MANAGEMENT
30 Fleet Maintenance | JULY 2017
Many times, PM (preventive maintenance)
is not as eff ective as we want. Th e
reason being: we take a too-limited view
of the reasons for, and the execution of,
PM tasks. What’s more, we assume our
team has the competence, spare parts
and tools to be successful.
Beyond the elements of a successful
maintenance job, there are fi ve dimensions
or fi ve points of view. Are you
managing all fi ve of them?
1. Statutory
Th is is the fi rst dimension/point. For
fl eets, the fi rst driver for maintenance
is the law. Vehicle inspections are
supposed to ensure minimal safety
standards are followed.
In Pennsylvania, for example, the
items on the vehicle inspection lists were
actually written into the law.
Traditionally, fl eets in Pennsylvania
have used the law – or more properly the
threat of the law – as leverage to have
recalcitrant vehicle owners bring their
vehicles into the shop. (Th ere is nothing
like a ticket to help some people see the
light.) At that time, any pending corrective
work can also be completed.
2. Engineering
In specialized, custom and large equipment,
the PM is treated as an engineering
issue. What tasks will have the
greatest impact? Th e tasks have to be
the right tasks, being done with the right
techniques, at the right frequency.
Many PM systems have elaborate
PM tasking but breakdowns occur
anyway. Th is could be because the
wrong things are being looked at, in the
wrong frequency. It could also be that
the failure was random and diffi cult to
anticipate, such as a rock fl inging up and
breaking the windshield.
In other words, the tasks have to
detect or correct critical wear that is
occurring. Analysis of failure statistics,
uptime and repair is included in the
engineering dimension of PM.
3. Economic
We do not want to spend $1,000 to
solve a $500 problem. Th e tasks must
be ‘worth’ doing. One measure of this is
to determine if doing the tasks furthers
the business goals of the organization.
Is the value of the failure greater than
the cost of the tasks? Spending $1,000 to
maintain an asset worth $500 is usually
a waste of resources unless there is
a downtime, environmental or safety
issue. Th is is the critical economic question.
Th e RCM (reliability centered maintenance)
approach includes in the “worth
doing” equation tasks where failures
could result in environmental catastrophe
or loss of life or limb. In any case,
the economic dimension is the critical
one when deciding to go with PM or not.
4. People-Psychological
Th e people doing the PM have to be motivated
to the extent that they actually do
the designated tasks properly. Without
motivation and buy-in, PM rapidly
becomes mind numbing. Th ey also need
to attend to the level of detail generated
by a PM system. Furthermore, the actual
PM workers have to be properly trained to
know what they are looking at and why.
5. Management
PM has to be built into the systems and
procedures that control the business.
Th e business systems need to cause good
PM to take place.
The System
W.E. Deming, the quality guru, said that
quality was in the system of production,
not in the individual eff ort. A “tackedon”’
PM system is rarely eff ective for the
long haul. Information collected from
PM has to be integrated into the fl ow of
business information. PM data, such as
PM compliance, has to be reported to
the director of operations so that there
is a structure outside maintenance
causing accountability.
Th e thought question for you: Have
you neglected any of the fi ve PM dimensions?
Eff ective
PM Is Five
Dimensional
Is your view of preventative
maintenance too narrow?
» For preventive maintenance to
be as effective as possible, the five
dimensions, or five points of view, of PM
need to be integrated into the system.
Photo courtesy of Eaton
A too-limited
view of PM
By Joel Levitt
DIRECTOR OF PROJECTS, RELIABILITY LEADERSHIP
INSTITUTE, RELIABILITYWEB.COM
Reliabilityweb.com provides reliability and uptime maintenance
news and educational information to help make asset managers,
reliability leaders and maintenance professionals safer and more
successful. The Reliability Leadership Institute is a community of
practice to improve how organizations deliver asset performance
through the use of Uptime Elements, a reliability framework.
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