How do you develop operational maintenance into a modern department in the times of the digital revolution with Industry 4.0?

As an interim manager, it is important to learn something about the company, its culture and mission statements. It is about the general strategy in the entire company, how is production and how does the cooperation with operational maintenance currently work?

Of course, the perception of an interim manager is always about quick solutions with quick profits. These final interventions must be separated and established with the maintenance team. However, maintenance must still change goals. The life cycle of machines and systems and thus the fixed assets of a company that are healed and sold without the costs being included.

The first focus of the task is to investigate the causes and identify potential tasks. Then it is gilded to belong to the festive rights and to make the maintenance organization fit for the future step towards „digital production & maintenance“. A functioning IT gestural, uniform maintenance documentation with spare parts management are another focus

The maintenance department has to deal with many personal tasks, it is also always an advisor, service provider and knowledge generator in the company. In addition to the consequences of the production of the always reactive and important situations, there are many tasks that can be planned.

Maintenance task

    Establishing the maintenance strategy with the management - short-term, reaction in the event of malfunctions and production failures. Medium term, preventive maintenance and servicing. Long-term, revisions, retrofits, projects and annual I&R plan
    Planning of maintenance costs and investments together with management and controlling based on the I&R strategy and the annual plan
    Planning of the preventive maintenance measures based on the annual plan, budget and the I&R strategy
    Planning of your own capacities, resources and external service providers for projects and I&R measures. Consider the risk of system failure and the maintenance response time
    Coordinate measures with AV and all associated departments, taking into account production times and costs. Interdisciplinary communication about the maintenance process
    Plan and coordinate spare parts management and supplier management together with purchasing
    Create scheduling for maintenance measures. Ensure deadline tracking and control of the work progress of I&R measures
    Place orders and coordinate external service providers, control costs and check billing
    Documenting maintenance activities - creating a knowledge database.
    Evaluation of the documentation for the weak point analysis.
    Creation of work instructions and plans based on the documentation and evaluations. Investment plans, escalation plans in the event of malfunctions and production downtimes - emergency plans - checklists - maintenance plans - inspection plans - work instructions - error catalogs - fault clearance instructions - spare parts selection - loads and specifications - declarations of conformity - statistics, etc.
    Advance the standardization of machines and spare parts
    Participation in specifications and functional specifications for new acquisitions and future investments
    Integrate new technology such as 3D printing for spare parts etc.
    Environmental protection measures and occupational safety, compliance with legal requirements and regulations
    Audit, environment; and create / adapt energy management, risk and hazard assessments
    Regular tests in accordance with TRBS, ArbSchGes, BGV A3, BG regulations, etc
These important issues need to be resolved in the future:

    Guaranteeing the use of machines and safeguarding the company's fixed assets
    Maintenance costs must be presented transparently in order to keep costs under control. Maintenance and spare parts management cost money, which is very profitable when used correctly
    Establishing preventive maintenance and condition monitoring in the course of Industry 4.0. Shift from corrective maintenance to preventive maintenance.
    Implement digitization of production, machines and maintenance. Infrastructures, sensors and other hardware have to be installed and connected
    Foundation of knowledge in the company. Create a knowledge database to secure the experience of older colleagues. Knowledge and information are of great importance for a technology department as well as for the overall development of a company
    Countering generation change and a shortage of skilled workers in maintenance through training
    Cleverly combining the cooperation of the internal technical departments and the external service providers.
    Develop a long-term strategy which includes the corporate culture and which employees take with them
    Establish TPM and CIP in the company, work together with all departments to continuously improve all processes.

Operational maintenance has various strategies available.

    Reactive maintenance
    Preventive maintenance
    Condition-based maintenance
    Knowledge-based maintenance
    Risk-based maintenance
    Predictive maintenance
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