June 22, 2006
Impact of EMD Workforce Part 4
President, SUCCESS by DESIGN
One of the opportunities that is overlooked with the changing workforce is an unpopular concept. Maybe it is better to ‘reset’ the industry. In effect, with the retirement of skilled workers goes many bad habits that are passed on and passed on concerns about technology, such as EAM/CMMS systems.
For instance, lets take something as basic as greasing electric motors. The original concepts and training related to electric motor greasing required that the motor be de-energized for the process, which took time. There are specific safety, physical property and design reasons for this. However, as operations pushed back and wanted to operate the equipment non-stop or reduce overtime by not having maintenance performed after hours, maintenance had to perform short-cuts. These included greasing motors as they continued to operate. Additionally, it became more and more prevalent to ‘purge’ grease as part of the greasing process. In recent times, the change away from best practice greasing has continued through re-inforcement by some manufacturers who have developed ultrasonic grease guns. Hey, how can my greasing program be incorrect if they are building tools to support it?
I estimate that bearing problems will continue to rise in the years to come. Worse, some forms of technology support bad practices.
On the other hand, computer illiteracy has a similar impact as book illiteracy. A reaction to not understanding something, instead of admitting the lack of understanding, is animosity. I cannot count how many times I have been in sites where I have been told about how they do not use their CMMS system because it was being used to measure their hours in order to force maintenance to work faster. In virtually every case, where I have pushed the topic a bit, I have found that the underlying problem has been a lack of understanding and poor training.
Greasing and EAM/CMMS are not the only areas where these two issues are occurring. This includes new condition-based monitoring technologies. Because of old habits, a great many attempts at positive CBM programs are lost because the R&M staff fall back on old habits and reactive maintenance, where they are more comfortable. Mind you, this is not the only source of the issue, the understanding of these technologies, promises to management by vendors, etc. all place unrealistic expectations on the program. For instance, if you were to believe most technology vendors, all you need for your program is their technology because it can detect everything.
Does this mean that I expect that a company can remove all of their workforce and replace it with new people? No. I have seen the exact opposite problem in the 1990’s in the facilities maintenance of a great many Chicago hospitals. While I was in the motor repair industry, we noticed a spike in mechanical repairs from hospitals within Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. A field service investigation identified that many of them had layed off their maintenance workers, outsourced any major work and had the janitorial staff performing routine maintenance, including motor greasing and motor replacement. The results were awful to behold, as there was no training, at all, for these people and they were scared that if they did not perform the maintenance that they would be replaced.
Mind you, there has been a lot of talk about the newer generation.
… to be continued…
