Maintenance Technology August 2014 - (Page 12)

FOR ON THE FLOOR and maintenance." Production Support Manager, Midwest "We use percentage of work orders completed on time, with the time determined by priority of the work order. Other measures include PM Completion Percentage and PM Labor Percentage. Bottom-line savings are not a factor, but we do use pump availability as a measure, which is based on a 'snapshot' of the pumps available on one day of the month." Maintenance Engineer, West Q Does internal-customer feedback play a role in how your maintenance team's effectiveness is measured? "Yes. operations is our primary customer and they give us an evaluation on the work performed, and we use this to measure ways we can improve." Maintenance Coordinator, Mid-Atlantic "Our maintenance group's customer is Operations and their daily feedback at our staff and operations/planning/ scheduling meetings is important." Mechanical Maintenance Supervisor, Midwest "Production is our internal customer, and they provide feedback by replying to maintenance shift notes sent as e-mails to all departments. The shift notes are sent by the maintenance shift supervisor and contain details of maintenance activities during each shift." Planned Maintenance Supervisor, Midwest "This is a political issue [which can lead to] finger pointing. When this happens, maintenance seems to be the biggest target, followed by poor operators." Senior Maintenance Engineer, West "Internal feedback is used only when it is negative or when operations believes they are not getting the service they need in a timely manner. Typically, the feedback is given from the floor operators to their supervisors, then to maintenance." Production Support Manager, Midwest 12 | MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY Q What do you think is the best way to gauge maintenance-team effectiveness? "The best way is to do what we currently do [noted above] along with good feedback on the problem or complaint(s) from those that use the equipment. It is hard to be effective if all the customer can say is 'It just does not work.' To remedy this, we established an effective troubleshooting course across all disciplines which requires operations to call us to investigate strange or unusual noises or operating characteristics." Maintenance Coordinator, Mid-Atlantic "All organizations and industry leaders need some type of performance metrics and KPIs. As Peter Drucker said, 'You cannot manage something you cannot control, and you cannot control something you cannot measure.'" Mechanical Maintenance Supervisor, Midwest "It is best gauged by a combination of measurements, including equipment reliability, number of repeat failures, technicians' wrench-time and overtime, and the proven skill level of the technicians. I don't think we currently gauge these KPIs due to the lack of understanding of how to properly go about it, and also due to not realizing the benefits that would result in doing so." Planned Maintenance Supervisor, Midwest "Today's maintenance staffs are very professional and skilled in many areas, so they need to be treated as profes- sionals, not as second-rate employees. One plan that seems to work is for each individual to write a yearly business plan that tells how he/she will support the overall department's business plan. This can take several meetings with everyone in the department to decide on a realistic master plan, but it means that everyone owns the success of the department." Senior Maintenance Engineer, West "Through MTBF and uptime. If trending in the correct direction, these will show that what maintenance is doing is effective. They will also produce the bottomline results corporate expects." Production Support Manager, Midwest "The best measure is the maintenance team's ability to maintain the required level of reliability for the company to meet its goals at an acceptable cost." Maintenance Engineer, West Q Does your company reward maintenance-team effectiveness? "No. It is difficult to reward a single group in a union environment, but rewards for overall plant success are given to everyone." Mechanical Maintenance Supervisor, Midwest "The company buys pizza for all employees when production goals are exceeded, but nothing departmentally specific." Planned Maintenance Supervisor, Midwest "Not at all, but I wish they did!" Production Support Manager, Midwest About the MT&AP Reader Panel The Maintenance Technology Reader Panel includes approximately 100 working industrial maintenance practitioners and consultants who have volunteered to answer bi-monthly questions prepared by our editorial staff. Panelist identities are not revealed, and their responses are not necessarily projectable. The Panel welcomes new members: Have your comments and observations included in this column by joining the Reader Panel. To be considered, e-mail your name and contact information to rcarter@atpnetwork.com with "Reader Panel" in the subject line. All Panelists are automatically included in an annual cash-prize drawing after one year of active participation. AUGUST 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maintenance Technology August 2014

Maintenance Technology August 2014