Does Maintenance Have a Voice in New Products

It surely does not seem to hold much importance anymore. In my current job maintenance plays a major role because the items are hazardous and are under high pressure - but the maintenance is applied after manufacture and the items are owned by the government.

The government has many maintenance programs in effect but I still see a huge loss in quality. Most companies that have to follow the government reuquirements see maintenance as a libility. To answer your question, you will have to go to bat and convince the higher-ups to instigate a program if you need one. Write it out and present it well because it is highly important. I believe that the loss of quality and maintenance in the workforce today is a serious and fatal oversight. There are plenty of books available on the subject.

I believe what you are describing is a concept called Total Quality Management where every department in a company is in on the design phase. We taught TQM to the Japanese many moons ago and they used it to kill us with quality products. Then, maybe 20 years ago it began to creap back into our own lexicon and "viola!", companies like Saturn were born. Can't tell ya how many times I've cussed the original designer of some tool system or widget 'cause the moron who designed it made it almost impossible to service.

You are right, I remember TQM. Not too many engineers in America really thought about it seriously and many laughed. In America, quality comes from pride of work and that is going going fast. The simple designs of yesteryear are gone and in their place are highly complex items that no one thinks about maintenancing. You are right.....

Many of our young engineers and designers of today do not consider the whole product and only design a small peice of the pie (not their fault). It seems that NO ONE is watching out for the big picture. IMHO, that loss came with the annilation of the configuration managment engineering departments...I watched them go down in my world around the mid 90's it seemed.

All in all engineering lost many aspects of quality and common sense when we stopped using the drafting board. People don't like to hear it, but there were advantages to 1/4 scale drawings that the engineer did himself. He had to 'get his hands dirty' per se and see for himself/herself what the part looked like in the system. Now that we have drafters and designers and CAD experts etc etc, no one is really seeing the part as a functioning piece of equipment.

Enough soap boxing....do you have a specific application we can apply this to to solve an issue? D

I used to work as a maintenance Electrician in an automotive part plant. Too often, I was told to install a piece of equipment that are in the wrong location, or some time just doesn't seem right. When I told my boss about it, the reply I got was, that's what the engineer whant, we'll do what they want and fix it later. One time, I was given a set of print for a 3" conduit run. When I got to the site and look around, the run would put me right in through a ventation system. Needless to say, I didn't make my run until the "engineer" take a look first.

MidniteFighter

That reminds me of the old Ford Auto workers they brought back from retirement when theIR cars starting to falling apart with new models in the 1980's.

After showing the engineers where they were screwing up the engineers ask why did you never tell us about these problems before you retired?

The workers said "No one ever ask us for our opinion they just told what to do".

Wow, I remember "TQM" so I am dating myself, so to speak. I will also say that with all of the methods of quality measurement, inspection, and control that one cannot produce items of acceptable or exceptional quality unless strong pride and great communication is apparent with the people who actually do the work.

We have three (3) distinctly different types of maintenance, (a) preventive, (b) predictive, and (c) reactive. The "cost" of the first two require some in-depth calculations to summarize, but the third one sure makes its costs known quickly!

We all seem to know, or at least strongly feel that North American manufacturing has become very short-sighted over the past two (2) decades. Projects must make the break-even point very quickly; an ROI is expected in less than one (1) year, etc..

Skilled maintenance personnel can make a valuable contribution towards the assessment of new machinery. But, are they allowed to do so? Generally they are the "last to know" about the kinks of the new machine until it is on the factory floor and idle because of a malfuction. And they are expected to use transcendental methods to diagnose the problem of the machine, and of course do it in record time.

Some of us have worked in companies where major equipment decisions are made at the VP level with minimal input from the engineering or support staff. "But they guaranteed this printing press could print six colours at 2,000 feet per minute, and since they built it they know their stuff!" No matter how much anyone will brow-beat you to make a comment to a statement like that-don't do it lest you are prepared to hear "Just who the hell are you working for, us or them?!"

Wow, I've been there as a maintenance worker and as a chief engineer. There were many times that we guys would grumble something like "Gee, all they had to do was tap a couple of holes for eye bolts-how hard could that have been?" Or watch the electrical staff suffer because of a strange brand of PLC whose programme was written in a foreign language.

In short, VP's need to make business and marketing decisions and leave the engineering to those engineers they trust to work for them. And we engineers need to examine every new machine as if we were tasked with repairing it BY OURSELVES without any outside assistance.

Best Regards,

Ing. Robert Forbus

Excellent comments, Robert. However, I have to say that I don't think that the VPs will ever trust us and leave the engineering to us. And unless we older types teach the younger ones, which seems almost impossible now-a-days due to time constraints and billable hour limitations, thorough examination of new parts and new machines before delivery is almost always, it seems, a bare minimum job..... Get it on the floor and get it working, never mind reviewing the drawing! Yeah right--- as we stand there looking at a machine that has broken before the first week is out LOL.

Diana

There we go.. In my small opinion one of the hardship is about the space about installation and to service the piece of quipment then after installed. It seen that most of the time they install but without space for PM eventually if not replacement of the whole thing due major 'breakdown' perhaps a lot of times during installation works always something happen that "Murphy Law" have to be apply in top of everything for whatever the reasons are. Waoo. Then we end up with a longer project than planned and a lot of extra bucks invest between labor and parts cost, time,etc. Un-Believable definetly. I believe in keep it simple, straighforward and good housekeeping at the end. Better words sounds to me are--vamonos-awesone-done-completed-see ya' later...

Lock And Tag Out,

MC

Hello!

Concerning new product development and maintenance: The company needs policies to define what is entering in the company and going out. The company decides about raw materials, manufactured and new products. I think, in your company nobody talk about nothing and today you are in conflict. Stop everything and start with definitions to satisfy the company, the employees, and the shareholders with written policies, that way, no one can argue what, how, and when to do. Polocies must be consize and simple that veryone can understand. Good luck, Gil.