In examining maintenance organizations, we find they all have the same growth pattern (see Figure 3-7). When companies are small, they may only have one machine. The operator of the machine runs and maintains it, per-forming any small repairs or services. If a large breakdown occurs, the ma-chine is disassembled by the operator and the defective parts are sent out for repair. As the company continues to grow, several machines are added.
Growth also necessitates adding several production workers. Because the production workers are not dependent on one machine any longer, the first maintenance worker is added. This individual will be multi-skilled in order to care for the variety of repairs that will be needed.
The third step in the growth pattern is the addition of more machines and production workers. This step leads to the addition of more mainte-nance workers. With this new level of manpower required by maintemainte-nance, it is no longer convenient to have the maintenance workers report to the production supervisor. Instead, it is necessary to have a maintenance super-visor in place. The fourth step in the growth pattern is to watch the main-tenance personnel begin to specialize in their particular skill areas. Craft technicians become proficient at repairing a particular piece of equipment, or a particular type of repair. As the number of craft technicians increases,
Maintenance Management Control System • Establish goals, objectives, policies and procedures • Establish permissible variance from the guidelines
• Measure the performance and compare to the guidelines • Compare the evaluation to the permissible variance • Identify the exceptions to tolerance
• Determine the cause for the exception • Determine the corrective action
• Plan the implementation of the corrective action • Schedule the implementaion of the corrective action • Implement the corrective action
• Evaluate the results of the corrective action and modify as required
the specialization continues. The fifth step in the growth pattern is the de-velopment of craft lines. This dede-velopment may be due to union influence, or simply the natural progression of step four. The lines can be either strict or informal, but they will become increasingly distinct.
The sixth step in the growth pattern occurs when the organization be-comes too large to manage from a central location. Several factors may contribute to the management problem. The internal geography of the plant is one factor. For example, if the plant covers several hundred acres, it may be physically impossible to manage it from one location, even with the help of radios, bicycles, or manned carts. At this stage, the organiza-tion may divide into the area concept, allowing small maintenance depart-ments, such as those described in the first three steps.
Most organizations develop two alternatives at this stage: further in-ternal growth or outside contracting. Inin-ternal growth will develop central crafts or shops to support the area organizations. Thus, as in step one, when the repair is too large, complicated, or requires special equipment, it is sent to the central shops. As more work is required from the cen-tral shops, they tend to grow, whereas the area organizations tend to add employees only when new demands are made on their area (such as new equipment additions) or when attrition occurs. Outside contracting occurs when the company either does not have the resources to implement cen-tral crafts or decides it is more cost effective to contract with a local shop for machining, rewinding, or installation. The determining factors here are skill level of the contractor’s workforce, response time, and synergism be-tween the contractor and the company.
In the final growth step, the area organizations tend to go back to the multi-craft concept, allowing for the maximum flexibility of the labor re-sources assigned to an area. To assist in the peak work periods, the central organization might maintain a pool of qualified individuals, capable of be-ing proficient in various areas of the plant. There are companies with as many as 30 or 40 area organizations within a single plant, coupled with central organizations and outside contracting, managed by area organiza-tions, reporting to a central maintenance management organization, that provide an optimum service/cost factor arrangement. Each company will make the policy decision several times before they find its optimum orga-nization.
How management perceives maintenance, how maintenance perceives its role, and the attitudes of managers and craft technicians toward one another are also important. The attitude management shows toward the maintenance craft technicians helps to establish pride in workmanship. If an organization is in a “fire-fighting” mode--strictly fixing it as quickly as
it can be fixed-then workmanship suffers. Craft technicians will get into a habit of fixing it to “just get by”. When this environment begins to change to a more proactive environment, the craft technicians have difficulty ad-justing to the “fix-it-right-the-first-time” attitude. It is the same problem anyone has when trying to break habits that have become entrenched.
The in-fighting between maintenance on the one side and production, op-erations, and facilities on the other also must end. If maintenance is to contribute to the overall profitability of the corporation, all parts of the organization must be given responsibility and accountability. Areas where attitude toward maintenance manifests include:
• Maintenance shop locations
• Maintenance equipment
• Maintenance incentive programs
Maintenance repair shops should be located in areas convenient to the job locations. It should be easy for rebuildable items, repairs, and other maintenance work to be brought into the shop area, where the larger tools are located. Therefore, the area must have adequate clearance for fork lifts, overhead cranes, and other transportation methods. Repair shops should also be located in areas of the plant where excessive noise levels do not make working in the area difficult. For example, in one plant, the mainte-nance shop was located beside the plant’s rock crushers. The noise level made work without hearing protection impossible. In addition, the lathes for the maintenance shop were nearby; the vibration made any finishes smoother than .010 impossible. Needless to say, the maintenance organiza-tion did not have a high sense of self-worth.
The equipment in the maintenance shop is also very important. The quality of the tools helps to determine the quality of the work performed by the shop. If the maintenance department does not have the tools and equipment needed to maintain plant equipment, one can hardly say they do not do their jobs. For example, it is difficult to maintain solid state con-trol equipment with a VOM multimeter instead of an oscilloscope. Asking the maintenance personnel to produce precision work with old, worn out tools and equipment reflects a measure of their importance. Maintenance incentive programs are not properly utilized in most plants and facilities to produce motivated craftsmen. Incentive programs can be tied to uptime, production rates, or total departmental operation for the purpose of moti-vating the maintenance workforce. If the maintenance personnel believe that they can increase their financial status by increasing performance, they also can work more productively.
Summary
The organization for maintenance can be varied and adjusted to fit many circumstances. The options detailed in this chapter are used by various organizations around the world. The main points to remember are these:
1. All organizations exist to accomplish certain goals or objectives.
Maintenance is no different; be sure yours are known and accepted.
2. Organizing the maintenance function is important. Incorrectly organiz- ing the resources can result in excessive maintenance costs.
3. Contractors are being increasingly used in the maintenance ment. Careful policy decisions can make contractors cost effective.
4. Attitudes toward maintenance are shown by the way the organiza tion is treated when it comes time to dedicate resources. Always insure that maintenance has proper tools, proper locations, and incentive- to work.
The previous chapter on benchmarking looked at the hidden narrative or enablers that do not show up in pure statistics. The organizational fo-cus, structure, and disciplines discussed in this chapter are difficult points to analyze when benchmarking. They are seldom explored to the depth necessary to provide an understanding of how they impact the ability of an organization to achieve Best Practices in maintenance. If a company is to truly understand a benchmarking partner’s practices, then the areas dis-cussed in this chapter must be thoroughly understood.