Essentials to Evergreening Your Reliability Program

What does evergreening mean?

The term evergreening is used to describe the progression of renewing or updating and signifies an ongoing process to make something long lasting or permanent. Whether we are talking about fixed or non-fixed equipment, all Data-Driven Reliability programs rely very heavily on the inputs from documents, people, and systems—not to mention the amount of time and resources invested in data collection and organization during implementation. Evergreening is crucial to the longevity and success of a reliability program.

Why is evergreening important?

When first implementing a reliability program, a facility typically has several goals in mind, such as ensuring asset availability, compliance, safety, and reducing unplanned downtime. But what happens when there is no Management of Change (MOC) process in place? All the efforts from a reliability implementation become stagnant without the help of an evergreening process, and a program is only as good as the data that supports it. Depending on the type of program, the specifics of the elements below may change but the core purpose of each component remains critical:

1. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

SOPs should be written prior to the original implementation and should organize program elements to help workers carry out routine operations. Common components found in SOPs are:

2. Working Procedures

Working Procedures can sometimes be combined with the SOPs, but the general purpose is step-by-step instructions on how to physically complete the task (e.g., what buttons to push).

3. Management of Change (MOC) Process

The MOC process is a set of repeatable, documented steps for requesting, logging, assessing, reviewing, and implementing change requests. We recognize that most facilities have a version of this process, but often reliability programs are not appropriately represented. While not all MOCs require reliability steps, our experience has shown us that all MOCs should go through a review by reliability personnel as over 50% require some sort of reliability analysis or change. Although the people or specific step may change, every MOC process should contain the components below:

4. Training

There are many risks to evergreening and one of the biggest is the human element. To reduce risk associated with turnover, reorganization, and memory, it is important to have well documented training that covers all steps of the evergreening process. SOPs and working procedures are helpful in this process but should not be the only aid used to train new team members.

5. Software

Whether you are implementing a Risk-Based Inspection (RBI), Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), or another reliability program, having computer software or other databases to organize data is pivotal. Just as the selection process of your Information Data Management System (IDMS) and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) are important, so is the upkeep and maintenance of these systems since your program is only as strong as the data supporting it.

6. Quality Management Plan

A Quality Management Plan documents the necessary information required to effectively manage project quality includes the project quality standards, Quality Control (QC) procedures, criteria and areas of application, personnel qualifications, authorities, and roles. This document outlines how to set up gate checks for new personnel or tasks as well as who is qualified to perform QC for others.

The Future of Evergreening

Traditionally, projects have relied heavily on the human factor of evergreening, which can be error prone and time consuming. Knowing not only what data to collect, but also how often and when is a critical factor in a successful reliability program. Through implementing the four phases of Data-Driven Reliability (Data Collection, Data Organization, Intelligence, and Strategic Decisions) your program will be set up for evergreening success by putting the right processes in place from the beginning.  Learn more about Data-Driven Reliability.