Achieving the Reasonable – Maintenance Process Excellence

If you buy into the hype, the organization you are proud to be a member of is way behind the performance curve. Your maintenance processes and practices are stuck back in the 1900’s and need to be completely thrown away. Unless you adopt the latest 4.0. 5.0, 5.5 Turbo+, etc. “industry current state,” you and your company will cease to exist in just a few short years. Being excited about getting new batteries for your flashlight is simply not going to cut it anymore. (They are rechargeable, right?) 

While this can be true for a few situations, most maintenance operations are running somewhat efficiently. Yes, they could benefit from just a few adjustments here and there to truly achieve a higher level of function. The key is to discover what these nuances are, take action to implement them, and then evaluate their effectiveness over time. 

Achieving realistic Maintenance 4.0.   

It is ok to look longingly at what folks are saying is the new or next best thing. Technology moves at a quick pace and occasionally comes up with good and useful things. The next X dot Y “version” of whatever will surely inform about what it is your organization “should” be looking into to continue to exist. 

In general, Maintenance 4.0 points to this list of actions and adoptions you must begin to implement: 

• Internet of Things 

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 

• Cloud computing 

• Sensors and wearables 

• Robotics and Automation 

• Reactive to Predictive methods 

Ready? Go! Times a wastin’! 

Each of these elements alone, if adopted, can have dramatic impact on an organization. Each has their own capabilities, benefits, and costs. Each continues to evolve to become more capable and, in some cases, deliver at a lower cost than in previous iterations. Some, and we have all seen this, will fade away into the marketing sunset. Each will require the development and use of new skills. 

Does an organization need to take on this entire list at once to be “practicing,” Maintenance 4.0? The obvious answer is ‘no.’ Do all these bullets apply to every organization? Again, the obvious answer is also ‘no’. Is your organization a failure and stuck back in history if one or more of these are not adopted? Well, that answer might be a ‘maybe’. 

Identify the low hanging fruit that only you can pull out of the organization. Sure, consultants can help in this area, but with some thought, a short list can be formed that you are sure will bring about change quickly. Some examples are how the team does failure reporting, identifies downtime cost, and the view on asset criticality to the operation. 

Realistic goals per organization vs. what is advertised as the “must do” 

The key word here is “goals.” Push everything aside and ask “what are the goals that the organization is working towards?” These are specific and drive the entire organization. Every action, process, task, and data point collected should be able to be related up and into these goals. If not, the continued performance of those things might need to be questioned. 

A good example of this is the typical annual maintenance budget. While it is a good idea to always come in +/- some percentage of the planned budget, does it really matter if you are 5% over for this year? What happens if you are 5% under? Unless you can implement something new that has a dramatic impact on the budget, is there value in spending the effort? If 10% is millions of dollars, then yes, that might be worthwhile… if those millions of dollars are significant in the bigger financial picture.  

Establishing a base “system” to build upon 

In the context of this discussion, let’s define a “system,” as the collection of policies, procedures, processes, hardware and software tools that are used to conduct maintenance. All these elements are in support of the actual maintenance being performed daily. If an element is not truly supporting the actual work, it needs to be questioned. 

An example is an out-of-date process. Documented or not, an antiquated work process is no longer serving the organization and can in fact present a danger to the workforce. Equipment has evolved, and the methods used to maintain it have changed. What used to be the nifty trick to keep something running from 20 years ago may now be disastrous. 

If you look across the totality of the pieces that make up the system… and compare them to the shiny object in the latest X dot Y industry state, you might see where something new could be of assistance. The “new tool” could be a solution to a nagging problem, but it might be better to look at it as a supportive aspect to the true solution to the problem. 

Spend the time and effort to review all the processes and software solutions to ensure that they are in full support of the people and the work at hand. You may find that with just a few changes here and there, dramatic changes to efficiency and effectiveness can occur. Bring in people from across the organization, especially those impacted by the work processes and ask them, “Is this working as efficiently as possible?” Their answers and the value of their input will shock you. 

Internal processes need to fit the goals of the organization 

Allow us to reiterate this point: If the daily work being performed via the documented processes is not in support of the goals of the organization, then what is its value? If the business process that is executed after a sale is inefficient yet required to communicate/capture the details of the sale, then the cost of the sale has increased in a hidden fashion. When margins are tight (or decreasing), the demand for cleaning processes increases. Huge percentages of margin can be eaten up by inefficient internal processes, at times making it not even worth selling the product or service in the first place! 

Given a good set of processes, the requirement of software and other solutions can be more clearly seen by not only the organization but by any vendors/consultants that might be engaged. Far too much time is spent up front sussing out software requirements and eventually implementing complicated and difficult to maintain solution configurations. If only we could start with a solid set of proven and truly followed business process documents. 

Establishing a solution road map with clear goals 

Now that you have a solid foundation to stand on, looking forward to the next level of solutions makes more sense. While it is reasonable to have a problem that has yet to be solved, and new tech looks like it could do just that, it is right to be a little suspicious. Rather, the new tech should appear to be a good fit to enhance or propel the current state in a measurable way. Evaluating the new tech in the light of current state and the potential impact of some magnitude is important. 

This exercise will form a roadmap for the organization when it comes to the adoption of technical solutions. While a specific tech will evolve over the next few years, the roadmap is pointing to implementing the idea/feature/function of the solution, not necessarily the specific brand or source of the solution. The roadmap will also be specific rather than stating something like, “Adopt AI for all maintenance procedures.” Rather, the roadmap would point to a marker such as, “Do a proof of concept to see how an AI assistant will enhance work order processing.” 

A roadmap can cover 3-5 years, but perhaps not much further out from there. However, the roadmap should slide as the years go by, illuminating the last year as it comes into view. This “annual” review of the roadmap also gives an opportunity to evaluate how effective the implementation of the items on the roadmap have been. 

Making it happen 

With all the stakeholders engaged, and an executive sponsor identified, you might consider bringing in some outside help. Having a “readiness assessment” performed can provide further insight into what might truly be impactful in your context. You may be surprised at the areas you are excelling in and those that could use some work.  

TRM has been assisting clients across industries to implement technological solutions to enhance the performance and reliability of not only business processes but equipment itself. TRM continues to be at the forefront of the technological solutions that are available, yet we also have practical experience and understanding to know where they do and do not fit. Download the E-book: Maximizing Equipment Productivity with APM Strategies and let TRM help you build a reasonable roadmap to the latest Maintenance X.0 that is not only achievable but also will have the desired impact on the organization… maintenance process excellence. 

Contact us at Total Resource Management or email us at askTRM@trmnet.com.