How many tradespeople do you really need?

Several years ago, when I was trying to get approval to hire an additional machinist, my boss, who was a very smart mill manager, said “Don, I do believe that if you had twice

Root Cause Analysis of complex systems

See also – “Root cause, a discussion”   There are six key steps in addressing the root cause of problems 1 – Describe all the symptoms of the problem in detail 2 – Identify

Strengthen the Operations/Maintenance Partnership

One of the most important relationships that exists in any manufacturing operation, and in many institutions, is the Operations (or building manager) /Maintenance partnership. As has been covered in some of our other articles,

Don’t blindly trust your Maintenance busines…

All Maintenance business processes should be under constant review to ensure that they are promoting the activities that will give the best reliability and other desirable results. These processes include the work order system,

Always check your work

As a maintenance mechanic it almost goes without saying that an essential step in most detailed work plans is to check your work before you hand the equipment back to the operator. Sometimes that’s

Should you contract your Maintenance work?

Some principles and a case study As an option to reduce plant costs, plant managers may consider contracting out maintenance work. This may have some merit, depending on many factors, including the nature of

Maintenance Database Design, from First Principles

In other articles on this site, we’ve discussed identifying the required outputs for a maintenance computer system as an early step toward database design. “Outputs” include all those documents or screens used by Maintenance

Is “Schedule Compliance” a good Mainte…

“Schedule compliance” or “Adherence to schedule” is a commonly-used Maintenance KPI (Key Performance Indicator) and is a measure of how much of the maintenance work scheduled for a maintenance crew, usually in one week,

Daily scheduling

This article will be easier to follow if you have watched Part 1 and Part 2 of the weekly scheduling videos. Following the guidelines in these videos you will be able to produce and maintain