Enhancing Overall Equipment Effectiveness Through TPM

Asset and maintenance managers are key decision makers in companies, yet the previously used tools for deciding on the right asset and maintenance strategy are inadequate. Rather than changing the way decisions are made, it is advisable to upgrade the tools that are used to make those decisions. Developments in asset management and maintenance show that the data necessary for such prognoses already exists in most companies.

In my consulting and educating roles at Noria, I’m often asked what effective plant reliability management looks like. How does one recognize it when he or she sees it? While there are plenty of details, I’ve boiled it down to the following 12 dimensional elements.

Why us, why now? In years past, the engineer, manager or superintendent was responsible for improvement ideas. Maintenance people were "hands" hired to do what they were told. Today, organizations are lean and mean; we need the capabilities of all maintainers. The downsizing craze, however, has left everyone in a managerial role with too many tasks and too little time. There's no one left to cut costs!

Christer Idhammar is recognized as a maintenance guru across the world in the maintenance and reliability community. As the founder of IDCON INC and recipient of numerous awards and speaking invitations, he has established himself in his field through engaging and often hands on demonstrations. Christer sits down with Greg Mecomber to discuss his experiences over the years and his appreciation for the field.

The "breakthrough strategy" really works. Equipment becomes more reliable, costs go down, and behaviors change along the way. The key is focusing on results-the kind of results that will get people's attention on the plant floor as well as in the key decision makers' offices. Select the equipment that, if it ran better and was more reliable, would generate sizeable savings. But more importantly, choose equipment that would generate more throughput and revenue.

When you ask front line supervisors or team leaders if all people in their teams are performing to the same standards or if some are doing more work and achieving more results than others, you will often get the same answer. All over the world, the most common answer, after some analysis, verifies that about 30% of the people do 70% of the work.

There’s lots more than purchase price to consider when replacing pump parts. Can your operations afford the risk of simply buying on the cheap?