The ''Maintenance Insanity'' Cure: Practical Solutions to Improve Maintenance Work. Roger D. Lee
an understanding of M&R cost accounting and help with the creation of a functional location and cost center structure.
b. Establish a work order system (paper, database, or another computer system) including priority definitions to be shared and enforced with all work order writers. All work must have a work order. True emergency work orders can be captured after the fact.
c. Initiate day-ahead work planning with tomorrow’s schedule issued to all site personnel by the end of today.
d. Have the maintenance planner receive all site work requests for maintenance and capital items. This coordination of resources ensures optimum utilization of the site and contractor personnel. It also creates a management process for accountability of who is on the site for safety and invoice verification.
e. Share “maintenance awareness for operators” training to help establish their understanding of maintenance as a site issue (the true team effort required for equipment reliability and smooth operations). Basic maintenance knowledge enhances the operator’s operational abilities and stops equipment damage through better understanding of mechanical, electrical, and instrument concepts.
f. Form cross-functional and crew teams to get their involvement through improvement ideas and projects that they drive. Initiate the use of a simple problem-solving model. Capture savings from their efforts and reinforce the desired results. Make a big deal out of initial successes.
g. Identify needed training for mechanics and the opportunities for multiskilling to leverage resources. Determine the options for delivery of this training.
4. Coordinate the interactions of all support personnel (indirect materials, reliability technologies, accounting, contractors, etc.). Focus on upgrading the existing PM/predictive programs through both the use of evidence-based inspections and the use of criticality assessment data and asset management index workshops to determine the optimum level of monitoring required. Evaluate third-party services and vendor agreements to ensure value for services received.
5. Document the existing spare part and material inventory and then flowchart the process being used to obtain these items. Establish a spare part setup process with justification for each new item. Leverage the use of other location surplus where it is value adding.
6. Establish networking among all the other location maintenance managers and the implementation team with monthly conference call meetings, annual face-to-face celebrate and planning functions (best practices and future milestones), and ongoing e-mail problem and solution sharing.
7. Implement a technical support project process to address identified needs. Offer pilot programs for vibration, lubrication, thermography, mechanical integrity, automation, instrumentation calibration practices, and other technologies. Possible test equipment that a site may have or want to buy to support their reliability efforts include:
a. Instrument calibrators. Checking pressures, $3,000; and input-output of electronic signals, $3,000 to $5,000
b. Electrical equipment. Megger for checking motors, $500; clamp-on ammeter, $100; and digital multimeter, $200
c. Predictive tools. Infrared temperature gun, $300; velocity/acceleration monitoring device, $1,400; and thickness measurement device, $3,000
d. Various equipment alignment devices
8. A helpful rule of thumb for estimating site maintenance staffing levels is 1 mechanic per every $5 million in asset replacement value. We have also used a 50-50 split of labor and material to take present M&R spend and show the number of mechanics being supported. Take the total spend and multiply by 0.5 to get labor cost and then divide by $60,000 (annual cost per mechanic) to get the full-time equivalents supported. Another guideline that applies to capital spends is 1.5% of ARV for business support, 0.75% of ARV for site infrastructure, and 0.3 to 0.5% of ARV for capital repairs and capital spares.
9. Monthly M&R reports are a good way for the people in maintenance to communicate to their management and to the rest of the plant personnel about their activities and achievements to add value. The reports also make a very good networking tool. A suggested format would include
a. Safety. Give the “score” (the number of days that maintenance has gone without an injury). Share new activities and their success or failure. Include “right and wrong” digital pictures for any near miss or injury.
b. Unplanned maintenance activities. Briefly discuss failures and solutions to share learnings and to get input from others on unresolved problems.
c. Predictive/preventive maintenance. Share the status of PM activities (percentage complete of planned PM tasks) and resolution of action items from inspections. Discuss new predictive applications and needs.
d. Work order planning and scheduling. Give the status (percentage of work completed as scheduled, etc.) and modifications from learnings gained. Include permitting practices and other enhancements that improve the work flow. Also address causes for delays.
e. Cost reductions and improvements. Highlight completed crew team and other improvement projects and relationship development successes.
f. Monthly and YTD performance. Summarize measure results and highlight new best-ever records. Give brief cost explanations of overruns and underruns and activities with accounting.
g. M&R milestone status. Give the monthly score (percentage complete) for your site plan and discuss highlights.
h. Miscellaneous items. Relate items of interest to keep others informed of personnel changes, customer feedback, programs, etc.
Establish Planning and Scheduling Priorities for Maintenance
The best way to disrupt the repeat insanity cycle is to set true priorities and stick to them when performing all requested work:
Step 1: Include customer input. This is critical customer input that is required on all notifications.