Maintenance work-Part 3

This is the third installment in a three-part article about Maintenance Work. 

By Plant Engineering Staff November 26, 2003

By Donald H. Decker, PE, Principal

The Hayo Consultants
( www.hayoconsultants.com )

We are centering on the “Make Ready, Do, and Put Away” activities of your maintenance crew.

The focus is on determining the overall crew/facility productivity in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.

Note the chart outlined in Figure 1 .

For each of the three columns (Utilization, Methods, and Performance), you can establish the location in terms of system development where your maintenance organization now resides. For each of the three columns, establish a number or percentage based upon the benchmarks shown. Example: in Figure 2 , Utilization (U) is 73%, Methods (M) is 60%, and Performance (P) is 58%. After making the calculation shown, your Productivity Rating is 25.4%.

Using the Productivity Rating (25.4%) from the example of Figure 2 , go to Figure 3 . Here the productivity number is entered on the “X’ or horizontal axis of the chart. The estimate of the percentage of time your crews are in the‘Do” mode is measured on the “Y” or vertical axis of the chart. So, in the example the hands-on-wrench time (direct productive work) is 28%. 

There are several old adages that state: having a number is the only way to determine where you stand on a given topic. In this case for overall crew/facility productivity, this number can be readily obtained from Figure 1 . In addition, using Figure 3 you can approximate the “Do” time.

The productivity of your maintenance and technical personnel depends greatly upon the type of systems and policies that management has applied to maintenance operations. Figure 1 clearly outlines systems and policies that management can or has established. It establishes additional systems and policies that management can adopt to increase maintenance crew’s performance, the “Do.” Note that the impact of savings for improved maintenance productivity over 60% shifts to operations improvements, such as a further decrease in downtime.

Keep the momentum going and continue to improve your maintenance operations.