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For most plant engineers, maintenance excellence is an elusive goal. If you don't have it, how do you get it? How do you know when you've achieved it? Just what is maintenance excellence, anyway?
In search of answers to these kinds of questions, PLANT ENGINEERING went to the board of directors of the Foundation for Industrial Maintenance Excellence, the group that conducts the prestigious North American Maintenance Excellence (NAME) Award program. During a special focus panel, these experts discussed the concepts of what makes a successful maintenance organization and how managers can work towards achieving excellence.
Panel participants are listed in the accompanying sidebar.
Dunn: Where do you start, if you want to pursue maintenance excellence?
Schmalbach:: To me, it involves understanding what the business mission is that you're supporting. Because, depending on whether your plant is producing a mature product with lots of competition out there, or if you're making a proprietary product and you're the only guy in the marketplace, you mix your maintenance practices differently to support those two different ends of the business. In one case, cost is a lot more important to you than maybe uptime and reliability. I think there's a tradeoff in there.
Williams: One of the things we talk to our plants about is that you need to develop the foundation. Within that foundation you need to define your roles and responsibilities. Maintenance is a business; it's not a pastime that you do just because it sounds good. You do it because you're in business to put product out the door, and part of that business requires that you keep your equipment maintained.
We put together a strategic plan: Why am I here, who's accountable for what, what are we here for, what are our goals, and how can we measure them? We talk about priorities. In every plant you're going to be resource limited, so set your priorities. Have your business partners explain what's important to them, and what isn't important to them. Put those into your strategic plans then make sure you have the different processes in place to be able to manage that business, from your shop work orders to the training of your craftspeople. How do you select your people, how do you...