Work orders get spewed forth by the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), and maintenance techs dutifully complete them. Although this may be fine and dandy for some, there could be hidden problems in your system.
Do any of these situations apply to you?
- The few procedures that have been entered haven’t been updated in years.
- Procedures are so bare, they don’t really help; or so verbose that nobody reads them.
- Preventive maintenance (PM) work orders are assigned on the “warm body available” basis, rather than to qualified workers. Consequently, PMs are usually done incorrectly and thus increase equipment failures.
- PM frequencies are based on manufacturers’ recommended time intervals (a starting point only!) rather than on collected data (actual equipment condition).
- Many of the PMs should not be done anymore. They are no longer necessary, thanks to ultrasonic and thermographic inspection techniques. For example, ultrasonics can predict motor bearing failure a year in advance; there is no reason for techs to do traditional “listen and feel” inspections (which aren’t very good anyhow).
- Work orders are assigned without equipment location in mind, so techs traverse all over the building instead of moving along an efficient path.
If so, you might want to jump in and fix them now.
