Providing a safe and productive work environment (e.g. MTTR and MTBF data often can be generated from the organization's computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Expected Useful Life, or EUL, is the estimated lifespan of a given asset. Mean Time Between Failures, or MTBF is defined as the predicted elapsed time between inherent failures of a system during operation. Mean Time to Repair, or MTTR, is defined as the average time required to repair a failed component or device. Common maintenance operations metrics that involve reliability such as Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), Mean Time between Failures (MTBF), and Expected Useful Life are essential inference points that must be considered in the classification of an asset being critical as well as what a "work around plan" needs to provide to render reduced risk or reduced duration of failure. Types of critical equipment that may often exist in buildings include material egress, safety systems, environmental controls, hazardous substance handling, energy management, cooling, utility supplies, security systems, etc. Needless to say, this is easier said than done. Facility management must also effectively evaluate and constantly monitor the capability of the facility assets. In order for facility maintenance to minimize risk and be essentially invisible to the business, facility management must anticipate needs of not only the people but the business enterprise as well. It is imperative that these critical assets and subsystems be properly identified and put into perspective for the ultimate purpose of operational (and oftentimes, safety) risk mitigation. While a facility is often composed of many individual assets, there are frequently a critical few that, if not operational, would preclude the business from achieving its objectives. The environment for this 'value-creating" activity is almost always critical. The capital investment of a building or facility is to support one or multiple business purposes. Accordingly, provisions for any critical equipment must be accounted for in order to support the sustainability of the business entity. Violate environmental standards of the business organization.Ĭritical equipment often impacts safety, regulatory compliance, cost, or operational throughput.Significantly impair the ability to safely meet business objectives.DescriptionĬritical equipment is any piece of equipment or machinery that could do any of the following: As with all business practices, managing critical equipment requires an auditable process to ensure that operational risk reduction is actively pursued in addition to all other pertinent business objectives. The failure of these critical assets is the very risk that must be mitigated if not eliminated. In the realm of facility management, there are assets that are absolutely mission critical to the business especially as they pertain to building operations.