A Maintenance Transition by Greg Parker, Maintenance Supervisor

 A Maintenance Transition by Greg Parker, Maintenance Supervisor

 

Ricky,  I read your article on LinkedIn and here is what I did as a result by Greg Parker, Maintenance Supervisor.  On crossing over from corrective/reactive maintenance to more preventive maintenance, here is how I achieved success. When I took the job here as maintenance supervisor 4 years ago, we had 6 full time techs doing 95% corrective maintenance (urgent/emergency work). 

Occasionally they would change all of the bulbs in a building, or clean exhaust fan motors, etc., but no-one wrote down which building or where or how many. When the topic arose, of which building needs what, there was always a 30 minute discussion on who thought it was where. 

So, using a simple excel sheet, I started logging all PM projects, printed it out and put it on the wall. Having it visible every day tended to motivate some of the techs to work on the list (the buildings that still needed PM) whenever there was an extra hour or two in the evenings.   The most important thing to our success is adequate and precise inventory. We know what breaks and how often, so rather than someone running to the plumbing supply house to buy three toilet kits, I made a list of every type toilet we have(we have about 2,500 toilets) and ordered 100 of each type.

I then organized a maintenance closet in each of our 35 dorm buildings for the common items (bulbs, sink parts, toilet kits, exhaust fan motors, AC parts, blinds, door hardware, etc.). Now when we have a call from a student, we can normally solve the issue in a few minutes as opposed to 2 hours. That leaves more time for PM.  The biggest battle most organizations will face is the “shock” from the initial cost of buying up the inventory(thankfully my boss understands the cost of inventory and appreciates our preparedness). 

Once we got over the CM (emergency work) hump (it took about 2 years), we started seeing the fruits of our labor and the guys finally realized that it is better to work on “our” schedule than to work on the schedule of a student that calls at 1 AM with no AC.  As our PM projects started paying off, we had a decrease in CM (Urgent/Emergency) calls, therefore we could spend more time on PM.  

 

We now have a list of about 50 PM items on a schedule(monthly, yearly, or 2 or 3 years, depending on the item). A few of the guys have actually taken ownership of the idea and are constantly adding new ideas to the list. Now we have 5 guys doing 95% PM projects, and 1 guy can normally handle all CM calls during the course of a day. 

*Organize: Make a list of everything (items, processes, time and money spent, projects, ideas for future projects).   *Inventory: Label every box that arrives(most of my suppliers will print it on the label (Dorm A-actuators, etc.).  Put someone in charge of inventory and hold them accountable.  Streamline the ordering process. Rather than calling and hoping we can reach the sales person, we take a picture of the item and email it to them “send 20 of these”. That creates a paper trail and holds them accountable. 

Ordering for PM projects is easy. If you know you need 60 motors next month, order it now and have it sitting on the shelf (with a label on it). That also gives you extra inventory if you get a CM call that requires one of those motors.  This is Greg's story, moving from reactive to proactive maintenance does not happen overnight however it does take a leader who sees the vision and will stop at nothing to achieve it.

Thank you Greg for your story. I proud of you my friend and keep up the journey.

The Author: Ricky Smith CMRP, CMRT, CRL

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