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Leveraging Pain and Gain

Jan. 2, 2019
Flag repairs that eliminate/reduce a source of irritation or that are a revenue loss creator.

“You break it, we fix it” is typically how maintenance sees repairs. There’s gainful employment from fixing the same things repeatedly, but that approach doesn’t enhance your career or give your company a competitive advantage.

You don’t have time to analyze every repair, but each month, flag one that if fixed differently (e.g., an equipment modification or root cause repair) will eliminate or reduce either:

  1. A source of irritation to production workers and/or management.
  2. A revenue loss creator.

The “frequent flyer” types of failures provide the best opportunity because you don’t have to wait a year for the results of corrective actions to become evident to everyone.

For example, lighting ballasts frequently fail in Area 3 and this annoys workers there. When replacing the next one, ask, “Why did this ballast fail?” Suppose there are five possible answers and one of those is “periodic voltage spikes.” So ask, “Do these happen and why?

Your power analyzer catches regular voltage spikes. Solving for this eliminates one cause of ballast failure, but also a root cause of other equipment failures. You hit a gold mine here.

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.

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