Business improvement and maintenance optimisation in Nuclear Electric

Opportunities have been identified for improvements in nuclear power plant availability and reliability by optimising the current station maintenance processes. A number of priority initiatives have been identified, the implementation of which are essential to achieving these improvements. These include work optimisation, condition monitoring, defect management, the maintenance management system, team working, skills broadening, process management and outage management. The activities encompass plant and people issues which are equally important for a successful maintenance process. This paper briefly expands on the various business opportunities identified above and the process adopted to implement them. It deals in more detail with the initiative to optimise routine work and to introduce condition monitoring. This is being carried out using a system developed within the company which ensures the level of rigour applied to optimising the maintenance of a plant system is matched to the safety and commercial significance of that system. This minimises implementation cost whilst ensuring a high level of rigour is applied to safety related plant. Some of the issues involved in co-ordinating the implementation across six power stations while, at the same time, managing the expectations of Headquarters Engineering staff and the internal and external regulatory bodies, are also examined