Work to improve in 2005

As a new year begins for maintainers,it’s a good time to think about maintenance excellence. This issue, we showcase Purolator Courier Ltd. and Gennum Corp. (see pages 20-26). They were named winners of the PEM 2004 Maintenance Awards for best maintenance team.

What does it take to have a winning maintenance team? At the recent MainTrain 2004 conference (see page 6) in Toronto, presenters during the four-day event provided attendees with a toolbox of useful advice.

In his MainTrain pre-conference workshop on developing KPI’s,Terry Wireman, C.P.M.M., senior industry analyst with Genesis Solutions, said that maintainers have to do a better job of measuring performance.

“Maintenance performance indicators must be tied to long-range corporate business objectives. You shouldn’t use the indicator if it can’t add value to your business,” said Wireman. “Technology, communication and team work are imperative.

” At the Invensys user conference held late last year in San Antonio, TX, Neil Cooper, vice-president and general manager for Burlington, ON-based Invensys Avantis, and Houghton LeRoy, research director, enterprise asset management for the Dedham, MA-based ARC Advisory Group, had similar messages.

“Companies have to think of their plants as a whole. This takes into account plant operations, maintenance and engineering,” said Cooper. “The three groups have to talk the same language. This allows your software implementation to move forward.

“Commitment to knowledge management is needed. It means you have to know what to do with the information on the shop floor. You also can’t go from maintenance fundamentals to continuous improvement. You have to take the right steps to build value.

” LeRoy said that companies must use reliability centred maintenance (RCM) to strengthen their maintenance departments. He said that maintainers have to work outside the box.

“RCM is about sharing information in a collaborative environment. The new way is exciting,” he said. “RCM promotes proactive maintenance, reduces costs and optimizes MRO inventory.”

Innovation leads to success.

Robert Robertson, Editor
PEMAC Allied Member
rrobertson@clbmedia.ca