10% Rule of Preventive

Maintenance
By
Ricky Smith
Reliability Solutions Advisor

If you are executing Preventive Maintenance (PM) on equipment that

continues to break down or your maintenance cost continues to increase, I
recommend you read this article on the 10% Rule of Preventive Maintenance.
This short explanation of the 10% Rule of PM may be what you need to take
that next step in the journey to optimizing reliability or just reducing
equipment failures.
"The 10% Rule of Preventive Maintenance is simple and it works"
Here is how the 10% Rule of Preventive Maintenance works. The 10% Rule of
PM states that if a PM is executed within 10% of a time frequency then it is
considered compliant and within the standard. An example would be a
monthly PM must be completed within 1-1/2 days on either side of the due
date in order to be in compliant (I recommend you use 30 days as an
average for a monthly PM calculation). The rational for applying this rule is, it
reduces the variation of PM Execution time frequency. In maintenance we
must identify and reduce variations in the maintenance process and this is a
great example where it could be applied.

In the example below a 30 day PM is executed in June near the end of the
month (too many problems at the beginning of the June so PMs had to be
pushed back) at the beginning of July the same PM is executed (things were
going well at the beginning of the month so one must complete your PMs
because we know bad days are coming), in August the PM is executed on the
28th of the month (because of too many problems at the beginning of the
month). This 30 day PM was actually a 28 day PM, a 3 day PM, and a 58 day
PM. See the problem? This problem is worse when a company uses a CMMS
(Computerized Maintenance Management System) or EAM (Enterprise Asset
Management) that kicks out all PMs for the month on the 1st and you think
we have 30 days to complete them. The crew or planner are told to make
sure these PMs are completed sometime within the month so they can meet
100% PM Compliance. Can you see the problem now? In many organizations
the focus is on PM Compliance rather than stopping equipment failures.

The 10% rule of Preventive Maintenance was first developed in the 1990s
and I have been applying and teaching this methodology all over the world
and have seen results which truly amazes maintenance and operations
leaders.

Below are some basic principles which must be followed when applying the
10% Rule of PM:
Principle #1: Management must be totally committed and believe in this
process.
Principle #2: Insure your PM Procedures are repeatable with instructions,
steps, specifications, etc.
Principle #3: It is acceptable to have low PM Compliance when you first begin
this journey, however, what is not acceptable is for the PM Compliance not to
improve.
Principle #4: When measuring PM Compliance using the 10% Rule be sure
and track total maintenance cost, mean time between failure of critical
assets, emergency vs pm labor hours to insure management sees the results
of this process.

Principle #5: Begin application of this process to your organization's most

critical assets or take one area or one equipment type at a time. Do not
attempt to apply this to all your assets overnight.

Principle #6: As failures are reduced, expand this process throughout your
organization. Be sure before you move to the next area, asset, etc. that
repeatability of the 10% Rule PM has demonstrated success over 6-12 month
period.
Develop and apply your own principles as you gain knowledge and
experience using this process.
Many companies will never apply the 10% Rule of PM because of many
reasons and that is ok, what is not ok is to say it does not work. Alcoa Mt
Holly outside of Charleston, SC, USA has been applying this rule to 100% of
their assets for many years and have shown tremendous success as a result.
In the chart below you will see their Maintenance Cost is 2.0% as a
Replacement of Asset Value (international standard for evaluating
maintenance cost - 2.0% is world class) and their PM compliance is 85.77%.
This is a large aluminum smelter with a carbon plant and cast house in case
you wanted to know how large this plant is. You can Google "Alcoa Mt Holly"
if you wish to learn more about their plant or see a picture of the site.

The challenge today is for you to determine if this journey is worth taking. If
you are not applying the 10% Rule of PM and have a high PM compliance but
equipment continues to fail then the 10% Rule of PM is for you. Be sure you
develop a well thought out plan before you execute.