Managing change in a changing environment

Increasing efficiency and effectiveness often depends on the ability to manage change

In almost every sector, organizations are faced with the pressures of increasing global competition, technological advancement, an aging workforce, and mega-buyouts. The companies that have kept up both physically and emotionally with the corporate roller coaster have enjoyed continued profits and job security for employees. Those that stick longingly to what has worked well for them in the past will be swallowed mercilessly by the future. This is about changes that are necessary for your company to better meet the challenges of a rapidly changing corporate environment.

One of the most significant missing ingredients for many companies is a lack of focus. All too often production and maintenance workers, workers and management, or plant and head office management are working at cross purposes. In my experience, this is the most likely reason why a company's CMMS is ineffective.

Alignment of strategy at all levels in the organization is key. Once employees have embraced common goals and objectives, even a primitive CMMS yields significant results. As well, any re-engineering exercise will be more easily implemented. As the procedures are re-engineered, specifications for upgrading your CMMS can be drafted.

Maintenance strategy formulation
Before making any major organizational, system, or physical changes to the maintenance department, management must set priorities through strategic planning. This means establishing goals and objectives for the department in light of the overall strategy of operations and the company in general. Strategic planning for the maintenance department in isolation is dangerous since major product, equipment, and organizational changes made by the company may render the plans useless.

Vague goals and objectives such as Our goal is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the maintenance department are useless unless realistic numbers are attached. Indices or measures for each attribute must be established.

For each measure, the company must set achievable targets for improvement. For example, the target may be to reduce work order backlog from the current seven months to four weeks over the next year. Similarly, targets could be set to reduce spare parts inventory spread throughout the plant, or reduce downtime on problematic production lines, and so on.

There are three key objectives that should be stressed by any maintenance department: decreased downtime, increased worker utilization, and increased utilization of other resources. A CMMS can be used to measure progress on meeting these and other goals and objectives. Unfortunately, the majority of maintenance shops have no idea what their current levels of downtime and utilization are, and therefore have no basis on which to measure progress.

Take downtime for example. In some cases, the company may be tracking only production downtime, namely the total time a machine lays idle. This measure includes downtime caused by shortage of staff, shortage of material, breaks, se t-ups and changeovers, and so on. These causes are beyond the control of the maintenance department.

However, the maintenance department can keep track of machine downtime; more specifically, the downtime caused by mechanical failure. Machine downtime is a critical measure of maintenance department effectiveness. By tracking and analyzing problem, cause, and action codes on the CMMS, and conducting root cause analysis, maintenance can achieve targets to reduce
machine downtime.

The utilization of maintenance workers and other resources can be equally as important as the maintenance department's effectiveness. Targets must be set for continuous improvement in effectiveness and utilization until a satisfactory equilibrium is observed.

Utilization of other resources encompasses spare parts, maintenance equipment and facilities, and energy. A CMMS can track utilization, however, a strategy provides the perspective to determine if the numbers reported are good or bad.

Measures are baselined through a number of techniques. The majority are determined through simple observation or by summarizing historical records--for example., purchase orders, work orders.

Industrial engineering techniques such as work sampling and material flow charts can also be used. Work sampling is a very important tool for determining current worker utilization. Material flow charts highlight the amount of walking and material handling done by maintenance personnel. Some measures are metered electronically through computerized shop-floor data collection.

Once a strategy is accepted by everyone, from workers to top management, the next step is to ensure that facilities, personnel, supervision, training, systems, and so on, are sufficient to successfully carry out the strategy. As well, a budget is prepared.

Rather than simply taking last year's budget and adding a percentage for inflation, consideration must be given to the strategic plan. This may lead to reduced expenditure on, for example, inventory and repairs, and an increase in budget for staff and tools. This procedure prevents arbitrary cuts by management.

As the maintenance budget is expended, the CMMS can report on how well maintenance management is meeting specific strategic goals and objectives accurately. Before next year's budget is presented, targets can be updated based on actual performance as measured by the CMMS, as well as expectations for the upcoming year. Thus, at any time, top management has the perspective necessary to properly evaluate individual projects and the overall performance of the maintenance department.

Re-engineering the maintenance department
Re-engineering refers to the streamlining of key processes in an organization through elimination of non-value added activities. Your CMMS should reflect the more efficient and effective processes that result from re-engineering, in light of the maintenance strategy.

Re-engineering steps are usually conducted in multi-disciplinary teams involving stakeholders. Many companies prefer to use an outside facilitator to provide a proven methodology and
to present a fresh outlook on their processes. In general, the following steps are recommended in re-engineering maintenance operations:

Map existing processes--A flow diagram can be constructed showing the existing activities involved in key processes such as handling work requests, job planning, preventive maintenance, and procurement. There are flowcharting software packages available to assist in this rather
tedious exercise.

All too often production and maintenance workers, workers and management, or plant and head office management are working at cross purposes.

Document existing job profiles--In this step, job descriptions are written which identify activities relevant for each job title--for example., maintenance manager, senior mechanic, storeroom clerk, purchasing agent. Of primary importance is that the activities in the job profiles are the same activities as those identified in the process flow diagrams. Thus, the end result is a flow of activities by process, and a listing of these same activities by job title.

Determine volumes and frequencies--For each activity, appropriate volumes and frequencies are determined for each job title involved. For example, 23 mechanics, technicians, and supervisors may spend an average of ten percent of their time physically searching for parts for a total of 2.3 full-time equivalents--person-years.

Prioritize and categorize activities--Activities must be prioritized as to their importance in meeting strategic goals and objectives of the department. Additionally, activities can be classified as to the nature of the work performed, thereby giving a sense of value-added. Categories such as material handling, inspection, authorization and data input can used.

Identify opportunities for improvement--This step is clearly at the heart of the re-engineering process. The goal is to eliminate non-value added activities, simplify the work, and improve the effectiveness of the process. Teams must dig deep and determine the root cause of any problems identified--the true bottlenecks. Brainstorming sessions should be held with the maintenance unit(s) as well as sessions with other stakeholder areas.

Map proposed processes--Flow diagrams reflecting proposed changes are prepared in this step. When compared to existing flows, the proposed processes should have fewer handoffs, take less time, and have fewer activities. These and other measures can be used to quantify the difference between new and old processes.

Document proposed job profiles--Similarly, job profiles are prepared corresponding to the proposed processes. In some cases, jobs are combined or eliminated entirely as a result of streamlining activities, minimizing redundancies, and removing non-value added activities.

Determine CMMS changes required--Inevitably, changes to processes imply changes to the CMMS. For some companies, this might mean moving to a new CMMS, however, often the vendor can assist in making better use of the existing system.

Perform cost and benefit analysis--Any improvements to the process must be quantified in terms
of savings and costs. A word of advice--in order to better manage the expectations of top management, only promise the minimum required to get approval, just in case actual savings fall short of original estimates.

Develop an implementation plan--The final step before delivering on promises is to develop a detailed implementation plan. Start with a high-impact, low-cost pilot using the best
resources available.