Key performance redefined
Through the years, those of us on the maintenance side of the manufacturing process have lamented about the lack of true teamwork and collaboration among production, engineering, and maintenance people. We point fingers at the other two groups in the morning meeting and mutter, "If only they…"
I've been guilty of this. But, a light bulb went on in my brain the other day as I was walking through a mill in North Carolina. Actually, it could have been anywhere that maintenance people are gathered, because the conversation was very familiar-and peppered with acronymsŠMTBF, CBM, CMMS, BOM, MTTR, EAM, TCO, RCM, etc.
Listen carefully, and you realize we have our own language! While this creates a "brotherhood" of insiders, with our unique "shorthand" for quick communications, it also excludes people outside our work group and sets up barriers to teamwork or collaboration.
Having our own lingo is fine-internally. However, for maintenance to become a true partner in the mill, we've got to EXPAND our vocabulary to speak the language of business.
As an example, one of the latest (and potentially powerful) concepts today is that of key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs are a select number of key measures that enable performance against set targets to be monitored.
SETTING THE TARGETS. Your company, like all for-profit companies, remains in business by performing well-keeping its income high and costs low. While not the only driving force in business, this performance must be addressed each time we make a decision involving income or costs.
KPIs in the maintenance area should reflect this to contribute to business success. The best way to do this is to assume the position of your CEO (hypothetically speaking, of course!) when you are setting targets against which performance will be measured.
If you are the CEO, about which performance measures would get you most excited:
- Maintenance cost per ton produced or inventory item stockouts?
- Productive labor utilization or work order backlog?
- Maintenance cost per ton produced or inventory item stockouts?
KPIs need to translate into real-time actions that you can be take to improve business. For example, if you just measure and report on single-point static events, what can you learn? Are 10 stockouts a month good or bad?
When KPIs are put into the language of business, real-time performance management is possible. To continue the previous example, we all know there is a relationship between stock levels and equipment availability. But more importantly, how much inventory is justifiable in a cost sense to increase machine availability?
There comes a point first of diminishing return, and then negative return, where the inventory costs exceed the cost of lost production from machine unavailability. This type of KPI is needed to drive business improvement. And to have this indicator available in real-time as a "dashboard" on your computer would allow you to optimize your inventory to production and cost requirements.
WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS DONE. Real-time performance management, with its visible indicators of business measurements, is an important communications tool for keeping the company's and the boss' agenda in front of workers.
Using modern technology, some enterprise asset management (EAM) systems have an "automated control loop" that keeps everyone's focus on KPIs. For example, if maintenance cost per ton on the No. 1 paper machine rises above $10, the system will generate an email to the maintenance manager or production superintendent. If it rises above $12/ton, it sends an email to the mill manager with copies to maintenance and production. This escalation process helps underline the importance of meeting target KPIs on a real-time basis.
Not surprisingly, EAM systems improve a mill's analysis and reporting capabilities. Many EAM packages, such as Indus InSite, allow mills to customize KPIs to their specific and changing business needs. The best EAM packages provide navigation tools and present data in multiple formats. Search engines help find information quickly.
Electronic "dashboards" work in a similar fashion to those found in cars. For example, when emergency parts orders exceed three percent of total, an "idiot light" will turn red to notify maintenance to take immediate action. A "speedometer" will point to the red zone when, say, inventory levels exceed a certain ratio of machine availability. Users can "drill down" to determine the root causes of variances and failures without waiting for a report at the end of the month.
Technology is only a tool, but it is a good one. The hard work of choosing the right things to measure, educating your craft people about why KPIs are important, constantly communicating, and removing the barriers to productivity still require good old-fashioned human management skills. But it's the only way to redefine maintenance into business terms.
