Uptime: Create and Grow Reliability Cultures

Improving reliability almost always means improving (or changing) the way people think and work toward common goals. Improving performance and reliability of an existing facility and equipment should be seriously considered when budgets are limited. In many cases this may be the fastest, lowest cost, most sustainable option.

Whether leveraging new equipment and technology or taking steps to improve existing systems, culture change, i.e., a change in the way personnel think and work, is not optional. In the Nov. 2015 installment of this column, we explored seven basic steps for improving the performance of an older plant while simultaneously creating a reliability-improvement culture:

1. Prepare a compelling business case for change.
2. Focus on a breakthrough opportunity.
3. Gather data, evidence, and facts to define the breakthrough opportunity.
4. Assemble the multi-functional breakthrough team(s).
5. Schedule an improvement workshop for the breakthrough team(s).
6. Learn and apply fundamental improvement methods in the selected area.
7. Sustain and leverage the improvements.

Getting to Step 7 and establishing an “island of excellence” is a fundamental requirement for creating a reliability culture. This is where breakthroughs in thinking and working occur, focused improvements in equipment performance and reliability take place, and real plant-floor culture change emerges. In short, an island of excellence becomes the showplace, and breakthrough team members become the advocates.

While Steps 1 through 5 are essential—and in that order—it’s the activities in Step 6 that frequently stall or launch a true island of excellence. Step 6 (learning and applying fundamental improvement methods in the selected area) offers many different activity options. Here are some of the proven ones that will lead to equipment inspections for improving reliability. Let’s call them sub-steps of Step 6.

Step 6A: Communicate a compelling business case. Top management must clearly articulate a compelling business case for improving equipment reliability. In some cases, this might involve a basic lesson in the business of doing business. Discussion examples include:

• changes in the customer base, such as new customers and different expectations
• increased level of competition in the marketplace
• customer feedback and complaints about on-time deliveries
• dwindling competitive advantages, including lead time, production time, and cost/unit
• business growth opportunities, such as more production and more employees
• increases in raw material and packaging costs that must be absorbed
• changes in regulatory requirements
• the impact of the current equipment performance and reliability on the business.

Step 6B: Discuss why this part of the plant was selected for improvement. Review the impact of the selected area (equipment, process) on the business cases discussed in Step 6a. Use historical data in Pareto-chart formats to help illustrate these points. For example:

• high amounts of unplanned downtime
• sporadic unplanned downtime
• operating at less than proven capability or efficiency rates
• increasing or excessive amounts of waste, scrap, and/or rework
• increasing or excessive maintenance trouble calls.

Point out gaps in these data and solicit feedback from the group on other issues that contribute to improvement opportunities.

Step 6C: Inspect equipment for problems. Break into small sub-teams to inspect the selected equipment and tag specific problems. Document the following for each:

• who identified the problem
• brief description of the problem
• nature of the problem, e.g., electrical, mechanical, lubrication, utility, operation
• specific location of the problem
• possible impact of the problem, e.g., availability, efficiency, quality, yield, safety, environmental, cost.

Step 6D: Sort problems into three broad categories. The breakthrough team should discuss and clarify each of the identified problems and label them as follows:

• quick-fix by team members
• high-priority and doable this week
• high-priority, requires actions of others, e.g., capital expense, unavailable parts, engineering.

Step 6E: Review case examples for making rapid and sustainable improvements. Showcase successes, improvement methods, and out-of-the-box thinking approaches from other businesses. Identify how they arrived at the root causes of problems and implemented corrective actions. Introduce basic root-cause-analysis tools.

Establishing islands of excellence is a requirement in the creation of reliability cultures. They’re where breakthroughs in thinking and working occur, focused improvements in equipment-performance and reliability take place, and real plant-floor culture change emerges. Photo: Gary L. Parr

Step 6F: Return to equipment-problem locations and determine causes and corrective action. Clean the areas around problems. (Note: Cleaning is the most basic form of inspection.) Take photos to show each problem and contributing cause(s). Gather evidence of the problem and/or contributing causes, e.g., debris, foreign objects, grease accumulation, loose fasteners, missing parts, adjustments, errors.

Step 6G: Look for hidden problems. Many problems can be concealed or out of sight. Open guards and panels to expose hidden areas. Repeat Steps 6c, 6d, and 6f—tagging, sorting, and determining causes and corrective action.

Step 6H: Eliminate causes of problems. In this step, the breakthrough team makes improvements to eliminate the causes (or sources) of problems using root-cause-analysis tools. This improvement action goes beyond the quick fix and addresses the root cause in such a way that the cause of the problem is eliminated.

Step 6I: Make inspection improvements. Ease inspection (and cleaning) activities by removing cosmetic panels and replacing guards with clear polycarbonate or expanded metal, painted flat black.

Step 6J: Develop or improve inspection procedures (work instructions). Review any existing cleaning, inspection, and preventive-maintenance procedures to determine how they address the problems discovered in the previous steps. Modify existing procedures and/or develop new ones to cover preventive tasks for those problems. Include detailed step-by-step instructions, photographs, or illustrations, as needed, along with brief checklists to serve as reminders of the procedural steps.

Step 6K: Make inspection procedures visual. Apply visual cues of important inspection points, settings, locations, part numbers, and lubrication specifications close to the point of use. Make sure these visuals are aligned with written procedures and checklists.

Step 6L: Train and qualify team members to perform the new/revised inspections. Use work instructions as a training document. Once confidence has been built, have individual team members demonstrate their ability to explain and perform the step-by-step procedure. Those who can demonstrate this ability are, therefore, qualified to perform the respective tasks unsupervised. Follow-up audits should verify that the new inspection tasks are working as intended and causes of the problems are successfully addressed.

Summary

Creating reliability cultures—in most cases—requires changing the way people think and work, including changing their behaviors and habits, to enable them to practice and support reliability improvement. The key is to engage the right people, on the right equipment, using the right tools. In the process, they’ll begin developing their own common-sense reliability culture.