Page 21 - Improving Machinery Reliability

Shifting to this new form of organization requires a willingness and
commitment to empower personnel and relinquish traditional hierarchi-
cal control.
Ingredients for success include:

incentives that are entirely based on team success
a encouraging ownership, initiative, and responsibility; demanding
accountability
developing, encouraging, and supporting extraordinary performers
promoting competency; penalizing mediocrity
substituting initiative and flexibility for inefficient, counterproductive
trade-and-craft mindsets

Some facilities may find the transition to a full-team organization too
formidable to accomplish in a single step. Several in this position have
used other measures to achieve comparable results. A number of compa-
nies reported outstanding results and greatly improved cooperation by
simply having maintenance and operations/production managers
exchange positions. One site found that transferring responsibility for
the maintenance budget to operations proved exceptionally valuable
toward establishing a cooperative relationship.
Recognize that massive change to a team-based organization may be
opposed, both overtly and covertly by people who depend upon and feel
more comfortable within a less challenging, traditional hierarchical orga-
nization. Recognize also that unless change of this scale is presented and
implemented with a great deal of sensitivity, the very people needed most
for success can be lost.

Information Systems6 These systems glue the fabric together. In pro-
duction and manufacturing enterprises at least five layers of operating
information can be identified-each with specific requirements:

Information describing the current and projected condition of produc-
tion equipment is vital. The threat and timing of potential problems
and components affected must be communicated to production and
maintenance planning. Recommended corrective action for optimized
work scheduling and planning are vital elements of the asset manage-
ment process. Requirements and completion records for safety and

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