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A Total-Plant Predictive Maintenance Program 375

coffee, reading a newspaper, and attending meetings are generally classed as nonpro-
ductive. Hands-on maintenance time is classed as productive. What appears to be useful
work, however, may be repetitious, ineffective, or even a redoing of earlier mistakes.

A technical representative of a major reprographic company was observed doing pre-
ventive cleaning on a large duplicator. He spread out a paper “drop cloth” and opened
the machine doors. The flat area on the bottom of the machine was obviously dirty
from black toner powder, so the technical representative vacuumed it clean. Then he
retracted the developer housing. That movement dropped more toner, so he vacuumed
it. He removed the drum and vacuumed again. He removed the developer housing
and vacuumed for the fifth time. On investigation, it was found that training had been
conducted on clean equipment. No one had shown this representative the “one best
way” to do the common cleaning tasks. This lack of training and on-the-job follow-
up counseling is too common! To be effective, we must make the best possible use of
available time. There are few motivational secrets to effective preventive maintenance,
but these guidelines can help:

1. Establish inspection and preventive maintenance tasks as recognized,
important parts of the maintenance program.
2. Assign competent, responsible people.
3. Follow up to ensure quality and to show everyone that management does
care.
4. Publicize reduced costs with improved uptime and revenues that are the
result of effective preventive activities.

Total Employee Involvement
If the only measure of our performance were the effort we exerted in our day-to-day
activities, life would be simpler. Unfortunately, we are measured on the performance
of those who work for us, as well as on our own effectiveness. As supervisors and
managers, our success depends more on our workforce than on our own individual
performance. Therefore, it is essential that each of our employees consistently
performs at his or her maximum capability. Typically, employee motivation skill is
not the strong suit of plant supervisors and managers, but it is essential for both plant
performance and success as a manager.

By definition, motivation is getting employees to exert a high degree of effort on their
jobs. The key to motivation is getting employees to want to consistently do a good
job. In this light, motivation must come from within an employee, but the supervisor
must create an environment that encourages motivation on the part of employees.
Motivation can best be understood using the following sequence of events: needs,
drives or motives, and accomplishment of goals. In this sequence, needs produce
motives, which lead to the accomplishment of goals. Needs are caused by deficien-
cies, which can be either physical or mental. For instance, a physical need exists when
a person goes without sleep for a long period. A mental need exists when a person
has no friends or meaningful relationships with other people. Motives produce action.
Lack of sleep (the need) activates the physical changes of fatigue (the motive), which