Fleet Maintenance - 38

MANAGEMENT
» It does a fleet no good to complete PM
inspections and then not get around to
fixing the found defects and issues.
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Are you good at PM?
Work a little each week to reduce defects.
Most fleets are pretty good at preventive
maintenance (PM). So, if you are pretty good,
why do you still have excessive breakdowns?
If a fleet wants to reduce failures, they have
to complete PMs, but a fleet also must correct
any defects, damage, or deterioration they
find. It does a fleet no good to complete PM
inspections and then not get around to fixing
the revealed defects and issues.

Failures and reliability

The primary purpose of preventive maintenance
is to postpone or stop potential failures in the
future. Of course, technicians also find defects
that require fixing immediately or soon after
they're found. Repairing these defects reduces
the chance of breakdowns in the near future,
since those problems have already commenced,
and deterioration has already occurred.
Like a lot of areas of study, this is an
oversimplification.
I'm going to say something about failures
that might get me run out on a rail or tarred

By Joel Levitt

PRESIDENT, SPRINGFIELD RESOURCES
Springfield Resources (maintenancetraining.com) is a
management consulting firm that services a variety of
clients on a wide range of maintenance issues. Levitt is
the president of the company and has trained more than
17,000 maintenance leaders from more than 3,000 organizations in 38 countries. He is also the creator of LaserFocused Training, a flexible training program that provides
specific, targeted training on your schedule, online to
1-250 people in maintenance management, asset management, and reliability.

38 Fleet Maintenance | August 2019

and feathered. It goes against every text
you've read and a few I've written. Here is
the truth:
Ü You can never PM your way to reliability.
Ü You can never plan your way to reliability.
Ü You can never schedule your way to
reliability.
Ü You can never invest or buy your way to
reliability.
Ü You can never scan, using any technology,
your way to reliability.
Ü No silver, gold, or platinum bullet will give
you reliability.
The only thing you can do is reduce the
number of defects and waste entering your
system faster than defects and waste are
added. In other words, focus on eliminating
defects and waste.

Find the balance

A defect is anything that adversely impacts
your assets and the health, environment,
and safety of your people. A fleet's vehicles,
storeroom, and shop are like an Olympic-sized
swimming pool full of defects.
You are already removing defects. PM inspections, CDL driver pre- and post-trip inspections,
basic maintenance practices, driver logs following hours of service rules, and even a vehicle's
remotely connected computers making recommendations for part replacements can all help
get rid of defects.
But defects are likely flowing in faster than
you are dealing with them. That Olympic-sized
pool is filling up.

Any one of these defects might be able to turn
into a breakdown, and you won't always know
which defect will transform and go to the dark
side. According to Winston Ledet, a consultant
and instructor of proactive manufacturing and
maintenance, defects come in five flavors:
Ü Defects that flow in with raw materials
(including engine oil and diesel fuel)
Ü Defects due to carelessness or mis-operation
of the asset
Ü Defects due to a lack of proper maintenance
craftsmanship or because of maintenance
carelessness
Ü Defects due to inadequate, bad, or counterfeit parts
Ü Defects due to design flaws, or procurement
of assets with insufficient capacity
Defects I would also add to this list include
waste of any labor, utilities, raw materials,
fuel, or from poor routing, poor tooling, poor
scheduling, etc.

Where to focus

Many of you have seen and studied the safety
pyramid. As a reminder, the base of the pyramid represents hundreds or thousands of
minor incidents, near misses, or slight safety
items. While the highest level of the pyramid
is the smallest in size, it represents major items
such as lost time, accidents, injuries, or even
loss of life.
The critical message is to deal with every
little issue, minor incident, and near miss. If
you want a safe shop, you need to deal with all
the minor issues. You don't know which ones
will be among the causes of the more significant event. In a way, it doesn't matter which
incidents you deal with first if it is an ongoing
process. Though, personally I would recommend addressing safety issues first.
Defects are the same: you don't know which
one will contribute to a breakdown. The only
logical thing to do is work a little every week
on reducing defects. Just a little effort is all you
need if you are in it for the long-term. Where
you start eliminating defects is less critical. It's
more important to begin the process in the first
place, and then continue to work at it. Here are
some examples of what a fleet can do:
Ü Focus on reducing the incidence of careless work habits from everyone who drives,
repairs, fuels, moves, and cleans your
equipment.
Ü Focus on removing defects and remediation
of their causes.
Ü Focus on eliminating contamination and
bad chemistry in fuel, oil, and antifreeze.
Ü Focus on waste elimination.
Ü Focus on doing jobs right and returning
units to the road in like-new condition.
Ü Focus on getting good quality spare parts
and be alert for counterfeits.
Ü Focus on buying the right equipment for the
job in the first place.

http://www.maintenancetraining.com

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