Process Equipment Alignment.

You make some valid points. In my experience, plant management or higher will put tons of pressure on maintenance to get the job done as fast as possible. Most if not all do expect the job to be done right though. I don't have a lot to offer in the essence of best practices, but taking the time to do the job right is a cultural thing. As maintenance manager, I will prepare management for what is happening and approx. how long it's going to take. I TELL them the things that need to be done and the repercusions, in dollars, if they don't. My 2 cents...

It doesn't just happen to moving equipment. It's happening to almost everything. The thrust these days is to keep producing and use as little as possible. This applies to materials as well as time.

When we changed our maintenance cycles from two weeks to three weeks, the company saw a huge increase in our production. We warned them that maintenance was not being properly done since maintenance hours were unchanged. Our words fell on deaf ears, however. Now, we're experiencing problems left and right but they insist that the maintenance crew just needs to work faster and smarter. Unfortunately, work can be done only so fast and tired minds rarely work smart. Worst, the fall in production is blamed on maintenance!

If you want advice, write down your observations and send them to your boss. Keep records and show data. It's going to take some talking and convincing but keep at it. Most decision makers look at the money side of things. If you can show them that it's more expensive to take time away from maintenance, you'd be doing the company (and yourself) a great service.

It's refreshing to hear that we all share the same problems. It's an ongoing battle to establish maintenance as a skilled trade and a much needed asset to industry. When did engineering and skilled trades become "expenses" that can be done without? I feel the part of the problem comes in the financial sectors education of added value. The true definition of "value added" should be anything in the process of making goods or services, including shipping, rec., maint, production, etc.... Like previously state, keep good records, quantify everything in $, and remain professional. Only by establishing ourselves as professionals and skilled tradesmen that add value to the company will we be listened to.

You raise a good point about the importance of doing a maintenance job correctly. In the papermaking industry where I have worked, maintenance might only be done once a year on a very massive machine with numerous sub-systems. For that equipment, it is very common to hire an outside firm that specializes in proper alignment and optimal equipment performance.

Whatever industry you are in, if you cannot find a local firm who performs such support services, contact the engineering staff at a paper mill or a facility that processes roll goods (plastic film, aluminum foil, newspaper).

To the matter that others have raised concerning management's apparently short-sighted attention to maintenance: It simply is NOT true that management is now less interested in efficiency and productivity gains; if anything, there is a greater emphasis on such matters because the gains are measurable and real. It may be your technical job to maintain the equipment but your engineering career is dependent upon your ability to affect positive change throughout your business.

A good motto for maintenance:

"If you can't find the time to do it right, where will you find the time to do it over?"

My 2pence