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During a recent conversation with Joe Barkai of IDC Manufacturing Insights, he mentioned that he’s often asked about improving MTTR and FTFR but rarely MTBF. (For those of you that have forgotten your maintenance acronyms: MTTR is mean-time-to-repair, FTFR is first-time-fix-rate and MTBF is mean-time-between-failure.)
MTTR is all about fixing stuff faster, which requires streamlining repair processes; FTFR seems like it’s about quality but is really more about accurate diagnosis, which means we're really talking about productivity again; However, MTBF is all about how long equipment continues to function properly.
What is the natural inclination of many service departments? To focus on MTTR---getting equipment back in service fast, with less concern for preventive maintenance and calibration. Part of the reason is that focusing on MTBF can have a negative impact on MTTR, but that can happen when any maintenance initiative gets too much emphasis.
To see our complete thoughts on this subject, read "Aligning MTBF" on the Uptime blog.
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