Step 3: Provide the Best Tools and Aids

Maintenance tradespersons have a tough job. They enjoy their work, but it is challenging. The expectations on their ability to keep the equipment running optimally, to diagnose problems accurately, to return the equipment to service quickly, safely, is real work.

Tools and job aids are the levers that amplify human exertion. It's not just about a long handled spanner, to amplify physical exertion, or a torque wrench to make sure that the exertion is accurate. Mental exertion needs help too.

In step 4 - solving the documentation crisis; we looked at the body of information that must be maintained in order to remember lessons learned, and how the machine designer meant for the machine to operate and be maintained.

Ten Step Maintenance Trades Leadership
1. Hire the best tradespersons
2. Develop the team with continuous training and mentorship
3. Provide the best tools and aids
4. Solve the technical documentation crisis
5. Establish a vision and set high expectations
6. Encourage initiative, collaboration, and true craftsmanship
7. Provide regular feedback and assessments
8. Encourage ownership and team autonomy
9. Insist on accountability and team learning
10. Celebrate team successes!

The best tools and aids are items that make it possible for a thoughtful learner to do their very best maintenance work. Why should a passionate mechanic or millwright be expected to set a pressure setting on a hydraulic valve without an accurate pressure test gauge, together with fittings that make it easy to snap in and out of the circuit.

A recent participant at one of our electrical troubleshooting courses admitted that he makes all electrical tests with twenty dollar multimeter.

Many maintenance shops I visit have hydraulic machines with maintenance routines calling for periodic pump testing. This testing is impossible to do without a proper load test, flow meter.

It's much easier for a maintenance department to state and pursue goals of maintenance excellence, to lead and inspire maintenance leadership, when the best tools and aids are made available.

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.

Step 7: Provide Regular Feedback and Assessments

A number of you have asked me to continue on the Ten Step Trades Leadership writing. I've had the busiest two years of my life working with heavy industry. There have been so many opportunities to learn about teams and about company culture, including our own. I intend to pick up where I left off and post a bit more frequently going forward.

Very few employees desire to work in a performance vacuum where feedback is seldom or never given. Feeling neglected is a common complaint from many in the companies where we visit. 

Traditionally most people think of feedback only as something that a leader provides to someone on his or her team. But it is actually best thought of as a two-way street where feedback can flow in either direction and where it can be initiated from either side. As much as leaders may need to be reminded from time to time to provide feedback to their employees, the employee can and should ask for feedback from their leader. The employee can also provide very useful feedback to the leader. Do you see what I mean about the two-way street?

Feedback doesn't have to come only during the once per year, one-on-one performance review. The often dreaded annual review is actually much easier for both parties if feedback is exchanged much more frequently throughout the year. 

Here's a few examples that can work in the service bays and maintenance shops;

If you're the leader, catch your tradespersons and teams doing things right in terms some work process that has been implemented or emphasized of late. And while you're at it, ask them for some feedback on how well that process is working for them at the shop floor level and for any suggestions on how you as a leader can help make the process work better. You might take a moment to review why their correct work makes a difference to the business. If you have to correct a problem with tradesperson performance, try asking a series of questions with genuine concern for the whole person. You may find out some factors at work in his or her life that will make it easier to move to a discussion on the specifics of the problem.   

If you're the tradesperson, you might take a moment when the maintenance leader is nearby to call him or her over and deliberately ask for some clarification on matters of process or quality in the shop and then give some examples of how you believe your work is in line with the current initiatives or policies. I know that some will worry that this seems like a kindergarten student constantly asking the teacher if his picture coloring is good enough. Well it's not like that at all unless you are doing it constantly. It is a great opportunity to show a leader that you're not automatically cynical about management processes and that you are trying to produce the best work you can in areas of your job. If you handle this exchange professionally and respectfully, you should even be able to send some feedback to your leader about his or her performance as well. If you've got some criticisms for your leader, try pointing out some of the good things he's been doing, then ask if he or she is open to a suggestion. This will likely put both of you in the right mindset for a respectful exchange.

Few people enjoy an all out confrontation in the workplace. Giving feedback and conducting assessments should turn out to be a positive experience if there is a culture of regular feedback and communications within the maintenance department. 

Step 8: Encourage Ownership and Team Autonomy

Continuing with the Ten Step Trades Leadership

When I'm out there training a group of maintenance tradesmen in industry I often hear "my supervisor won't let me do what I know needs to be done on that machine. I have to put in a report or work order and then it gets overlooked completely until a failure occurs."

Well there may be a few procedural problems to be dealt with here. But ultimately I haven't found too many maintenance leaders who don't want to let their teams own processes, procedures and even machines. It's just good leadership and delegation to let a team of passionate and reliable tradepersons 'run with the ball'.

I always encourage the tradesperson on the floor to communicate with his maintenance management group to find out more about the prioritizing of general service work vs. immediate/emergency vs. planned maintenance work so that he knows the process in use. The process of planning and scheduling work isn't meant to remove the qualified tradesperson from having a sense of ownership. As a leader, you know that it's about making sure that maintenance work is tracked, parts and materials are ready, that jobs are grouped up if possible to make the most efficient use of downtime.

On the other hand, teams and individual tradespersons on the front line can be developed into potential leaders if they are given as much ownership and autonomy as possible. This is where a lot of job satisfaction comes from.

If you're a tradesperson, ask to be included in the maintenance planning meetings where procedures are ironed out. You may get your chance in this environment to claim some additional ownership if you can make a good business case. Yes try to learn about the business/accounting realities in maintenance management. This will help.

If you're a supervisor, consider giving additional autonomy and ownership to your best team. Let them know what the parameters are and how they'll be held accountable (see Step 9) and then deploy. Done right, this should ease some of the workload for yourself and your planner.

Step 9: Insist on Accountability and Team Learning

If as manager of maintenance you encourage ownership and team autonomy in your plant or shop environment, then this is the next logical step isn't it? It should be a natural fit.

If a team of technicians and their support group have shown that they can look after overall maintenance of a machine or group of machines without a manager breathing down their necks every day, then they are probably ready for a mission. A mission is a challenge. The challenge might be to increase the availability of a piece of mobile equipment, or it might be to beat last year's unplanned downtime by a certain number of hours in a particular corner of the plant. It might be to find an innovative practice that prevents a certain type of wear or a particular breakdown.

Once a reasonable challenge has been given and accepted, the autonomous team can be held to account. They accepted the challenge, therefor the results are theirs to speak to. Chances are great that they will beat the minimum requirement of the challenge. That's the nature of this kind of challenge given to an autonomous team. If they do in fact succeed they will have learned together in a powerful way.

If they don't succeed, then once again there is some team learning that can take place if it hasn't already. The function of accountability in this case is not to reprimand, but rather to help analyze where the efforts or execution of the challenge went off the track. A very open discussion on why the challenge was not met and what mistakes were made may find some tender spots in the egos of some team members. If blaming is avoided and amnesty is given for honest mistakes, the criticisms should allow team members to recommit and to carry what they've learned forward and to restructure the challenge and try again.

Was the manager leading this accountability meeting? Was the manager's presence even required in the discussion? What could or should the manager contribute to the team to coach their team learning? Your thoughts?

Step 10: Maintenance Teams Need to Celebrate

I attended a plant maintenance conference this week. Among the many excellent technical topics on maintenance management came a discussion on company and team culture. This subject is a real passion of mine as it holds so much influence over the long term success and failure of an enterprise. It has enormous bearing on whether people truly want to get up and go to work and contribute. Do you agree?

Purpose and Goals to Motivate

The panelists were discussing a question from the floor on how to keep team members motivated during a major change initiative or a tough maintenance shut down. It was suggested that the leader needs to keep answering the question of why we're doing what we're doing and what the goal or ultimate purpose is. It was also thrown out that there has to be some positive reinforcement. I couldn't agree more. I believe that positive reinforcement should be offered after some of the small accomplishments have been achieved. Waiting until the end (is there an end?) of a major initiative can be problematic.


A Need for Celebration

I have noticed in my seminars that some maintenance managers and supervisors rarely stop to celebrate with the team they lead. Perhaps this is a natural consequence of the 'nose to grindstone' work ethic that is typical among maintenance leaders. Perhaps many feel that the goal is never achieved. A few supervisors might even be thinking that they are the hardest working member on the team and that if no one from upper management is coming by to celebrate what they've done, then why stop to celebrate with the team they are leading?

Mental Health of an Effective Team

If you've got no employment turn-over on your team and everyone is working collaboratively, and at near one hundred percent effectiveness, then you've got some real magic going for you. Chances are much greater that this not your situation. When you solve problems for a living, it just makes good mental health/motivation sense to stop periodically and celebrate what you've accomplished thus far. This is especially true if you are in the middle of a change initiative and are learning well as a team. The celebration event doesn't have to be expensive or complicated, but it should be done with sincerity and convey meaning. Celebration is a form of positive feedback and reinforcement. It is my step ten in a continuous cycle of steps to remember if you're the kind of leader who believes that the tradespersons and craftspersons on your team are all potential leaders in development. Below you will find the ten steps that were fermenting and churning in my thoughts this summer. Feel free to share your thoughts on these steps.

Ten Step Trades Leadership
1. Hire the best tradespersons
2. Develop the team with continuous training and mentorship
3. Provide the best tools and aids
4. Solve the technical documentation crisis
5. Establish a vision and set high expectations
6. Encourage initiative, collaboration, and true craftsmanship
7. Provide regular feedback and assessments
8. Encourage ownership and team autonomy
9. Insist on accountability and team learning
10. Celebrate team successes!

Giving Up On The Trades? Self Leadership is Required.

How many agree with the following statement? Industrial maintenance trades/craftspersons who take advantage of training when it is offered, and who stretch and acquire new skills or improve the quality of their work, are securing their own future and that of the company and the local economy as well.

This is the thought I was pondering recently after listening to a couple of maintenance managers tell me that instead of training their front line maintenance team, they would just continue to manage and get by. One was bold enough to say that he just didn't think that providing training for his team would change anything. He described the fears and apathy in a few of the personal attitudes on the team.

Corporate Culture - Who's Responsible?

My thoughts about the importance of company culture and making sure it gets built right, and that it never slides downhill were forefront in my mind. Is it possible though that a company makes poor choices when hiring maintenance tradespersons? Is it possible that the maintenance manager is under skilled in motivating, leading and developing his team? I think it's possible that the answer to both questions is 'yes' in many a case. Assigning blame will not solve the issue however.

Economic Reality

At the bottom line is a 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 a company, indeed an entire region's economy, justify and grant the increase in wages that everybody wants?

As a tradesman, this writer encourages all in the industrial maintenance trades and crafts to take every opportunity to continue the quest for new knowledge and improved hard and soft skills. I believe that a chunk of the North American economy depends on it!

Lead if You're Young, or Any Age!

If you're tempted to blame your boss or 'the company' for a less than progressive and dynamic work culture, don't. Just take the initiative on your own to lead and influence those you can. At a recent training seminar I conducted, it was one of the youngest tradesman 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 collaboration, maintenance and diagnostic skill set.

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 when you haven't stepped up much in the past. You have find a way to deal with that fear of being eaten in the jungle (maintenance shop) that may crop up. But if you're earnest, the respect will come in time.

Supervisor Boost

For the overworked and sometimes discouraged maintenance supervisors and maintenance managers, I say look for any spark of passion or initiative within that 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.

An industrial maintenance tradesperson has an important and valuable contribution to make to the economy, and she can demonstrate this by driving her own continuous training, and by leading the others on her team.

What Motivates Us...to do Our Very Best Work?

I recently visited the Museum of Flight in Seattle. I love museums like this where you can see so many generations of innovation and progress all at once. I have always appreciated the world of aircraft design and engineering.

I was particularly fascinated with a display for the "Corncob". This engine developed by Pratt and Whitney as the R-4360 Wasp Major, powered the F2G Corsair in the latter years of WWII. This engine marked a pinnacle achievement at the end of the piston engine era for fighter aircraft. There are four rows of seven pistons in radial arrangement. If the engineering and problem solving skills needed to make that kind of design work doesn't amaze you, then how about its weight of 3470 lbs with an ability to produce 3500 horsepower. This 1:1 power to weight ratio was tough to beat.

As I studied the detailed cutaway engine on the floor at the museum, I wondered about the people who designed it and built it. What motivated them to do this kind of difficult work...to do their very best work?

The Documentation Crisis

Over the past ten years I've been paying attention to a problem in industry that is wide spread 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. 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, accurate information resources? If we look to the world of commercial aircraft we find that the standard and expectation 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, were never created or are badly out of date. A system schematic is one example of a document that is often not accurate and therefor 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?

Space Telescope Repair - Maintenance Planning for Astronauts

I just finished watching the Nova program; Hubble's Amazing Rescue. The May 2009 shuttle mission to service the Hubble space telescope was the last in a series of maintenance and repair events. The mission was twelve days long, involving five space walks. One of the spacewalks lasted over eight hours.

As I watched the show I was impressed with the meticulous nature of the two plus years of planning and preparation for the repair and maintenance activities. Of course the margin for error on the mission was near zero. If the astronauts encountered problems that were not accounted for during the planning and training phases, the chances of success for the mission would be minimal.

All procedures from working with the smallest threaded fastener to moving eight hundred pound assemblies had to be carefully choreographed well in advance of the mission. Each task had to be scripted and practiced numerous times by the astronauts in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory swimming pool in Houston. If the procedures for tasks did not practice well, the procedures were rewritten and then tested and practiced again. You can read the transcript of the program here

The total number of people and teams that prepared the astronauts for the Hubble work was impressive. The complexity and thoroughness of the planning, procedure writing and training was impressive. Training was carried out right up to the time when the actual final mission began.

If we compare this space mission to an industrial maintenance event (shut down), then the astronauts were the tradespersons and the heavy equipment operators who worked with the tools, materials and components at the workface. Every possible effort was made by the mission engineers, planners and trainers to ensure success in orbit. The astronauts were the front line, the final expression of an enormous team effort. To have prepared the astronauts in an ad hoc or random fashion would have brought disappointment for many players and stakeholders.

The same holds true for an industrial team during a plant shut down. The front line trades and equipment operators need to work from the best possible preparation and planning in order to help them achieve an efficient work cycle. They also need the best possible training to make sure they are ready to solve problems as they arise. Problem solving is, after all, the reason why humans are needed to complete the complex work carried out during a shut down.

If you catch the program on PBS, be sure to watch for the glitches and problems that crop up during the actual work on the telescope and how the teams and support experts work together to solve them.

Maintenance Has To Report!

Further to my 'Blow your Horn' post on May 06, here is more encouragement.

Of course the industrial maintenance department has to report on matters of cost and budgets. But how about reports from the tradespersons on the plant floor, or from technician in the fleet maintenance shops?

Many tradespersons I speak to have been quietly monitoring some aspect of the machinery they look after. They often 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 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 as you write your reports.

Perhaps you are thinking "What should I report?" Most people involved with maintenance, whether 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 wait no longer. This is your year!

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 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're serious about your work, as most every maintenance department is, you'll get into that annual report eventually.

Wouldn't some recognition for your department's efforts and contributions help to paint the big picture?

The Future of Industrial Trades

I was very lucky to serve as a Skill Ambassador for the Polymechanics/Automation competition at World Skills 2009 in Calgary Alberta last week. What an event!


The 17 to 22 year old competitors had already won the national competitions in their home countries. They are the best of the best! The national competitions are tough. I know this because I was involved with creating and judging an electronics troubleshooting event when the Skills Canada event was in Red Deer back in 1997.

The young men and women who came to show the best of their skills and talents in areas such as CNC machining, Polymechanics (Millwright work), Industrial Automation, Manufacturing, Mechatronics, Welding, Electrical Installation and many more were absolutely first rate. Learn more at www.worldskills.org


The future of industrial skills around the world is in great hands if this year's competitors were representative of the next generation.

The challenge for industry will be to employ these amazing new artisans in a very open and progressive work culture and in a way that lets them express their full passion for their respective crafts.

Written Tests in Industrial Training - Five Tips

Did the title of this post give you the jitters? Assessment and evaluation of trainees has been a busy topic of recent in heavy industrial maintenance. Some have been asking for more written tests while others have expressed disappointment in trainee test results.
Why all of the interest in tests? Perhaps it is way of asking trainees to appreciate the expenditure and investment being made and to take the training seriously. This motivation is sound enough given the economic conditions under which many companies are operating this year. The written test can be a useful tool for reviewing key content covered in the training and for assessing the transfer of knowledge to a certain level. It also has some obvious limitations. Below are some of my thoughts on the written test.

Written Test Limitations

As a key tool in assessing worker performance the written test has limitations. Here's a few;

1. For many, our early school experiences cause our whole body physiology to change to an extremely nervous state when we're told that we'll have to take a test. I know that I am often in this camp. This factor by itself can influence how effective the training session will be when many of the participants are obsessing with the test to come and worried that they might perform poorly. Are they really in a position to get the most from the training session?

2. A written test that is not well designed for the for the learning styles of the trainee group, turns out to be a test in how well one can take a test. Basic trainee literacy issues can surface at this point as well. Computer hosted tests are notorious for these issues.

3. Tests questions that primarily require factual recall, only test short term memory. Most of us who haven't taken the written component of a driver's test in a few years know that we have forgotten some of the details in the laws that govern traffic and highway use. Many companies use a written test to document their diligence in safety training. But if the training is not refreshed until many months later, are the trainees still knowledgeable on matters of safety?

4. A written test does not clearly indicate what a person can actually do. In the field of applied skills (all of industrial maintenance) it is very important to both 'know' and be able to 'do'.

Five Tips to Get Value from Written Tests

1. Align the test and the training sessions

Make sure that the test is well matched to the content and objectives of the training session. Using questions from a standard test bank or library may make for easy test construction, but the validity of the test will be low. If the training sessions have allowed for a flexible delivery where the specific needs of the trainee have been addressed during the sessions, you may need to modify and edit the test at the last moment to account for a change in content emphasis.

2. Help the class prepare for the test

Let them know well in advance how much of the test requires factual recall and memorization vs. understanding of general principles and concepts. Let them know what resources they'll have access to during the test. Emphasize key test material during the actual training sessions.

3. Use a variety of test item types

An entire test made up of multiple choice and true or false items is easy to mark but a poor indicator of true knowledge retained by the learner. It is important to include test items that allow the trainee to write a short answer in his/her own words (fill in the blank and short answer questions). A test item that asks trainees to match a series of terms to their symbols or definitions is another example of good test item variety.

You might also choose to design an open-book portion of the of the test. This is a test or a portion of a test that asks the trainee to use other resources such as manuals, drawings, schematics and formula tables. In this case you are not asking the trainee to memorize but rather to demonstrate resourcefulness and various technical communication competencies.

You might choose to have some actual physical machine parts and components labeled by letter or number and require the trainees to identify them in writing on the test. This type of item brings the test to near crossover between written and practical evaluation.

4. Review the test together as a group

Once the test is complete, you may choose to grade and review the test in the classroom as a group. If you are concerned about participants changing their answers during this stage you might choose to supply one color of pen during the writing of the test and then collect them and pass out another color for the grading/reviewing stage. The importance of this group review is that as a trainer you get one more chance to reinforce critical concepts and gauge the group's understanding. You also give the trainees a chance to defend their answers, especially the written ones where sole interpretation on the trainer's part is much more difficult.

5. Combine written testing with practical tests

If the results of a written test are to be recorded as a part of an employee's formal performance record, combine the test with other practical assessments. Again, the field of industrial maintenance is about 'know' and 'do'. If a trainee has done well on a written test on the topic of shaft alignment for example, then a planned matching practical evaluation might include observing the trainee make the correct preparations for shaft alignment in the field.

A written test is but one component in an overall evaluation strategy that must include assessment of visible job performance. For those of you who are familiar with Kirkpatrick's training assessment model, this is called a level three, behavior evaluation. Ultimately what you do, and can do is more important than what you supposedly know.

Your thoughts on written tests?

Good Leader?

I've met a few of recent

Leadership means to have passion and vision, to inspire and help educate and develop your team. Its means sticking to your guns,..your long term goals despite the road blocks you face. Scheduling, reporting, budget allocating, cost controlling and such, are all tasks,...important tasks at that. Everyone has some of these tasks and they have to be executed well. But they are not the job. The job of the leader is to develop the people, and develop the team and then set resources in place, provide autonomy,...and require accountability.



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, crisis counseling,...wow what a job!

What else should we add? Your definition...?

Maintenance Department Overlooked? Blow Your Horn!

If you maintain equipment and machinery this is for you. 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. Do you agree with this statement?

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 the maintenance department is carrying out. That's not good. It either means that maintenance doesn't have any specific initiatives (I sure hope they have some) 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.

Start small if you must, just get started! Doing what? Blowing your horn! If maintenance wants the respect and attention of the company's top management, it has to report. Don't leave it just to the numbers stored inside the corporate database to do your reporting. Yes those numbers probably yield useful data on maintenance costs and various downtime metrics. By themselves however, they won't communicate your passion and your vision and your long term thinking. Passion and vision is the stuff that when combined with the numbers will eventually get you new predictive tools, specialized training, renovated machine shop space or perhaps even a raise. Even if it takes a while before some of these tangible items make it through the budgeting process, pursuing and communicating the vision of your maintenance department can be rewarding by itself.

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 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. Don't be discouraged if you are a maintenance department of just two or three people, or even just one guy. Set your goal in 2009 to communicate monthly or quarterly to your managers.

Doing it right. Worthy of the Title.

I believe that 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. There is indeed science involved in industrial maintenance work and so perhaps the title Para-engineer or Machine Medic carries 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, odors and heat levels all come in to play as well for an observant machinery doctor. Diagnosis of system problems involves a sound scientific approach and often utilizes sophisticated tools and data analyzers.

Art vs. Science

On the other hand, machinery maintenance is also an art. Working with components, materials and tools requires an artful approach. Without question there is art in great installation and parts replacement work. 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.

Lack Lustre?

The sub-titles of Machinist, Millwright, Industrial Mechanic, Heavy Duty Mechanic, Industrial Electrician, Instrument Technician and so on bring more focus and specialty to the title. Though in some industrial environments, these titles have lost their luster and may instead 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 trade titles. A sense of responsibility and ownership is often left adrift among such groups. Blame and disdain for trade groups other than your own is not discouraged in some of these industrial cultures.

Pride in Workmanship

Whatever the title is, let it inspire all who work in the field of industrial maintenance to feel and fuel a sense of pride within,...the pride that comes from stretching to learn your chosen craft to its very highest level. I believe that this level of pride is the right of someone 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 by others with senior experience in their chosen trade and in other trades within the plant.

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 desires to master the trade.

Hang On To Your Passion and Principles!

Are economic conditions improving for your operation? If they are not already improving, they will! Hang on to your passion and your principles for doing things right!

The downturn has been wreaking havoc on common sense management within heavy industry. In my visits with clients over the last two months, I noticed that many of the hard fought battles to establish disciplined maintenance were being surrendered. Maintenance departments are surrendering to corporate management's request to spend almost nothing.

Absolutely No Training Allowed

One client at a very complex plant told me that he would probably be found face down floating in a nearby river if he asked management for a budget to build some troubleshooting job aids that he needs. In response to my queries he said "not only are we not conducting maintenance training, we're not even doing basic maintenance". He went on to tell me that they will gamble on maintenance for the next six months and pay the price later. He said that he knew that the price would be very high.

Did this client really want me to believe that there was a threat to his life for proposing an investment in skills and performance? Of course not. But he was making it very clear that a serious edict had come down from above. He was also making clear that maintenance management progress was now in reverse.

Stay in the Game!

I have to wonder, does this mean that many of us who earlier fought hard to make progress in maintenance, have now let go of that passion? I can understand that if the company is nearly out of cash, that gambling on the maintenance of the plant might mean the difference between continuing to operate versus shutting down and laying everyone off. I suppose that like anyone else, a maintenance manager is thinking of his own family needs and his grocery bills and mortgage payment. If the company then instructs you not to spend on anything, you have to go along. Who wants to get laid off?

Another client who directs maintenance training and development for a large organization told me that his new game is tennis. He told me that serious liabilities come with the ball when it lands in his court. He told me that as soon as the ball arrives, he now hits it hard to get the ball as far from himself as possible. While describing the troublesome politics that plague his work I asked him to just imagine what the ideal solution might be. He told me that retirement was only a few years away now. Clearly he has removed himself from constructive and optimistic participation.



Basic Skills

This final story is a brain warper. I visited a client where we are producing job aids for a complex machine. I was there to gather additional data. The superintendent sent me out on to the plant floor with a supervisor. The supervisor first had me stop off in the machine shop. He had me help a group of tradesmen with a problem completely unrelated to the purpose of my visit.

They were struggling over a problem with a hydraulic cylinder that was creeping when it should not be. It was causing a lot of problems in the plant. After a few minutes of discussion in the machine shop it became apparent that the tradesmen were struggling with basic directional valve and hydraulic cylinder knowledge. I taught them what I could in the time I had during my visit. I took them online to show them where our free training resources are kept on our website. They were very grateful for the help.

When I got back to the superintendent's office I mentioned the discussions in the machine shop and that a two-day seminar that we provide would be very helpful. I was told that even though the plant was operating at near capacity, upper management had insisted that no training take place at this time as a cost saving measure.

Training Budget Trimmed?

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 full of machinery only runs, or only runs well if a sharp and skilled crew is looking after it. In fact, if the plant cannot hire more help for the maintenance department, then you have to do better with the people you have. If the market has put pricing pressure on the plant's products, then the machinery has to run better than ever.

Fight - Put it on The Line!

Is training and development still at the forefront of your plant's operating philosophy? In the end it's all about people isn't it? We may once again have to fight for the good stuff,...the training as needed in our respective industrial departments.

Recognizing Leaders; Supervisor - What's your strategy?

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