Section » Maintenance Excellence
In a learning organization, you must learn needs of workforce
Before you attempt to ask people to learn something new, you should take a few minutes to diagnose their needs and how they might learn best. See, not everyone learns the same way, at the same rate, or has the same background or experiences that you do. At the end of the day, you aren’t the one learning, they are. Let me share a few experiences with
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Workplace lessons learned from a baseball game
As some of you know, I spend a fair amount of time working in California. It happens I was there last week and thought I would share a story from that trip. It happens that one of my friends was part of a group taking some engineering interns out for a last hurrah at an Oakland Athletics baseball game
Employ standard work in maintenance tasks
In many organizations, the focus on maintenance tasks is too general in nature, trusting the craftsperson to do the right thing. While we should trust our people, most of whom are highly competent and skilled, we also should set the expectation for the work to be accomplished in a precise manner. Otherwise,
Attain the double vision of reliability AND maintainability
Have you got double vision? I hope you do, but not in the sense I bet that you are thinking. No, I’m not talking about having one too many or that splitting headache that sometimes results in double vision. I’m talking about driving availability. It’s a measure that is made up of two component
Do you have a matrix to prioritize work orders?
One of the challenges that many organizations face is maintaining work order priorities in the wake of the emotional squeaky wheel that yells the loudest. Remember the phrase, “In God we trust. All others bring data”? It applies here, as well. Reacting to false priorities exacerbates the
Important considerations for maintenance planning and scheduling
In this post, we will continue with answering a couple of planner/scheduler questions. How do you initially train someone new to the planner/scheduler position? First, let’s talk about the selection process, as I see this as an issue in many organizations. Ideally, the planner/scheduler should
Best-selling checklists?
As an unrepentant checklist fanatic/junkie, I recently had to pick myself up off the floor in an airport newsstand (not a bookstore, but a newsstand!). There with all the romance novels, Dan Brown books and the latest silver-bullet management books was The Checklist Manifesto by Dr. Atul Gawande. A best-selling
Follow-up, performance matrix frequently absent from CMMS process flow
Many organizations are using their computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) as a recordkeeping tool. If that’s all they want, a spreadsheet perhaps can suffice. A correctly used CMMS is a tool that goes way beyond recordkeeping. By not fully utilizing the CMMS, maintenance operations are
Lean maintenance: Is it a new concept or another ‘acronym’?
It seems as if new weight loss programs and products come out every week. The latest I saw was a plastic wrap that you place around your stomach called “Sauna Fit”. If you strap it around your stomach, you will sweat and lose weight. Brilliant! I’m thinking that you’ll probably
Tips for maintaining a complete and accurate equipment registry
The equipment registry is one of the most important tools in your kit when it comes to maintenance and reliability. It can be the foundation of your planned maintenance, lubrication, training and repair programs, plus it helps with regulatory compliance and safety programs. Your spare parts management
