12OrganizationOfTheMaintenanceDepartment PT1 – Click To Download PDF

ORGANIZATION OF THE MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT

(Part 1)
Albert K. Fletcher
CEO/PM Consultant
(Dataman System Consultancy)

Introduction

To organize is to develop the framework by which human energies are channeled into desired productive patterns.

To design the proper organizational structure for a Maintenance Department, one must first understand what the department is assigned to accomplish, then apply established principles and performance norms to structure the relationships and assignments that make up the organization.

Organizations in a constant state of change may reflect poor management or may be in other trouble. There is a widely held belief that a manager reorganizes to solve problems. What is more nearly true of a good manager is that he readjusts his organization to accommodate differences in the capabilities of his people or changes in the activities assigned to his Department.

Whatever may be his motivation for making changes, a good manager must always have available a sound long-term organization plan for his Department. Moreover, that long-term plan must support the long-term plan for the Plant as a whole. This also means that at any given time the maintenance organization must match the needs of the current stage of the long-term plan for the Plant.

The existence of a long-term organization plan permits changes to be made in the right direction as opportunities arise. In the absence of such a plan, changes are made without proper analysis and on the basis of expediency; errors are perpetuated, and fundamental improvements are seldom realized.

Thus, to develop the appropriate and optimum organization plan for Maintenance, one must first:

  • Establish the Department’s long-term objectives

  • Develop a plan for achieving those objectives

  • Analyze the means for plan accomplishment

  • Match the present organization to the current stage in achieving the long-term plan

The First Step – Develop the Long-Range Plan

To establish the long-term plan for the Maintenance Department, one must first define its goals. What is the purpose(s) it must accomplish?

The Maintenance Department provides the means by which the Plant’s physical assets are kept in their most economic condition. But the responsibility and accountability for that condition resides with the Plant Manager and his designated “equipment owners”. The owner is generally the operating superintendent or production manager, although a few facilities may be “owned” by Maintenance.

The Maintenance Manager then has the responsibility to provide the personnel, training, tools, and techniques to accomplish maintenance, which is the most economic restoration to that defined condition.

Oversimplified, the long-term plan of the Maintenance Department must provide for:

  • Efficiently maintaining increasingly complex and automated equipment

  • Managing uncertain production loads and potential equipment damage

  • Completing Repair and Maintenance (R & M) work safely and efficiently

At the same time, because of its skills and tools, Maintenance will:

  • Acquire added responsibilities and duties of a production services nature

  • Construct capital goods and facilities improvements

None of these activities will occur at a uniform or regular rate, but the total effort can be predicted to some extent. Maintenance must balance work increments to accomplish the total overall effort with a force of optimum size.

The Maintenance Department must develop its organization plan, both immediate and long-term, around the immediate and long-term manufacturing or production plans of the Plant. It must also include plans for Plant expansion and modernization.

These plans must be translated into manpower expenditure, after which the effort to supervise, control, train, administer, and provide technical needs is added. The size of the organization, the type of work, the tools and materials required, and the rate and timing of personnel changes are integrated into plans for both the long range and immediate future.

Principles Governing Maintenance Department Organization

There will be continuing reference to planning, which compels an early definition of that activity. The mechanics of planning are described elsewhere; the interest now is in understanding the concepts.

Since scheduling is the timely implementation of a plan, planning and scheduling will be treated as a unity.

Planning and Scheduling may be described as the identification of these six elements:

  • WHAT – Exactly what is to be done

  • WHERE – Exactly where it is to be done

  • HOW – How the objectives are to be accomplished; the methods

  • WHEN – The major activity in scheduling

  • With WHAT – What manpower, machines, tools, and materials are to be used

  • With WHOM – The summation of all elements, structured for all activities and assigned as to responsibility, constitutes the organization for that plan

(End Part 1 – To be continued)

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