The Maintenance Storeroom: Keys to Efficient Maintenance Operation

There are several important silent assumptions of bearing reliability. However, before I address these assumptions, some even more basic assumptions and statements of fact must be established. While it might be a bit of a leap, I'm going to assume that the bearing is well-designed, well-manufactured, properly handled and stored, and finally, correctly selected for the intended application. With that said, we're now ready to talk about those silent assumptions that are in the maintenance function's domain.

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This article does not describe what you should measure, except perhaps in the form of examples to illustrate a point, but rather shares thoughts to consider about key principles to follow in developing your performance measures.Your performance measures must do the following.

Traditionally, the cost factor was the north star metric for facilities management companies (FMs). However, organizations began to recognize the significant business value and insight the efficient management of their facilities could represent for their operations, with technology as an enabler for this paradigm shift. 

The last of the ‘baby boomer’ generation are now retiring from the workplace. As they walk out of the door of your business for the last time, they are taking with them a lifetime's experience from old-school apprenticeship programmes to a lifetime of fault diagnosis and learning in the ‘university of life.’ That experience is what helped your business grow, become successful, and kept your customers happy and returning with repeat orders! So, what can be achieved in the time before valued employees retire for knowledge capture and knowledge transfer so your business can maintain momentum?

The perfect solution for the problems with present-day CMMS is a platform approach. A CMMS built using a platform approach works like a quiver full of business capabilities, integrated to form a valuable whole. It works as follows.

Decades of experience in manufacturing indicates that the reduction of operational risk and value generation is closely related through the culture on the work floor. Companies that succeed in creating a proactive risk culture can use their strength to focus on value generation, for example, in reliability or lean cultures.