05 - Maintenance Strategy Development

For a Maintenance Function to successfully support an operational organisation it is a pre-requisite that all members of staff understand their individual role within that organisation and the role of the function in relation to the organisational goals and objectives.  A ‘Maintenance Strategy’ can provide an invaluable tool for ensuring this understanding as it provides a framework for the Maintenance Function to operate within and defines how a Maintenance organisation will move from ‘where it is now’ to ‘where it needs to be in the future’.  A ‘Maintenance Strategy’ will also bring all current maintenance practices and operations together with current industry best practice in order to provide a strategic and coherent ‘road map’ for the Maintenance Function to follow in order to achieve the following goals:

• Improve service provision to operations – i.e. reduce breakdowns and improve productivity
• Control Maintenance Function spending and ensure adherence to budgets
• Consistently provide parts for planned maintenance and breakdowns with the lowest spares holding value
• Improve communication between the Maintenance Function and other organisational functions
• Ensure Maintenance Function compliance to all organisational and statutory standards and requirements
• Ensure the Maintenance Function is focused on organisational objectives
• Enable the Maintenance Function to take a lead in organisational development

Therefore SMP Ltd. will develop a HolisTech™ CMMS focussed ‘Maintenance Strategy‘ which publishes how the maintenance function will recognise and work towards organisational targets and requirements.  The ‘Maintenance Strategy’ will be developed to provide written targets and goals for maintenance and the following steps describe the work proposed to be carried out to determine the strategy and policy recommendations:

Maintenance Review Questionnaire

The first step in the development of a ‘Maintenance Strategy’ would be the completion of ‘Maintenance Review Questionnaires’ for a selected, and appropriate, group of site staff.

Completed ‘Maintenance Review Questionnaires’ provide the base data for all following steps and are completed through one-on-one interviews with a number of personnel across an organisation.  During the interviews respondents are given considerable detail as to the rationale for the interview and information regarding the Maintenance System implementation as a whole.  Respondents are also given the opportunity to remain anonymous to ensure honest responses are received during the interview.  The questionnaires consist of questions which are grouped into the following sections:

• Organisational Strategy
• Functional Strategy
• Human Resource Management
• Communication
• Performance Measurement
• Finance
• Maintenance Activity
• CMMS
• Inventory
• Project Management

Responses to each question are summarised and then given a quantifiable value to indicate the level of positive perception included in the response.  The results of the questionnaire are then utilised to develop a ‘Maintenance Review Document’, a set of ‘Benchmarking Graphs’ and ‘Scorecards’ of results (detailed below) and ultimately the finalised ‘Maintenance Strategy’.

SMP Ltd. will conduct interviews with personnel at the site.  This number of respondents should provide sufficient breadth of opinion and comment for an effective output from the process.

Maintenance Review Document

The second step in the development of a Maintenance Strategy is the development of a ‘Maintenance Review Document’ that is written based upon the findings of the completed ‘Maintenance Review Questionnaires’.

The prime objective of a ‘Maintenance Review’ is to conduct a diagnostic assessment to identify the current Maintenance Function situation against four key ‘Failure Risk’ categories.  The categories are the risks of a maintenance system failing to deliver anticipated benefits and the results of the assessment provide the base information for the development of a ‘Maintenance Strategy’ addressing these system failure risk categories.  These categories of ‘Failure Risk’ are as follows:

- Behavioural (i.e. the culture and attitude of people involved in maintaining equipment)
- Physical (i.e. the boundaries in, and resources with, which equipment is maintained)
- Procedural (i.e. the methods and authorisations required to maintain equipment)
- Environmental (i.e. the way equipment is used and status of the resources with which equipment is being maintained)

Additionally the ‘Maintenance Review Document’ is designed to determine thoughts and perceptions of individuals and ensure the following objectives are achieved:

- A snapshot of the current Maintenance Function operational parameters is taken
- An assessment of perceptions of the performance of the Maintenance Function is made
- An identification of areas of functional weakness and strength to allow implementation strategies to be planned and executed is made
- A groundwork of information for the development of a ‘Maintenance Strategy’ is provided

Essentially, responses to the ‘Maintenance Review Questionnaire’ are investigated and organised into a ‘Maintenance Review Document’.  This document provides a distillation of the perceptions and thoughts of the respondents and the results of the review enable the identification of areas of risk and opportunity, in relation to the four Failure Risk categories.  From this general themes can be uncovered and areas requiring attention through the ‘Maintenance Strategy’ identified. 

SMP Ltd. will develop a ‘Maintenance Review Document’ based upon the responses to the ‘Maintenance Review Questionnaires’ conducted with the selected personnel outlined in the previous section.

Benchmarks and Scorecards

The third step towards the development of a Maintenance Strategy is the publishing of a set of ‘Benchmarks and Scorecards’ based on the numerical outputs of the completed ‘Maintenance Review Questionnaires’.

‘Benchmarks and Scorecards’ provide a wider perspective to the ‘Maintenance Review Document’ and provide additional data for the development of the ‘Maintenance Strategy’ as well as a set of publishable, graphical charts against which progress and improvements can be measured.

The essential process for the development of ‘Benchmarks and Scorecards’ uses ratings relating to responses to questions of the ‘Maintenance Review Questionnaire’ such that calculations can be made and a numerical benchmark of the current situation determined.  Numerical benchmarks for facets of each of the four Failure Risk categories are then graphed and scorecarded to show a visual representation of the current situation.  The benchmarking process utilised is summarised as follows:

a. Assign questionnaire questions to a Failure Risk category
b. Calculate the composite response for a particular questionnaire question (for all respondents)
c. Calculate the composite score for particular Failure Risk categories
d. Publish the Benchmark scores for the Failure Risk categories for each site
e. Publish the Benchmark scores for the Failure Risk categories across the multi-site environment

SMP Ltd. will develop ‘Benchmarks and Scorecards’ based upon the rated responses to the ‘Maintenance Review Questionnaires’ conducted with the selected personnel outlined in the previous sections.

Maintenance Strategy and Policy

The major element of work is the development and definition of a ‘Maintenance Strategy’ that is based upon the traceable and definite outcomes of the completed ‘Maintenance Review Questionnaires’ and the resulting ‘Maintenance Review Document’ and ‘Benchmarks and Scorecards’.

Essentially, once the current situation has been quantified against the four key ‘failure risk’ categories, it is possible to develop a ‘Maintenance Strategy’ that addresses those categories of ‘failure risk’ and directs the Maintenance Function from ‘where it is now’ (based upon the results of the questionnaire, review and benchmarking) to ‘where it needs to be in the future’ (based upon published organisational goals and taking account of third party requirements).  The strategy includes a ‘Policy’ that justifies future expenditure at the same time as ensuring Maintenance Function objectives are in line with organisational objectives.  The ‘Maintenance Strategy’ to be developed has three main sections:

1. Maintenance Strategy Statement

The one page ‘Maintenance Strategy Statement’ summarises the mission and policies outlined in the strategy document and is a document that is published and displayed for all involved personnel to see and understand

2. Maintenance Strategy Vision

The ‘Maintenance Strategy Vision’ sets out the Maintenance Function goals and objectives from which plans to support the strategy are derived

3. Maintenance Strategy Policies

The ‘Maintenance Strategy Policies’ are a series of statements that are derived from the vision.  The statements encapsulate the policies with which adherence is required to enable plans to be fulfilled.  The statements encompass policies that are relevant to the Multi-Site environment of the organisation and to the particular eccentricities and requirements of individual sites within the organisation.

The ‘Maintenance Review Document’ and Benchmark Graphs are used to establish the core material so that the ‘Maintenance Strategy’ can be defined.  With a clearly defined picture of the current perception and practice within the organisation, a strategic and coherent ‘road map’ for the Maintenance Function to follow in order to achieve the goals it has been set can be established.

SMP Ltd. proposes to develop a ‘Maintenance Strategy’ that encompasses the three main sections and is specifically defined for the organisation.  The developed ‘Maintenance Strategy’ will be based upon the outcomes of the ‘Maintenance Review Questionnaires’, the ‘Maintenance Review Document’ and the ‘Benchmarks and Scorecards’ outlined in the previous sections and will include references to all applicable processes and sources.

Strategy Implementation Plan

The final task for the development of an effective ‘Maintenance Strategy’ is the formulation of a published and measurable ‘Strategy Implementation Plan’.  Such a plan will illustrate the requisite steps required for the Maintenance Organisation to move from ‘where it is now’ to ‘where it needs to be in the future’.

The ‘Strategy Implementation Plan’ represents the key elements of the ‘Maintenance Strategy’ distilled into prioritised tasks which can be represented in a Project Plan (utilising MS Project®).  The plan provides a ‘roadmap’ for Maintenance Function managers and staff to follow to ensure progression towards functional and organisational goals and represents the ‘implementation path’ of the ‘Maintenance Strategy’.  Implementation of the developed ‘Maintenance Strategy’ by all involved members of the Maintenance Function staff should deliver:

- Functional direction
- An Engineering Charter to set service levels to the Operational Function
- An appropriate use of Maintenance Methods
- A Maintenance Function resource organisation which will reflect the needs of the organisation
- The use of Best Industry Practice
- A life cycle asset management approach
- Compliance with all organisational systems and standards
- Continuous auditing of performance and Continuous Improvement

SMP Ltd. will develop a ‘Strategy Implementation Plan’ that provides the ‘implementation path’ of the ‘Maintenance Strategy’ for the Maintenance Function and supports Continuous Improvement towards organisational goals and objectives.

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