Cost pressures and rounds of budget cuts help instill a mindset of “How can we do this most cheaply?” This means everyone from the maintenance technician to the plant manager is gambling with the production flow.
Yes, of course you don’t want maintenance to be wasteful. But your focus needs to be on safely and efficiently moving product out the door, with products prioritized by their value. Product value is determined by profitability and the criticality of a given customer or market; ask production to rank each product line for you.
When you have that focus and think in those terms, you align with a major goal of your company, which is to sell product profitably (as opposed to seeing how much money it can save).
Consequently, you allocate resources to where they produce the highest return on investment, thus causing maintenance performance to do the same. Additionally, your capital requests get a higher sign-off rate because you frame the proposal with the same mindset the executives have.
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.