Availability ratio (KTG) – an indicator of equipment availability and production stability

The coefficient of technical readiness (KTG) displays the availability of equipment in a given period of time.

Low CTG may indicate an inefficient maintenance plan, incompetence of individual performers or services, errors in the organization of the workflow, or even general wear and tear of production assets. How to guess what exactly is the problem?

You don’t need to guess. Modern technological monitoring tools help to improve the accuracy of analytics by providing access to objective data on the condition of assets and the quality of processes.

The use of solutions such as IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) ensures the transparency of CTG calculations by adding additional variables to the formula:

– Mean Maintenance Time (MMT) – time spent on preventive and reactive maintenance;

– Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) — repair time;

– Mean Time Waiting (MTW) ​​- idle time waiting for MRO.

With this approach, the enterprise receives, instead of a superficial assessment of availability, deep analytics with details on individual work centers. And instead of absolute KTG values ​​based on calendar time, objective information is linked to KPI.

This greatly facilitates the assessment of the quality of the maintenance and repair services and allows you to identify trends in certain areas:

– KTGf (physical coefficient of technical readiness);

– KTGm (mechanical coefficient of technical readiness);

– KTGd (achievable coefficient of technical readiness).

Consider the role of each of the indicators in the optimization of enterprise processes.

Production planning

The key to proper planning is an accurate assessment of the available production resource, compared with the technical requirements for a specific order.

The planning service must have objective data on the availability and utilization of equipment. On the basis of this information, the calculation of the coefficient of equipment utilization (IU) is made – an indicator of the time when the equipment produces products.

If this value is not tied to asset performance and actual output, the production plan will be inaccurate. As a result – unjustified expectations of customers in terms of timing, price, and quality.

Physical CTG comes to the rescue. It allows you to determine the time when the equipment was really working to generate economic value, and not idle.

KTGf is the same resource of an enterprise as raw materials or personnel. It reflects production potential and should be taken into account in the planning process.

It is physically difficult to track the indicator for each piece of equipment in manual mode, so it makes sense to implement IT solutions. The SmartEAM system automates the process of collecting asset data for monitoring, analysis, and optimization of OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness – overall equipment efficiency).

Maintenance

The process of operating the equipment helps the maintenance and repair service to draw conclusions about how the real indicators of asset reliability differ from those declared by the manufacturer. This indicator just reflects the mechanical CTG. When calculating it, the downtime and recovery time of equipment in situations not related to operational errors are taken into account.

This availability factor is often referred to as “innate” because it is directly related to the design and build quality of the equipment. Modern asset lifecycle management tools and proactive maintenance methods (Predictive Maintenance) help to increase the operating time while maintaining the profitability of maintenance and repair.

Business Process Management

Another type of CTG is achievable. It reflects the quality of service and the effectiveness of the chosen maintenance and repair strategy in counteracting risks. When calculating it, the time between downtime and the indicators of time to failure is taken into account.

KTGd can be a starting point for developing plans for optimizing maintenance and repair for specific KPIs. This coefficient is important for coordinating end-to-end business processes, as it helps to compare absolute indicators with dynamic ones, and planned ones with real ones.

What does a disparate analysis of all three types of CTG give?

KTG values ​​are important for companies that want to maintain the availability of assets not on paper, but on the shop floor. They are starting to move away from standardized scheduling methods and gaining flexibility in managing even during times of crisis.

Additional prospects are opened up by the use of IT solutions for real-time monitoring. After all, those who see the readiness of their production in dynamics can guarantee the timely execution of orders.