When you're processing work orders, a substantial quantity of time can be wasted in trying to figure out which one to work on. This requires reading large quantities of work to find the most important, or to find one that a specific person can do. With good coding practices at the work order approval/induction point, you can dramatically reduce lost time by all of the work order stations. This article is for maintenance managers and people who use work order systems. Most

Maintenance turnarounds can be a lot of work, but they're even more work if you do them the hard way. There are 3 clear pieces that need to work well in order to make the turnaround go fast. 1. A roadmap built on what's actually constraining you. Most plants don't know their maintenance constraints or maintenance goals such that they can communicate them cleanly. When leading a turnaround, I always recommend that the department aim to "return every machine to standard." How d

Most manufacturers think they're short on maintenance techs, parts budget, and machine availability. But it's almost impossible to be short on all 3. In every situation only one of these is your actual constraint. You need to know which one it is and here's how you figure it out. Maintenance techs: You need 1 to 2 techs per shift who can respond immediately to whatever might break on the floor. These techs should only be assigned to work that can be quickly set down like

Hiring a maintenance planner can set a maintenance shop back. I see it too often. As soon as a planner is hired, techs stop making parts lists. Because that's planning, and they want support. Techs are overworked. They want a planner so they can stop doing paperwork and get back to the floor. That's how it should be... right? Nope. If you're doing it that way, you're better off without the planner. Making parts lists... that's not a planner. That's a very expensive assista