At a time of high demand in America’s natural gas and oil industry, the shortage of skilled trades workers has been described as an acute worsening crisis, an epic, “industrial tsunami,” according to the Center For America. While trainers are gearing up to handle the impending influx of people needing skilled trades training, this new work force will be faced with the challenge of applying fundamental craft skills training to specific equipment and processes. However, the specifics of each facility are largely known by your experienced, soon-to-retire work force. This crisis brings an opportunity to use planning and scheduling strategies to lay a foundation for future generations of skilled trade workers and to increase their efficiency and effectiveness through standard work.
Asset management requires the planning and scheduling function to develop and execute according to standards that enable:
• Consistent performance of maintenance tasks.
• Guidance for existing and new employees.
• Control of conditions during execution of the task.
• Enhanced efficiency and effectiveness of tasks.
When new personnel arrive, no one can be expected to remember all the steps in each performance management (PM) procedure, much less the tolerances and other values necessary to ensure reliability of the machines. This information must be included on the work order details for PMs and corrective work. The task list also serves to help the task be planned, organized and executed more efficiently and effectively without introduction of accidental failure modes. In this way, standard work concepts are applied to maintenance planning and scheduling. Trainees apply their skill and knowledge to process and equipment specific tasks.
Kioyshi Suzaki places great emphasis on the importance of standard work practices in his book, “The New Shop Floor Management.” He points out, without standards, when personnel change positions or new employees arrive, if there is no required standard process then the situation invites them to do whatever they choose. This subsequently invites variation and error, and without an emphasis on standardized work, asset reliability excellence will be hindered by dozens of hidden upstream variables.
Three key terms are applied to maintenance planning and scheduling here: standardize, standards and standard work.
• Standardize — to come up with the best, most efficient way to do things in a preferred sequence.
• Standards — procedures or practices that are to be followed. In this application, standards are embodied in PM activities and work orders.
• Standard work — going about all tasks and processes in a consistent way in accordance with the standard PM or work order. The work order in the execution phase is used as a management tool to ensure conformity to standards.
Standard work, in the case of the execution of planned work, requires the supervisory and management teams to have work orders on-hand, used, reviewed and improved by the maintenance work force for every job governed by work orders.
All maintenance activities governed by work orders must be done in accordance with what is written on the work order every time. Otherwise, if adherence to the standard is not required, then the whole quest for asset management is lost. Variation follows, failure modes flourish once again and you wonder why.
Asset management means work orders will be improved over time and will include valuable information. To get the benefit from planning and scheduling and using work order management in your computerized maintenance management system, work orders must be reviewed each time they are executed. That is the fast road to overall improvement of work order quality, engaging the horsepower of the entire maintenance organization and not relegating the job of work order improvement to the planner alone. The specifics embedded in your work orders provide the foundation your new generation of workers will need to apply to their training.
For more information, call Ken Arthur at (813) 569-4043 or email KArthur@gpstrategies.com.
