The ''Maintenance Insanity'' Cure: Practical Solutions to Improve Maintenance Work. Roger D. Lee
for future growth.
We collected basic plant information to define the problems needing to be resolved. We learned that:
An improvement program was developed to achieve the following objectives for this site:
A two-man team completed a site assessment including interviews with all functions to build our presentation to obtain management commitment. Plant-wide communications were given to share the plan and strategy, including metrics to be tracked. An update schedule was established to monitor success during implementation.
During the first few weeks, we established a Site Leadership Team with a subteam for daily operations and maintenance interactions. New roles and responsibilities were shared for all functions and levels. New work processes that focused on planning and scheduling were rolled out. Expert resources were brought in to identify and resolve reliability problems. A major effort was focused on operator and mechanic skill enhancement. The initial Malaysia apprenticeship program training had been too general in nature for developing the required skills needed. It was a governmental program to train local farmers and fishermen to become industrial operators and mechanics. Subject-matter experts were brought in from similar operating plants in other locations to deliver on-the-job and classroom materials. Troubleshooting and decision making were critical skills due to the nature of the product being produced.
One immediate change was made to impact accountability and to provide consequences. Prior to this intervention, the operators had no duties associated with plant cleanout of pluggage once the plastic set up in the lines. The operators were given required training to allow them to serve as helpers with the cleanout crews. It was now more important to them to keep the plant running.
To share progress and sustain our results, an annual milestone plan was created and shared with all employees so they could see the impact of their actions. Our training program emphasized troubleshooting and problem-solving techniques with hands-on demonstrations, preventive task skills, and strategies for building confidence for decision making. Operational and maintenance process management and condition monitoring programs were put in place.
Within the first year, technical support resolved the reliability issues with the steam boiler, electrical power supply, and extruder/cutters pluggage. We added a multiskilled mechanic to each operating shift to address emergencies and evaluate identified requests to determine appropriate course of action (faster decisions and actions taken). At the start of the new processes, the plant achieved its first run of 58 days with a scheduled outage for boiler improvements and a second run of 105 days with scheduled shutdown due to high inventory. The site’s maintenance and repair (M&R) costs were reduced by 49.93% after a full year of the new processes compared with the first two years’ costs. This change resulted in a savings of $1.27 million realized in annual M&R spend. Key changes that produced these results included a planning process that required a work order to be written for all requests, key positions (planner, maintenance and safety coordinators for operations, and stores attendant) were selected from site employees, day-ahead planning evolved into a weekly scheduling process, predictive reliability technologies were implemented and incorporated into operator rounds with feedback to maintenance, and OJT (on-the-job training) built employee capabilities and confidence.
The plant’s “maintenance insanity” cure is shown by the site manager’s quote, “Prior to R&M intervention, we were not able to even get done today what needed doing. How could we possibly have time to improve? We were very skeptical of the changes they wanted to make. Now looking back after 4 years, and seeing the real results we’ve achieved, we are all believers.”
The changes that he is referencing included
This example is for a union resin plant that had been in operations since 1949 and changed owners several times until our client bought it in 2001. We put a team together for operations and maintenance to improve run-time and reliability issues. Figure 1.1 shows the typical layout of chemical batch plant operations.
Problem