Fixing the Real Problem

When repairs are performed in an industrial setting, there is usually a great deal of pressure to get the equipment running again. That’s understandable, because when the equipment isn’t running it’s not making money. But putting the pressure here, or responding to it here, is like closing the barn doors after the horses are already gone.

What gets lost in the shuffle is the fact that equipment breaks for some reason other than mysterious gremlins. Most of the time, it breaks because of a preventable cause. Often, that preventable cause is a deficiency in how the equipment is maintained. That deficiency could be due to any of several factors such as poor training (always the case when motors are greased improperly) or missing maintenance tests (Nah, we don’t check for vibration because we don’t have a vibration tester).

Solution: Train every repair technician (which, typically, means every maintenance electrician and mechanic) in basic failure analysis and provide them with a means to report the findings so they are acted upon.