A facility manager's nightmare is unexpected equipment breakdowns. In case of critical asset failure, everything stops, and expenses go through the roof. To most companies, maintenance is always a guessing game, always playing guesses as to when the next breakdown will occur and, in other cases, why some equipment gives in more easily than old equipment.
But failure is frequently predictable. You must know the Bathtub Curve to stop reacting to the fire and move on to proactive control. This inherent principle outlines the three phases of the lifecycle of an asset and enables the maintenance staff to anticipate the risks of failure instead of responding to them post-factum.
However, theory alone won't stop downtime; you need actionable data. Cryotos CMMS bridges the gap by turning these insights into daily practice. We help you track exactly where your assets stand on the curve, automating the right maintenance strategy at the right time to eliminate guesswork and ensure reliability.
The Three Stages of the Asset Lifecycle
To effectively measure reliability, you must identify which phase of the curve your asset is currently in. The curve is divided into three distinct periods:
1. The Infant Mortality Period (Early Failure)
The Scenario: You have just installed a new HVACsystem/belt. The first week, it suddenly malfunctioned twice.
What’s Happening: This phase is characterized by a decreasing failure rate. Failures here are rarely due to wear and tear. Instead, they are caused by "teething problems" such as manufacturing defects, poor installation, incorrect calibration, or human error during setup.
The Strategy: Focus on rigorous Quality Assurance (QA) and Acceptance Testing. Implement "burn-in" tests to weed out defective components before full operation begins.
2. The Normal Life Period (Useful Life)
The Scenario: The asset has started, and it is running well. It runs for months or years without the hiccups, which, however, are rare and not associated with any warning.
What’s Happening: This is the bottom of the bathtub that is flat. It has a low failure rate and is constant. The failure mode in this period is normally random or stress-related, i.e., because of an external factor such as a power surge, operator error, or accidental overloading, and not due to the degradation of the asset itself.
The Strategy: This is where the Preventive Maintenance (PM) lies. Periodic checkups, greasing, and cleaning of the equipment can serve to keep this constant condition without allowing random failures that may blow out to cause a large-scale breakdown.
3. The Wear-Out Period (End of Life)
The Scenario: The asset is old. Components are squeaking, performance is declining, and failures are becoming a routine.
What’s Happening: The curve once again lifts up. Fatigue, corrosion, friction, and overall aging are the factors that lead to high failure. The asset is merely at the expiry of the design of life.
The Strategy: Change to Predictive Maintenance (PdM) and Condition-Based Monitoring. Monitor vibration or heat sensors. At this point, you need to calculate the cost of repair compared to what a complete replacement will cost you in terms of ROI.
How to Measure Asset Reliability Using the Curve
Understanding the curve is step one; measuring it is step two. Reliability is often quantified using metrics that correlate directly to the Bathtub Curve’s timeline.
Failure Rate (lambda): The frequency with which an engineered system or component fails.
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): This is the gold standard for measuring reliability during the "Normal Life" phase. A higher MTBFindicates a more reliable asset.
By monitoring these metrics, you are able to plot your own assets to the Bathtub Curve. When you observe that the MTBF is reducing drastically after years of constant stability, your asset might have entered the wear-out phase and hence needs to have a capital replacement plan.
Enhancing Bathtub Curve Analysis with Cryotos CMMS
Manually tracking the lifecycle stage of every motor, pump, and server in your facility is impossible. This is where Cryotos CMMS transforms theory into action.
Cryotos provides the digital infrastructure to automate your reliability strategy:
Data-Driven Insights: Cryotos does all the computations, such as MTBF, to enable visualization of the precise position of an asset in the bathtub curve.
Real-Time Monitoring: Cryotos can be used to monitor real-time temperatures and vibrations that indicate the shift from the "Normal Life" to the "Wear-Out" state using IoT.
Automated Workflows: Cryotos will issue the appropriate work order at the appropriate time, whether it is a warranty claim in the Infant Mortality phase or a schedule to prevent the Normal Life phase.
Smarter Decision Making: Use of historical data assists in predicting when a particular piece of equipment is nearing its wear-out phase, thus enabling you to budget in advance for replacements years prior to being caught in the middle of a failure.
Conclusion
The Bathtub Curve is not a mere graph but a philosophy on the health of assets. Guess and stop planning by identifying the three phases of life: infant mortality, normal life, and wear-out.
Reliability is not about the absence of failures; it is wise about risk management. You can increase the useful life of your assets, decrease expenses, and make sure that your business is as smooth as an oiled engine with the correct knowledge and a solid tool, such as Cryotos CMMS.
Ready to master your asset reliability? Discover how Cryotos CMMScan optimize your maintenance strategy today.
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