Industrial maintenance has for long suffered from the same challenge as insurance services in their own field: its true value is only recognized when an accident happens. In industry, this often refers to equipment breakage, which then brings production to a halt, requires quick action and puts both the organization’s resources and staff’s nerves to test.
Fortunately, however, this is changing. Maintenance development is undergoing a transition from isolated, reactive measures to holistic and preventive maintenance management, with the aim of continuous improvement. With the hot trend of industrial digitalization, many are starting to see maintenance as an integral part of the company’s key operations, and investments made in it do not require as much company-internal convincing as previously. At best, it is the company’s management that actually drives maintenance development.
As the digitalization rate in industry grows, maintenance becomes an increasingly important part of production resource lifecycle management.
Therefore, it is also not trivial where the company chooses to use its human contribution and working hours. When maintenance-related data accumulates and helps the company grow wiser, a technician’s work can be focused more and more on monitoring, observation and preventive maintenance. It is also important to ensure that the technician has all required information at hand and that supervisory processes work as intended. These are among the many contributing factors examined in maintenance development projects, including maintenance audits.
Start developing maintenance with an audit
A maintenance audit is a development method in which a company’s or a production facility’s maintenance operations are examined in a comprehensive manner, covering both their current state and development potential. In maintenance audits, it is essential so describe in practical terms both the current state and processes of the maintenance operations and the ambitions and target state going forward. The process also involves determining and describing hands-on implementation measures both for the short and long terms.
Many tools and documentation methods are readily available for maintenance audits to help chart the existing state of affairs and build a path towards the target state. They provide a framework for the different subareas of an audit while also visualizing the work and allowing for a better grasp of the big picture.
As the output, an audit may produce both short-term and long-term action plans that help put the specified measures into practice.
As required, the process may also produce process descriptions, system maps, responsibility assignment matrices and efficient follow-up indicators. Validated indicators improve the visibility of maintenance operations in the overall production, help follow up on the impacts during specific periods and also ensure that the resources are focused on the right issues.
Maintenance operations can be audited both by the company internally or by commissioning the work from an external auditor. One of the advantages of an external auditor is that they can look at the company’s operations with fresh eyes, without a historical burden. Based on their accumulated experience, auditors are also able to identify relevant aspects from different angles and refer to the best practices and benchmark from both the company’s own line of business and also on a wider scale, from other industries.
An important objective in all maintenance audits is that the whole work community contributes to systematic and transparent maintenance. When the whole organization share the goals and commit themselves to continuous improvement, it is possible to attain both business benefits and human advantages. Surely we all prefer to focus on smooth long-term work instead of running from an emergency to another.
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