Step 4: Solving The Documentation Crisis

Over the past ten years I've been paying attention to a problem in industry that is widespread and rather consistent. I've come to refer to it as the documentation crisis. Its effects are very serious. Equipment capital life may be shortened, production quality and quantity are impacted, and the effectiveness of maintenance activities can come into question. Safety and environmental issues can easily enter into the equation, as well.

First of all, what is documentation? In the industrial machinery environment, documentation can be thought of as the total collection of information resources pertaining to how a complex system functions, how to install, commission and operate it, and how to maintain and troubleshoot it. For a system that has been in place for a number of years, documentation should also include a historical record of changes, repairs, maintenance activities and developed best practices.

Is it reasonable to expect a team of equipment operators and maintainers to do their best possible work without a comprehensive collection of well designed and accurate information resources? If we look to the world of commercial aircraft we find that the standard and expectations for up to date and accurate documentation is very high. This is understandable given the reliable nature of gravity, and the burden of responsibility that falls on those in charge of public transportation.

The reality for many industrial environments on the ground seems to include a story or two about a system or a number of systems within the machinery fleet, or at the mill, plant, or mine site where some or many of these resources have gone missing. Some were never created, or are badly out of date. A system schematic is one example of a document that is often not accurate and therefore not useful for system learning and problem solving. There are a good number of reasons that can explain how a schematic turns out to be inaccurate. What is more interesting is how a good number of years can go by with no resolution for these inaccuracies.

Another example of the documentation crisis involves the experience of individuals who work with the complex systems in question for a period of time. It seems like an obvious loss of intellectual property or capital knowledge to find these individuals moving on from the plant or the machinery team without having recorded or passed on what they've learned over the years. Yet, this is precisely what happens at so many sites.
 

One last example, among many, comes from the program running within a programmable logic controller (PLC). While I don't compile precise statistical data, a fairly high percentage of PLC programs are very poorly documented. If the original programmer doesn't stick around or make it a goal to train another person at the site, the electrical and instrumentation team is left to struggle through their use of the PLC as a plant system diagnostic tool.

The question I often pose to team members in the industrial environment is” how will operational performance and equipment reliability goals be reached without addressing the documentation crisis that seems so prevalent?” If the documentation crisis is not an impediment to reaching those goals, then perhaps the goals are not set high enough. Perhaps in that case the goals are not sufficiently based on the expectation of deep learning within the team.

How are you addressing the documentation issues at your site?

Step 5: Establish A Vision, Set High Expectations

Not all of you may be aware that I was once a high school teacher. In fact, for seven years I taught welding and fabrication, as well as robotics and electronics, among other topics. I recall the incredible projects carried out by the students at one school in particular.

I’ve observed that if your perspective is limited to the horizon - the mid-point, which is still knowable and within reach - you will probably end up somewhere much lower. So after I set the stage for my students, I coached them to aim really high, with the belief that at the very least they would achieve goals that are above the horizon.

I facilitated a class of special electronics students (actually, they were all pretty special) conducting focused work on opto-electronics projects which complemented their physics class.

One group was working on an infrared modem and data transmission system. They successfully transmitted a few letters from the keyboard of one computer to the screen of a completely separate computer. Another group built a non-contact photo tachometer like the kind typically used in industry. They had a fairly complete circuit that picked up the reflection of an infrared LED from a small piece of foil on a spinning drill chuck. All of these projects were being designed from scratch with raw chips and components - no kits.

I encouraged my students to envision and attempt “the impossible”. They did, and succeeded often.

Visiting school administrators who toured through the facility asked me how they could find someone with my kind of training, or where might they send teachers to get training so that they could teach in the same way. I told them I didn’t know: while I took electronics in college and was a Millwright by trade, these programs  didn’t officially train me to teach robotics and high school engineering classes.

In fact, my personal passion for problem solving with technology was more important than my formal training. Of course I had the requisite teaching degree and lots of official training, but I was teaching robotics simply because I really wanted to. On my own, I made sure that my passion was reflected and deeply imbedded in the subject material.

Where are many of these students now, some 14 years later? They are engineers, technologists, technicians, trades persons, business people and so on. They work for major fluid power shops, oilfield service companies, construction, and electronics firms. Some even work overseas in Japan and Hong Kong as design engineers for big name companies.

These days, I know and work closely with some engineers at our client companies. They are awesome people with great skills. They want to solve big problems carefully, effectively, with precision. Some of them have 1000 hp worth of passion and enthusiasm, yet sadly they are governed down to around 180 hp by the company

The same can be said for some maintenance trades teams. In my travels, I notice that many maintenance departments are still unsung and uncelebrated within their companies. Maintenance almost never gets a mention in the corporate annual report. When I engage a plant or fleet manager directly, they can usually speak to the importance of maintenance. Many, however, cannot speak to the top level initiatives that their department is carrying out. Left unchanged, work performance drops to a mediocre level, and teams get stale and dry.

That’s not good. it means that maintenance doesn’t have any specific initiatives, or that they don’t promote them and communicate them within the company. At some level, we all know that machinery doesn’t run for very long without talented and motivated people maintaining it. Awareness of this fact comes to the forefront when breakdowns have been frequent. When machinery has been running well on a consistent basis, the significant role that maintenance plays can quickly become overlooked.

The job of the leader is to develop the people on the team, and then set resources in place, provide autonomy, and require accountability. Scheduling, reporting, budget allocating, cost controlling, and such are all important tasks. Everyone has some of these tasks and they have to be executed well.

But, leadership also means to have passion and vision, to inspire, help educate, and develop your team. It means sticking to your guns - your long term goals - despite the roadblocks you face. (Oh, and it also means being patient, staying late to help the crew, bringing pizza, scrounging for tools, supplies, and expertise to support the team, listening to fishing stories, and sometimes providing crisis counselling. Wow, what a job!)

Leadership is not a lofty position high up on the organization chart. It’s a personal choice to nurture one’s own potential to lead and it starts on the shop or plant floor. I’ve always referred to this as leading from the back, or leading from the bottom. Yes, it does take a little nerve and personal resolve to lead with enthusiasm. You have to find a way to deal with the fear of being eaten alive in the jungle that crops up when you haven’t stepped up to the plate that much in the past. But if you’re earnest, the rewards will come in time.

At one training seminar I conducted, it was one of the youngest tradespersons in the group who demonstrated leadership and admonished most of his older colleagues to positively focus on the possibilities that accompany a team with a higher level of collaboration, maintenance, and diagnostic skill sets. During economic downturns when profit margins have been trimmed or have gone negative, creative thinking and careful management are not optional. Better to see the company and its systems as a classroom and laboratory.

Should expenditure on training be looked upon as a burdensome cost of production? Is it realistic to treat training and human development budgets in the same way as office supply and freight budgets? In the end a plant or shop full of machinery only runs well if a sharp and skilled crew is looking after it. In fact, if the company cannot hire more help for the maintenance department, and if the market has put pricing pressure on the company’s product, then the machinery has to run better than ever.

Is training and development still at the forefront of your company’s operating philosophy? In the end it’s all about people isn’t it?

Now is the time for bold visionary leadership that encourages those with passion, talent, and initiative to really fly. This is a great time for company managers to hand out autonomy and responsibility, and demand accountability too.

Set the hard working, passionate ones loose, and then showcase those people to the local kids in high school who may end up working for you in a few years time.

Step 6: Encourage Initiative, Collaboration, and True Craftsmanship

The trade designation of machinist, millwright, industrial mechanic, heavy equipment technician, industrial electrician, instrument technician, and so on bring a focus and specialty to those titles. In some industrial environments, though, these designations have lost their luster. Instead, they may refer merely to compartmentalized thinking, where one group is segregated from another.

In some cases, the segregation is so extreme that there are separate lunch rooms for the different trades. A sense of responsibility and ownership is often set adrift among these groups. In fact, blame and disdain for trade groups other than your own is not discouraged in some of these industrial cultures.

Whatever the title, the ideal is for all who work in the field of industrial maintenance to feel and fuel a sense of pride and craftsmanship within themselves. Pride comes from stretching to learn your chosen craft to its very highest level.

The general occupation title “tradesperson”, as applied to those who maintain industrial systems and machines, is a bit weak in its capability to communicate the complexity and importance of the work. Indeed, there is a science involved in industrial maintenance work and so, perhaps the title “para-engineer” or “machine medic” reflects more of the reality of the job today.

There is a science to understanding the sounds that machines make and the noises that indicate that a problem is developing. Vibrations, odours, and heat levels all come into play for an observant machinery doctor. Diagnosis of systems problems involves a sound scientific approach and often utilizes sophisticated tools and data analyzers.

On the other hand, machinery maintenance is also an art. Without question there is art in great installation and parts replacement work, and the use of components, materials, and tools requires this artful approach. Perhaps the title of “artisan” or “craftsperson” captures these finer points.

I have always admired neat wiring and layout work in a cabinet where a contactor or variable frequency drive was just replaced. It means the electrician cared enough to do her best work. When I observe a millwright polish the end of a machine shaft by hand before installing a new bearing, I know that this person wants this service job to last.

Doing the job right, even re-doing it if need be, and accepting responsibility for the learning that was needed between the first and second attempt, is the sign of someone who is soon going to master the trade.

I believe that this level of pride is the right of anyone who accepts that there is more to learn and has some ongoing training plans in place. This person also respects the knowledge and skills acquired not only by others with senior experience in their chosen trade, but also in the other trades within the plant or shops.

I meet many such individuals: tradespersons who have been quietly monitoring some aspect of the machinery they look after. Often they have valid ideas for improvement that no-one else has heard. Initiatives and reporting can and should start at the tradesperson level.

If you are a tradesperson, and you’ve got a sense of initiative and some great ideas and you work hard, then start blowing your own horn. This is your company, with its expensive assets that you are helping to manage. Don’t worry if others in the lunchroom are giving you strange looks as you compile your data and write your reports.

Maybe you are thinking “But what should I report?” Many people involved with maintenance, whether they are a tradesperson on the floor or a shop supervisor, have at least one pet project that they are interested in exploring deeper. Your commitment to report about it monthly or quarterly will help you keep the project on track. If you are convinced that you can coax better overall performance from your machinery and your department by starting with a particular initiative, then go for it!

There isn’t a plant or fleet manager out there that won’t be interested in hearing about what you are doing to be more resourceful, or to work more efficiently and collaboratively as a department. The manager will also welcome your initiatives to extend the life of the machinery, make it more energy efficient, more productive, or more reliable. You will also earn some positive attention for your communication and leadership if you can keep it going.

If you have made some notable progress by the time the corporate annual report is being compiled, then submit your work and ask to be included. Be as assertive on this as you can get away with. If it doesn’t make it into the report this year, ask why and perhaps ask for some guidelines on how to prepare your materials and then try again next year. If you are serious about your work, as most maintenance departments are, you’ll get into that annual report eventually.

Working on a personal project is a great way to learn. Anyone who has ever built a deck or renovated a room in the house knows this well. Your company may not think of itself as being in a “creative” industry. It may not embrace the practice used by some of the best design firms and some web technology firms where employees are encouraged to use some of their work time each week to pursue personal creative interests. Most often in the industrial world is all about keeping your nose to the grindstone.

But without some “play” time at work, industries short change themselves on the development of a critical skill set. A lot of people get pretty good at deck and garage building because of all the time spent on Lego and Lincoln Logs as a child.

The bottom line is the reality that if team players from all levels in a maintenance team don’t find a way to improve their own effectiveness, efficiency, or the quality and quantity of the company’s production, then ultimately how will that company justify and grant the increase in wages that everybody wants?

Sometimes maintenance supervisors and managers feel overworked and discouraged. I’d say look for any spark of passion or initiative within the team you lead, and then fuel it. Offer some autonomy and responsibility, and of course let them know you’re going to hold them to account as well.

The investment will be worth it, if only for the potential to delegate or to expect that the highly trained front line trades and crafts will reduce your burden.