I once visited a client who had just hired a new millwright for his maintenance team. This new guy knew the importance of keeping contaminants from entering the pneumatic and hydraulic valves as he serviced them on his workbench. While observing that metal grinding and welding were happening in this same workshop area, he decided to move his work to a small adjoining room with a workbench where the parts washing tank was kept.
He proceeded to staple plastic vapor barrier to the outside wall of this small room to keep welding smoke and grinding grit at bay. He cleaned up the inside of the room and created a very clean workbench area. As he finished servicing a valve, he would place it in a large zip lock plastic bag, and then write the valve model and date of service with his initials using a black marker on the outside of the bag.
Before hiring this new millwright, the company had been experiencing a lot of problems with fluid power systems. Systems were very dirty and running with excessive heat, filter cart hoses were often found with their couplings lying in the dust on the floor, replacement parts were not installed correctly etc. Breakdowns were common.
It might (or might not) surprise you to find out that this new millwright was taking quite a bit of ribbing from his workmates for his thoughtful and precise work. His workmates would chide him about all of his attempts to keep valves and components clean both inside and out. They would tell him that his efforts to improve machine reliability were futile as the plant was a dusty place. They would taunt him so that he would surely soon give up trying so hard.
This brand new millwright was the guy that the maintenance supervisor assigned to show me around the plant before the maintenance training that we were to conduct during the following days with the whole millwright team.
Selecting this guy to show me around was a sound strategy on the part of the supervisor. In identifying a role model to the rest of his team, he was both modeling behavior that he wanted them to display, and rewarding the great work of the new millwright. Nothing was said, but the message was not lost on the rest of the team.
The maintenance manager could also have identified this role model, this unofficial leader, to the group in other ways. Perhaps he could have been given lead responsibility for maintenance improvements to a piece of equipment that had been unreliable, or provided this millwright with a new hydraulic fluid particle counter. The second idea is very powerful with its inclusion of a symbol (the particle counter) and its implied change to a maintenance emphasis. There are a number of ways to identify role models and unofficial leaders without singing their praises out loud in front of the team!
By the way, you're probably not surprised to know that I took a few photos of that new millwright's 'clean room' approach to work and put them in my presentation to the group. When I got to those slides, I would just say something like "...and I see you guys are following best practices here to keep valve internals clean after servicing them...."
What are your thoughts? Is this good leadership?
Re: Symbols, see Steven J. Thomas's book; Improving Maintenance and Reliability Through Cultural Change
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