What is Emergency Maintenance and How to Deal With It?
Emergency maintenance is a pain to deal with. It’s the kind of work that, when identified, is so urgent that it must be done immediately, even though it’s not part of your frozen schedule. And often it is 3 to 5 times more expensive than properly planned work. That’s why we do our best to […]
Overtime is E.V.I.L
Most technicians see overtime as a good thing. They get more pay. They get more time to finish the job. And they get to show how diligent they are at work. The downside is the stress of working more hours. But to some people, that stress is worth the extra pay. I get it. I’ve had my […]
Maintenance vs. Production
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room… If you’re a maintenance professional, I’m sure you’ve felt the tense atmosphere between maintenance and operations. When I speak to maintenance teams, these are some of the common complaints about their Operations colleagues… Now, when I speak to the Operations team and hear what they say about […]
High-cost ≠ High Reliability
Many organisations believe that achieving high reliability is expensive. But it doesn’t have to be. The inconvenient truth is— A vast majority of plants around the world still experience low reliability despite the high costs of their maintenance. These plants invest in… … shiny new software … complicated frameworks … expensive contractors But don’t see […]
3 Ways to find money in Maintenance
There is a common misconception that maintenance is nothing more than a ‘cost centre’. What most organisations don’t realize is that there are big opportunities to increase a plant’s profitability through maintenance and reliability. If you want to start improving your plant’s profitability, then there are 3 strategies you can implement: The first is implementing […]
Maintenance Planning is NOT a desk job
Do you know what it takes to be an effective maintenance planner? All too often organisations hire planners that have insufficient experience. But if you want to get results from your planning and scheduling efforts, you need to hire the right people for the job. People with the right attitudes. The right skills. Among other […]
Why do Engineers insist on making things complicated?
Complicated solutions aren’t always the right choice. They may look colorful and flashy—but they’re not always effective. Sometimes, the best solutions are the simplest. They cost less money, take less time to do, and they’re easier to understand. But the thing is… humans like complex solutions. And here’s why: I read a study saying— “If […]
If your maintenance crew had one EXTRA hour a day
Plenty of maintenance teams struggle to finish their tasks within the day. “We just don’t have enough time to do everything.” So in an effort to catch up, they work long hours. What’s worse is, that they sacrifice improvement initiatives, self-care, and team building. They lose sight of long-term goals in favor of short-term fixes. […]
Is your preventive maintenance even worth doing?
Research and experience show that up to 60% of Preventive Maintenance (PM) tasks aren’t really adding value — all they do is just take time and money away from your already very limited resource pool. Some of the most common reasons for this are: Tasks are duplicated. Tasks are done too frequently or not frequent […]
How to get more work done faster
Last week, I talked about how different sources of waste are impacting your maintenance performance and your plant’s reliability. This week, let’s get into more detail on how waste is reducing the efficiency of your day-to-day maintenance execution. When you take a look at the Weekly Schedule of your maintenance crew, it will be full […]
