Maintenance documentation is a mixed bag.
Some work procedures include highly detailed information, but more often they are incomplete, vague or have not been updated to best practices. Sometimes these procedures are taken from OEM manuals, which are too generic and require design knowledge to understand which steps are applicable. Many procedures include errors or outdated methods that are ignored by knowledgeable staff who perform the work. Others include photos and drawings that may have been photocopied 30 times since the 70s and are no longer distinguishable.
For years, maintenance crews have been relying on the experience of their workforce to perform the work correctly despite poor instructions. However, mass retirement from an aging workforce, higher employee turnover rates and leaner staffs have taken away this safety net of experience and leave facilities at risk. One of the greatest risks to the safe and profitable operation of plants is preventable errors that result in online equipment failure.
If this is what bad looks like, what would a good procedure require? First, it needs to adequately capture the institutional knowledge of skilled professionals who are familiar with the equipment. Second, it must clearly illustrate each step in the procedure in a way that is easy to follow. Third, it needs to accurately reproduce the design of the installed equipment instead of being overly generic. Lastly, it needs to be delivered in a format that reflects how the new generation of workers consume information - digital and interactive.
Let's look more closely at the first requirement. Experienced workers, many of whom have spent 40 years as stewards of equipment, are leaving the workforce. In very few cases has the benefit of their experience been adequately recorded or transferred to the new generation taking their place. There are many reasons for this. Many workers retired at the beginning of the pandemic when we were all spending time and energy struggling to understand how to operate essential assets safely and had no extra bandwidth to address this. In some cases, there was a training period as experienced workers were leaving, but a competitive job market caused those trained workers to seek positions elsewhere. Codifying the institutional knowledge held by seasoned maintenance professionals can help us maintain this knowledge.
Moving on to the second and third requirements, work procedures need to clearly represent each step, and these steps need to be specific to the installed equipment. Imagine that a newly hired maintenance professional is working on a piece of equipment for the first time and the work instructions look more like a 'choose your own adventure' book than a sequential step-by-step procedure. How would they have the requisite knowledge to know what steps are applicable to the equipment at hand, which they have never seen?
The last requirement may seem more of a want than a need, but it is just as critical as the others. Most workers who have graduated high school in the past 10-15 years are commonly referred to as digital natives and have been immersed in a learning environment that depends heavily on digital assets. Providing information in a way that is intuitive for them to use and matches the way they interact with information will help them retain that information more readily and complete work more efficiently. This not only helps reduce the risk for maintenance errors, but also streamlines the work completed to save on labor hours needed for each job.
Maintenance professionals have a great responsibility - to keep plants running safely and reliably. Let's make sure they are armed with the best tools available.
Not sure how to start? Hydro can help.
For more information, visit hydroinc.com or call (832) 720-8691.