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Robert Landau, Senior Principal, Pöyry Management Consulting described a metrics approach to maintenance management in a presentation called “Taking the Mystery out of Maintenance”. If the use of KPI’s have become standard for most mills and for the manufacturing sector in general, indicators and measurable benchmarks for maintenance are less common. Typical approaches are rather reactive than proactive; they are “lagging rather than predictive”. In describing the steps in the maintenance process Robert Landau recalled the importance of managing performance. There are always skeptics in an organization that are not prepared to see things differently he said. In order to get buy in the consultant suggested to identify what he called “the execution gap”, described as “the difference between the capabilities of an operation and the realities of daily performance levels (with existing strategy & capital)”. As such, the best way to get buy in for a structured approach to managing maintenance is to do an assessment to quantify what can be gained by closing this execution gap. But not all metrics have the same quality; “there are 1000’s of things you could measure so you need to pick the ones that will determine success”. In supervisory positions new techniques are often considered as unessential add-ons and there is a fatigue / marathon effect for all these new management techniques and this is why Robert Landau always suggest: “start where you are”. Christer Idhammar, Founder & CEO, IDCON described his career as a consultant that started after eight years in the Swedish Merchant marines as craftsperson, engineer and then as chief engineer. In the first consulting group he joined he was responsible for maintenance management. This is where he developed and implemented computerized maintenance system. This was as early as 1968. He started his own consultancy in the United-States in 1972. He heard many engineer jokes throughout his career, most of them “not funny at all”… Still, some of these jokes reflect a certain truth. “Engineers are not very good people people. This is too bad he says because its 90% about people!” Maintenance reliability has to be a long-term goal. Unfortunately, he notes that there seems to be new maintenance techniques year after year. “This is very much alike weight-loss programs. There is a new one every week! But essentially, we all know how to loose weight to be healthy – we need to walk every day and eat better”. The recipe is simple and yet, “we still have to explain the difference between planning and scheduling in 2013. This is not the same.” On this simplicity note, Christer Idhammar stressed the importance never to use too much indicators at a same time and that “shop floor indicators
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remain the best ones to use”. Senior management often overlooks this yet; a prioritized focus in improvement efforts must be to take measures that improve overall reliability. Here, overall reliability includes operational, or process reliability and equipment reliability. This being said, “even with good skills, people cannot be more productive than the system they work in allows them to be”. In a lively presentation with southern tonalities, Ian McKinnon, Principal Partner, Chief Development Officer, Reliability Solutions, described what reliable manufacturing meant “on the floor”: precision improvement for real results. His time in the Canadian Navy probably changed his views on machinery from an early age. I was told that on this cruel sea you are either hunted or the hunter. Considered in this light, knowledge on the floor means survival. One reason “why we have to make sure we get skilled people in plants”. And this is an important concern since the workforce is aging and since about 50% of mills are over 50 years old. Ian McKinnon went on to describe the main sources of mechanical failure. What are they? “Its not about poor design as much as its about poor assembly, incorrect installation and how its serviced. In a “mechanical failure pie” graphic he showed that most breakdowns were due to: misalignment (30%), imbalance (30%), assembly (30%) and negligible other factors. For proven industry results, or “reliable manufacturing”, four angles should be covered: 1- Production Improvement; 2- Asset Reliability Enhancement; 3- Maintenance costs reduction; 4- Energy consumption.
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