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Test & Measurement

Tip of the Week: The Maintenance Activity Mindset

Jan. 8, 2018

Too much focus on keeping workers busy may result in inefficient maintenance.

What image does the phrase “maintenance activity” bring to mind? The word activity hints at a mindset that is self-defeating.

That mindset is one of keeping people busy. If your maintenance people are barely keeping up with their preventive maintenance (PM) work load, someone in management may conclude you are making the most of your human resources. Your personnel are “fully utilized.” Not an idle person in the bunch, and everyone is busy all the time.

But do your machines care if people are busy? Does constant activity have any correlation to uptime?

Your maintenance supervisors can go around making sure people always have something to do. And your people can play this game, too, always stretching a job to keep up the appearance of being busy. This is how you institutionalize inefficiency and lower effectiveness, when in fact you want to institutionalize an efficiency mentality and maximize effectiveness.

Does it make sense that, instead of keeping busy, your maintenance supervisors and the people who report to them should focus on preventing unscheduled downtime? Knowing the condition of the equipment and taking action only when necessary is the basic strategy here.

Generally, you want only as much maintenance activity as the equipment conditions merit (in addition to the activity required to know those conditions). What more could you be doing to know the condition of your equipment? What kinds of monitoring, measuring, and assessment are you not doing that you could be doing? Why are you not doing it?

About the Author

Mark Lamendola

Mark is an expert in maintenance management, having racked up an impressive track record during his time working in the field. He also has extensive knowledge of, and practical expertise with, the National Electrical Code (NEC). Through his consulting business, he provides articles and training materials on electrical topics, specializing in making difficult subjects easy to understand and focusing on the practical aspects of electrical work.

Prior to starting his own business, Mark served as the Technical Editor on EC&M for six years, worked three years in nuclear maintenance, six years as a contract project engineer/project manager, three years as a systems engineer, and three years in plant maintenance management.

Mark earned an AAS degree from Rock Valley College, a BSEET from Columbia Pacific University, and an MBA from Lake Erie College. He’s also completed several related certifications over the years and even was formerly licensed as a Master Electrician. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and past Chairman of the Kansas City Chapters of both the IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society. Mark also served as the program director for, a board member of, and webmaster of, the Midwest Chapter of the 7x24 Exchange. He has also held memberships with the following organizations: NETA, NFPA, International Association of Webmasters, and Institute of Certified Professional Managers.