Manufacturing Preventive Maintenance

The objective of this presentation is to illustrate how a planned, preventive approach to maintenance management can be an enabler for eliminating waste. Tools and techniques like long- and short-range equipment maintenance scheduling, efficient work order management, MRO materials planning, effective manpower utilization, and comprehensive cost management used within the framework of an integrated information system can help achieve this goal. These tools are the means for making informed decisions, containing costs, making better use of resources, and preventing the causes of waste. In this presentation, we will discuss the elements of an effective maintenance strategy to eliminate waste and describe the tools and techniques to achieve the strategy.

Equipment requirements of world-class manufacturing systems have heightened the need for an effective, proactive maintenance strategy. Competitively positioned manufacturing companies emphasize eliminating waste throughout the enterprise. Mainte­nance organizations are one area where significant improvement can be realized by eliminating the causes of waste.

We must recognize that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between waste and the cost of waste. Excessive maintenance and repair (MRO) inventories represent waste caused by poor main­tenance material requirements planning. Inefficient craft utiliza­tion and maintenance worker idle time is caused by poor manpower planning and underutilization of capacity. Loss of production capacity because of repeated equipment failures is caused by the lack of preventive and predictive maintenance, and scheduling of regular overhauls, inspections, and lubrication cycles. The effects of these wasteful conditions are large invest­ments of working capital for just-in-case, inventories, excessive overtime expenditures, high production outages, and maintenance costs that consistency far exceed annual estimates and plans.

The chief catalyst in eliminating waste in the maintenance orga­nization is the development of a strategy for prevention rather than reaction. A strategy that emphasizes planning and scheduling maintenance activities to maintain equipment reliability.

The foundation for a maintenance strategy that emphasizes plan­ning and prevention is provided by a sound management approach comprised of these elements:

• achieving balance between machine availability and mainte­nance costs. The thrust is on maintaining equipment at a standard level of performance that will increase equipment life and minimize capital investment and maintenance costs.

• delivering quality maintenance service at a required level within an acceptable time frame to the customer—manufacturing.

• utilizing a reliable and formalized process of planning and scheduling the maintenance workload, monitoring perfor­mance and improvement. Planning and executing of mainte­nance considers quality, quantity, costs, timing and safety.

• preventing failures that compromise equipment availability and reliability. Failure prevention is accomplished through the proper mix of preventive, predictive and repair maintenance.

• reducing maintenance (MRO) inventories through better mate­rials requirements planning, use of equipment BOMs, time-phased ordering, eliminating obsolete parts and coordinating material requirements with maintenance schedules.

• increasing labor utilization ratios by efficiently allocating resources to schedules, matching maintenance job require­ments to crew availability and using predefined task lists or routings as the basis for better planning.

With the elements of the strategy and approach as a driver, eliminating the causes of waste involves employing the tools and techniques to manage maintenance resources and costs. These tools and techniques include:

• demand management

• workload planning and scheduling

• MRO inventory management

• manpower planning

• maintenance cost accounting

• integrated information system

To be Continued

Lean Six Sigma Training   Thinking Out of the Box   
Balanced Scorecards  Strategic Tactical Planning  
Supply Chain Inventory Management  Total Quality Management Principles
Lean Manufacturing Implementation  Lean Manufacturing Principles