A new employment opportunity is accepted.  Many maintenance/reliability management professionals are searching for employment opportunities.  This may be the result of plant closings or cutbacks due to the economy.  Others may be attempting to advance or increase their earning potential.  We as professionals need to realize many of the pitfalls that we will encounter:

• If the position is a newly created position, the infrastructure to operate efficiently and successfully will need to be built.  Since management has already bought in to this approach, it will be easier to request resources.  Execution is easier because systems can be structured properly from the outset.
• If the position is replacing someone, there a number of scenarios that could be faced, most of them very challenging.  In addition, if the company is willing to relocate a candidate, they could be searching for “a hired gun” to straighten things out.  The position could have been vacant for a while.  In this case, much focus is needed to bring back the disciplined execution lost from not having a manager.   If the operation were world-class, wouldn’t there be someone promotable?

In this blog series I would like to discuss steps and strategies to build systems that create reliability.  Many times entering new employment, we are over-whelmed and just try to keep up.  The employer is searching for immediate improvement.  I was presented with this challenge in my last employment opportunity and learned under fire the order to maintenance and reliability improvements.  If I had been prepared how to proceed, our operation could have been successful much more quickly.

Maintenance and reliability improvement sequence.  The sequence for maintenance and reliability improvement is as follows:

1.     CMMS system

2.     Asset Prioritization

3.     Work order system

4.     KPI creation

5.     Scheduling/Planning

6.     Team building, employee empowerment

7.     Reliability building – FMEA process to form maintenance strategies and auditing

8.     PDM

9.     CBM

10. RCM

11. Cost Control & Stores

This is the planned blog sequence.  More than one blog might be required to adequately address the concerns of each step.  Please follow this series.  It can be a great aid to those beginning new employment.