July - AMMJ

A Guide To Increased Productivity Of The
Maintenance Department
David Berger david@wmc.on.ca (Canada)
(First Published in M&E Feb 2011)
The role of leadership is to provide a
strategic vision, with clear expectations
for achieving it. The following steps
describe a programmatic approach
to bridging the higher level strategic
planning process, with the grass-roots
motivation and performance evaluation
of individuals in light of the vision:
Set performance targets for the
department
The first step is for Maintenance to partner
with Operations and go through the strategic
planning process, setting goals and objectives
for the long term. Then, establish measures or
indices that will reflect the level of performance
regarding each goal and objective. The current
value of each measure is then determined.
Targets must be set which exhibit a graduated
improvement over the long term. Take care to
obtain ideas and commitment from all levels,
from shopfloor to management, in Maintenance
and Operations. Performance will be judged
based on how aggressive the targets are, and
how well the targets are met.
Prepare action plan to meet targets
To prevent targets from becoming simply
numbers pulled out of the air, action items are
created in light of strategic goals and objectives.
The action plan describes how targets will be
met. For example, if one target for this year
is to reduce downtime by 2%, action items
include setting up a more comprehensive PM
program, initiating a training program for key
equipment operators, and so on.
Determine tasks, skills, and occupations
required to implement the action plan
The action plan may change the quantity and
type of maintenance work that is required,
and thus demand different skill sets. As well,
new skills may be required to maintain new
or modified equipment. Therefore, it may be
beneficial to take an inventory of all the tasks
that are currently done and will be done by the
maintenance department. Then, classify each
task as to skills required to perform the task,
and the level of difficulty. Finally regroup the
tasks into logical jobs and occupations. This
exercise should be done jointly by workers and
management, to achieve a buy-in at all levels.
Establish quality & performance standards
For each task defined above, quality standards
must be set. The subjective nature of responses
to questions such as ‘How clean is clean?’ can
make this step difficult, but certainly possible.
Where applicable, time standards should then
be established.
Measure performance using your CMMS
Once tasks are defined and standards established, a CMMS can
be used to help track how well individuals, groups of individuals,
and the whole department are meeting those standards.
FINDING AND QUANTIFYING PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT
OPPORTUNITIES
Many managers have asked me over the years for a simple checklist
to use when looking for productivity improvement opportunities or
when preparing a cost/benefit analysis. The following are some
sample measures that may be useful in identifying and quantifying
cost, quality, and service improvement potential as a direct or
indirect result of better maintenance practices.
CHECKLIST OF PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT
MEASURES
1. Labour
a) labour rate (pounds/hour)
b) turnover (people/year)
c) absenteeism (hours/year)
d) lateness (hours/year)
e) utilisation (productive vs
idle time)
f) % time spent on non-value
added activities (eg, material
handling, excessive approvals)
g) training cost/employee
h) efficiency (variance to
standard time)
i) indirect or support hours (eg,
clerical)/direct labour hours
j) strike activity (dollar losses
due to strikes)
k) number and impact of
improvement suggestions
(ie, points to employee morale)
2. Material
2.1 Quality Problems due to
Poor Maintenance
a) scrap (can be sold)
b) waste (no resale value)
c) re-feed (item put back through
process)
d) re-work (item repaired off-line)
e) give-away (revenue leakage)
f) yield (% finished product
that can be sold for premium
pounds)
g) shrinkage (eg. product sold
by weight dries out during
process)
h) gain (eg. product sold by
weight absorbs water during
process)
i) losses (eg. fraud, pilferage)
j) returns (customer brings
product back for refund)
k) repairs (customer brings
product back for re-work)
l) % defective (% off-spec at
various stages of operation)
m) quality measures (variances
used to highlight extent of
deviations from quality spec)
2.2 Spare Parts
a) inventory level
b) inventory turns
c) storage costs
d) stockout % (service level)
e) fulfilment response time
2.3 Vendor Performance
a) late shipments
b) damaged goods
c) overshipments
d) delays
e) back orders
f) wrong orders
g) expediting cost
3. Capital
a) asset availability
b) utilisation
c) performance
d) reliability
e) quality of output
(see #2 above)
f) total cost of ownership
4. Facilities
a) maintenance cost/sq m
b) capacity utilisation
5. Energy
a) total energy consumption
b) peak consumption
c) efficiency
d) cost/unit
Vol 24 No 3