time Between Failure
5. Availability
6. Material consumption
Using the piece of paper all these information recording all such information takes time first on the paper and later on from paper to the speadsheet. to go out of this time wasting scenario its better to use a good Designed CMMS which records all these data using action of the O&M Engineer. This is very is and easily possible. Considering a large site of 500MW one dedicated person is required to feed all the information from paper to speadsheet where he also has limitation to manage the photographic evidences. Might be user shall be taking the picture and sending using social media and copy to spreadsheet. The images gets shorten and smaller when its handled through the social platform. The CMMS consist this specific feature to capture the real image of the defect which can be capture directly.
Also the another challenge is if the CMMS is not there then the O&M manager sitting in control room needs to call and disturb to the engineer to the the information whereas if the CMMS is there then on realtime basis the manager can see the work progress and evidences of the defect for many engineer at the same time and also help them if they need support.
Going back to basic if there are more than 1 Breakdown maintenance to be carried our the engineer needs to perform the calculation which breakdown he should attend the first considering the affected capacity. Off course you will say its easy check the maximum capacity affected but for example in 500MW plant you don't remember the capacity of each inverter where the inverter loading is not symmetrical. CMMS gives the priority number to attend the breakdown. Its is an important procedure and decision which has to be taken by the O&M Manager. If the CMMS is available then the machine takes the decision and helps the engineer to go and work on the technical part.
Another key matter is when the engineer is going to work, its quite impossible to carry all the user manual in hard copies. now the challenge is if hen need some information during the breakdown maintenance need to turn the papers to find that information whereas in CMMS the relevant documents are just one click away and once click find the relevant section is also one click away.
Another key matter is if the breakdown maintenance required material then user has to go and find the material or demonstrate to the store person what he need because the understanding of both the person differs. if the CMMS has stock management tool then the person can order the material from working location. The notification reaches to the store person and he can send the material directly at the work location to save the time and efforts. At the same time all the event of material consumption are also recorded. If the faulty material is received from breakdown maintenance that also can be added to stock in just few click and photos.
If the engineer is working on a solar inverter lets say and he want to check what is the history of the inverter for better maintenance, using excel it will take more than 30 minutes to accumulate the information. If engineer would like to see preventive maintenance also then its a more than 2 to 4 hours job but with CMMS it is just few click away.
So if Solar Developer wants to ensure their asset are in safe hand they should ask the O&M Contractor to use the CMMS as described above with the minimum functionality. Its my pleasure that the CMMS which I have designed has more than this functionality and the best point is majority of information is recorded by the CMMS itself using the action of the engineer. Also working on CMMS is as easy as social platform.
I glad to discuss further on this if you would like to.
