The old adage, “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail” seems to fit maintenance (or lack thereof) especially well. Unplanned shutdowns nearly always can be traced back to inadequate maintenance planning. And while there are plenty of studies showing the efficacy of good predictive and preventive maintenance programs, there’s not one study showing that reactive maintenance (chasing maintenance failures) is cost-effective.
Yet, the same bean counters who seem to have no problem funding the signage and new paint job trumpeting the latest corporate initiative are almost pathological about starving maintenance of the resources needed for proper planning (not to mention implementation, but our focus here is on planning). One reason for this situation is the bean counters get pressure from the executives to pay for the signage and paint, but seldom get enough useful information from maintenance and operations to understand the difference between a CMMS and a DMM.
A way to solve this is to present a cogent plan to upper management. But what is it?
