| Introduction |
| It is a very commonly known concept that some
functions are trailing behind others on the road to World Class Manufacturing,
in the same organization. At the turn of the millennium the Information
Technology departments seem to be leading the pack. (Via technology ? thank
you, Engineering) It is also by now no longer a secret that the maintenance
function is one of the most neglected areas. It trails far behind the more
glamorous marketing / sales departments, and has always been ?the Cinderella?,
by virtue of the very fact that it is continuously working towards its
own demise. Good maintenance is ?invisible? while poor maintenance practices
are highly visible, and stay visible. Misguided maintenance initiatives
by young engineers can form the subject of anecdotes for ?generations?
of tradesmen. |
| For ease of understanding I have labeled these trailing aspects: ?Tails?. Interesting though, inside the maintenance
function there are some specific, smaller tails, which relate to the support
systems. These can be fixed relatively easily. All that is required, is
a change in viewpoint and a re-focus on basic principles. And then, ACTION! |
| The extent of the ?tails?, and the specific
areas of neglect inside the maintenance function can be established by
means of a quick-audit.* |
| A number of key principles that are discussed
in this paper, relate to the Wordehoff ? ?Levels of Excellence in Maintenance?
model. This model represents the performance levels of the maintenance
function distributed over four graded ?stages?. Each stage has qualified
/ quantified performance levels associated with it across a range of dimensions,
and each stage is assigned its own unique attributes and opportunities.
This ?stage? terminology is used throughout this article, to denote the
level of progress to World-Class performance, with stage I as the starting
level. |
| Traditionally
there are several options open to the Operations Manager with regard to
the maintenance function: |
| Option 1: |
Do Nothing - - - And see your best people leave,
one, after the other.
|
Central values: Culture of blame; Long service; Maintenance
?heroes?; The good old times; (Your luck is running out!)
|
| Option 2: |
Manage the Tail: (try to) Focus on it; Have meetings;
Set targets; set objectives; and deadlines. Highlight it; Consider
the implications; Study it; Make it smaller by piecemeal integration; Under
finance it and try to save money; Hope that it will go away!!!;
|
Kick some butt! Tell the plant engineer that hours of work
are now irrelevant! Tell him that maintenance is his problem and that he
must solve it! Today!
|
Attend conferences and seminars; Downsize; Rightsize; Anysize;
Re-structure!! (On the basis of what strategy??)
|
Try various Three Letter Acronyms: Flavor of The Month; Planned;
Preventive; Predictive; Corrective maintenance; Time based; Meter based;
Condition based; CMT; CMMS; RCM; RCA; RCFA; FMECA; ROMSA; TQM; TPM; TOQ;
CI; CRI; JIT;
|
(We were very busy, but we did not get results that lasted.
It was all too soon and too new for us - We were not ready)(Piaget)
|
| Option 3: |
Hide the Tail: or try to JUMP straight into WCM through Full
Integration.
|
(And then we tried the TEAM CONCEPT and Empowerment but it
didn't work either)
|
| Option 4: |
Cut it off; Outsource it; Privatize it; Or apply Leaseback
schemes.
|
(But nothing has really changed: We still have the same plant.
We only managed to transfer the problem)
|
| Option 5: |
Transform it to World Class!
|
Elevate it and apply Basic Principles
Train the workforce into a new Mindset and Stratify!
(We realized there are no Quick fixes, or Magic wands, or instant solutions
in the maintenance environment, just common sense)
|
| The bottom line is:
What is the condition, and economic life cycles of your plant and equipment?
What is your Overall Equipment Effectiveness? |
| Common Sense |
| It is very much ?common sense? that if you
want the maintenance function to achieve its objectives and develop to
World-Class standards, you cannot afford to under-finance its support systems.
The support systems of the maintenance function in a typical manufacturing organization
are as follows: |
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Maintenance Administration;
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Manpower;
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Tools;
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Spares;
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Planning;
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Scheduling;
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Controlling;
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Culture;
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Marketing; (of the maintenance function) and
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Budget.
|
| A thorough analysis of these ten issues; and
of the relationships between them can form the basis for a dynamic action
plan to establish the maintenance function firmly on the road to become
World-Class. It is common practice for stage IV World-Class organizations to establish links, and support to the support systems, i.e. (Support)2 |
| The maintenance administration function,
which ensures the continuity of your maintenance function, has ten sub
variables. |
| The maintenance-planning model has
20 inputs, 29 process variables, and 4 feedback loops. The writer has found
that some scheduling, but very little management planning involving
maintenance, takes place in stage I and stage II organizations. |
| The complexity of the maintenance function
is real, and it needs to be addressed. There is no way that any person
can accommodate in his mind, the reality of more than 3000 variables, as
well as their relationships, which are in a state of continuous change. |
| A solution is at hand. Deal with the complexity,
the lack of business rules and data discipline in the maintenance function
by means of models. |
| If you want to progress to World-Class maintenance
standards, increased complexity is unavoidable. This occurs because there
is a need to include more variables into the operation for the purpose
of better control. The only way that you can accommodate more variables
is through more complex models, or through a number of linked simple models.
If you cannot handle models, you cannot progress. And that is that. |
| Models are all the more powerful, if they
are based on principles. They may well be considered as a form of conscious
human automation, just as conditioning and instincts are forms of subconscious
automation. In time an entrenched model will become a conditioned response. |
| It is also common sense that 1000 small initiatives
for continuous improvement, can far more effectively be implemented by
the ?people on the shop floor?, rather than by management. They are closer
to the action. Management can do best by focusing on strategies, technology
upgrade and plant modernization. They should obviously get the ball rolling,
and establish the guidelines and support systems, but then they must step
aside, and allow the people to think. The principle involved is that shorter
feedback loops are more effective. |
| Principles |
| There are certain principles that apply to
the maintenance function. These should be researched, rediscovered and
incorporated as part of your formal strategy. If you abide by the principles,
you will seldom go wrong, but if you violate them, your strategies and
initiatives will not work. Some principles are strategic in nature, while
others can be classified as operational. |
| There is a huge difference between ?rules?,
and principles. A rule is something to be obeyed, if you don?t you will
be punished. It has its basis securely in stage I. ?Good? rules are based
on principles, and they are easily recognized. A principle is something
that you believe in, fervently and with dedication. It is akin to a maxim
or a ?self-evident? truth. |
| The pre-primary school educational principles
of Piaget has some relevance here. |
| The Piaget philosophy is based on the idea
that children need cognitive challenges appropriate to their individual
developmental level. Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, observed that all
children progress through a series of developmental stages, each marked
by a unique set of cognitive milestones. He postulated that: |
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Children progress through a series of predictable developmental stages.
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Children learn through active exploration and open-ended experiences.
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Children learn best when they initiate their own activities.
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Adults are facilitators of children's learning.
|
| ©1999 Knowledge Beginnings, Inc. All rights reserved. |
| These educational principles can be applied
to the maintenance function of a manufacturing organization, virtually,
as-is. What is not said here above, is that the children are continuously
building, modifying, and linking simple models, albeit in their imagination.
These models will solidify into conditioned responses, (called complexes)
over time. |
| It is critical to know the difference between
an attribute, a performance indicator, and an input. Empowered teams are
indicative of stage IV. But the reverse is not true. |
| You don't get stage IV when you introduce
(input) empowered teams into stage I, or stage II organizations. You get
total confusion! Empowerment and trust must be earned. To empower blindly
is plain stupid! It is just as disastrous as to do everything that comes
up, without classifying or prioritizing. Yet, the writer has personally
seen both these issues occur in the same organization. |
| If you want your organization to progress
to WCM, you cannot leave any functional discipline behind. Integration
with manufacturing is the ultimate destiny of 90% of the maintenance function,
but the principle: that a ?non WCM function cannot be integrated with a
WCM function, may not be violated. (They simply do not mix) If this has
been done prematurely, the ?integrated function? will later have to be
dismantled again, in order to transform the unit that was neglected in
the first place. Therefore, all aspects of the maintenance function should
be transformed to World-Class, prior to integration. |
| Stratification rules! Initiatives should not
be launched into an unstratified workforce. It is a 90% waste of effort.
The upper echelon of your workforce may consider your initiative as childish,
whereas the lower echelon will most probably not understand it. Where does
that leave you? |
| The first principle of Geert Hofstede?s 5-D
model comes into play here: ?How much inequality do the less powerful in
a society accept, given that all societies are unequal, but some more unequal
than others (Power Distance)? |
| The single most powerful aspect of the principle
of stratification of the workforce is that it will result in the formation
of ?natural? teams. Teamworking cannot be forced prematurely. It is out
and out a stage III World-Class attribute. Due to the fact that the majority
of conflicts are resolved (automatically) ?inside? the strata, natural
work teams will assist your progress towards World-Class Manufacturing
in no small measure. This occurs because of the tacit, quick adoption of
?unwritten? common norms on each level. This alone will save huge amounts
of your time. |
| From the survey of numerous organizations we know that ninety percent of the expenses of the typical maintenance
function consists of a combination of people and spares cost. Spares can
easily be addressed through the logic and laws of commerce and physical
science. (Why keep spares on the shelf if they are not being used? Why
own them if the supplier is prepared do that on your behalf?) |
| But the transformation of people is much more
complex. It is called mindset change. If you want to move towards World-Class
maintenance through involving the trades people, (as you have to) you should
train them in the WCM trades. These are ?Pro-Active; Change Agent; and
Sharing, and you must reward your employees more for exercising these trades,
than for the ?hard? trades. It is of extreme importance for any multi-skilling
initiative to include these three trades. They are key (major opportunity)
to progress to stage III, and there is built-in stratification potential
in this principle. |
| Another very interesting common sense principle
is, that if your organization is in stage II, you have to progress to stage
III before you can get to stage IV. Stages cannot be skipped. Each stage
needs to be established firmly, to allow for growth. |
| Strategic Principles |
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1 Growth takes time. Instant growth has not yet been invented.
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Your own plan is the most powerful plan. Home-grown is best. Build upon
your own foundations. If you buy out, what are you building on? Not invented
here (NIH) has some validity in its twisted logic.
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A process requires support systems to survive and grow. Fads & Flavor of The Month issues are non-starters. (your employees know that; they have
seen em come & go) It needs more than a slogan on a wall to makes things
happen.
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Systems founded on principles will outlast and outperform any other.
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A number of linked simple models are more powerful than one complex model.
They are more durable. They need less training. They implement very fast.
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Continuity, cash flow and profit are absolute standards for a going
concern.
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Shorter feedback loops are more effective.
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Quantitative performance standards are stage I and II stuff.
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Qualitative performance standards are stage III and IV stuff, and just
as valid.
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Mindset & culture change are non-negotiable for progress. But if you
don't understand how they work, you cannot change them.
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The more you strategize, the more you will tend to do the right things.
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The more you plan, the more you will do these things right the first time
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No initiative should be launched unplanned.
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The tools of organizational change - participative management and employee
involvement - work too slowly when the chips are down, and systems have
collapsed. Only strong leadership can now save the day. (BUT, the chips
should never be down!!!)
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Empowered teams and trust are stage IV outputs. Rather focus on solving
some real, current problems while you are in stage I and II.
-
Stratification and target markets are a fact of life. If your target is
World-Class maintenance, then you should stratify on the basis of WCM contribution.
It is as simple as that. If you don?t, it won?t happen.
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The real issue is to make the model belong to you. You have to understand
it, internalize it, and believe in it to the point of obsession. Ownership
is an objective that is vastly underrated. It has ?competitive edge? written
all over it.
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People that grew up under authority, and worked under it for most part
of their lives, have difficulty in operating in any other way. This goes
for managers as well.
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Involvement should be voluntary, until it is time to make it mandatory.
Voluntary involvement becomes meaningless when the program is critical
to the success of the organization (e.g. quality, deliveries to key customers,
breakdowns)
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Actions speak louder than words. If you are not performing a critical function,
either you can't do it, or you won't do it. (Apply Forced Choice)
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Don't apply stage IV issues in a stage I organization, or vice versa. If
you do, confusion will ensue. The path is the key, NOT where you are. How
to get to the next stage, is more important! What is in the stage, will
look after itself.
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For some aspects, there are no substitutes. When these are linked to systems,
you are OK. But when these are linked to people, you have a serious problem.
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WIIFM? (What is in it for me: The Individual vs. the collective good)
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Hypotheses should not be multiplied beyond necessity.
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Openness: Don't say something about another person, if you are not prepared
to say the same thing in front of him. Do not confuse the aspects of ?lack
of openness? with confidentiality. Some issues are confidential.
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Principles can be applied universally. If they can?t, they are not principles.
|
| Operational Principles |
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Consistent, responsible and regular feedback is of critical importance.
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The job must not be more difficult or physically taxing, after the change.
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All breakdowns will receive non-stop focus, with progressive Response Level
Adjustment, until fixed.
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Any fix must be a permanent fix. Any job worth doing - is worth doing well.
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As time goes on, the response level assigned to an unsolved problem, must
increase.
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All come-backs qualify for a drastic upward shift in response level.
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Pro-Active, and Sharing is the name of the new game. Change Agent is an
option.
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A breakdown is one of the biggest opportunities for improvement that you
have got. It is akin to the weakest link in your chain at any point in
time.
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The principle of ?natural attrition? shall remain inviolate.
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Talk to your employees (10%), and listen to what they say (90%).
|
| 20 September 1999 |
References:
Christer Idhammar, President and CEO, Idcon, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina.
?Separate yourself from the Pack?
Roland Bergh, - Roland Bergh Consulting (Pty) Ltd. For the use
of ?The Focus Shift? model, and for his kind advice and support.
Eugene C. Wordehoff ? ?Journey to World-Class Levels of Excellence:
A Multi-Stage Process? Plant Engineering ? 19 November 1992. For the use
of the above model, and for his advice and support.
Richard Balzar ? President of RBA Inc. ?12 Lessons for managers interested
in Employee involvement and/or Participative Management? |
