Basic Care/Maintenance by Operators

Operator performed maintenance (OPM) is one of the simplest, most powerful, but vastly underused tools in most process industry manufacturing plants. If we operated our manufacturing plants with the same care that we operate our cars, the benefits in reliability, uptime, operating costs, etc would be tremendous.

What sane car driver would ignore basic maintenance - fuel, lubrication, water, routine preventive maintenance, listening for odd noises, observing changes in performance, etc -until they experience a catastrophic failure? We approach operator performed maintenance from the perspective of "This is the place where you make your living. If you don't take care of the place where you make your living, it may not be here to take care of you."

Establishing a solid operator performed maintenance program can start small and grow over time. As with anything, the approach must be based on the culture and history of the individual plant. We never preach a "one size fits all" approach. More on implementation suggestions tomorrow.

Synchronous LLC is committed to maintaining a continuing dialogue on operational excellence and best practices for the process manufacturing industry. To pose a question, contribute a best practice, or otherwise add to the dialogue, send a note to RobBaldwin@SynchronousLLC.com . To subscribe to our weekly newsletter send your preferred email contact address to Webmaster@SynchronousLLC.com with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.