When I moved into the civilian world of continuous process manufacturing in the USA, I saw no reason to change my methods or philosophy when it came to ensuring we had a mission like focus to ensuring our plant and machinery had maximum availability, to run at maximum speed and to produce first quality product ‘right first time every time.  Thus, for me, mission focus turned into the three elements of business focus described in Overall Equipment Efficiency OEE, i.e. availability, quality and speed.

I have received untold phone calls over the past several years, from friends in the industry, explaining that their mill is/was undergoing a ‘re-engineering’ of maintenance. Re-engineering in the broadest sense, including panic payroll reduction. The general theme of that re-engineering effort seems to be elimination of the maintenance department per se. Perhaps, however, behind this change, there is a larger, broader expectation. 

To create a reliable manufacturing culture, you must agree to work in a close partnership between operations and maintenance, including stores and engineering. This should start with a common manufacturing mission that clearly expresses this. Then you need to design and implement all work management processes with the agreed upon mission statement as a guideline.

Battle of the Work Types: Key Maintenance Terms Robert Brieck, DPSI Terminology used by maintenance departments produce a wealth of information when performing an Internet search.