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Achieving World Class Fleet Management
Part 2
This article is the second in a series focused on understanding maintenance in order to improve its performance and reduce its costs. Read the first part here. |
Inventory Control
The purpose of this practice area is to refine the maintenance stores and procurement process to streamline parts appropriation. It is focused on having the right parts in the right place at the right time. Improving this can reduce the Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) which is the measure of the total time to perform a repair including all delays. Parts acquisition can affect this number significantly.
The traditional process for this is called MRO for Maintenance, Repair and Operations inventory. It is a defined science and not an art to run the stores.
This may involve studying the existing flow of requested parts and improving the process to reduce wasted effort and inactivity. This would involve standardized stores and inventory practices.
By improving the turn rate (the turn over of parts), considerable savings can be realized by focusing on purging obsolete parts and closer monitoring of min-max levels and reorder points to optimize the numbers we stock. In essence, we want to do more with less. Another key strategy is to encourage vendor stocking or consignments or even the use of an integrated supplier to manage the parts process.
Minimizing poor use of the company’s working assets can be accomplished through improved turnover, cost control, efficient purchasing practices, judicious inventory counts through cycle counting, recorded issuances against actual equipment, secured access, and staffed coverage - as well as minimizing unofficial stocking or "squirreling" of parts can go a long way to ensure best use of spares and materials. We also want to look at the most efficient and economic means to buy parts by applying the statistical formula, Economic Order Quantity (EOQ).
Computerized Maintenance Management Systems
Successful maintenance practices depend a great deal on a robust information system. This involves having a CMMS program that is capable, well supported, and fairly easy to use.
Modules should be consistent with industry standards and cover: equipment data management, work-order control, preventive maintenance, inventory control, documentation control, system security, ease of use, reports, user configuration and metrics.
One of the common issues we find is that so little resources are applied to its implementation that the CMMS gets off to a slow and inefficient start. Another setback to overcome is the proper training of personnel, which should include basic computer literacy training for those who have little to no experience in computer usage.
Taking the time up front to develop failure codes and action codes, as well as developing common conventions as to what things will be called and how parts will be numbered, can improve the quality of the CMMS.
One of the most essential elements of a CMMS is its reporting abilities, which provide the tools to analyze and make decisions on facts and data, rather than on opinions and assumptions.
Preventive Maintenance
PM is often defined as "those timed or meter-based service activities used to extend the life of equipment and identify potential problems through inspection and early detection."
PM may include work performed on selected equipment through service contracts, inspections, cleaning activities, testing, lubrication efforts, and scheduled shutdown service. The most significant activity to occur in PM is inspection, which should lead to early detection and, therefore, correction. Equipment manufacturers are a good source for standardized tasks, but take the time to analyze the history on particular equipment before over or underperforming PM on that equipment.
PM is a major component in moving from reactive to proactive through early detection and early correction. We must develop an organizational discipline to perform it and the skills and knowledge to perform it well.
Predictive Maintenance
A sound description of PDM is "the application of technologies and early detection processes to monitor and detect changes in condition to allow more precise intervention."
PDM may include vibration analysis, shock pulse methods, ultrasonics, thermographic analysis, oil analysis, electrical surge comparisons, motor circuit analysis, coolant analysis, wear particle analysis, and performance trending. This information provides early warnings of changes in condition to allow corrective actions to be made prior to failure.
Planning & Scheduling
Planning is devising a process for doing, making, or arranging maintenance work. It involves preparing job plans and other resources to enable the craftsperson to perform the work quicker and more efficiently. It often deals with the "what" and "how.”
Scheduling is creating a schedule for when the work is to be performed. Where planning dealt with the "what" and "how,” scheduling deals with the "when" and "who."
The lack of organized processes and standardized procedures can significantly restrict a maintenance operation from meeting its objectives of servicing the needs of the organization.
The majority of maintenance work can be planned and, for the most part, should be. Increasing productivity or value-added work of maintenance personnel depends a great deal on properly planned activities. Proper planning and scheduling is the single most important tool to improve labor efficiency and productivity.
Work Flow
The work order is an integral part of an effective maintenance operation. It serves to:
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Identify work
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Request work
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Prioritize work
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Schedule work
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Activate work
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Track work
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Analyze work
A work order (whether a paper or electronic document) allows for the control and monitoring of work activities. One of its most significant purposes is to analyze work that has been performed in order to identify costs, losses, and trending of problems. As important as a work order is in the earlier steps, it is the ability to analyze and make improvements from the trends we see that carries the biggest punch.
Financial Control
This practice area deals with the fiscal control procedures of the maintenance organization. It may include budget control, contractor cost monitoring, and overall labor and material cost control.
It may also include monitoring and affecting decisions on asset repair/replacement. Another key component is having the proper measures in place to provide information before it’s too late to make changes.
Operational Involvement
It is becoming more and more rare to find organizations that have not broadened their level of operator involvement in basic care type activities. The logic includes having operators assume such basic responsibilities as routine cleaning, lubrication tasks, adjusting/tightening, inspections, and minor repair/replacement. We call these frontline care activities CLAIR.
This may be in the form of Total Productive Maintenance or some other structured process to encourage ownership, involvement, and improved equipment reliability.
Staffing & Development
To support the "improved" maintenance organization, jobs will have to be redefined to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Traditional views of restrictive job requirements and duties will have to be replaced with more flexibility and higher levels of skills. Multiskilling is the future, while narrow and restrictive jobs are a thing of the past.
People will perform successfully if they are capable, have well-defined job roles, know what is expected of them, have the skills and knowledge as well as the tools and resources to perform, and receive feedback and rewards for good performance. We find that many organizations underspend on maintenance mechanic and technician training. We often assume they have all the skills and knowledge they need. However, this is often not the case because techniques and methods continue to change just like the technology of the equipment we ask them to service.
Training and skill development is a key component because it enables people to meet the expectations they face in their changing jobs. A minimum of one week per year per person should be invested in training.
Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is best described as constantly striving for better ways to do things. This often involves comparing one's operation to others to find those better ways. This is referred to as benchmarking. It also involves auditing and monitoring one's activities to reduce the possibility of slippage and not following standards. Reliability's greatest enemy is variation. Finding a consistent process to follow, but continuing to look for ways to improve the process, is one of the ways good companies become great companies.
Summary
Poor planning, improperly trained staff, unclear goals and objectives, lack of leadership, poor historical records, and inefficient manning can cause work to take longer, cost more, and produce poor results.
World Class organizations develop an improvement process to focus effort on strengthening these systems and processes. A solid maintenance practice supports a strong fleet that is geared toward proactive activities involving the total organization. Improving those practices requires patience, strong management commitment and dedication, as well as the willingness to make it happen through well-conceived plans and actions.
Measuring these practices is not only to assess how well they perform, but also to discover what to improve.
Article prepared by:
Preston Ingalls, President
TBR Strategies LLC
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