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The
Fuzzy Side of Equipment Reliability
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By Robert
M. Williamson, president of Strategic Work Systems
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In nearly all of the 250 or so equipmentintensive plants and facilities
I have visited, taught at, and worked in over the past 30 years, I have
observed the relationships between the skills of employees and the reliability
of the equipment. These observations may provide helpful insights for plant
and facility managers who are troubled with unreliable equipment and high
maintenance costs. Here are a few: |
Observation Number
1: There is a direct correlation between the way the plant?floor people
are treated and the reliability of the equipment for which they are responsible.
Clean and reliable equipment usually means employees needs are regularly
addressed. The people are listened to. And the same applies to the equipment?its
needs are also regularly addressed. The equipment needs are "listened to."
Responding in a proactive manner to people typically results in proactive
maintenance of the equipment. A work culture of "equipment ownership" develops.
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Observation Number
2: The highest levels of equipment reliability exist where skilled
maintenance people operate the equipment. Likewise, the lowest levels of
equipment reliability exist where unskilled or semi-skilled people operate
the equipment. There is a direct correlation between equipment reliability
and the equipment?specific skills and knowledge of equipment operators.
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What can we conclude from these two observations? Equipment?specific skills
and knowledge improve equipment reliability. The positive attitudes of
employees lead to more reliable equipment. Not exactly rocket science,
is it? So why don't all managers and supervisors, all levels of decision?makers
and leaders, in a business emphasize the well?being of their people and
equipment alike? This is a real mystery to me.
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Observation Number
3: In the United States, we are firmly in an era where there is a shortage
of skilled employees in manufacturing and maintenance. Fewer young people
are being encouraged to undertake that kind of work. There is a trend of
having operators perform routine maintenance on their equipment. This trend
makes sense only if handled properly?the right tasks, the right training,
the right people, for the right reasons. However, overall productivity
can suffer if "downsizing" maintenance results in more operator?performed
maintenance that takes time away from their "operating" job roles and responsibilities.
There must be a careful balance.
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Observation Number
4: We are in another cyclical era of improving performance by "cutting
costs." Often, cost?cutting programs have a negative impact on employees'
workloads and/or attitudes, which can be directly linked to more equipment
reliability problems. This increases costs and reduces operating efficiency
or throughput. A vicious cycle, no doubt. It appears easier to look at
overall cost reductions rather than finding ways to reduce the cost per
unit produced by improving equipment reliability and work processes.
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| A vision of the future? |
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Reliable equipment reduces the overall operating cost by producing more
first?pass quality production during the scheduled time available. People
waiting for "maintenance" to fix their equipment, people waiting for the
product at the next stages in the process, in?process inventory buffers,
and customers waiting for their orders all add up to significant losses.
These losses are exponentially higher than the actual cost of the emergency,
reactive repair. Unreliable equipment is not necessarily a positive motivator
of people either. If left unchanged, unreliable equipment leads to more
unreliable equipment and then the "escalating costs must be cut!" Remember
that there is a direct correlation between the reliability of the equipment
and the way the plantfloor people are treated. |
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Henry Ford said it best when describing the Ford principles of management
in his 1926 book, Today and Tomorrow: |
"Put all machinery in the best possible condition, keep it that way, and
insist on absolute cleanliness everywhere in order that a man may learn
to respect his tools, his surroundings, and himself."
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This was one of the many concepts from Ford Motor Company that led to the
development of the Toyota Production System, Total Productive Maintenance,
and just?in?time manufacturing from the early 1900s through the 1970s in
Japan. |
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The future of equipment?intensive businesses will always depend on the
people who operate and maintain the equipment and their ongoing dialogue
with those who design, build, and manufacture the equipment. There is no
way around it: People, the work processes they use, and the equipment they
work on are the roots of productivity in the workplace of the 1920s ? and
the workplace of the future. |
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This article is provided
courtesy of Strategic
Work Systems, Inc.
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to the Reliability Centered Maintenance Reference Articles Index
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© Copyright 2007
Maintenance Resources, Inc.
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Phone: 812.877.7119
- Fax: 812.877.7116 - E-Mail: info@maintenanceresources.com
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Address: 1983 North Hunt
Street - Terre Haute, IN 47805
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