I Want to Break Free

Breaking Chains

Do you want to be ‘Break free’?

Can you remember that wonderful song from Freddie Mercury and Queen – “I Want to Break Free”.

I think that could well be the theme song for every Maintenance Manager!

None of us want to talk about breakdowns and failure

But the reality is that failure is a fact of life and the only way to escape it is if we opt out of life and responsibilities and do nothing.

When we talk about failure with machines, a lot of failures occur due to

• Wear
• Corrosion
• Fatigue and Old age

Failures can also occur due to bad maintenance, which involves bad practices or inferior workmanship. One can almost say that failures and the Lack of good Maintenance keep us at work but that is not our focus. Our job is to Minimise The ‘Failure Occurrence’ through good maintenance practices and excellent workmanship.

Failure Impact

The Bottom Line Impact of failures is very serious

• Excessive Repair Costs will destroy the profitability of the company we work for. This has implications in restricted budgets, job cuts, client loss, poor quality and a host of other things, as the company tries to cut costs. Not what we want.
• Accidents which can affect the company’s reputation
• Production Loss due to breakdowns because of poorly performing equipment.
• Failure can also put us into reverse mode and impact our strategy plans to move forward.
• All the positive aspects regarding our Proactive planning can be seriously undermined, such as our plans for What, When, How Often, Skills, Materials.

If we are not careful failure can swing us right back to breakdown reactive maintenance mode.

No Plan

So to put it in a nutshell, the consequence of failure, if not dealt with, will have a devastating impact on our organization, as we will inevitably reverse back into reactive quick-fix mode. Reactive Maintenance simply stated says we have no plan. Someone once told me that if you plan for nothing, then we will achieve it. No plan means that we will finish up working in an environment that has……..

• No System
• Unnecessary Breakdowns
• Expensive Maintenance
• Poor Effectiveness
• Poor Image
• Tail Wagging The Dog – in other words, the machines are controlling us instead of us controlling the machines

There is only one way out of this dilemma and that is we must take control of the situation through the use of a good Proactive Maintenance Management System.

If not, we are running on a very short lead towards disaster.

So let’s take a tip from Freddie Mercury and Queen and ‘Break free’

For more information email us at info@strobe-al.co.za or visit www.strobe-al.co.za