Strategy and maintenance

Every piece of the system must fit together to support the corporate goals

To understand where maintenance fits into the corporate strategy is the key to improving the overall maintenance function. The goal of an effective maintenance department must harmonize with the corporate goal. If a maintenance department does not have a goal or objectives, now is the best time to make them.

The goal of most corporations is to make money. The processing plant breaks this goal down into three objectives. Increase throughput while decreasing operating expense and decreasing inventory. These are the fundamental objectives for a processing plant, including the maintenance department.

To increase throughput in a continuous process, the maintenance department must strive to increase overall
equipment effectiveness, providing more availability for production. They must improve the process and the equipment, and reduce material re-processing. Operating expense in maintenance includes, labor, parts, equipment, tools, and supplies. By using effective maintenance techniques and developing the maintenance department into a committed team, dedicated toward making prudent changes and meeting objectives, these expenses will decline.

Efforts to reduce inventory cost help achieve the corporate goal. Raw material inventory, work in process inventory, and finished product inventory is more of a concern to production and engineering, yet support from the maintenance department aids in the reduction of inventory.

The area in which the maintenance department can be most effective in this objective is with the spare parts inventory. Operations that have a reactive maintenance function must carry excess spare parts and pay high prices on rush order parts. They handle obsolete parts and, worst of all, rob some machines to fix others creating more work. Improvement in this area increases corporate cash flow allowing greater flexibility.

With the goal and objectives laid out, how does this process of improving begin? By understanding the current performance of the maintenance department! What is the throughput rate?

What is the overall equipment effectiveness? How much availability is there? How high is the current operating expense of maintenance? What is the dollar amount of spare parts inventory? It is important to know these performance measures and to track them graphically.

The challenge of improving, like a fire, needs fuel. Charting success and obtaining benchmarks are the drive, the motivation that keeps the process alive. Make sure everyone involved in the team understands the challenge. Display performance measures for all to see. Offer rewards, incentives, and recognize the achievements of the team and individuals. Be prepared for real-time record breakers. This is motivation and managing change and it works.

Gathering this information is only the first step of the information process, keeping account of the department's effectiveness, requires information on equipment and maintenance activity. In the book, The Art of War, Sun Tzu states, "Quantities derive from measurement, figures from quantities, comparisons from figures, and victory from comparisons." The meaning of this quotation, used in a business context, states that summarized, accurate information leads to successful decisions.

To increase throughput in a continuous process, the maintenance department must strive to increase overall equipment effectiveness providing more availability for production.

The use of a CMMS increases throughput by confirming areas with high levels of downtime and trouble. It automatically manages the preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance program. It keeps work orders organized and the team focused on priority jobs. The CMMS finds critical spare parts much faster during emergency repairs reducing down time. Stock reports are available for critical spare parts tracking.

The CMMS reduces operating expense by providing scheduling and planning aids that bring efficiency to the work force. Its functions help conform to government regulations. Preventive maintenance work orders, managed by the CMMS, ensure jobs do not become lost or forgotten, lowering cost associated with unnecessary equipment failure. CMMS reports, show valuable data that helps to improve parts, tools, and labor expense. Decisions made from these reports help find better components through failure analysis, summarize labor expense to understand where work hours are being consumed, and track true equipment cost.

The CMMS reduces inventory by tracking warehouse activities and revealing obsolete parts. Reports offer performance ratings of suppliers, based on past history. Parts usage and inventory volume reports support managers in decision making. These are major benefits of a computerized maintenance management system.

Objectives
The objectives of an effective predictive and preventive maintenance program establishes control of maintenance activities and spare parts inventory. The predictive and preventive maintenance program increases overall equipment effectiveness. Fewer breakdowns, fewer quality infringements, and less material reprocessing help increase throughput. Operating expenses diminish by increasing component and equipment life and reducing overtime cost associated with breakdowns.

Decreasing the number of breakdowns allows more time for planning and increases the efficiency of the craftsworkers. In a controlled maintenance environment, lower spare parts inventory levels provide adequate insurance for the continuity of operations. Dependable equipment reduces work in process inventory. Large amounts of emergency spares are no longer necessary as parts usage becomes predictable.

Executing predictive and preventive maintenance tasks creates a proactive--planning--mode in maintenance. Planning increases throughput by optimizing planned downtime with effective work schedules. This means effective job layouts and design, the right amount of predictive and preventive maintenance, valid priorities, having the right parts at the right time, and the best tools for the job. Operating expense drops by controlling labor cost with planned work and by fixing defective equipment to avoid
further damages.

Repairs on one machine will not require robbing parts from another machine. High quality maintenance jobs eliminate the need to go back and re-fix the same problem. Inventory costs drop as spare parts become planned parts, ordered for a job and due to arrive at the mill just before the job's scheduled date.

Continuous improvement objectives involve learning and experiencing change. Plant throughput increases by improving maintenance activities through training, re-training, cross training, analyzing, adjusting, and evaluating maintenance activity. Continuous improvements brings increased skills to the job, effectiveness to the planning, predictive maintenance, preventive maintenance and CMMS programs. New tools may decrease the repair time of a job. The possibilities of increasing throughput are endless.

Continuous improvements also decrease operating expense. Updating, evaluating and improving a strong safety program helps reduce operating
expense. Improving work quality of the craftsworkers increases their effectiveness, lowering labor cost. Inventory reduction through standardizing equipment or components is effective in reducing different spare parts required. Standardizing parts and equipment fuels operator and maintenance efficiencies. Establishing good supplier relationships decreases spare parts inventory.

When a company's goal is to make money, the plants' objectives will be to increase throughput, reduce operating expense, and reduce inventory. Maintenance activities that harmonize with these objectives bring success. Maintenance success involves the use of a good computerized maintenance management system, a strong preventive maintenance program, effective planning, and a team based, continuous improvement program. The challenge is not only exciting but rewarding. It is the general position of a maintenance department within the corporate strategy. It is a good start to a new job, and way of life at work. Its effects are felt from marketing and sales to accounting, purchasing to production, and even as far up as the stockholders. The first step is the hardest and that is simply to begin.