Page 412 - Improving Machinery Reliability

376 Improving Machinery Reliability

It is more difficult to train and upgrade an existing maintenance force to keep up
with current technology. Daily maintenance generally doesn’t require in-depth
inspection of, and familiarization with, sophisticated machinery. Planned shut-
downs are scheduled for minimum duration and are usually not the time nor place
to run a training course.
Furthermore, even a trained captive staff will be short of in-depth experience if
they seldom encounter problems on the same equipment at each shutdown. They
will not have the confidence nor the ability that comes from years of successfully
handling the unusual.

Full Contract Maintenance
Under the type of maintenance program, you are simply hiring an outside mainte-
nance contractor to plan, supervise, and handle your entire maintenance operation.

Advantages

The size of your maintenance force is constantly matched to a given workload: it is
tailored to your needs, and you are only paying for what you need.
It allows you to draw a very clear line between plant maintenance functions and
those of your regular hourly employees. You no longer find yourself assigning
“make-work” projects to keep your captive maintenance force busy: no longer
might one group begin infringing on another group’s territory, which results in
duplications of work and cost.
Outside contract personnel aren’t on your payroll: they don’t require you to make
Social Security, hospitalization, tax, and pension fund payments. Furthermore, you
can easily replace undesirable and unproductive personnel, retaining only the most
productive people.
Working with an outside contractor, you can generally expect and get higher pro-
ductivity. The maintenance manager may also find that he can delegate tiresome
detail and routine work to the outside contractor management and concentrate his
efforts on the more important aspects of his job.

Disadvantages

There is always the chance that after signing a long-term contract with an out-
side maintenance contractor, you find you are stuck with a vendor who isn’t per-
forming up to your standard.
You may find also that you are being asked periodically to justify to your man-
agement inflated costs for services that had cost considerably less in the past.
There is always the possibility that “outsiders” may irritate or cause friction with
your regular employees.
Most important, there is always the possibility that a crisis of one type or anoth-
er will occur, and that your independent contractor will be unavailable-he
won’t be able to “jump on” your problem due to lack of people or his present
logistical shortcomings.