Business Objectives

By business objectives, we mean the objectives that a company or business aims to achieve, and upon which maintenance is based.

 Configure Business Objectives

Business objectives are added at the highest system level. In the FMECA Systems window, this is a system   from the tree structure in the left hand panel. By right-clicking a system and selecting 'Business Objectives' in the context menu. Asset Strategy Optimization now opens the window in which you can configure business objectives.

Note: If you do not first select an FMECA System on the left side of the FMECA screen, you cannot activate this function!

Figure 1- Configuring business objectives - the left hand side of the window displays the business objectives. The right hand side of the window displays the classifications for each business objective

Add a Business Objective

To add a business objective, click the left most New button. This opens a window in which you can specify a business objective. This is a free-text field. It also allows you to check the 'Downtime in Risk Calculation' option. Selection of this option determines whether or not the values of each maintenance action of a part, component or system, which are obtained from the 'Maintenance Time' and 'Response Time' fields, are incorporated into the risk analysis. You can also set a default to determine which effect on the business objective is populated by default as the standard risk threshold in the FMECA Grid.

Figure 2 - Properties of a business objective

You can also open the window of Figure 2 by double-clicking a business objective in the window of Figure 1

Note: A maximum of 6 business objectives may be defined!

Effects per business objective

For each business objective, effects can be defined (see right-side of screen, figure 1). These are gradations that represent to which extent a business objective is (adversely) influenced by failure events. During further risk analysis, for each failure mode, you can designate which effect (gradation)  will be apparent, for each of the failure effects associated with the failure mode. Read more about assigning effects per business objective to failure modes, in the topic FMECA Grid.

Generate weighting factors

At the right upper part of screen "Configure Business Objectives" (see figure 1) you can find the button "Generate factor weights". Clicking this button opens a new screen, where a graphical means of support is provided for the setup of factor weights.

Please mind: this screen is not the actual risk matrix! The latter screen is further detailed in the topic Risk Matrix.

Figure 3. Flexmatrix (setting up factor weights)

Color in matrix

The screen provides a view for a currently selected business objective.  The numbers shown in the colored area in the matrix correspond with the risk number that is used in the risk calculation. For a given risk border, the factor weight (the number below the failure effect) is therefore in part deciding over the criticality of a failure effect (per factor classification). Setting up the desired factor weights over the various business objectives by means of entering numeric values, is not easily feasible for the end-user due to the complexity. To this end, the colored matrix was developed. By clicking the colored cells, the user can designate which cells (which are the cross-match of  failure effect and factor classification) are to become critical, and which not, for a given risk border. The risk border number was setup earlier in the parent screen ("Configuring business objectives") and does not change here. The screen verifies input and disallows invalid combinations; you can recognize this by the fact that consequent red rows cannot be longer than their predecessor. The regular product of this screen is a triangularly shaped area; the results of which are to be used further along. For each chosen configuration in the view, the factor weights will automatically be re-evaluated (after a mouse-click).

If you are satisfied with the results produced, is can be acknowledged on a per- business objective base, by choosing "Apply"; choosing button "OK" causes the screen to close and returns you to the parent screen.

Compare and match

Business objectives can be defined both for an FMECA system and, in general, for the FM-Library. When reusing elements from the FM-Library, business objectives can be copied as well. However, the business objectives used on both sides can differ. To check, before actually using an object from the FM-Library, how the business objectives may differ, you may use the button called Compare and match.  This will display the following screen, indicating how the business objectives on both sides relate.  Colors are used to show per category how close the match is:

Red: not a single value in the category matches with the other side, or the category itself does not match one on the other side.

Blue: at least one match with a category on the other side was found.

When selecting a category, the values for that category are shown in the panel below it. If a matching category is found on the other side, then that category is automatically selected and its values are shown, too.

The values shown in the lower panels can be of normal font or shown in bold. Normal means a matching value exists, while bold means the value has no match. Note in the example below that spelling must be exact for a match to be found (including matching capitals). E.g.: No effect is not equal to No Effect.

Figure 4: A comparison between the business objectives in the FM-Library is shown above.

In this screen, where matches can be easily be found. Selecting the value 'Environment' above in the FMECA Objectives panel, will make the corresponding (four) values appear in the panel below it. As 'Environment' also exists as a category in the FM-library, that category will automatically be selected, too, while its (three) values will be shown in the lower right panel. The value 'Calamity' exists in both value panels, so it is shown in normal font. The other three values on the lower left panels have no matching value in the lower right panel, so they are shown in bold ('No effect' is not equal to 'No Effect').

To reuse categories and/or values, select it on either side and use the arrow buttons to copy it to the other side.

Note:  You can only copy values between matching categories.