Excerpts from my second book

How to setup an Industrial maintenance team that works





Introduction:

In any industrial environment the primary goal of every department is to keep product moving in the direction of the customer. Yeah, we all know that, don’t we? It is repeated often in meetings and it is a driving factor in any decision made by anyone involved in the process. The more involved a person is in the decision making process, the more that person is aware of the need for production. Maintenance departments are indirect in the impact they have on the process flow – at least in the eyes of the direct production and planning groups. The maintenance manager is subject to the needs of the managers of the more direct departments. He has to make his decisions and manage his resources while maintaining a balance between defense of his department resources and response to other departments’ demands.
This is the view I have developed over nearly thirty years working in industrial maintenance. I have never felt the urge to become a manager so I spent all this time carrying a tool pouch and trying to keep things working. I have seen the many mistakes that contribute to maintenance department inefficiency. I have seen a few things that work well. My maintenance experience ranges from patching concrete floors and changing oil in forklifts all the way to programming robots. There’s not much I haven’t seen. I’m not an expert on any one subject but I know something about more different subjects than most people. I believe my insight into industrial maintenance management can improve American industry’s competitiveness in the world economy. It is one of the ways we can once again demonstrate our leadership in the progress of humanity.
I’m not going to focus on any one industry or technology level, although I may use specific examples. I am not going to pound on the same old ideas that every maintenance technician always complains about. I am going to recommend an overall concept that addresses the common failures I have witnessed. I have no idea how to make the production departments and bean counters accept these ideas. But, if a manager can put the concept in place and work it long enough for it to mature, the results could be spectacular.

Goals

The short term (daily) goals of the maintenance supervisor are: to keep his boss off his back; not allow things to happen he cannot explain and; don’t give anyone a reason or a means to cause him trouble. I hope to give him some tools to help him with these goals. Unfortunately, the first-level supervisor has no real power to implement changes in department operation beyond his own little part of the world. The people with the power to implement changes need to be convinced the changes are viable and valuable. Again, I don’t have the persuasive skills needed. I believe these ideas are mostly self-evident once they are understood. If a person is too closed-minded to see and understand, he or she is beyond my reach. Good luck dealing with this person.

The goals I hope to achieve with my concepts are:

• To eliminate excess equipment downtime.
• To keep maintenance personnel relatively happy.
• To make the maintenance group flexible and responsive to the company’s needs.
• To make the maintenance group an accepted part of company decisions.
• To make the maintenance group a valuable resource for the company – not just an expensive overhead item.
• To reduce the workload on maintenance personnel and allow time for training.


....more to come