International statistics do not lie

Never Stop Moving Forward

Well, what can I say! Simply this – Never Stop Moving Forward.

This is key and is the right road to follow with your destination being World-Class recognition. On your journey, you will experience potholes and roadblocks but keep moving forward. Embrace it and run with it because great rewards for you and your company are waiting to be enjoyed.

International Survey

Still, under the general heading of ‘Does it all work’, we can now positively further respond to that question by looking at some International Survey results, conducted by AT Kearney and the Industrial Week Magazine. They surveyed 558 international companies who were using a CMMS.

The results represented are the average of all the results, so obviously some companies exceeded the figures represented and some fell short and I would suggest that the difference was in the quality of the implementation project and the ongoing project of Continual Improvement.

The results are quite staggering         

• 28.3% Increase in Maintenance Production
• 20.1% Reduction in Equipment Downtime
• 19.4% Lower Material Costs
• 17.8% Reduction in Maintenance, Repair and Operations Costs

Those percentages will convert into staggering savings of millions of dollars for those companies.

Can you imagine being able to achieve these sorts of savings at your facility?

Maintenance Management does work but the effectiveness of it is subject to the quality of the implementation project and then the commitment and use of the system going forward. You may recall reading earlier that we stated after the implementation project, the real project of ongoing improvement starts.

Purpose of Planning Maintenance

Well, we have covered a lot of ground in this Maintenance Management series of articles which I hope you have found informative and enjoyable but before we wrap up, one question remains.

Do you know why it’s important to plan your maintenance?

It should be:

• Because you want to get the job done right first time! 
• In the shortest possible downtime
• So you can get your equipment back working properly
• To produce quality product
• For as long as possible before the next repair

That sounds quite a tall order but the only way to achieve that is to start good maintenance practices by introducing and activating a dynamic Maintenance Management System

Are these going to be your business drivers?

• Maximum plant availability?
• Maximum mean time between equipment failures?
• Minimum cost to achieve them?
• More efficiency and effectiveness with: –
  • People, time, equipment and money

Then Maintenance Management Planning will help you to achieve that

Summary

We started this series talking about Breakdown Nightmares. By now I hope that you are getting a good night’s sound sleep and that all those nightmares have been put out to pasture. Also please remember Rome was not built in a day but it was built over a period of time. The same applies to our maintenance systems. There is no overnight solution. Overnight success is generally the result of many months of working the process, so if you haven’t started yet, get the process moving as soon as possible. There will never be a convenient time. Work pressures will always dictate starting tomorrow but so often tomorrow never comes. Bite the bullet and get moving. Success is waiting around the corner and once started you will find you will start to build up a passion for success.

My hope is that you have caught this passion called Maintenance Management and that this will come to serve you well in your future career in this amazing industry.

If you have enjoyed and found benefit in this series on Maintenance Management, can I encourage you to move to our next series where together we can explore The Wonderful World of Asset Management?

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