It’s likely that a maintenance organization – even your maintenance organization – is highly reactive in nature, and the root cause is that there really isn’t a plan not to be reactive.
If your maintenance and reliability effort is not in concert and accordance with a pragmatic and well-designed strategy, you are by default, reactive.
Try not to be surprised or disheartened by this fact. A lack of a documented, effective maintenance and reliability strategy is at epidemic levels in all industries. Those entities that are lucky enough to have a strategic plan for asset health and performance are likely to only have such a practice because of heavy industry regulation.
Here's what we know. No successful organizations on earth became successful and sustained such success by accident. It is almost a certainty that the leadership created a ‘plan’ or a strategy to become successful and remain at a high level of achievement.
Suppose you combine this fact with the fact that almost all industries require physical assets to deliver their product or service. Doesn't it follow that we'd have a strategic plan for the continued performance and life of the assets? That makes sense.
Further, and most assuredly in the 21st Century, the need and requirement to engage associates in creating that asset care strategy helps generate practical solutions and activities that are likely to be executed. Empowerment, inclusion, and engagement are the currency of today's business survival.
At its core, a strategic development team should include representatives of those departments that will ultimately become the 'victims' of the strategy. In most cases, that would consist of maintenance, production, procurement/storeroom, safety, engineering, and supervision.
A strategic planning session should begin with a discussion of the company's objectives. Most organizations covet common objectives centered on being profitable, sustainable, innovative, good corporate citizens, and having a neutral impact on the environment.
With those guiding objectives, the strategy development team determines how best to set up the organizations for success 1, 2, 3, and even 5 years into the future.
The team should establish three to five concrete stretch goals. Accomplishing these three to five goals will establish the company on a footing that is strong and in a position for success in the identifiable future.
Engagement
In his book Scrum, Jeff Sutherland lays out the perfect size for a team. He suggests that a person can only hold about seven different and equally strong thoughts. So, seemingly seven is the ideal number. It turns out, as Sutherland suggests, that a better number is three. Three is a perfect number in nature.
It's unlikely that we'll generate the greatest number of 'good ideas' to choose from or gain a corporate sense of 'everyone was included' by only having teams of three. We'd lean more towards the seven to eight groupings.
The Executive Summary smartly pointed out that Empowerment, inclusion, and engagement are the currency of today's business survival. Employee participation is so powerful that OSHA requires it in their Process Safety Management programs as one of the 14 principle steps (CFR 29 1910:119).
Dr. Klaus M. Blanche at the University of Tennessee had this to say in one of his articles, "People with a sense of purpose and meaningful work (understanding the value of their role) are more likely to stay [versus look for other employment].”
Dr. Klaus’ article, perfectly titled “Engagement, Accountability Produce Results,” lists some staggering statistics, with most coming from Pew Research:
- Only about 34% of the U.S. workforce feels engaged
- Those teams who score in the top 20% in engagement experience 59% less turnover
- A Gallup employee engagement statistics poll reveals that 53% of workers in the U.S. are non-engaged
- Highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their place of work
Very few can argue against including the folks who will actually be executing the work from being involved (and thus 'engaged') in the design of the work. You are likely to get more realistic ideas, which are likely less expensive to execute. Not only that, you'd also be more likely to get the work done if those doing it were 'in on it'…so to speak.
To quote a fellow consultant, “Morale means I have a sense that I am valued and I am valuable.” You show someone their value by asking them what they think about the very work they are doing.
Strategy
A few issues need to be decided before an organization can sit down to really hash out a comprehensive strategy. First, as mentioned in the previous section, the size and makeup of the team must be determined. Too many people would make an ineffective team, and too few would be the same. Not having the associates, top to bottom represented in the strategy development is a strategic mistake (pun intended).
A strategy development team has to be formed, trained, and chartered. Chartering is necessary so the team stays focused on the tasks at hand. Many teams wander from their core charge to solve issues outside their purview and, quite honestly, the authority of the team. The idea is to position the organization in terms of maintenance and reliability in a favorable position 1, 2, 3, and even 5 years into the future.
Training would include learning how to work as a team and identifying the value each member brings. It is important in the training for each team member to grasp an understanding of what a strategy is and how it differs greatly from a tactical plan or execution.
It helps to think of a strategy as a chess champion's preparation before a match. Clearly, a champion would be familiar with the style and play of their opponent. Additionally, the champion would have a clear series of plays in mind and counter plays to position their pieces on the board where they are advantageous for the game the champion is trying to play. A plan of plays and counter plays, with additional planned game-time adjustments, is how the game is won.
Ultimately, how does the champion chess player ‘see’ the pieces moving so that they are successful in the end?
The tactical part of the work is the execution of the strategic plan. Continuing the chess metaphor, the players move their pieces in accordance with their strategic plan. They will make tactical real-time decisions as necessary, but always with the strategy in mind.
Your organization wants to 'win', using this example one more time. What do you have in place, and what will you put in place in the future to ensure that you'll always be profitable, sustainable, and innovative? That path, that plan, is your strategy.
Goals
A strategy wouldn't be complete if it didn't have a set of goals as part of the executable activities. Our chess champion from the previous section might have the following goals: protect the King, limit the Queen's exposure, and reduce the opponent's board to half-size while maintaining the full range of the board for themselves.
One particular area of goal setting, or goal establishment that has always been misused or downright ignored is the actual steps necessary to accomplish a goal.
Most of us were professionally raised to create SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based). You were likely NOT instructed to include the exact and detailed steps necessary for goal accomplishment in the 'Achievable' section.
Fortunately, we have a cure for that in the form of a goal-setting methodology referred to as Goals, Means, and Consequences. This new methodology also keeps us from formally creating really bad goals.
Most goals are written poorly. As an example:
“I want to lose 50 pounds in 12 months.”
The Goals, Means, and Consequences method will guide you in structuring a very effective and quite easy-to-accomplish a goal.
Here is that same goal written in the Goals, Means, and Consequences format:
Goal: Lose weight
Means:
- Consult a doctor before dieting and exercising
- Reduce calorie intake to 1,200/day
- Ensure meals include protein, vegetables, and fruit
- Drink 40 ounces of water/day
- Walk 2 miles/day
- Get 8 hours of sleep/night
Consequences:
- Weight reduced by 50 pounds in 12 months
- Reduction in pant and shirt sizes
- Feel better
- Increase the quality of sleep
- BMI reduced
If you follow the 'Means' listed above, you might not lose 50 pounds, but you'll lose weight…which, after all, was the goal!
Conclusion
This article started with a bold pronouncement.
It's likely that a maintenance organization, your maintenance organization, is highly reactive, and the root cause is that there really isn't a plan not to be…reactive.
If your maintenance and reliability effort is not in concert and accordance with a pragmatic and well-designed strategy, you are by default, reactive.
Organizations that are on the right track today are there because they’ve done three things really well:
- Engaged the workforce
- Developed a sound strategy to ‘get’ and ‘stay’ in a better place
- Created and achieved some remarkable goals
Success is predictable and repeatable. Have a plan, and execute it.
NOTES:
This article was created in support of John Ross' Reliable Plant Conference presentation.
Plan your trip to the 2025 Reliable Plant Conference in Chicago.
About the Author
John Ross, President of Maintenance Innovators has been a practitioner of maintenance and reliability for over three decades. A former Captain in t...
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