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Tip 8 - Advanced tools will not provide full benefit unless the foundational processes are soundMany organisations devote significant resources to implement the latest “three-letter acronym” tools before they are ready, and are surprised when they do not achieve the planned results. Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) cannot yield anticipated cost savings because the organisation cannot implement the new tasks. Predictive maintenance (PdM) finds equipment problems in the early stage of degradation, but the workforce is consumed with “fix it now” emergent work and cannot make repairs before failure occurs. Autonomous maintenance, one of the pillars of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), falls flat because the maintenance workforce is overloaded and cannot respond to the problems that operators detect. A “Just in Time” (JIT) parts ordering process cannot function until a there is low demand for emergency parts and a good inventory control system is in place. Much like building a house, the foundation must be completed before the walls go up or the building will not stand. Foundational elements for Maintenance include a complete set of “master data” and sound processes to control the work that gets done. Master data includes a complete list of all plant equipment that is ranked according to criticality and a thorough spare parts catalogue of both stocked and non-stock spare parts. Work control processes include a well-conceived Work Order system (including effective Planning and Scheduling), a sound process for conducting basic maintenance (including a good lubrication program), and a fully functional inventory control system. These foundational elements will allow you to get control of both the work that has to be done and the condition of the equipment, enabling the advanced concepts to achieve their potential. Tip provided by Bruce Hawkins
You have to have procedures for performing maintenanceWhen one considers the wide variety of equipment encountered in the average industrial facility and the variety of tasks performed on that equipment, it is surprising to realise that, in most organisations, few procedures exist for maintenance and repair. Most organisations depend on “skill of the craft”, memory, or (even worse) an “educated guess” to determine the technical details required, such as clearances, torque values, tolerances, belt tensions, and the like. Studies have shown that a high percentage of “infant mortality” failures occur in the absence of detailed written procedures. Equipment does not perform to standard or experiences a failure soon after startup. These can only be due to mistakes and errors made during maintenance or repair. These errors are not the craftsperson’s fault; failing to provide the necessary resources to enable quality work to be done is the fault of management. Even the most talented craftsperson does not have an infallible memory! Ideally, maintenance procedures should be developed by the Planning function. In creating these procedures, it is natural to want to avoid inserting too much detail to avoid “insulting” the craftsperson’s intelligence. Rest assured that it is not an insult to make technical specification details available, nor is it an insult to spell out the proper steps to complete the job in the most expeditious fashion. In fact, the vast majority of crafts people would appreciate having the information available to do the job right the first time! Tip provided by Bruce Hawkins Proper planning of maintenance work will provide you with free labour.Statistical work sampling studies show that the BEST productivity (hands-on-tools-time) you can expect without planning is around 35%. Most reactive organisations are lower than that. The remaining 65% of the craftsperson’s day is spent trying to find parts, looking for technical information, talking to Operations to see what’s wrong with the equipment, and other non-productive activities. If you have 20 people in your crew, they are doing the equivalent work of 7 people at 100% productivity. In essence, you’re paying for 13 people who aren’t adding value to your organisation. Some productivity loss is unavoidable; planning the work in advance will eliminate the avoidable delays. With good planning, you can expect a workforce productivity of 55% or better. That’s a 57% improvement in the amount of work your crew can do in a day. Do the math; your 20-person workforce can now do the work of 11 people at 100% productivity. You just added the equivalent of four people to your workforce - at no additional cost! In addition, your workforce is less frustrated because they have what they need to do a quality job. (Palmer, Richard D., 1999, Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York, pages 2.31 - 2.32.) Planning also provides other benefits. Since the planning function is so integrated into the work management process, it provides the “glue” that holds it together and ensures that it functions properly. Planners also provide a “quality assurance” function to make sure that the data in your system is accurate and meaningful. Considering these benefits, a good planner can be one of the most valuable members of your organisation! Tip provided by Management Resources Group, Inc. The Weakest Link by Bill Brinkley AP / IA / ASQ What is the weakest, most unreliable, least dependable part of any system or process? If you said the human that is operating it or maintaining it, you would be correct. Human Factors is a buzz word in industry these days, but it has been around in the airline world for a long while now. We have special classes on Human Factors – how to recognize them, and how to defend against them. It is something that we take quite seriously, and perhaps you should also. There are twelve recognized human factors. The “Dirty Dozen” as they are commonly called. They are:
Each of the “dirty dozen” impacts some part of your operation to some degree or another every single day. Sometimes they are easily recognised and dealt with, but most times they are not. People in general tend to ignore or under estimate their own shortcomings or, worse yet, recognize their shortcomings and continue on anyway. Preventive and predictive maintenance is the most important work you can do.There is a big difference between “urgent” and “important”. PM/PdM activities are not urgent, but they are important. If you defer these tasks because some urgent activity is allowed to take precedence, the consequence will be a failure at some point in the future. The future failure will very likely cause more PM/PdM to be deferred, resulting in another failure, etc., etc. It’s a vicious cycle that has no end! Keeping up with scheduled proactive activities is the only way to break the cycle. You must make PM/PdM work a high priority and make sure the tasks get done according to the schedule. A good way to do this is to populate the weekly work schedule with some portion of low priority work on equipment that does not require a process outage to execute. This is the work you can defer if an emergency occurs. If your schedule contains only high priority work, you will be forced to make a decision to defer something of equal importance. And, if you defer PM/PdM work, your organisation will quickly come to the conclusion that you’re not serious about the proactive maintenance environment. Another way to show the importance of PM/PdM is to audit the program periodically. Since the routine can get somewhat boring, there is a tendency for crafts people to be “less than diligent” in their execution. However, if the manager spot-checks after a PM has been done and provides prompt feedback if something is amiss, the expectations become very clear. Also, an equipment failure is a great time to audit the PM/PdM activity. One of the first questions that should be asked after an equipment failure is “Why didn’t our PM/PdM program prevent this?” Tip provided by Management Resources Group, Inc. The work order system is your best friend.Your work order system, and the entire work management process, is your most valuable management tool. It allows you to manage the daily work load, manage your resources, and create asset history as well as providing the information that you need to identify opportunities for improvement. However, it’s not much good to you if you don’t have the discipline to follow it. If it’s only partially used, you won’t be able to trust the data collected. Your process should be mapped in a process flow diagram. This will allow you to show everyone how it’s supposed to work, which is the key to ensuring it’s followed with the right level of discipline. No maintenance work should be allowed to be done without a work order to cover the labour and material costs. By the same token, no inventoried storeroom materials or outside purchased items should be purchased without a work order to capture the costs. Just as the Production Manager needs a production management system to track production, and the Finance Manager needs an accounting system to track money, the Maintenance Manager needs a work order system to track maintenance. And, like those other critical systems, it should be audited periodically as well. This serves two purposes – it illustrates the value you put on it (which makes it more likely to be followed), and identifies any potential flaws that will require a modification to it’s design. Tip provided by Management Resources Group, Inc. Development of an Asset Management ProgramThe development of any type of asset management program requires a number of specific components. These components include:
The development of such programs pay for themselves in many ways including profit improvement, improved throughput, reduced inventory (both product and spares) and other competitive advantages. Tip provided by Howard W Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP |
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