Operations Maintenance Coordinator Role (OMC)

Soon after the BP offshore oil spill in April 2010, quite a bit of soul-searching was done by industry. This led to the first of two direct questions posed by the corporate maintenance reliability (CMR) team: Is reliability engineer a titled position in the exploration and production (E&P) side of other major petroleum producers/ refiners, or is this job function similarly buried in what a discipline engineer or subject matter expert “might” do on a part-time basis in his or her specific area of expertise?

We know that we need the support of operations in order to reach top-notch reliability in our plants. But does your operations manager know exactly what your expectations are? Have you identified, communicated and agreed upon exactly what you need operations to do? This exact question came up at a plant in Chile.

William Santos is the International Sales Manager at ABI Electronics - Manufacturer of Test, Repair & Reverse Engineering Equipment. He had the opportunity to share the mission of "Repair, Don't Waste" with Interesting Engineering. "Repair, Don't Waste" is a movement fighting to reduce e-waste and encourage the repair of industrial electronics. Santos explains why time is up for the break-and-replace mentality, and how the world needs to change to usher in a new era of sustainability in industry.

Leadership of Continuous Improvement (CI) must be a constantly evolving field to meet the cumulative challenges of Leadership 4.0, the retirement of the last of the baby boomer generation, the rise of hybrid working, the difficulties of recruitment into manufacturing, industries where facilities still rely on breakdown maintenance, increasingly competitive market sectors, reducing margins, etc. Though new leadership models are constantly coming in and out of fashion, when it comes to leadership of continuous improvement it is important to look behind the latest book or trend, deeply reflect on the true roots of CI Leadership and ask yourself "Am I prepared for the challenges of CI leadership in 2024 and beyond?" 

Never has there been a greater responsibility for every business to maximise its efforts to drive to net zero. Correct machine maintenance coupled with Lean processes (once just the domain of operations) is now proving to be a force multiplier across maintenance and engineering in the drive to net zero.