Plant Services - October 2007 - (Page 33)

ASSET MANAGER Treat them right Resource pool a good tool for the care and feeding of technicians T here are so many factors to consider when optimizmaintenance management is comforted in that at least they ing the organizational structure of your maintenance have access to and some level of control over resources, by workforce. This includes the size of the department, having technicians report on a solid line basis to maintethe nature and size of operations, number and complexity of nance and dotted line to operations. The overall result, preassets, the physical size and layout of facilities and equipment, sumably, is better balancing of the maintenance workload hours of operation, the work expected, skills required, space and minimization of downtime across operations. required and available for the work, and even the political clout of maintenance management. Organizational gap Some maintenance departments are completely centralObviously, none of these approaches are perfect. One of the ized, others are decentralized, both physically most critical gaps, regardless of organizational and logically, with maintenance technicians approach selected, is who looks after the care reporting to production. Others lie between and feeding of the technicians. Avoiding the these ends, such as distributing technicians gap means attending to every critical job-reThe resource throughout the production operations, but related function. pool manager porting directly to a centralized maintenance Whether technicians report directly management. There are positives and negathrough operations or maintenance supershould have tives with any organizational structure. excellent people visors, these functions sometimes are sideCentralized environments might have betlined in the name of keeping the equipment skills. ter economies of scale. Examples include a running. While this might be a reasonable well-equipped central shop and better parts argument in the short run, often it leads to control in a large, secured centralized warechronic, long-term neglect of these functions. house that can justify a full-time stockkeeper. Moreover, not every supervisor likes, is propA centralized organizational structure also facilitates cenerly trained for, or is good at delivering on these softer mantralized planning and scheduling by highly skilled mainteagement skills. Even with the addition of CMMS features, nance planners. The approach offers greater opportunity for such as better human resource tracking and reporting, that resource leveling. However, operations sometimes accuses facilitate these functions, many maintenance management centralized maintenance departments of being bureaucratic groups still struggle to fulfill these duties. and unresponsive to the needs of individual production supervisors, all in the name of greater overall productivity. The resource pool Decentralized maintenance sits well with the operating One of the most innovative ways to address this problem, department. Operational supervisors are less concerned that especially in large, complex environments, is using the remaintenance technicians in their areas aren’t all that busy, as source pool concept. Think of the technicians as a pool of long as someone familiar with the equipment is right there resources reporting on a solid line to a resource pool manwhen needed. Although this “Maytag repairman” mentality ager, available to do work wherever work is needed, in the works well to sell home appliances, it’s both costly and unmost effective and efficient manner. That might translate necessary. Furthermore, most technicians would prefer to into some technicians working steadily in a given plant area be busy, to be challenged by a greater variety of equipment, over the long term, some dedicated to a night shift, some and to have access to additional resources when needed. specialized resources working centrally on an “as required” Distributed approaches strike a compromise. By locating basis, and any other reasonable organizational variation. technicians in a given operational area, operational superviRegardless of the number or nature of organizational varisors perceive that at least they have the first right of refusal ants used, the common thread is that technicians report on a on a technician’s time, especially during emergencies. Also, solid line to the resource pool manager who looks after their October 2007 www.PLANTSERVICES.com 33 http://www.plantservices.com/voices/asset_manager.html http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Plant Services - October 2007

Plant Services - October 2007 Contents Monetize It Letters Step into the Blogosphere What it Takes to be a Leader Up and Running Crisis Corner What Works From the Summit Treat Them Right Access Control Out of the Woods Show Me, Don't Guess Condition Assessment Made Easy The Air Above the Floor Power to the Prime Movers In the Trenches Illuminating Maintenance

Plant Services - October 2007

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