8/3/2019 Resetting Maintenance Management

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/resetting-maintenance-management 1/3

   P   r   i   n   t   e   d   w   i   t   h

     j     o     l     i    p    r     i    n     t

mintek.com

Hitting the Reset Button on MaintenanceManagement

Maintenance management has been opera-ting in closed silos for too long. The day hascome for operations that run maintenance

as an expense line item to wake up and realize that

maintenance management is the core function of industry asset management.

Senior management that fails to recognize the evo-lution of the role of maintenance management willultimately see their organization bleed until it goesout of business altogether. The good news is that itis not too late to hit the reset button but to do this;senior, operations and maintenance managers needto know what has changed and why.

The Old, Do It My Way or Hitthe Highway Maintenance

Management

The classic case of silo maintenance management iswhere maintenance is purely reactionary and basedupon the principle that, If it ain’t broke, don’t xit philosophy. The term silo refers to the fact thatmaintenance is viewed as a necessary evil, alloca-

ted a budget and forgotten about unless somethinggoes wrong.

Maintenance in this type of organization doesn’t

have any real responsibility other than to keep assetsup and running with maybe a touch of preventive maintenance such as changing HVAC lters or ap-plying lubrication. Maintenance reports to a super-visor who then reports to some mid-level facilitiesor plant manager. Staff meetings consist of what isto be done for the day.

Work is requested and performed using a primarilypaper based system and then recorded on rudimen-tary spreadsheets which may or may not be on a

PC covered with coffee stains and grime. Paper andother documents are eventually led in a storageroom full of le cabinets. Does this sound like yourorganization?

We could debate the Pros and Cons of this type of maintenance management but what would be thepoint? The simple fact is that in today’s competitiveeconomy there is no place for reactive maintenanceorganizations. They are obsolete!

It Is Not Too Late to Hit theReset Button for Maintenance

Management

The most successful businesses in the world havehad at least one major reorganization or shake upin order to stay competitive in the marketplace. Inmost cases, someone is promoted or brought in andhanded the opportunity to show their abilities.

28/10/2011 22:00

http://www.mintek.com/blog/eam-cmms/hitting-reset-button-maintenance-management/

 Page 1

8/3/2019 Resetting Maintenance Management

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/resetting-maintenance-management 2/3

   P   r   i   n   t   e   d   w   i   t   h

     j     o     l     i    p    r     i    n     t

mintek.com

Hitting the Reset Button on Maintenance Management

Major change can be for any number of reasonsincluding a change in leadership, a need for crea-tivity, product declines or protability issues. It isthe protability issues that are the major focus overthe last few years as many global and domestic eco-nomies have taken a beating.

For asset intensive industries, maintenance, repairand operations (MRO) are the most critical area

where there is a need for better controls. MRO costswhich include energy, labor and the capitalized pur-chase of assets can easily exceed 60% of expenses.

Stopping the Bleeding

The logical question is how canyou stop the bleeding ($ goingout the door) is there is no one

in senior management withhands on maintenance management experience?Without experience in this eld, the issues and ideasof asset management are left in the hands of beancounters that still see maintenance as an expenseline item.

The answer is to start increasing asset and mainte-nance management visibility. This can be accom-plished by understanding that the cost of asset mana-gement is directly related to the type of maintenancemanagement put in place.

Changing the direction of your maintenance

management team means a commitment to:

• Maintenance being more proactive thanreactive. This includes better preventivemaintenance, asset inspections as well asusing historical work management recordscombined with technology to project needs.

• That all maintenance will be planned just

like all production.• Increasing visibility by understanding how

maintenance management impacts the per-formance of other business units.

• Including maintenance management inbusiness planning to understand how deci-sions in other functional areas impact theability of maintenance management to beproactive.

How does this stop the bleeding? Better asset and

maintenance management will:

• Lower labor costs through the automationof manual processes, scheduling work,fewer emergency repairs and less overtime.Maintenance management can simply domore with the same amount of resources.

• Lowers energy costs by making sure assetsare in optimal working condition. Poorly

maintained assets will draw more power toaccomplish the same level of output.• Decrease document storage and handling

costs as paper ow is reduced and impor-tant documents are stored on computersreducing the time spent retrieving, locatingor copying les, photos, blueprints etc.

• Extend the useful lifecycle of assets. Fewerbreakdowns and better maintenance careequals assets that lasts longer. The longerassets can be productive the less capital fun-ding is needed to replace or perform majorrepairs

The New Maintenance Manager

How does an organization go from ghting one reafter the next to a proactive maintenance opera-tion? The rst step is to rewrite the job description/expectations of the maintenance manager.

The new age maintenance manager has proven plan-ning skills, access to technology tools, knows how to

28/10/2011 22:00

http://www.mintek.com/blog/eam-cmms/hitting-reset-button-maintenance-management/

 Page 2

8/3/2019 Resetting Maintenance Management

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/resetting-maintenance-management 3/3

   P   r   i   n   t   e   d   w   i   t   h

     j     o     l     i    p    r     i    n     t

mintek.com

Hitting the Reset Button on Maintenance Management

use numbers to justify decisions, recommendationsand change. In addition, they have the social skillsneeded to convince others (up and down the corpo-rate food chain) to be part of the change. In short,they are more tactical than technical but know howto get the job done at the lowest cost.

The Tools of the New Age Maintenance

Manager

Technology is an important part of new age main-tenance management. Basic maintenance manage-ment starts with the use of computerized mainte-nance management software (CMMS) but dependingon the needs of the organization this can be ex-panded to include:

• Predictive technology such as Infraredthermography, vibration analysis andultrasound testing. A good CMMS is able to

accommodate all of these technologies.• EAM Systems: Has a core CMMS base butgreat for asset and maintenance manage-ment from the planning through retire-ment. Provides tools to capture and analyzehistorical work management data for bettercapital analysis.

• ERP , CBM, RCM, and other maintenancemethodology software/tools. The pointbeing, there is a tool available for almostany need.

• IWMS which combines real estate planning,space/occupancy/planning, EAM, projectmanagement and sustainability to form amore comprehensive management tool forexecutives.

Lastly, one other important tool for the new agemaintenance department is mobile handheld de-vices. The use of mobile devices not only decreasepaperwork but enables maintenance staff to submitwork request, receive work orders, inspections chec-

klists but also transmit results back to managementfor faster analysis and decisions.

Is it time your organization hit the MaintenanceManagement Reset Button?

If you liked this article you may

also enjoy reading:

CMMS, facilities management,maintenance management

Did you like Hitting the Reset Button on

Maintenance Management?

Every share you make allows us to write more greatstuff for you:

• It’s how we prove that it’s worth blogging toour bosses. Researching and writing takesserious time.

• I happen to get a free lunch for every postwith 10 shares... I really like free lunch.

• The whole oce gets free lunch for everypost with 100 shares.

• I also like seeing our stuff on the internet. You have to admit it’s really cool.

28/10/2011 22:00

http://www.mintek.com/blog/eam-cmms/hitting-reset-button-maintenance-management/

 Page 3