Maintenance, Repair & Operations

Do You Have Maintenance Activities or Maintenance Solutions?

Sept. 18, 2018

Being too busy could be a sign of ineffectiveness.

When it comes to maintenance, you don’t want to confuse being busy with being effective. If you seem too busy, that could be a sign that you need to be more effective.

Let’s take a look at a few examples to illustrate this point.

Activity No. 1: Getting equipment running when it fails. Doing the oldest PMs between times.

Effectiveness: Prioritizing work to prevent downtime in the first place. Fixing noncritical equipment is a lower priority than preventing critical equipment downtime.

Activity No. 2: Expanding the scope and detail of PM procedures to leave no stone unturned.

Effectiveness: Adjusting the scope and detail of PM procedures based on a risk analysis to best answer the question of how to allocate resources.

Activity No. 3: Sending people to training because training is important.

Effectiveness: Sending people to training that is targeted to the needs of their job.

Activity No. 4: Showing true dedication by chasing down missing drawings, manuals, or spare parts.

Effectiveness: Ensuring all drawings and manuals are current and available, if they apply to anything that needs to operate. Assess spare parts inventory to remove spares that are no longer needed. Ensure spares kept in inventory are in usable condition.

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.