The ''Maintenance Insanity'' Cure: Practical Solutions to Improve Maintenance Work. Roger D. Lee

FIGURE 1.2 Enforce schedule compliance—another insanity cure

      The maintenance manager stated: “The big success resulted from the reorganization with new roles to enhance communication. Operations now believes that they need maintenance to succeed or we all fail. We now fully utilize our resources before going outside for help.” His conclusion was that the yearlong effort was worth the reward:

      No matter what your present status may be, there is always room for improvement. Take the needed actions to address all areas of concern. To change, start by being discontented with where you are now and quit doing the same thing over and over.

      Next, we will give more food for thought to see if you recognize the need for change in the insanity situations shared and see how it might relate to your own situation.

CHATER 2

       Evaluate the Need for Intervention

      Still not sure that you need to change? Consider the following stories and see if they sound like anything that has ever happened at your site. There are a lot of maintenance insanity symptoms in these scenarios.

      First, we must be able to recognize the need for change. This example comes from a planning and scheduling implementation audit that was done by an experienced maintenance manager. He went with a couple of mechanics that were given the job to hang some boxes for operations. Evidently no planning was done since it was such an easy job. Once the mechanics found the boxes (45 minutes), they could not find anyone who knew where the boxes were to be installed. This job took over four hours to do what should have taken less than an hour. If the planner had been given the time to “add value” through some prework, he could have talked to the requestor, marked the location in the field (or on a digital picture), and supplied the boxes and information to the mechanics when the job was handed out so that they could have gone to the exact location with everything they needed to do the job. To some extent, these prethoughts and activities must be done for all execution forces. The planner or person scoping the job decides the value-adding information needed.

      Your P&S (planning and scheduling) processes must make it easier and more efficient for the operators to know what jobs to get ready and for the mechanics to have what they need (materials and information) to start and finish jobs in the minimum amount of time.

      If it is so easy to change, why do we not stop the insanity? It is because we are all change weary.

      Why we cannot change:

      The following story does a good job of explaining why changes are needed for these typical (but exaggerated) planning and scheduling processes. Consider using it in a team meeting with your crews to see how different it is from their routine days. Capture the similarities and differences to develop your improvement plan. Why should they improve planning and scheduling when the typical data being tracked by this site indicates that they are completing 70% to 90% of the scheduled jobs (but they do not schedule for 100% of the available manpower), plus they are able to add 10 to 20 jobs on top of those listed on the schedule? The answer is “Why settle for what you are now getting when we could get so much more!” Our measures must show the true performance for all the resources. Just looking at a few pieces does not show your entire puzzle picture.

      Here is an insanity test for you. You should not be able to read this text, but I bet you can (if you look and do not think about it):

       The Pweor of the Hmuan Mnid

      Aoccdrnig to rsaerceh at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe.

      Amzanig, huh?

      You already have most of the answers locked inside you. Let this book help you see them clearly.

      Based on a national survey, wrench time in an 8-hour day is 4.8 hours for best-inclass performers and 2.2 hours for the national average. Let me take you on a typical day in the life of mechanic Bill. We must focus on the human side as shown in Figure 2.1, because all reliability starts right here . . . when the skilled mechanic installs, rebuilds, or repairs any piece of equipment.