In manufacturing facilities and process plants, maintenance errors account for a huge proportion of downtime causes.

In Part 1 of this series, we will cover ways to generally reduce maintenance errors. In Part 2, we will cover ways to reduce the specific maintenance errors that occur in your facility.

Some of the major vectors include random adjustment, unintentional contamination, inadvertent contact, and “time bombs.” These latter are the term for errors that don’t produce immediate problems but later come back to bite. Hard. For example, an electrician fails to properly secure one termination of the twelve he disconnected and a week later, it causes a system shutdown that has no apparent cause. And then a second shutdown and a third….

• Always take As Found data. Record any settings (e.g., controllers, VFDs, adjustable breakers) of the equipment to be worked on. Note the general condition and any anomalies. Photograph the nameplate data, not that it changes but to verify this was the correct equipment. Your As Found should match the last guy’s As Left data, if it does not then you have drift or unauthorized changes
• Record what you do at each step. If you unterminate the wiring terminated to TS-23, TS-24, and TS-25 make a note of it. You will need to go back through your list of what you did and inspect accordingly. That is how you find that loose connection or that switch not flipped back. It takes only a few extra minutes during the course of a job to record your action and recheck your work. But it can cost hours of downtime over several days to find the problem if the maintenance tech who caused it fails to discover it before closing out the job. Knowing exactly what was touched by whom can dramatically shorten troubleshooting time.
• Always take As Left data. Do a repeat of the As Found recording process when you’re done, making it the As Left. It also helps if you note why something was changed. Your As Left should match the next guy’s As Found data, if it does not then you have drift or unauthorized changes.
• Stop injecting dirt into motors. The introduction of dirt or other foreign material is arguably the single biggest maintenance error. Something auto mechanics are trained to do when lubricating a car’s tie rod ends and other suspension parts is to wipe the zirc clean before applying the grease gun (even if no dirt is visible). The maintenance people who lubricate motors need this same training. This is one reason lubrication is a skilled task, not dumb grunt work handed off to the most junior guy.
• Ensure lubricants are compatible. Incompatible greases destroy bearings. To help people always get it right, have a color-coded system for storing and dispensing grease. Also decide which type of greased gets used on specific equipment and mark that equipment for that grease.
• Stop adding floor dirt. It’s sometimes necessary to take something apart, replace a component, put it back together, and reinstall it. In the shop, you have the benefit of a work bench. In the field, you do not. A common “solution” is to use the floor. Always set down a cloth to work on, this keeps dirt from getting into what you are repairing.
• Cover surfaces. A good auto mechanic will always use a fender cloth to protect the car’s finish while leaning over that fender to work under the hood. The fender cloth also protects against tool scratches and other damage. For the electrician, it’s not so much about protecting paint finishes as it is about protecting against such things as inadvertent contact or dropping a screw into some place that will cause trouble. If there are exposed live parts in a panel, cover them with an insulating blanket or similar. If working over a grating, lay a tarp down so you don’t drop parts and tools through the grating. This not only prevents a safety hazard, it eliminates the time-waste of going down to the next floor to find those.
• Avoid bad guesses. Sometimes, procedures are confusing and people interpret them incorrectly. Keep procedures lean. Where possible, use the verb-noun construction with as little extra as possible. For example, “Disconnect power leads at motor weatherhead” is hard to misinterpret because of its directness and brevity.
• Let them do their job. It’s good if a supervisor watches a maintenance tech perform a PM. It’s bad if a supervisor distracts a maintenance tech who is trying to perform a PM. Protect the ability of maintenance techs to pay attention by keeping distractions such as time pressure, frequent questioning, and excess radio chatter away from them. Also listen to them when they complain about things such as administrative hassles, excess time getting spares, or being unable to find the right-sized ladder. It’s hard to concentrate when you are agitated or frustrated.