Rationalisation and Balancing (RaB)
Definition
Rationalisation and Balancing (RaB) involves packaging a list of maintenance tasks for an asset into a maintenance schedule which is optimised for work content and which contains a minimum of peaks and troughs over time.
This page provides a brief overview of Rationalisation and Balancing. For a much more detailed description, please open our RaB eBrochure.
The Problem
The maintenance requirements of any sizeable physical asset is likely to include a large number of maintenance tasks with a wide range of "natural" intervals. Determining how best to package these tasks into a sensible maintenance schedule can be a considerable challenge.
Rationalisation
In practice the task intervals for a list of maintenance tasks for an asset have to be modified to suit local conditions; this is called 'Rationalisation'. The number of possibilities for rationalising the task intervals can be significant and so this stage of maintenance task development is usually sub-optimal. If it is performed correctly, the life-cycle costs will be optimised; if it is not, the life-cycle costs can easily be higher by 10% or more.
Mutual Consultants' Role
We work with you to package your maintenance schedule and smooth the workload in order to minimise life cycle costs. The result is a more manageable, maintenance schedule that tells you both what must be done and when.
Balancing
After rationalisation, it is often necessary to 'smooth' the workload in order to avoid excessive peaks and troughs. This process is called 'Balancing' and the nature of the industry and the operating context will dictate the extent to which balancing is necessary. Using our unique software, we can quickly balance the workload by "offsetting" the point at which tasks are first performed (but leaving the task intervals unaltered).
Software
We have developed unique software which enables us to optimise maintenance tasks quickly by automatically "rationalising" the task intervals to produce the minimum number of man-hours over the asset life-cycle. The software includes tools to simplify workload "balancing" (smoothing).