Excellent, consistent, and long-term leadership with well-defined and documented processes and the right people in the right positions are essential success factors for lasting results for any improvement initiative an organization undertakes, including improvements of Reliability and Maintenance performance.
As a leader you need to create an organization that will follow you to make your vision, or future organization, a reality. In my experience as a leader I have found it very important to develop and communicate your beliefs to your organization. These maintenance management strategy beliefs will then be guiding your organization on their journey towards your goals.
Maintenance Management StrategyBelief 1
Cost reduction does not generate improved reliability. Improved reliability results inlower costs.
Reliability performance is here measured as performance of Quality x Time x Speed, or Overall Production Efficiency (OPE).
To sustainably reduce cost, you need to focus on what drives cost, not cost alone. Improved production reliability drives down costs.
Cost reduction often leads to short-term gains and long-term losses. Just because you cut the number of employees does not mean that the work they do will vanish, and it certainly does not mean that reliability will improve. Even if your production lines are not sold out the biggest saving potential is increased production reliability because it shortens the time from raw material to finished product.
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Belief 2
People cannot be more productive than the system they work in allows them to be.
Even with good skills and good wills, people cannot be effective if they work in a reactive, unplanned and unscheduled system.
For example, training in skills can be wasted in a reactive system because people won’t get a chance to use their skills to execute work with precision.
Maintenance Management StrategyBelief 3
It is a leadership obligation to develop, communicate, and coach implementation of these processes.
One of the most important things you can do as a leader is to develop and document the holistic reliability and maintenance management system, the processes in that system and the elements in the processes, e.g. Overview of the holistic reliability and maintenance management system, the work management process within that system and the elements within the work management process such as how to set the right priorities on work requests and work orders.
When this is done you will have a very well-defined reliability and maintenance management strategy. You can use this documented strategy to drive implementation and to measure progress towards your vision.
Image courtesy coffeekai from Getty Images via Canva
Image courtesy Ton Photograph from Getty Images via Canva
Belief 4
It is more important to do the right things than to do things right.
To decide what the right things to do is leadership. To do things right is execution of these things.
When developing your reliability and maintenance management strategy you should only focus on the right things to do before you discuss how to do them. It is easier to reach acceptance on the right things to do, then discuss how to execute them.
As long as the right things to do are done it is less important how they are done. There are many ways organizations with different sizes, skill levels and cultures execute.
Maintenance Management StrategyBelief 5
The right people are an organization’smost vital asset.
Many statements declare, “People are our most valuable asset.” I do not agree with this statement. It should instead state, “The right people are our most valuable asset.” That is a statement I would agree with. Many improvement initiatives fail because the right people are not accountable and responsible for the task they are assigned to do. It does not mean that these people cannot be right in another position. It is a continuous process to develop the organization so that the right people have the right position.
This paper is based on the author’s work in reliability and maintenance positions onboard ships in engine rooms and mostly in process industries including food, pulp, paper, iron and steel, chemical, mining, auto car manufacturing, etc. in 49 countries. He discovered very early on that reliability and maintenance management is much more about managing and lead people than about technology.
Keep an eye out for Part 2 in April and Part 3 in May!
Christer Idhammar
Christer Idhammar started his career in operations and maintenance 1961. Shortly after, in 1985, he founded IDCON INC in Raleigh North Carolina, USA. IDCON INC is now a TRM company. Today he is a frequent key note and presenter at conferences around the world. Several hundred successful companies around the world have engaged Mr. Idhammar in their reliability improvement initiatives.
Awards:
He received the coveted EUROMAINTENANCE Incentive 2002 award during the biannual EUROMAINTENANCE 2002 conference in Helsinki in June 2002. Among 19 member European countries he was nominated and received the award from EFNMS – European Federation of National Maintenance Societies – for outstanding achievement and worldwide accomplishments in the field of reliability and maintenance.
In 2008 he received the Salvetti Foundation Best Speaker all categories award among 154 speakers at Euromaintenance 2008 in Brussels, Belgium
In 2013 he received the “Best presentation award” among 120 speakers at Reliability 2.0 conference in Las Vegas.
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.
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.
Unfettered expression and spiritual satisfaction? How does this relate to managing a maintenance department, especially one in the U.S. Postal Service? Open your mind. Take a page from the Zen Buddhist monks who preach: When you are quiet and listen, you become aware of sounds not normally heard. USPS maintenance leaders are listening and beginning to understand that maintenance success doesn't come through closed minds and closed doors.
Unfettered expression and spiritual satisfaction? How does this relate to managing a maintenance department, especially one in the U.S. Postal Service? Open your mind. Take a page from the Zen Buddhist monks who preach: When you are quiet and listen, you become aware of sounds not normally heard. USPS maintenance leaders are listening and beginning to understand that maintenance success doesn't come through closed minds and closed doors.
It is not uncommon that many reliability and maintenance improvement initiatives fail to deliver expected results. Why is it so? Some of the most common causes I have observed include:
It is not uncommon that many reliability and maintenance improvement initiatives fail to deliver expected results. Why is it so? Some of the most common causes I have observed include:
Why do improvement efforts fail or perhaps not sustain the gains? There are many reasons, but those most often stated are “lack of commitment” and not “following the process”. But why is there lack of commitment, and why aren’t processes followed? Here are a few of the reasons that I’ve seen:
Why do improvement efforts fail or perhaps not sustain the gains? There are many reasons, but those most often stated are “lack of commitment” and not “following the process”. But why is there lack of commitment, and why aren’t processes followed? Here are a few of the reasons that I’ve seen:
When a piece of production machinery broke down at the Whirlpool plant in Findlay, Ohio, several years back, it was accepted practice for the machine operator to call maintenance and then sit back and wait for the problem to be fixed. Critical information and knowledge was not shared between the operator and maintenance technician. Like many companies, these workers were stuck in traditional roles - operators run the machines, maintenance fixes the machines, and the two do not cross. As a result, productivity opportunities were missed.
When a piece of production machinery broke down at the Whirlpool plant in Findlay, Ohio, several years back, it was accepted practice for the machine operator to call maintenance and then sit back and wait for the problem to be fixed. Critical information and knowledge was not shared between the operator and maintenance technician. Like many companies, these workers were stuck in traditional roles - operators run the machines, maintenance fixes the machines, and the two do not cross. As a result, productivity opportunities were missed.
Many managers are unaware that best-in-class companies routinely design-out maintenance at the inception of a project. That, clearly, is the first key to highest equipment reliability and plant profitability. Whenever maintenance events occur as time goes on, the real industry leaders see every one of these events as an opportunity to upgrade. Indeed, upgrading is the second key, and upgrading is the job of highly trained, well-organized, knowledgeable reliability professionals.
Many managers are unaware that best-in-class companies routinely design-out maintenance at the inception of a project. That, clearly, is the first key to highest equipment reliability and plant profitability. Whenever maintenance events occur as time goes on, the real industry leaders see every one of these events as an opportunity to upgrade. Indeed, upgrading is the second key, and upgrading is the job of highly trained, well-organized, knowledgeable reliability professionals.
The true translation — might it be proper to say a new and improved translation? — is being used today by Cervecería Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, one of the largest brewers of beer in Latin America. Known throughout this company as Mantenimiento Alto Desempeño (MAD), or translated as High-Performance Maintenance, the concept of TPM is alive and well at the company's six plants in Mexico. Perhaps the best example is at CCM's brewery in Tecate, located a short drive from the U.S.-Mexico border on the Baja California peninsula.
The true translation — might it be proper to say a new and improved translation? — is being used today by Cervecería Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, one of the largest brewers of beer in Latin America. Known throughout this company as Mantenimiento Alto Desempeño (MAD), or translated as High-Performance Maintenance, the concept of TPM is alive and well at the company's six plants in Mexico. Perhaps the best example is at CCM's brewery in Tecate, located a short drive from the U.S.-Mexico border on the Baja California peninsula.
