- Details
- Category: Blog
Understanding The Nature of Unplanned Downtime
Equipment Reliability discussions often focus on component failure yet this is only part of the picture. The delivery of high levels of reliability depends on more than technical expertise. As important is the way in which the leadership conversations drive front line Operator and Maintainer mindsets and behaviours.
Compare the behaviours of two engineers responding to a failure caused by a broken chain that has stopped production.
- The examples below illustrated the behaviours of similarly qualified engineers with similar job descriptions at two different food and drink manufacturers.
Engineer A replaces the chain and once the process is restarted moves onto the next job. - Engineer B replaces the chain and moves on but also notes that the chain failed due to poor alignment. The Engineer then works with colleagues to establish new practices to prevent that happening in future.
The actions of Engineer B doubles chain life and reduces the incidence of quality defects caused by misalignment. The low cost solution also had a positive impact on engagement of front line operators who now carry out visual inspections as part of the work routine.
The difference between the behaviours of the two engineers stems from Leadership expectations of
1. What the Engineers are held accountable for (their purpose)
2. What the Engineers have learned that their Leaders value (Their intent).
Together, these 2 factors shape the Engineers identity to drive these similarly skilled engineers to behave differently under a similar set of circumstances. (See table below).
| Accountability (Engineer Purpose) |
Leadership Value (Engineer Intent) |
Mindset | |
| Engineer A | Fix breakdowns | Problem fixing | Keep the line running at all costs. |
| Engineer B | Improve asset reliability | Problem Prevention | Learn from failure and prevent future reoccurrence |
Setting Engineer Expectations
The right leadership expectations are an effective countermeasure to the pressure of day to day short term issues. Challenging the myth that there is no time to deal with the causes of unplanned downtime when the time invested in dealing with these issues will be saved many times over.
The Reliability Break out road map provides a structured process to deal with the technical causes of unplanned downtime and manage the change in outlook using practical projects to surface issues and deal with them.
This involves a small team (5-7) of suitably knowledgeable front line personnel working on a troublesome or critical asset alongside the daily duties. As part of that programme, the lessons learned are used to align business and technical leader expectations as set out below.
Senior Management Role
- Sponsor a Plan for Every Asset (PFEA) based on measurable standards for Asset condition.
- Just having these will deal with around 40% of the causes of unplanned downtime.
Functional Head and Front Line Leader Roles
- Coach the reliability improvement team to refine and systemise routine tasks so that they are easy to do right, difficult to do wrong and simple to learn.
- That will lock in the gains, reduce the risk of human error and reinforce expectations to drive progress.
Front Line Production and Maintenance Roles
- Identify sources of contamination and error hot spots.
- Refining work routines to reduce this will deal with around 20% of the causes of unplanned downtime
- Refine inspection routines so that they can be carried out at a glance. That includes look feel listen and other condition based checks.
- That will deal with around 25% of the causes of unplanned downtime.
Technical specialist role
- Identify weak components but be sure that perceived weaknesses are not due to misuse, lack of skills or knowledge.
- This will deal with around 15% of the causes of unplanned downtime.
CMMS and Performance Management
Use current Maintenance Management and Performance Management systems to:
- Define performance improvement glide path.
- Capture results and track progress of Plan, Do, Check, Act Cycles to develop insight and share lessons learned
- Use trouble shooting algorithms to define normal conditions and improve the quality of feedback on the causes of unplanned downtime.
For more information access our free Resource on Taming Technology review our Break out support plan or contact us for a no obligation chat.
