Maintenance Management Plan for Drinking Water and Wastewater Systems in First Nations Communities

Guide and Template

For information regarding reproduction rights, please contact Public Works and Government Services Canada at: 613-996-6886 or at: droitdauteur.copyright@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca.

1-800-567-9604
TTY only 1-866-553-0554

QS-6337-000-EE-A1
Catalogue: R3-205/2014E-PDF
ISBN: 978-1-100-23123-5

© Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, 2014

Foreword

The goal of this guide is to provide First Nations communities with guidance to develop the maintenance management plans that are required by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada's (AANDC) Protocols for their drinking water and wastewater systems. Each section of this document is accompanied by templates that First Nations can use to develop their own community-specific maintenance plans. These templates are not rigid or one-size-fits-all mandatory forms to fill out – they should be seen as generic tools that can be modified and improved to meet specific needs of the community.

As a starting point, this guide was developed based on available literature on maintenance management planning for water and wastewater systems. Additional efforts were invested to produce a user friendly and informative document that fits the context of First Nations communities and their typically small systems. AANDC's regional engineers and technicians shared their experience from the field, which was invaluable in producing a guide that is practical, straightforward to apply, and accompanied by templates that will hopefully address many maintenance management gaps identified in the past.

1. Introduction

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada's (AANDC) Water and Wastewater Policy (Water and Wastewater Policy and Level of Service Standards) requires that on-reserve water and wastewater systems meet a series of design and operational standards and good management practices. Among those management practices is the requirement for First Nations to develop a Maintenance Management Plan (MMP) for each of their systems. The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on the development of MMPs, and to propose a series of templates that First Nations can readily use to create their own community-based plans.

The development and implementation of an MMP contributes to reduce overall system management risks by improving the effectiveness of preventative maintenance activities, by minimizing service disruptions, and by extending asset life.

This guide explains, in a simple and logical manner, the basic elements that should be considered in the preparation of an MMP. This guide applies to both water and wastewater systems ─ in fact, First Nations sometimes plan the maintenance of their drinking water and wastewater systems using a single maintenance schedule.

Important notes

This Guide does not cover operations aspects of your system, such as carrying out inspections, reading meters, calibrating process units, water quality monitoring and testing, operating valves, backwashing filters, operating pumps, etc. This Guide focuses on the "maintenance" part of "operation and maintenance" only.

This Guide is not a technical reference on maintenance tasks; it won't tell you what specific maintenance tasks should be performed, how, or when. For example, it won't tell you which oil to use in a diesel engine, or how frequently you have to flush the distribution network of your system. Rather, this Guide is about ensuring that maintenance tasks get done. This guide assumes that:

• As a system operator, you are qualified to operate and maintain your system;
• You have access to a Circuit Rider, a Tribal Council technical expert, or other technical support as needed;
• You have a detailed operation and maintenance (O&M) manual and the appropriate manufacturer's manuals, drawings and other documents for your system and its components.

An MMP is not a set of new or detailed technical procedures for performing maintenance tasks in a better way. An MMP is a means of getting organized so that necessary maintenance activities (already described in detail in an O&M manual and asset manufacturer's manuals) are scheduled and are performed at the right time and in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

2. Why do you need a Maintenance Management Plan?

You need an MMP to identify and describe maintenance tasks, develop maintenance schedules, outline resource requirements (time/human resources, consumable materials, tools, and equipment including health and safety (H&S) equipment and rental equipment), and to prepare associated budgets.

The main objective of an MMP is to prevent unplanned corrective maintenance ─ it is typically far less expensive and far more effective to regularly spend time and money to carry out preventative maintenance activities, rather than to wait until system components (or assets, pieces of equipment) deteriorate and break down, causing service disruptions and higher repair costs. The greatest reliability and dependability of system components are experienced only when a well-planned and organized MMP is implemented.

The benefits of carrying out an MMP include:

• Increased reliability of system components
• Increased life expectancy
• Minimized service interruptions and downtime
• Increased system performance
• Minimized major repairs
• Detection and prevention of potential system failures
• Better use of system operators' time through planning and scheduling
• Reduced and controlled maintenance costs
• Accurate records of maintenance work performed
• Better financial information data and capital improvement planning

3. What should your Maintenance Management Plan include?

An MMP includes a number of interconnected components. Your MMP should contain at least the following four basic components:

1. Asset Inventory and Asset Record Cards: A list of maintenance tasks to be performed, their frequency, and a list of replacement parts for each system component that needs to be maintained.
2. Task Description Cards: A summary description of each maintenance task to be performed, by whom, necessary tools, consumable materials and equipment including H&S equipment and rental equipment, and other information.
3. Maintenance Schedule and Checklist forming an annual maintenance plan for all assets of a system, with resources and budget information.
4. Maintenance Tracking Tool to support operators and direct contracted parties according to planned activities and to track maintenance work done.

In addition to the above, MMPs often include an inventory system for spare parts and consumable materials, which are typically stored in a separate storage area for that purpose. System operators must have easy and rapid access to the required spare parts, supplies, tools, and equipment necessary to perform their work. Maintenance work should not have to wait for some parts to be delivered.

The following sections of this guide provide more information on each MMP component.

4. Asset Inventory and Asset Record Cards

5. Task Description Cards

Once maintenance tasks and other key information for an asset have been listed on an Asset Record Card, the most important or complex preventative maintenance procedures should be described in more detail on a separate Task Description Card for that asset. Task Description Cards will serve as guidelines in planning and executing the work. Simple routine tasks that are performed everyday will probably not need a Task Description Card.

A Task Description Card typically includes the following information:

• Task or maintenance procedure name
• Asset or system component name it refers to
• Frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, annually, etc.)
• Step-by-step-procedure (and/or reference to a detailed manual)
• Safety precautions
• Materials required (parts, supplies, etc.)
• Tools or special equipment required
• Skill level or qualifications required (who needs to do it)
• Average or estimated time to complete the task (performance target)

For situations where there are a large number of tasks for an asset, it will be worth developing a sequential numbering system for Task Description Cards. A Task Description Card template is provided in Appendix 2.

Level of detail ─ A manufacturer's manual typically contains detailed specifications and descriptions of maintenance procedures that need to be performed, at what frequency, and the tools, spare parts, consumable materials and equipment you need to do the work. It also provides the qualifications or skills required, as well as recommendations for disassembling and assembling the asset or parts of it. Your objective when developing Task Description Cards for your MMP is not to repeat this information in a new location. Rather, your goal should be to include just enough details so that the person doing the work:

• can quickly refer to important steps, notices or advice without the need to constantly refer to the manufacturer's manual (especially while working in the field);
• can use the Task Description Card as a checklist to avoid skipping or missing steps;
• can refer to site-specific considerations or particularities (e.g., wet or dusty conditions, modified or upgraded components) not included in the manual; and
• conforms to the manufacturer's recommendations to avoid cancellation of any warranties.

In-house or contracted? ─ Depending on the skills required, you need to determine who or what type of personnel will do the work. A maintenance task that must be done every day and requires no special skills or tools should be done by the system operator(s). Major tasks that are conducted only annually (e.g., motor bearing repacking) may need to be contracted out. The use of third party contractors is an option to consider when the tasks or repairs are complex, or when it would be too expensive to develop the capacity of system operators to do the work.

6. Maintenance Schedule and Checklist

This is the most important component of your MMP. All preventative maintenance tasks for all assets or system components of your system need to be distributed throughout the year on a single schedule according to their frequency (i.e., daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually). Preventative maintenance must be formally scheduled in coordination with operating schedules and not done "as time allows." Maintenance work is ideally scheduled for specific time periods so there is a uniform workload over the calendar year.

Scheduling can be a complex task. It is a matter of ensuring that all the work gets done with the correct frequency, within available resources, and with a smooth workload. A precise maintenance work schedule should detail which work should happen, when and where, such as a checklist of daily, monthly, semi-annual and annual tasks. This is where the information compiled on Asset Record Cards (Section 4), Task Description Cards (Section 5), and also information recorded through the Maintenance Tracking Tool (see Section 7) from previous years becomes very handy.

The following suggests one way of doing it:

• Step 1: List all preventative maintenance tasks for all assets and summarize them by frequency group.
• Step 2: Estimate the time required to perform each preventative maintenance task. Such an estimate can be developed from Task Description Cards ─ it is simply a matter of adding the time requirements from individual or sub tasks.
• Step 3: Total the maintenance time requirements and compare this total to the available man-hours in the operation/maintenance work week.
• Step 4: Establish a maintenance schedule for a typical work week. Daily or weekly schedules provide a listing and checklist of maintenance tasks to be accomplished and initialed by system operators. In a similar fashion, establish a maintenance schedule for monthly, semi-annual and annual maintenance activities.

Maintenance schedule templates are provided in Appendix 3 for various frequencies. A maintenance schedule is meant to gather and show in a single place all the maintenance work to be done over the year on all assets and components of a water or wastewater system. Therefore the header of each schedule should mention the system it refers to. Consequently, when filling out the schedule, it is important that each entry in the list of tasks specifies the asset it refers to. For example, a weekly schedule should show all the maintenance work to be done and on which assets over the week. Use tick marks (√) in the calendar cells as the work gets done.

Update your schedules

Planning and scheduling preventative maintenance is an ongoing function. Planning must take contingencies into account and scheduling must be flexible enough to handle maintenance emergencies. Your maintenance schedules must be regularly adjusted to reflect unexpected corrective maintenance and any other work that takes time away from routine maintenance activities.

Because of unexpected work and emergencies, there is often a backlog of maintenance work to be done. A backlog develops when scheduled work isn't accomplished. When this happens, you should review your work backlog and assign the highest priority to the more critical tasks on a revised maintenance schedule.

7. Maintenance Tracking Tool

A Maintenance Tracking Tool (also often called a work order system) is a key component of an MMP because it directs system operators and/or contracted maintenance personnel according to the Maintenance Schedule (Section 6). It also helps tracking maintenance work done on individual system components to inform short and long term maintenance planning.

All maintenance work should be documented. Using a Maintenance Tracking Tool is one way to establish a permanent record of maintenance work performed. The Tool can be used to request work and record information for both preventative maintenance (PM) and corrective maintenance (CM) tasks. For preventative maintenance, the origin of the work is the Maintenance Schedule. For corrective maintenance, a work request is usually triggered by an observed problem (e.g., during an inspection) or equipment breakdown.

A good Maintenance Tracking Tool contains three sections:

8. Inventory of Spare Parts and Supplies

A storage area for spare parts, equipment, special tools and supplies should be established for your system. This will ensure that these items are available when you need them for maintenance work and repairs. The storage area may be a storage cabinet, a designated area within the treatment plant, or a small room with a log book in which to record items in the inventory, parts description, cost, date, supplier, and the minimum and maximum quantities to be maintained.

Inventory requirements for your MMP can be generated from recommended spare parts lists, which are typically provided with manufacturers' manuals. Inventory requirements can also be generated from experience, and based on the size of the system.

Budgeting for the spare parts and supplies inventory involves finding a balance between too much and too little inventory. Too much is costly overhead, but too little can result in delays and lengthy system interruptions. The shelf-life/expiry date of the parts and materials in stock must also be considered when ordering new ones and maintaining the inventory. Keeping good maintenance history records will greatly help you make inventory decisions.

9. Ongoing maintenance planning and budgeting

Developing an MMP is often not an easy process, especially the first year, where time and effort need to be invested to get organized, estimate the time needed for maintenance tasks, establish a budget without much cost information, and establish a maintenance schedule that meshes well with the operations work flow. However, it is worth the investment, and if you track and record maintenance activities for your system as described in this Guide, it will be much easier to update and fine-tune your MMP in future years.

A good MMP helps ensure that your system gets the most value from each asset and also helps in planning for adequate human and financial resources. It is also useful for reporting on maintenance work done and asset condition. This section explains how to get the most out of your MMP.

Ongoing maintenance planning ─ as you use your Maintenance Schedule as a checklist of work done and fill out your Maintenance Tracking Tool, this information can help provide answers to the following maintenance-related questions: Was overtime required? Is overhead cost for this type of work justified?  Should this work be contracted? Maintenance tracking records will help you update time standards on your Task Description Cards and will help you make adjustments to your annual Maintenance Schedule to make it more efficient.

Ongoing budgeting ─ Completed Maintenance Tracking Tool sheets, as they accumulate, form a useful body of data for analyzing equipment performance and cost history. Once a full tabulation of maintenance costs (labour, consumable materials, etc.) has been made for each task/asset, these costs can be added up to form an annual maintenance cost budget for your system.

Record keeping and accountability ─ another important function of the Maintenance Tracking Tool (Section 7) is the establishment of a reliable proof of maintenance work done or accountability record for justifying decisions, expenditures, and recommendations. In fact, maintenance records are often the only sound basis for water or wastewater system operators to trigger manufacturers' warranty mechanisms, plan for system rehabilitations, capital improvements, or justify budgetary changes for expanding needs.

10. References

• A Practical Guide to Operations and Maintenance, INAC
• Asset Management: A Best Practices Guide, Office of Water, USEPA, (2008)
• Asset Management: A Handbook for Small Water Systems, Office of Water, USEPA, (2003)
• Best Practices Manual for Small Drinking Water Systems, Manitoba Water Stewardship, Office of Drinking Water (2007)
• Guidance Manual for Preparing Public Water Supply System O&M Plans, Drinking Water Permitting and Engineering Program, Georgia Environmental Protection Division, (2000)
• Guidelines for Maintenance Management in Water and Sanitation Utilities in Developing Countries, Office of Health, U.S Agency for International Development, (1989)
• Maintenance Management for Water Utilities, Third Edition, James K. Jordan, American Water Works Association, (2010)
• Maintenance Management Manual, Technical Services and Contracts, PWGSC, (1985)
• Maintenance Management Systems, Real Property Services, PWGSC, (2000)
• Maintenance Management Systems for Municipal Wastewater Facilities, Office of Water, USEPA, (1973)
• Preventive Maintenance Card File for Small Public Water Systems Using Groundwater, Office of Water, USEPA, (2004)
• Simplified Maintenance Management System, DIAND Technical Services, INAC (1990)

Appendices