Ben Franklin once said, “…in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
If Ben had worked in maintenance, he could have expanded on that statement and included “equipment failure.”
Anyone involved with reliability can attest to the fact that even the best-laid maintenance plans get tossed aside at some point to address unexpected repairs and breakdowns. That’s ok and expected because unexpected equipment failure and the reactive maintenance to repair it is going to happen on occasion…period. Anyone who tells you that they can completely prevent unexpected repairs and breakdowns is not being truthful.
The fact of the matter is, reactive maintenance is not the villain when it’s part of a well-balanced reliability strategy. It’s when things evolve into a vicious cycle of chronic, unplanned maintenance that disrupts day-to-day operations and results in expensive downtime that it becomes concerning and warrants closer analysis.
But how does one get into this “Whack-a-Mole” maintenance strategy in the first place?
After reviewing the individual situations of several companies that have come to IVC for help with getting their “maintenance house” back in order, we discovered a few commonalities among them:
No uniform maintenance strategy
Maintaining a uniform maintenance strategy as part of an overall culture of reliability doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does need to be consistent. When you feel more like a firefighter, with one equipment issue after another ruling your daily schedule, it’s an indication that your maintenance strategy has gone off the rails. You aren’t in control anymore and yet you can be left with a good feeling for “saving the day” and will often be rewarded for being the hero, which tends to continue the firefighting maintenance mentality. Your machines are scheduling their own maintenance, when they feel like it, which is usually at the worst possible time.
To get things back in your control, you need a paradigm shift. One that moves away from a reactionary approach to machine problems and focuses on thinking proactively and on what needs to happen to bring those assets back to reliability for the long term.
To simplify it, think about it this way…when it comes to the health and safety of your employees (especially now, during this time of COVID), you likely have very detailed guidelines and strict protocols in place, monitoring and updating them as needed to ensure continued compliance with OSHA etc.
Why not approach the “health” and safety of your machine assets with the same tenacity?
No clearly defined KPIs
How can you possibly know what needs to be improved and how to go about it if you don’t know what constitutes an “ideal” situation? Establishing clear baseline KPIs is critical to measuring your maintenance plan’s effectiveness and establishing a path to achieving your ideal scenario.
No clear system for aggregating, organizing, and sharing data
When it comes to reliability programs, data is king, and frankly, the more, the better. However, it needs to be solid data collected and analyzed correctly, or it ceases to be reliable and is thereby useless. Investing in technology, such as CMMS software (computerized maintenance management system) can help organizations digitally plan, track, measure, and optimize everything maintenance-oriented.
However, buyer beware. All too often, we see companies thinking that simply cranking out more data will be the magic solution to increasing productivity and decreasing costs. They invest enormous amounts of money into technology without first asking themselves, “are we even ready and able to handle all of this information in the first place” and “do we know what questions we hope to answer”? (This second question relates to the KPIs mentioned above.)
That’s why it’s crucial to make sure that the person responsible for interpreting your data is sufficiently experienced, skilled, and trained to do so, “person” being the keyword. As advanced as computers have become, people are still the best and most efficient resource to make timely and accurate judgments and cultivate sound knowledge from data.
Breaking the reactive maintenance cycle doesn’t happen overnight.
Breaking the cycle might seem overwhelming if not downright impossible when you’re in the midst of red-hot reactive maintenance repairs.
We understand.
But remember…what is the best way to eat an elephant? One small “bite” at a time. Start small by perhaps identifying an impactful process you can put into action today and then measure the improvements that result down the road. Seeing the positive effects of these small, manageable changes will only motivate the process to continue and justify your initial efforts.
Need more guidance? We can help! Contact us today.