Making Repairs Faster, Part 1

You've been through it. Equipment is down, and people wearing ties are circling like flies. Every few minutes, someone asks, "How much longer?" and you think of the pesky kid repeatedly asking, "Are we there, yet?"

You're aware that every minute of downtime costs several thousand dollars in lost production. So you work faster, and then you make a mistake.

Working faster is a natural response to the pressure encountered during critical downtime. But this response presents a huge risk of making the job take longer — sometimes, a lot longer.

Think of when you've properly planned a business trip (leaving home the pesky kid, perhaps). Can you recall wasting precious time looking for your car keys? No, that happens when you're making a quick, unplanned trip.

It's a mistake not to plan for specific downtime scenarios. Preparing a situation-based response ahead of time can dramatically reduce repair times — especially when you work to make it efficient, methodical, and error-resistant.