My Take: On the Maintenance-Excellence Trail

You can listen to countless discussions and presentations about something, frequently edit articles and columns about it by others, even write about it yourself from time to time. In the end, though, nothing impresses an editor more than seeing “something”—whatever it is—in action. Such was the case with this month’s feature about the successful maintenance-excellence journey that Johnsonville embarked upon in 2009.

I recently spent a whirlwind day touring three fast-paced Johnsonville plants at the company’s headquarters campus in Sheboygan Falls, WI. In that short time, I learned more about those world-class manufacturing operations and the impact of maintenance excellence in the real world than I ever expected—or ever could have hoped for.

As contributing editor Bob Williamson has often explained in our pages, “Maintenance excellence is not a program to be implemented, but rather a level of performance resulting from consistently embracing, applying, nurturing, and improving the way equipment and facilities are maintained to the benefit of the overall business.” Maintenance-excellence efforts, in turn, often result in demonstrable short- and long-term business advantages of maintenance best practices.

According to Williamson, with all of the buzzword-based improvement programs that have come and gone over the past two decades (or more), it’s still hard to put a number to how many have really worked. There’s no question, however, that maintenance excellence is working for Johnsonville—despite the almost unimaginable range of challenges with which its plant-maintenance teams must contend, day in and day out.

My initial gut feeling was, if this company could make corporate-wide maintenance excellence a reality, any company could. But then, on second thought, maybe not.

Johnsonville’s maintenance-excellence journey has several things going for it that other companies’ efforts may not have. The first is a remarkable level of management buy-in. Indications of it are everywhere—including strong support for training of personnel, investment in equipment, and encouragement for the maintenance teams to journey on.

As this month’s article points out, Johnsonville appears to have recognized the enormous improvement potential that maintenance excellence holds for the company’s operations and, thus, views the effort as a value-added part of the company’s business model. This could only be possible with progressive leadership. (How does this attitude square with that of your company’s management?)

A unique company culture also plays a major role in moving maintenance excellence forward at Johnsonville. (You can read more about that in the article.) I saw plenty of evidence in this regard. One of the most tangible indications was the enthusiasm for the company’s efforts and the resulting improvement achievements.

Everywhere I went during the plant tours, I met employees from all levels of the organization (Johnsonville refers to them as “members”) who wanted to talk about their personal experiences on the company’s journey. Their passion for what they do, their support of maintenance-excellence principles, and their interest in helping spread the word about the positive impact these efforts have on the company’s equipment, processes, and bottom line told the story best.

Click here and read about Johnsonville’s continuing maintenance-excellence journey for yourself. Then, let me know about yours.

jalexander@efficientplantmag.com