Leadership took the findings and recommendations to heart. Six months after receiving the report, they had restructured the entire maintenance organization. The department has one maintenance manager who is responsible for the group — four supervisors, four planners, two schedulers.
They also have established a weekly scheduling meeting to lock in a week. This step allows the storeroom personnel to kit planned activities and PMs. They are in the process of writing process guides to further refine the work management procedures. They also have completed a review of the CMMS configuration, updated status codes and failure codes, and completed backlog cleanup.
The results are promising, and the culture change was almost immediately recognizable when I returned — a far cry from where it was just a few months ago. Turnover ratio has declined, and maintenance is no longer a dirty word in the organization.
The case studies demonstrate organizations that made the leap of faith in making significant changes to the current state of maintenance activities. The organizations also supported these changes with a heavy dose of change management principles, which most organizations underestimate. These actions resulted in significant improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance activities. Furthermore, costs decreased, and the bottom line improved.
I’m willing to bet that folks at these two organizations are feeling a greater sense of accomplishment and contribution because they know they are making a difference, as opposed to just coming to work to look busy.
Technician Productivity: Strategies for Success
Defining Roles and Responsibilities To Increase Productivity
Putting Plans into Action to Increase Technician Productivity
