Equipment Reliability -- Sustaining a Competitive Advantage One of the key elements to the improvement in the electrical utility industry during the past decade is equipment reliability.  Equipment Reliability is one of an integrated set of processes electric utilities employ for safe and reliable operation.  Other core processes include configuration control, work management, and materials and services.  Improved equipment reliability provides utilities with a sustained competitive advantage as indicated by the following performance indicators: Increased generation capacity factors Increased performance indicators Decline in unplanned outages Decline in planned outage duration Lower cost per generated kWh First Approach brings deep industry knowledge, world-class capabilities, innovation, and cutting-edge technology to our clients to help them sustain a competitive advantage.  Equipment failures are a main cause for productivity loss at many power plants, and transmission and distribution systems.  By addressing the high risk areas and enhancing key elements of maintenance programs our clients can achieve significantly enhanced equipment and system reliability with minimum costs.  Our supporting services include: Asset Management -- Significant equipment failure can shut down an operating generating facility for several months, seriously impacting the utility's financial performance.  1st Approach assists its clients in the implementation of an effective Asset Management program that proactively plans for unseen repairs and equipment aging based on data both inside the plant and throughout the industry. Condition Based Monitoring -- 1st Approach uses a unique data visualization approach to provide real-time metrics of key equipment and system characteristics.  This approach enables our philosophy of "Managing by Exception". Requirements-Based Asset Management Assessment -- 1st Approach uses a requirements-based approach for the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of Asset Management and Equipment Reliability programs.  This approach assists our clients in the development of a gap-analysis to determine an optimized implementation approach. Critical Component & Reliability Analysis -- Our comprehensive method for analyzing a components criticality determines what is in or out of our clients asset management and reliability programs. Maintenance Program Optimization -- 1st Approach examines the balance between the corrective and preventive maintenance programs and staff's expertise in equipment maintenance.  The results from this examination are integrated with the results rom the Critical Components & Reliability Analysis.  Improvements in maintenance practices are recommended for optimal effectiveness. Data Assessment & Analysis -- Our comprehensive methodology finds data anomalies, inconsistencies, missing and duplicate data, misspelled data, broken data rules, irreconcilable data, and much more.  These methods enable the delivery of a successful Equipment Reliability project by answering key questions such as: will existing data support equipment reliability concepts; are equipment reliability decisions founded on data that is of sufficient quality; does the data support equipment and system condition based performance indicators? Project Management & Control -- 1st Approach ensures project success by through the development of a successful project organization and facilitating a comprehensive control loop for your project.