on Maintenance Reliability

Today’s Gremlin – “Perfectionist”, is often a planner or an engineer. This Gremlin holds himself or herself to extremely high, pretty much unattainable, standards. They cannot be found to be wrong by anyone. Perfectionists go to great lengths to get everything they do, 100% right, 100% of the time.

We all know that getting part way complete, even a large part of the way complete, is quick and easy. Although whatever we are doing may not be perfect, it is close and for most purposes, it may be good enough.

Today’s Gremlin – “No plan needed”, shows up even where there are planners. This gremlin is comfortable creating maintenance work schedules that are little more than wishful thinking! Plans describe what work must be done, how it should be done and with what resources (skills, tools, parts, etc.). Schedules show when the work will be done. Between the two steps is a check on the availability of all those resources. Without them, the schedule is at risk. Without a plan, you don’t even know what to check on! “No plan needed” is at the heart of maintenance inefficiency.

Today’s Gremlin – “The White Knight”, is a day-to-day hero, fixing what’s broken and returning the operation from panic. When things break, you really do need him, and he can be a hero, but couldn’t he be preventing those breakdowns?

The White Knight is the one you call when things have gone wrong. You need things fixed fast, regardless of the time of day, and he’s there for you. He works overtime if needed, he’s there when you need him, and he’s fast. Things do get fixed. But do they stay that way?