Reducing Maintenance Costs in a Tough Economic Climate

The Mainstream Community presents the Reliability Hero Podcast hosted by Andrew Daddo, he converses with maintenance and reliability practitioners, just like you. This episode features Christer Idhammar, the founder of IDCON INC in Raleigh, North Carolina. You may know Christer as the Maintenance Guru or the Godfather of Reliability. When the words “maintenance and reliability” are mentioned often the first name associated is going to be Christer Idhammar. This podcast will touch on his experiences throughout the years and the philosophy his consulting firm, IDCON INC, uses for all of their clients.

Maintenance management as an important part of corporate strategy and a profession did not always exist in the form we see it today. It is a concept that has evolved worldwide, especially within the last 50 years with even more glaring advancements happening during the last decade or so. What started as the sole responsibility of engineers and technicians has now grown to become a backbone of business operations as organizations realize the impact maintenance can have on their efficiency and bottom line.

The global climate crisis has brought the harmful practices of different industries into the spotlight, and one sector that’s received its fair share of scrutiny is mining. While the mining industry is essential for so many different aspects of modern life, it’s also responsible for some pretty significant environmental damage due to issues including mine waste. 

What you are doing vs. what you should be doing can often be different things. If you think that your efforts are only to increase uptime (or decrease downtime) then you are not seeing the entire picture. Yes, uptime and maintenance budgets are important, as are the needs of the Operations teams, but in the end, it’s the association your efforts have with the corporate goals that should be the driver.

In nearly all of the 250 or so equipment intensive plants and facilities I have visited, taught at, and worked in over the past 30 years, I have observed the relationships between the skills of employees and the reliability of the equipment. These observations may provide helpful insights for plant and facility managers who are troubled with unreliable equipment and high maintenance costs. Here are a few:

This is the 2nd installment of an 8-step process to enable you on your journey to Operational Excellence. Once you have identified areas for improvement you must develop and implement your improvement plan.

In the course of my five-year doctoral research project to develop a leadership model for Operational Excellence, a pivotal insight emerged - 'Every Interaction is an Opportunity.' While the significance in the research of common leadership behaviors and traits such as communication, respect, humility, and authenticity were expected and well represented, exploiting ‘interaction as opportunity’ was new. In this context, I delve into the advantages of embracing this opportunity and how its application has empowered me to drive business success.