Maintenance Management 101: Part 4

Maintenance Management 101: Part 4

• The more reactive you are, the more you have to depend on a good storeroom.
  The word “reaction” means “a response, as to a stimulus or influence.” Reactive maintenance organizations frequently have to “respond” to the “stimulus” of an equipment breakdown. When this happens, they rarely know what damage they are going to find – or what parts will be needed to return the equipment to service. Therefore, the storeroom must have a wide selection of parts to meet any conceivable circumstance.
  
  On the other hand, organizations that follow a proactive maintenance philosophy place a high degree of emphasis on knowing the condition of their equipment. The definition of proactive is “controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than waiting to respond after it happens.” Proactive organizations “control” a potential breakdown situation by “causing” an equipment inspection to happen, with the purpose of understanding the equipment’s condition. When the scope of the corrective action is small and predictable, this enables them to detect a deteriorating condition before failure occurs. Usually, there is sufficient advance warning that parts can be ordered from the vendors on a “just-in-time” basis and be on site well in advance of the potential failure. There is little need to stock the parts “just in case”.
  
  Think about it – if you were guaranteed that you would never have another unanticipated breakdown, would you need to have a storeroom at all? Obviously, this is an ideal and unrealistic scenario because there are no guarantees. However, with a proactive philosophy, fewer parts need to be stocked, and lower inventories are needed for those that should be stocked due to long lead times. This can have a significant financial benefit because inventory carrying costs are influenced, to a large degree, by inventory value. If you’re proactive, you can reduce inventory without assuming additional risk.



• The second law of thermodynamics applies to Maintenance.
  The second law of thermodynamics deals with entropy, or the amount of “disorder” in a system (where equilibrium is a state of maximum disorder). Entropy can be reduced in a system by external action. An example of this concept is the common refrigerator. As long as we keep putting energy into the system (in the form of electricity), we can minimize entropy inside and keep it from reaching equilibrium with the surrounding room. Said another way, it takes a constant infusion of energy to minimize disorder.
  
  The same thing is true of Maintenance. The “equilibrium” state of the Maintenance function is one in which disorder reigns – a reactive state. And, like the second law of thermodynamics, it takes a constant infusion of energy – managerial energy – to minimize this disorder. This energy requirement takes on several forms, from a properly functioning work order system, to sound preventive and predictive maintenance programs, to efficient work execution through planning and scheduling, to root cause analysis of those failures that do occur, and so on.
  
  A truly proactive culture requires that the organization do a lot of things right; this is why so few organizations have truly achieved it. And once it is achieved, the organization cannot relax or entropy will raise its ugly head. Proactive maintenance needs the constant infusion of energy, because no matter how good you are, there is always room to improve!