Page 32 - An Introduction To Predictive Maintenance

22 An Introduction to Predictive Maintenance

effectively communicate and coordinate the integrated functions, such as sales,
production, maintenance, and procurement, into an effective unit.

Large plants must also exercise caution. The tendency is to become excessive when
implementing continuous improvement programs. Features are added to the informa-
tion management system, predictive maintenance program, and other tools that are not
needed by the program. For example, one plant added the ability to include video clips
in its CMMS. Although this added feature may have been of some value, it was not
worth the $12 million additional cost.

Continuous improvement is an absolute requirement in all plants, but these programs
must be implemented logically. Your program must be designed for the unique require-
ments of your plant. It should be designed to minimize the costs required to imple-
ment and maintain the program and to achieve the best ROI. In my 30 years as a
manager and consultant, I have not found a single plant that would not benefit from
a continuous improvement program; however, I have also seen thousands of plants
that failed in their attempt to improve. Most of these failures were the result of either
(1) restricting the program to a single function, such as maintenance or production, or
(2) inflated costs generated by adding unnecessary tools. Both of these types of
failures are preventable. If you approach continuous improvement in a logical, plant-
specific manner, you can be successful regardless of plant size.