INSIDE INDUSTRY
By: MIKE ASQUINI, Senior Consultant
T.A. Cook Consultants Inc.
Alignment sets the stage for successful routine maintenance
I
n order for an organization to be successful, it must be aligned as to how and why
it will accomplish its goals. Without target
alignment, a company is likely to have
different expectations and beliefs, especially surrounding the performance of routine maintenance. This affects all areas of
the organization: operations, maintenance,
safety, quality assurance, mechanical
integrity, reliability, process engineering,
finance, and production and economics.
All disciplines need to understand why
maintenance is performed on the organization’s assets so quality standards and safety
and environmental regulations are met consistently. A well-run maintenance process
is built upon the foundation of planned,
scheduled and coordinated work, which
controls costs, meets budgetary obligations
and keeps the organization competitive in
the marketplace.
Detailed definition
How does an organization align to
planned, scheduled and coordinated maintenance? Firstly, planned, scheduled and
coordinated maintenance must be defined
in detail by the stakeholders. This should
be meaningful and easily understood. The
criticality of equipment must be ranked,
asset strategies set for equipment types, a
work order priority system must be defined
and a process to handle emergency work
needs to be mapped. Once the definition is
complete, all stakeholders must agree this
is the way they will conduct their business
each and every day.
After the stakeholders have settled on
the definition of planned, scheduled and
coordinated maintenance, all processes —
from the identification of work to the close
out of work — also need to be specified.
These processes include but are not limited to: work identification, work approval, planning and costing of work, setting
delegations of authority, work selection,
scheduling of work, preparation of assets
for work to be performed, field execution,
field completion, validation of work and
work close out.
Roles and responsibilities
Each of the above belong to the normal sequence of work progression at a
facility and are key to defining both the
actions required and the people within the
organization who are responsible for them.
Without clear roles and responsibilities,
both anyone and no one is accountable and
work likely won’t get done.
In addition to normal sequencing, procedures must exist to handle deviations to
normalcy. It is of the utmost importance
there is a clearly defined process with the
same level of detail for work that is not
planned and scheduled, such as break-in
work, which must be coordinated. For
the actions required in this process, the
roles and responsibilities must be clearly
outlined so problems are resolved as soon
as possible. This must then be supported
by training in how the process should be
operated, after which trainees must be able
to demonstrate their comprehension for
alignment to be effective.
Discipline
Coaching is followed by the most
difficult piece of the aligning process:
implementation. This is often made difficult because most people do not welcome
change — whether due to fear of the
unknown, fear of failure or simply being
placed outside their comfort zones.
However, the discipline to follow the
process each and every day, to fulfill the
responsibilities their position and the
process require is necessary. This discipline must be sustained during implementation and continuously supported
by stakeholders in transition to the way
the business runs. Barriers to success
and improvement opportunities must
be investigated and actively addressed
to further enhance the process, prevent
complacency and degradation.
Alignment alone cannot guarantee the
success of routine maintenance processes
but it can set the foundations. In order for
routine maintenance processes to work,
alignment must be supported by training
within the organization and the discipline to
follow the process during implementation
and beyond. Only then can the foundations
laid enable maintenance to support a truly
prosperous organization.
For more information, visit www.
tacook.com or call (919) 510-8142.
•
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