According to LinkedIn, “Users with recommendations are three times as likely to get inquiries through LinkedIn searches.”

I couldn’t agree more!

There are certain protocols to observe in building up your profile recommendations but for the most part, the single biggest reason professionals don’t get recommendations is because THEY DON’T ASK for them.

I know some of you are thinking that feels a little “guiding”… “if my connections were so impressed with me then they would just recommend me.”

THAT would be nice! If Only!

*Right now, if you know someone in your network you are incredibly impressed with, sign into LinkedIn immediately and write them a recommendation! They will be prompted to return the favor within LinkedIn. Unfortunately, if you are like many busy professionals, you won’t make the time to write them – unless…you are reminded!

Do you feel a little sheepish about asking someone to brag about you?
Asking for a recommendation can be a very uncomfortable thing for some, but never assume it’s uncomfortable to the person being you are asking. They are probably going to be flattered that you care about their opinion of your work and therefore will be happy to supply the recommendation.

The typical LinkedIn “out of the can” recommendation request reads:

Dear Name of Connection,
I’m sending this to ask you for a brief recommendation of my work that I can include in my LinkedIn profile. If you have any questions, let me know.
Thanks in advance for helping me out.
-Your Name

Out of respect for their time and depending on how well you know the person you are requesting the recommendation from, you could even prompt them with some dialogue such as:

Dear Name of Connection,
As you know, I am an independent marketing consultant/contractor and as such, I’m sending this to ask you for a brief recommendation of my work. In particular, I would like your comments as you have observed me performing duties, whether directly in our business dealings, at a trade show or some other professional interaction that impressed you (any which would enable you to make a positive recommendation of my abilities as you perceive them). I would like to include any recommendation you make of my character, work ethic or work product/performance in my LinkedIn profile. If you have any questions, let me know.
Thanks in advance for helping me out.
-Your Name

While the above is still pretty general, you can choose to write the entire thing out and ask them to post it as though it came from them:

Dear Name of Connection,
I’m sending this to ask you for a brief recommendation of my work that I can include in my LinkedIn profile. Perhaps you could say something like:

“I would like to endorse YOUR NAME as a highly dedicated professional. His/Her thoroughness and attention to detail was exemplary. I have always found him/her to be enthusiastic and an excellent people person. His/Her capabilities played a key role in developing the company to its current standing.”

If you have any questions, let me know.
Thanks in advance for helping me out.
-Your Name

Again, this really depends on how mature your professional relationship is with someone. You would obviously use your good judgment on when this is appropriate. Most people who know you very well and agree with your words will post it as is or even elaborate!

What if they don’t give you the recommendation?
Don’t assume they have any negative reasons for not providing you with a recommendation. I have found that in some cases, companies have direct policies that do not allow employees to provide recommendations and if it would appear to come from the company OR if it would damage their “vendor neutrality” in some fashion. Let’s face it, people also get really busy and don’t check LinkedIn that often or the notification emails end up in an unchecked folder within their email platform. After a few weeks time, you can go back into your Linked in under the “Received Recommendations” tab and manage your requests and even resend a reminder request from there.

Scheduling and planning is a must in the drive for reliability improvement.  In today’s competitive business environment, it is highly unlikely additional resources will be added to increase reliability.  Resources for reliability will need to be found in the current maintenance resource pool.

The only way to create reliability resources without adding to the maintenance resource pool is either by decreasing the work load or working more efficiently.  A planner-scheduler will increase departmental efficiency.  Without a planner-scheduler, departmental efficiency trends from 30% to 40% as a rule of thumb.  With a planner-scheduler departmental efficiencies generally trend from 60% to 80%.  With the increased efficiencies, a planner scheduler can come from personnel on the floor.  Additionally, the added efficiency creates further manpower to address reliability strategies.

Maintenance foremen generally are too highly involved in reactionary maintenance management or maintenance quality work assessment to be effective planner-schedulers.  If the department is small, it is better to have a planner-scheduler instead of a foreman.  Maintenance can report to production for reactionary management. 

Rules of thumb for planner-schedulers:  1 planner-scheduler for every 20 technicians.  The planner scheduler should assign work from the prioritized work order list.  If the CMMS prioritized work order list is implemented properly, assigning work directly based on priority is the best reliability strategy.  As the work is scheduled, the more complex work should be planned. 

Planning involves writing step by step work procedures, parts lists, tool lists, prints and schematics, confined space permits, roof permits, and anything else needed to perform the work efficiently.  Parts should be kitted and staged.  The planner should keep this data together for repetitive work, so all this can be pulled from a file for performing this same task in the future.

As the planning-scheduling function becomes robust, resources will be freed because of increased departmental efficiencies.  In addition, because the proper work is being addressed, reliability should increase thus decreasing reactive work load.  This further frees up resources.

A strategic decision needed before implementing the planner scheduler strategy initially is how to manage reactive work.  The reactive work load once determined may be assigned to dedicated personnel.  It may also be handled by personnel with assigned work schedules.

As the maintenance function becomes more disciplined and planned, efficiency and reliability increases.  This creates resources to re-deploy for reliability improvement initiatives.

The fourth step to increasing asset reliability is to create effective departmental KPI’s (key performance indicators).  It has been said that results that can’t be measured, can’t be managed.  Or stated another way, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”.  The maintenance function and asset reliability function must be measured by effective KPI’s to be effectively managed.

Anecdotal evidence to prove this assertion can be tried in your facility.  Gather some pertinent maintenance data and post it in graph form.  Only let a few people in the department know what the data means.  They can transmit the data by way of the grapevine communications that exist.  Continue to post updated data weekly for a month to six weeks.  The data, simply because it is being measured and communicated, will trend in the positive direction with no other effort.

KPI’s that are the most valuable make sense not only to maintenance personnel but to operations and production personnel.  The KPI’s also need to be leading indicators showing outcomes that will result in less asset reliability.  If KPI’s are structured properly, interdepartmental relationships and effects on maintenance strategies will be seen.  Resource utilization will be indicated.  Operations managers will understand value provided by maintenance and be more favorable toward maintenance investment.

KPI’s found to be valuable include:

• Resource utilization efficiency
• Work order backlog broken down by the types as noted in the previous blog
• Start-up OEE
• Proactive/reactive work mix
• Work orders due/overdue
• Reliability work backlog
• Reliability work on time completions percentage
• Financial KPI’s

Effective KPI’s are covered in more detail in a free white paper entitled:  “Maintenance Managers in Pursuit of World Class Performance” at www.bin95.com/Maintenance-Managers.htm

The third step in asset reliability involves streamlining of the work order system. In most highly reactive maintenance situations the work order system is ignored. Many work orders can be ignored and left open for months to years. Since the CMMS is very efficient at storing work order information, it is not uncommon to find this situation in many organizations.

Work order types must be identified. Rules must be made that defines how these work orders will be processed by the CMMS system and ultimately scheduled by the maintenance department. Examples of the types of work order groups that might be created are as follows:
· Safety and environmental work orders
· Reliability enhancing work orders
· Miscellaneous work orders that can be completed during production
· Project work orders
· Other miscellaneous work orders that have no effect on asset reliability
The summation of the individual group backlog equals departmental work order backlog.

Rules for each type of work order need to be created so the CMMS system will calculate/update the original priority based upon time the work order has been left open. When the priority number for each work order reaches a certain priority level, it either becomes due or overdue. It might only take 2 or 3 days for a safety or environmental work order to reach this level. Reliability work orders might take only slightly longer. Reliability work orders could include PM’s, PDM’s, TPM’s, PDM repairs, PM repairs etc. Naturally other work orders that are project or miscellaneous would move much more slowly.

Making work order prioritization serviceable is highly important. The goal is to be able to create a prioritized work order backlog from the CMMS work order input. Completing this prioritized work order backlog in the prioritized sequence should yield the best plan for maintaining asset reliability. If the proper data has been input into the CMMS system and all prioritization performed properly, asset reliability should increase by working the backlog in a disciplined manner.

Maintenance scheduling becomes disciplined. Execution is no longer a guessing game. Asset reliability becomes a function of disciplined execution.

Prioritized work order back logs should be posted weekly so individuals that have created work orders can track work order movement. Another advantage to this system is that since all work order priorities are increased based upon time left open in the system, all work orders will eventually become a high priority. Those work orders in the past, that never got completed because they did not affect reliability will eventually be completed in the long term.

Perfecting this system will yield better asset reliability. It will be highly unlikely having work orders to perform a repair to prevent a breakdown trapped in a system with no visibility.

The second step in building maintenance reliability, after the review of the CMMS system as discussed in the previous blog, is asset prioritization/criticalities. This step, although it might seem intuitive, must be done properly. Too many assets with priorities set higher than needed will raise maintenance costs. Operations tend to request that all assets be rated as top priority. After all everything is needed to run production properly at low cost or so operations believes. However, this only raises maintenance costs due to over-investment of maintenance resources on non-critical assets. Conveyors, spiral wrappers, lift trucks, are many items that generally should have lower asset priorities. These assets can either be worked around when down, or there is possibly duplication available in other areas of the plant.
The steps to asset prioritization or criticalities include the following:
1. Presentation to all key stake holders educating about criticalities ratings, advantages, disadvantages, effects on maintenance cost, related maintenance strategy development.
2. List of all assets for criticalities analysis.
3. List of the various facets of analysis.
4. Meeting with all key stake holders to assign asset criticality ratings.

Asset criticalities should be determined by a team of representatives from:
· Environmental Health and Safety
· Maintenance
· Engineering
· Productions/operations
· Quality
· Plant management

Asset criticalities should be tied to business case / economic justification based on identification of negative impacts to business profitability. There are many different facets that should be considered for analysis. This blog will list a few examples. Each asset should be analyzed for impact to business based on failure. Some of the areas of impact analyzed will include:
1. Environmental impact due to failure
2. Safety and health impact due to failure
3. Lost profits due to failure
4. Increased costs due to failure
5. Scrap/quality costs due to failure
6. Ability to manufacture due to failure
7. Other business cases specific to the manufacturing environment
This is just a quick list to convey the idea. Each item on the list should be rated 1 to 10 by the team. Adding up all the ratings for each asset will yield a raw criticality number.

The raw criticality numbers should be analyzed. They should be broken into a criticality ranking of 1 through 3 or 5 at most. This will yield groups of assets with the same level of business related impacts should failure occur. This data is then used in the CMMS system to prioritize work lists, maintenance strategies, and allocate the limited maintenance resources to avoid the largest negative impact to the business.

The last step the criticality analysis team must address deals with the less critical equipment. Since these assets are not viewed as highly critical, maintenance could choose the run to failure option. This being the case, the team will need to agree on official countermeasures for all the less critical assets in case of failure. The more critical assets are rated higher because of business impact and the inability to recover from failures. Maintenance strategies must focus on these assets to eliminate failure modes. This is the duty of the maintenance/reliability department.

Assume you are the newly hired maintenance manager.   Since you were recruited and relocated, you are expected to produce and be better than anyone else that was available locally.  The culture of the area is different and that has to be learned.  Trust has to be earned.  You are viewed as an outsider with suspicion.  The reliability is not good and trending worse.  The department is not spending as it should.  The expenditures that should happen can’t because of budgetary constraints.  The excessive reactive culture consumes almost all of your time.  Where to start?

This is the dilemma I faced in my last job.  I could have responded more quickly. I could have provided quicker results.  I was overwhelmed by the reactive culture.  I believe I learned the logical steps to bring quicker results.  Limited resources are usually a problem.  The system is broken.  The fix is to establish the solid building blocks and then build stable systems on that base.

The first place to start is the CMMS system.  Two first determinations are needed:  administrator ability and CMMS implementation effectiveness.

• The administrator needs to have a very good grasp on how to use and modify the system.  Also knowledge of how to run reports, analysis/interpretation/charting of data and metrics.  A very good Excel spreadsheet ability as it will be needed for standard weekly or daily reports.

• The CMMS system most likely was implemented improperly for good reliability analysis.  It is probably based on equipment asset level as the primary unit instead of driving down to a lower equipment component level.  If this is the case, a determination needs to be made.  Is the cost to change the implementation worth the investment?  If all the equipment has many dissimilar components, it will not matter.  However if there are 100 pumps on 50 pieces of like equipment, then the system might need to be modified to go to the individual pump/component level for failure analysis.  The decision is yours but usually only in asset highly intensive process industries will this be economically justified.  How much of the system is used?  Is just the PM, work order, and asset list part used?  Or is the storeroom inventory and purchasing modules used?  How about the personnel module?  This needs to be determined for report generation in the future. 

 Build an open relationship.  While completing this analysis, include the CMMS administrator.  This person is a valuable asset.  If the system is not working properly, input from this person is vital to correcting what is observed.  If encouraged to talk about frustrations in administering this system, valuable insight will be gained.  In addition any changes should be addressed in open dialogue and debate before implemented to ensure the best outcomes and buy-in.  Building this type of relationship will empower the administrator to communicate problems in their infancy.

These are the basics needed to have a functioning CMMS driven work order system to properly control the department.  The list of items that are needed for an effective work order system are as follows:

• The ability to display or download a daily updated work order backlog.
• The proper system settings changed that enable established types of work order priorities to become more urgent than others based on time open.
• The types of work orders the system will use.  Examples: pm’s, TPM’s, PdM’s, breakdowns, repairs, etc.

These are the basics to having a CMMS system that will help to effectively manage the department instead of a repository for work orders that are never completed.   The CMMS will also be able to provide data for analysis.  Your experience and needs should result in customization strategies as needed.

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.

Career planning should be part of being an effective maintenance and reliability career professional.  Employment in a global economy with the rigorous competitive pressure for market share will make all employment tenuous no matter how stable the company or business.  We can all think of companies that were on the top at one time and either are much smaller or don’t exist at all.  Jim Collins has written on the subject of how some companies become great and some do not.  He has now published follow-up studies on the same companies.

Don’t let your career stagnate.  I have seen many great maintenance and reliability people work to perfect their core skills through education and experience.  Unfortunately, many of them seem to get to a certain point and stop.  They work in a field dedicated to continuous improvement to achieve world class manufacturing standards but do not apply this strategy to their own careers.  If education and skills are not continuously developed, stagnation results.  The person then looses pace with peers and is not as valuable to his employer or future employers.  Advancement is unlikely.

Education seems to open your mind.  The work performed now might not be enough for you in the future because of the expanded view.  I have continued education much of my adult life in the evening while I worked during the day.  An Associate of Science, Bachelor of Science, a Master of Business Administration, and finally certification as a maintenance manager through Association of Facilities Engineers.  I was a highly effective floor level maintenance tech and have held just about all the positions in maintenance and reliability.

Has this kept my job stable?  No.  Other business pressures and circumstances outside of my control affect this.  2 jobs disappeared, and I was downsized in another.  I was able to come back and find better jobs.  My employer always received value from my employment. 

My current employment will end shortly as my plant has closed.  I am now searching like many of you.  I get down.  I get elated.  I get aggravated.  I wonder why some companies can’t identify the value I bring.  I have all the feelings and reactions like you do.  One thing I have going for me is that my education is current.  My next employer will be thrilled to get me because not only can I perform now but I am promotable due to education and experience.

Coming blogs.  In future blogs I plan to write about strategies to improve maintenance performance and driving change.