TAKE CONTROL OF WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE CONTROL OVER!

Equally important but often overlooked are opportunities for improvement in the management and execution of planned delays. Responsibility for planning and managing these delays generally lies with Superintendents, Supervisors and Planners.

Execution of planned delays also includes Operators and Maintainers. Because these delays are “part of the process”, they tend to receive less focus as an improvement opportunity because everyone knows that they are part of the normal workday.

The timing of these delays is part of the cause of production variances, but the hidden opportunity for improvement relates to whether the actual time down is less than or equal to the planned time or optimum time to be down. Any variance from the plan or optimum would be reported as a Cost of Quality because productivity was either lost or gained vs. plan or “optimum”. In this case, productivity gains could be a “bad thing” if planned downs are shortened or postponed to increase availability or utilization.

The word “proactive” in relation to equipment delays means that people are taking charge of executing delay procedures consistently and according to a well-laid-out plan that has been communicated to all suppliers and customers of the process.

Connecting people to the delays is the critical part of this effort and is accomplished through measures that relate to process performance or lack of performance and a desire to change. Measures are selected strategically so that they are kept to a minimum, help change behavior, and are easily shared with the workforce.

A small sample of PMs (planned maintenance activities) and PODs (planned operating delays) follow: