When an industrial organization decides to start systematic monitoring of the state of its maintenance and focus on its development so that the activities support the business, the need for selecting the proper indicators emerges quite quickly. What do we want and what can we measure? What goals do we want to achieve by using them? And most importantly – how do our development steps support the strategy of the organization?
The success of maintenance is a matter for the whole organization and requires input from all stakeholders. Therefore, all participants must also have access to up-to-date data that relate to their tasks and are under their influence. In order to do their part, they need to know the current situation, what they are aiming for and how the goals can be met.
The three key stakeholders involved in manufacturing companies are the management, as well as maintenance and development staff.
Management sets maintenance goals
The key role of the management in the development of maintenance is based on the fact that the goals set for maintenance are part of the company’s strategy. Management’s involvement in maintenance creates an image of importance of maintenance work, defines the needed resources and, at its best, motivates all personnel to promote maintenance goals.
The indicators essential to management are cost-related indicators, the overall situation of utilization and the technical usability of the equipment. It is important for the management to see the overall picture of the current situation. They should also be able to drill down to the desired level, for example, to an individual production line. The maintenance status is also strongly linked to investments, which is always a matter of interest to the management.
Maintenance is responsible for daily success
The indicators for the personnel performing practical maintenance work need to be more specific, and they should control the monthly, weekly and daily work in accordance with the strategy and objectives. The purpose of the indicators is to provide a transparent snapshot of the current situation and help plan the work on a short and long term. Therefore, they usually have more indicators than the management.
The most important maintenance indicators are, for example, calculated key figures (average failure interval, average downtime, average waiting time), repair debt and the degree of maintenance planning. In addition, costs should be monitored at a relatively specified level.
Development analyzes activities and monitors change
Personnel assigned to development work monitor in part the same indicators as the maintenance personnel, but from a slightly different perspective. Development personnel need to delve even deeper into the root causes and follow the changing trendlines systematically. This is also well supported by the jointly agreed practices of weekly reviews on liability issues and the development of maintenance plans and processes to increase the frequency of inspections.
Key indicators of development include calculated key figures, TOP10 fault classifications and itemized costs. In addition, it is possible to monitor, for example, the implementation of preventive maintenance, the success of work planning and inventory reports.
It is noteworthy that although the monitoring of indicators is the responsibility of certain parties, the position of the hands also depends on other parts of the watch movement. In addition to the maintenance system, the data used as a basis for the indicators originates from other systems, such as production and monitoring systems, as well.
The measurement of maintenance and its development are, above all, a result of cooperation. At their best, the organizational levels that follow the indicators receive comprehensive information from the whole organization and make the results of the development work visible to others. This makes development work motivating for everyone.
Read more:
Blog: How is maintenance data refined into additional value for business operations and decision-making?
Blog: Budgeting as a tool of maintenance development
Novi by Pinja maintenance system
