Maintenance 101

Here are some interesting thoughts about how to get your maintenance program to work better.
1) Preventative maintenance-if you wait for something to break you can expect longer downtimes, more expensive repairs and you can't maintain your equipment because you are too busy fixing your equipment.
2) Staffing-when it is time to cut, do you accept cuts in planners, schedulers or maintenance clerks as something you MUST do or do you fight for those people with reliability records and consequences for not doing it.
3) Planning-if you expect your equipment to run properly and continuously you have to plan for maintenance downtime so you can fix something before it breaks and when it is schedukled to be down.
4) Measure your success-"if you don't know where you are going any road will take you there" Whatever you want, equipment operating hours between breakdowns, total hours operating per time period, quarterly "up" time. Measure it.
5) Train your people- Does everyone know how to change that bearing on #2 feedwater pump? cross train and develop an apprenticeship program if you need to. Trained employees can be paid more because they are worth more. What happens when the 60 something mechanic retires and no-one knows what he knows?
6) Teamwork-encourage teamwork both for cross training and to develop crossover skills. A little rivalry can help everyone do the job better. Day shift, night shift, journeyman, apprentice, blue collar, white collar, if everone is hooked to the wagon you can onlu pull it one way.
7) Accountability- try to determine reasons for failure so you can learn for the next time. Was the bearing screaming and no one heard it? By determining root cause you find the process that failed and FIX it. Be it human or process it is about PROGRESS.