ask the experts vol i

ASK THE EXPERT

A collection of expert advice from the Reliability Excellence (Rx) Consultants

at Life Cycle Engineering

www.LCE.com© 2008 Life Cycle Engineering

To learn more about Life Cycle Engineering, contact: 843.744.7110 | [email protected] | www.LCE.com

Ask the Expert 1

Who Should the Storeroom Report to?By Doug Wallace, APICS, Life Cycle Engineering

It could be argued that accounting should have responsibility for the financial investment. Or, since most materials are bought from outside suppliers, maybe purchasing should control the spending. What about production? If they don’t produce, then the plant doesn’t generate revenue. Shouldn’t they have some influence over what is in stock to support manufacturing operations?

For that matter, the assertion can also be made that the reporting structure is irrelevant as long as there are strong plant partnerships in place and the leadership of the organization directly responsible for the storeroom understands the concurrent challenges of prudently managing the financial investment while assuring the proper supply of critical materials. But the storeroom must report to somebody, and it makes the most sense for that somebody to be maintenance.

For one thing, the primary purpose of the storeroom is to ensure availability of the right parts at the right time so that maintenance can perform their work in the most effective and efficient manner possible. After all, a critical material shortage can shut down the plant and quickly eliminate any benefits derived through effective inventory management.

Maintenance (along with reliability engineering), provides significant input with respect to the types and quantities of parts that will most likely be required and therefore should be stocked. They also assist in developing equipment BOMs, identifying obsolete inventory, and establishing a stores PM program for critical spares, all elements of effective materials management best practices. In addition, kitting and scheduling activities require seamless communication and cooperation between the storeroom and planner (who also reports to maintenance) to ensure timely execution of maintenance work.

Even with a full complement of KPI’s, it would be unrealistic to expect anyone other than maintenance to orchestrate all of these activities without having at least some direct responsibility for the storeroom.

About the Author: Doug Wallace, APICS Doug Wallace is a materials management expert with over 25 years of combined experience as a manager and management consultant. He has prior experience in reliability and supply chain consulting with cement and rock products, refining and specialty chemical industries. Doug is a graduate of Lafayette College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics.


Ask the Expert 2

How do I justify spending money on training?By Shon Isenhour, Director of Education, SMRP

If you’re personally seeking the opportunity for further education, consider this advice. And if you’re the manager receiving training requests from your team, you might want to pass this advice along to them!

Training is successful when students apply new knowledge and skills to produce desired results. Since managers think in dollars, consider building a business case for training, keeping these three things in mind before asking your manager to invest in training.

Identify a problem in the current state of things (time, resources, inefficiency of the work force) and answer the following 1. questions:

What skills and knowledge are you looking to improve and why? a. What business problem are you trying to solve? b. What is this problem costing the facility? c. What are you specifically looking to accomplish with this training to solve or mitigate the problem? d.

Do your research. Look for classes that use experiential learning techniques, allowing you to learn by doing. You learn best 2. when your mind is active and alert. You also want to look for courses that offer detailed outlines with active, measurable learning objectives allowing you to immediately apply what you learned when you return to work. For example, in a Maintenance Planning and Scheduling course, planners should learn how to develop accurate job estimates to improve labor productivity. In order to gauge the effectiveness of the training, planners need to be evaluated by comparing the estimated labor vs. the actual labor used to complete each job. Justification of the training can then be stated as an improvement opportunity relating to labor productivity. In reactive organizations, labor productivity is less than 40% on average, meaning out of an 8-hour work day only 3.2 hours are applied to actual “wrench time”, and at a rate of $65/hour this equates to $312 per craftsman per shift. Planner training is then justified based on improving this ratio to greater than 5 hours (65%) of wrench time per 8-hour period.

Lastly, you want to create the vision of what the future state would look like if you were to implement the things that you would 3. learn in your training class. Paint the picture you want your manager to see and show him the potential financial return on the training investment.


Ask the Expert 3

How does Rx accelerate Lean benefits?By George Brady, CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering

Lean and Lean Six Sigma were introduced to U.S. manufacturing during the early 90s. Several of the significant influencers have been The Machine That Changed The World by James Womac, and more recently, The Toyota Way by Jeff Liker. Today, after over 15 years of chasing Toyota’s manufacturing philosophy, otherwise known as the “Toyota Production System” (TPS), only 1% of U.S. manufacturers are considered “Lean” based on the Toyota model.

In simplest terms, Lean is defined by four key words – create flow / eliminate waste. In order to create flow it is first necessary to have reliable assets and waste-free work processes that support reliability. The purpose of creating lean flow is not to get the product moving through the process fast; it’s about linking processes and people together so that problems surface fast. Many Lean experts refer to these methodologies as “draining the lake to expose the rocks (waste) below.” However, what most Lean organizations will tell you is that you must first put your plant in a maintainable state or you’re sure to fall victim to the rocks. Flow is the key to a robust continuous improvement process and eliminating waste.

Toyota has identified seven major types of non-value adding activities in the business manufacturing process. A more contemporary view surfaces eight forms of waste that include:

Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilization of talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, and Extra processing, also known as

D O W N T I M E.

“TPS and flow and lean don’t work if you have unstable, unpredictable equipment.” Reliable Plant, October 2005 Issue Alcoa Warwick Plant

Reliability Excellence (Rx) is a business transformation methodology and the foundation of Lean. Rx is designed to eliminate waste caused by poor equipment reliability, insufficient process controls, and inadequate material control and conformity. Rx focuses on the work processes that support work management, preventive/predictive maintenance, materials management and other reliability-centered programs. It is not a maintenance initiative – but one that cuts both horizontally and vertically across the organization. Through a business process re-engineering approach, Rx builds standards-of-practice that effectively transform organizational culture. Successful implementation and sustainability of Rx is achieved through a comprehensive change management focus, led by senior management with the engagement of plant personnel at all levels.

Like Lean, Reliability Excellence exposes losses from ideal performance through the key performance indicator of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Rx is geared towards exposing the rocks while creating and implementing consistent practices to remove the rocks in order to restore process control and ultimately improve manufacturing performance. Organizations such as Alcoa, who have taken their first step in Lean with a focus on Rx have proven to accelerate the benefits promised by Lean and have sustained these benefits year after year.

About the Author: George Brady, CMRP George is a certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. He is also certified in RCM, Lean, and Six Sigma. His leadership strengths include

developing and implementing comprehensive strategic initiatives that support a proactive manufacturing culture. He has proven results in significantly reducing Maintenance and Operating cost while increasing overall equipment effectiveness.

As a Managing Principal with Life Cycle Engineering George has work directly with clients such as Pfizer Pharmaceutical, Cargill, U.S. Sugar, Swagelok, Novelis, Alcoa, and others both internationally and within the U.S.


Ask the Expert 4

How does your leadership style impact process performance?By Mike Aroney, Life Cycle Engineering

Process performance is measured by effectiveness -- how effectively the workforce uses the processes as they were designed. To impact process performance by reducing variation in how people use processes, leaders need to consider these questions:

Are people using the processes the way they were designed?1. Is everyone proficient in how to use the processes as designed?2. Are there clearly defined expectations to which they are held accountable?3.

The more variation in how processes are followed, the less effective performance will be. The role of leadership in this situation is to reduce variation in process performance by ensuring their people know what to do, they know how to do it and they are held accountable for doing it. In terms of Reliability Excellence (Rx), the result of process performance is measured by Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).

Competence and commitment are situational. Clear expectations and accountability hold true regardless of the situation. As tasks or situations change for people, so does their ability and desire to accomplish the task. Too often leaders assume people have the ability and desire to do something, such as following a new set of processes and procedures with zero variation, simply because it is the right thing to do. This assumption often leads to wide variation in behavior and process performance. Leadership’s role is to get the right people with the right attitudes on the tasks, and provide training so they have the knowledge and ability to do them.

Situational leadership requires identifying each individual’s competence level and commitment to the task at hand and adapting leadership style to meet his or her needs, helping them achieve their goals and the goals of the organization. If a leader takes a directive style with someone who is fully capable and committed, the effect is frustration and de-motivation from being micro-managed. If a leader delegates to someone who needs direction and guidance, the result can be just as frustrating and de-motivating. In either case, we end up with poor performance. A good leader analyzes the needs of the situation they are dealing with, and then adopts the most appropriate leadership style.

We know employees are competent when the results of their work meet the desired expectations. In this case, the appropriate leadership style is “delegating” or “supporting.” On the other hand, if the results are not meeting expectations the leadership style should be “directing” or “coaching.” The difference between the four styles is the level of competence and motivation of the individual.

By clearly defining expectations for performance, a leader can determine an individual’s competency. Individuals tend to act to the lowest acceptable level of performance. In order to get people moving to a higher level of performance, set higher goals and hold individuals accountable. The most effective method for doing this is to regularly provide information on the project status and progress towards milestone achievements.

In the case of process performance, we find wide variation when people do not want to follow the processes, don’t know how to follow them, and are not held accountable to follow them. When there is variation in process performance, the leader should first identify if the reason is due to lack of ability, lack of desire, unclear expectations and accountability or any combination of the three. After the diagnosis, comes the prescription. The leader adapts his or her style to meet the unmet needs of ability, desire, and clear expectations, and monitors results. Remember, monitor results, diagnose and adapt your leadership accordingly, and be patient – change takes time! Process performance is the payoff; leadership is the lever.

About the Author: Mike Aroney Mike holds advanced degrees in Organizational Psychology, Adult Education, and Business Administration, and is a Principal Consultant specializing in Change Management, Business Process Reengineering, Work Control, and implementation of Information Management Systems. Mike has led major business process reengineering efforts in support of Enterprise Resource Planning implementations using People Soft, Lawson, and SAP applications for two global organizations with 21,000 and 36,000 end users. Mike’s approach to change management has resulted in significant changes to corporate cultures that sustain the performance improvements enabled through Reliability Excellence process integration. These strategies include training, communication, Balanced Score Card performance measures, rapid improvement events, leadership coaching and mentoring, and organization redesign. Mike joined Life Cycle Engineering as a Deputy Director and Principal Consultant in 2000.


Ask the Expert 5

How do I determine the value of OEE?By Keith Mobley, CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) can be an accurate representation of overall plant performance. Derived from Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and the Toyota Production System (Lean), OEE is a single, calculated value that represents the plant’s effectiveness in three key performance indicators: 1) availability or runtime, 2) production rate, and 3) quality rate. This straightforward value was intended to be the product of these three values, but has become a convoluted, almost infinite variation of calculations.

The correct calculation for OEE is the product of the availability, production and quality rates and should be calculated as follows:

Availability RateAvailability rate is the actual production runtime for a specific time interval divided by the “planned” runtime for the same interval. For example, an asset that is planned and scheduled to operation eight hours per day, five days per week has a total availability of 40 hours. If it has an actual runtime of 20 hours, the resultant Availability Rate is 50%.

Production RateProduction rate is the actual gross units produced for a specific time interval divided by the number of units that should have been produced. Technically, the denominator in this case should be the ideal rate as defined by the asset’s design specifications, but in most cases assets are operating well above the original “nameplate” production rate. Therefore, the best demonstrated production rate should be used for this calculation. Best demonstrated is simply the best sustainable rate, based on asset history that your plant has been able to achieve.

For example, when an asset produces 1,000 units per hour and its best demonstrated rate is 2,000 units per hour, the resultant Production Rate is 50%.

Quality RateQuality rate should be straightforward. It is the total quality units produced divided by the total or gross units produced. Total quality units is defined as the total (gross) units produced minus all scrap, rejects, reworks and any other units that cannot be sold as prime. For example, if the asset produces 1,000 total units but 100 units are rejected, the numerator becomes 900 and the denominator is 1,000 or a Quality Rate of 90%.

Once these three values are determined, the final OEE calculation is simply the product of the three values, expressed as percentages, or 50% x 50% x 90% or 22.5%.

About the Author: Keith Mobley, CMRPKeith has earned an international reputation as one of the premier consultants in the fields of plant performance optimization, reliability engineering, predictive maintenance and effective management. He has more than thirty-five years of direct experience in corporate management, process design and troubleshooting. For the past sixteen years, he has helped hundreds of clients worldwide achieve and sustain world-class performance. Mr. Mobley is actively involved in numerous professional organizations. Currently, he is a member of the technical advisory boards of: the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the International Standards Organization (ISO) the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and others. He is also a Distinguished Lecturer for ASME International.


Ask the Expert 6

How do I integrate maintenance into my production schedule?By Tim Kister, Life Cycle Engineering

Integrating maintenance into the production schedule isn’t an easy task if the facility is operating in reactive mode. When the condition of equipment has been allowed to deteriorate to an unreliable state, integration is next to impossible. The condition and failures of the equipment result in the equipment determining the repair schedule. The events schedule the repairs and adversely impact the production schedule.

There are several key factors associated with making the integration successful. First, the condition or maintainability of the equipment must be restored to its original design state in order to establish reliability of process. Restoring the equipment to a maintainable state requires time and money. In some cases the equipment may even need to be replaced. Once the equipment issue has been addressed the management of the facility has to communicate throughout the organization that they are committed to sustaining the equipment in a maintainable/reliable state. This is demonstrated by following established PM/PdM schedules and making equipment available for maintenance.

The maintenance organization also has responsibilities to fulfill to help ensure a successful integration, starting with changing the way they are perceived by production. The maintenance department is viewed by many as overhead – a service function that is not really a factor in producing the final product. Many times this viewpoint is self-inflicted. Maintenance departments are viewed as over-manned and unproductive, with their workers always standing around. These observations are really an indication of a lack in work processes or work processes that are not being managed properly. Peter Drucker said “The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker, but of the manager.” In most cases the system is broken and the lack of productivity is not the fault of the maintenance worker.

To change the perception from non-productive to that of providing capacity to produce the final product, the system has to be fixed. Processes need to be defined to effectively manage work flow within the organization. In doing so, non-value-added steps can be properly identified and process improvements can be made resulting in increased productivity from the maintenance workforce. Maintenance personnel want to be productive, and if their processes are working properly, they will be. The department then gains a reputation for their quality of work, on-time completion and professionally performed maintenance activities.

As these two factors are being addressed, a level of credibility and trust now begins to form between maintenance and production. They view each other as partners in the success of their business. Production sees maintenance as an integral component in providing reliable equipment to produce their product. Maintenance sees production as taking care of the equipment with a sense of ownership and a desire to maintain the equipment in a reliable state rather than allow it to deteriorate.

At this point, an effective planning and scheduling function becomes instrumental in making the integration a success. Effective planning provides the necessary elements for the maintenance worker to be as productive as possible. Work order scopes are clear, job plans lay out the details of how the work is be performed, and tools and equipment are identified and allocated. Repair parts are on hand, kitted and delivered prior to work being scheduled so the worker can perform the maintenance work with minimal delays and interruptions. Scheduling and coordination of work with the production department allows them to schedule production runs to minimize downtime. Realistic work estimates allow production to forecast when maintenance can be performed within their schedules and have the confidence that the work will be done within the scheduled time.

This same level of confidence applies to the PM/PdM program as well. When the PM program is properly balanced throughout the year, production can anticipate when the equipment will need to be available to perform the PM tasks. The commitment to follow the PM schedule and the importance of adhering to the schedule is understood by all. Equipment PM’s become part of the production and capacity determination. Production can count on fulfilling the production schedules because their equipment is reliable.

Integrating maintenance is not an easy task. By creating a culture of partnership between maintenance and production, establishing defined work processes, and developing credibility to fulfill the specific responsibilities to operate and maintain the equipment, integration can be successfully accomplished.

About the Author: Tim KisterTim is a well-recognized author and leader in the field of Planning & Scheduling as a result of his success as the Chief Maintenance Planner at Alumax, who was awarded the World Class Maintenance certification during his tenure, and through his dedication as an educator having completed over 75 workshops and seminars focused on maintenance management and planning & scheduling. As the Senior Planning & Scheduling Consultant for LCE, Tim brings with him the ability to recognize opportunities for improvement, enabling rapid optimization of business processes and improved maintenance efficiency, resulting in reductions in maintenance costs.


Ask the Expert 7

How Do I Get Operations to Take Ownership of Rx?By Darrin Wikoff, CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering

The paradigm that reliability is a maintenance thing is not easily challenged. Creating a new paradigm is a radical undertaking to say the least. So we must start by changing the lens through which operational leaders view reliability. Through the implementation of Reliability Excellence (Rx), Life Cycle Engineering has identified four simple steps that Alcoa and others have found to be critical when reshaping and cleaning the operational lens.

In conjunction with business leaders, develop a business case, or value proposition that begins with operations defining how the 1. manufacturing process fails to meet business objectives. Further refine the business case by illustrating the relationships between manufacturing performance and how assets are operated and maintained today. Within the business case, establish an overlying metric, such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), that consistently quantifies current and future performance while drawing a correlation to the organization’s bottom line (e.g. 1% of OEE is equivalent to $1,000 of revenue). Finally, outline the strategic objectives that both operations and maintenance agree will significantly impact the performance metric.

Establish cross-functional teams that represent both operations and maintenance in order to define the integrated role 2. responsibilities as they relate to managing plant assets. Utilizing a business process re-engineering improvement methodology, for example, allow the team to define the asset management process as it functions today, with each member articulating for the benefit of the others, their specific tasks or role so that the entire group may build a common understanding of the functional relationships and how the process itself is failing to ensure reliable performance. Further encourage the team to design a better, improved process to manage plant assets, allowing each member of operations and maintenance to build ownership in the future state.

Using the overlying metric OEE from the business case exercise, build a culture focused on identifying the sources of lost 3. performance. Track OEE, or another suitable metric, as a leading indicator, closely monitoring trends resulting from repetitive losses such as absenteeism, lack of raw materials, overproduction and others which result from insufficient operating practices, in order to build awareness within operational leadership that reliability-centered operations has as much, if not more, impact on overall plant reliability as maintenance practices and equipment-related failures.

Train operators and operational leaders to be proactive. Most operators, although extremely knowledgeable of how to operate their 4. asset and the role each asset plays in the manufacturing process, lack the basic understanding of how their asset fails to perform its desired function, and, more importantly, the telltale signs of an impending failure. Teach operators how to recognize that an asset is struggling to perform or beginning to decline before an actual catastrophic failure occurs. Remember, 90% of the perception out there is that assets fail, which results in prolonged downtime to operations. There’s no doubt that assets fail, but if operations is proactive, meaning they catch the onset of failure, maintenance is more capable of restoring full performance (functionality) with minimal downtime, if any, due to an increased window to plan and schedule repairs that are convenient to the operational schedule.

Operator care is all about putting ownership where it belongs. By using these four tactics, you should be able to get operations to take ownership of the maintenance of their equipment; that is where proper maintenance leading to Rx begins.

About the Author: Darrin Wikoff, CMRPDarrin is a Principal Consultant at Life Cycle Engineering, specializing in Project Management, Business Process Re-Engineering, Reliability Centered Maintenance, and CMMS/EAM implementations. As a “Change Agent”, Darrin coaches and mentors many of the world’s industrial leaders through the rigorous process of implementing and managing reliability improvement initiatives in support of World Class Operations. Through his ability to combine technical expertise with Lean manufacturing methodologies, Darrin has enabled organizations to improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness while reducing overall maintenance costs. Most recently, Darrin has led efforts in North America and Australia as part of Alcoa’s global initiative to achieve Reliability Excellence.


Ask the Expert 8

Installation versus Implementation…What’s the difference?By Charles Bowers, Life Cycle Engineering

CMMS software developers will install their system and train your staff to operate it efficiently. They will also define what data is required to be entered into the various CMMS data fields; when they’ve completed their installation and training, the software is still void of data. In order to obtain effective maintenance management information from CMMS software, all of your facility’s pertinent data must be accurately entered in formats understandable to both you and the software. Realization of these three attributes of the data to be entered constitutes implementation of the CMMS software.

Sounds simple enough. Yet surveys consistently indicate that 90 to 95 percent of facilities that have recently installed and/or implemented a CMMS feel that the system has failed to meet their expectations. They have not realized the return on investment that they were led to believe was possible. In other words, they are in trouble. Installation versus implementation…whats the difference?

1. Installations most often fail. The seller shows up, tells you to buy bigger servers, installs the application and leaves. That same software provider, or designated contractor, has convinced you that because he was at your site for a week he or she has “implemented” your new CMMS and you’re well on the way to prosperity in the new world.

2. Implementations succeed because there is discovery. Whether you are using a stand alone CMMS package or using the CMMS module in a larger Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system, the true secret to success is in how the system is used rather than what system is in place. Implementations bring a holistic approach to the CMMS system integrating work order management, planning/scheduling, inventory control/purchasing, and reliability engineering. You formulate a plan to gather, compile, and return information that will identify data the CMMS will require, helping you to do business now and in the future. Here are some recommended steps and questions you should ask when implementing a CMMS:

Review existing work management processes and develop future requirements.•Review existing asset management processes and develop future requirements.•Review current accounting processes. Identify required and future interfaces.•Review the current system. What functionality gaps exist? What needs to change?•Review the number and type of users. Who can do what? Where?•System technical platform and configurations, including system architecture•How is emergency work handled and what constitutes an emergency?•How are labor, material and tool estimates made? How is actual labor, material and tool usage reported?•How are resources obtained for a work order? (i.e. craft, material, tools) How are they tracked in the current system? Are work orders •coded by type? (i.e. Emergency, Corrective, PM, Project, Non-Work) How are work orders currently initiated, tracked and completed? Are labor hours and other costs currently recorded against specific work orders? How are labor hours recorded against work orders? What type of history is kept for specific assets? Where is the data stored? Is failure information collected against critical assets and •equipment? Where and how is this information stored? Is the data readily available to affect changes in maintenance policies?How is PM/PdM tracked, scheduled, performed and docu mented?•What are your expectations from the implementation?•Is training an issue? •What data is extracted from your current system and used in other systems? What data is integrated to the existing system from •external sources? Locate the data required for transfer, format, and conversion.

With any software solution it is important that considerations stretch beyond technology towards broader organizational requirements. With proper business processes, a great deal of time and money can be saved based on realistic expectations of the system’s capability. The payback will be that when the system is fully and successfully implemented and the plant is operating in a proactive posture, the return on investment will be seen through a significant rise in production capacity due to reduced equipment failures.

About the Author: Charles BowerCharles Bowers has more than 29 years of maintenance and reliability experience. An employee of Life Cycle Engineering since 1993, he has specialized in implementing Best Practice programs in CMMS utilization, Work Control, and Planning and Scheduling. He also performs Work Flow analysis, MRO, and CMMS assessments (Maximo), and from these prepares Facility Management Operation and Maintenance SOPs and reliability-based programs.


Ask the Expert 9

5S gone wild…how far is too far?By Wally Wilson, CMRP, CPIM

You can’t get too much of a good thing. However, taking the 5S methodology to the highest level possible might be an exception. The 5Ss (Sort, Simplify, Shine, Standardize and Sustain) are the basis for creating a workspace of visual management and lean operation. When attempting to implement a Visual Management system, most companies accomplish the painful sorting to identify and dispose of obsolete or unneeded items, organizing the needed items into some type of a defined order, and scrubbing the workspace until it shines. The last two steps in the process become the challenge: how to maintain the standards on a daily basis and the discipline to sustain the transformation long term.

It can be very difficult to implement a comprehensive 5S program and effectively communicate the methodology the employees will need to support the process. Training and implementation of a 5S visual management program usually requires about 40 hours per employee the first year. The second year, the program expectations become a part of the employee’s job performance and can be tracked using personal key performance indicators. Kaizen events are the most effective tool for establishing a 5S continuous improvement environment of change and they allow many small successes to translate into overall business improvement. Kaizen is an activity that identifies and provides a plan to reduce waste through revised business operation. Common areas of excessive waste in a manufacturing facility are in the Maintenance, Repair and Operational (MRO) inventory, workflow processes, quality and overall equipment utilization.

The payoff for a successful 5S program is better utilization of the workforce, allowing workers to perform more value-added activities, which translate into increased profits, greater equipment utilization and promote a safer work environment. The best opportunity for waste elimination in the MRO inventory comes in the form of obsolete parts that are not associated with an equipment asset. These parts commonly account for 20 to 30% of the total inventory value and it costs thousands of dollars in carrying cost to maintain these items each year. Waste in the daily business operation comes in the form of uncontrolled processes and process hand-offs from one department to the next, leading to non-value-added steps that create costly waste. Identifying and eliminating waste in these areas of the business will result in increased profits, approved worker morale, and higher equipment and worker utilization.

A comprehensive 5S Visual Management program provides a structured approach to continuous improvement using small, sustainable steps to improve business operation and increase profitability. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary companies is the discipline to continuously work to eliminate waste in their business.

5S gone wildIt is important to note that 5S, like any other improvement methodology, can be misused. Let’s consider, for instance, the office cubicle that has a tape outline of the phone, the laptop and even the stapler.

Continued on next page…


Ask the Expert 9 (cont.)

Now ask yourself, how does this improve the efficiency of the worker? Has 5S created a standard that, if deviated from, will increase the cost of operating? Some may argue that orderliness is next to godliness and a cluttered desk leads to a cluttered mind, but proper application of 5S means organizing your workspace to more efficiently support your business process (daily routine). Lord knows it’s easy to make fun of this effort to apply 5S principles to the office. If there’s one way to alienate and demean people, it’s to tell them where to put their stapler. The proper office 5S implementation might identify the “Inbox” and “Outbox” for more efficient processing of purchase orders. Or you might establish a work routine that outlines the timeframes for checking and responding to emails in order to further prioritize your daily activities and prevent email from consuming your agenda.

5S, when applied as a performance improvement methodology, can greatly improve your bottom line with improved profitability, efficiency, service and safety. The results are visually dramatic and also increase pride and morale. Getting your organization to use 5S appropriately in order to sustain workplace efficiency requires ongoing management commitment to train and reinforce standards established via formalized and frequent audits. Training helps assure that everyone in your organization has the same baseline understanding of the 5S process. 5S should be more than just housekeeping. When properly implemented, 5S is part of the total Lean manufacturing strategy.

About the Author: Wally Wilson, CMRP, CPIM Wally has over 17 years experience as a senior management team leader with three fortune 500 corporations. He has extensive experience in leading organizational change by developing and implementing increased operational efficiency, maintenance reliability and materials management excellence. As a senior operations manager with Quebecor World Printing, Wally led a project to standardize gravure ink inventories for the printing process that resulted in an annual savings of $1.8 million across a seven-plant platform. Wally used best practice supply chain management methods at Electrolux Home Products to restore customer confidence and manage inventory levels at 18-distribution centers in the United States and Canada. Stock levels and inventory accuracy allowed the distribution centers to fill inventory stock requests at a 100% performance level.


Ask the Expert 10

How do you replace retiring maintenance people when you can’t find qualified candidates?By Bill Wilder, M.Ed., Life Cycle Engineering

Most organizations today are confronted with a retiring maintenance workforce and a shortage of qualified replacements. The research proving this is legion and widely publicized. Several factors contribute to the lack of available qualified people. This is partly due to the gap between the education people are seeking and the needs of the workplace.

By 2010, 40% of all new jobs will require at least a two-year associate’s degree in one of the technical areas increasingly found in the advanced manufacturing sector.National Council for Advanced Manufacturing Nearly 60% of “new” jobs in the early 21st century will require skills held by just 20% of the present workforce. National Commission on Math & Science Teaching

More than half of the nation’s youth leave high school without the entry-level foundation and work-readiness skills needed to find and hold a job. National Council for Advanced Manufacturing

Source: Robbie Barnett, AVP Education Policy – SC Chamber of Commerce and D’Amico, C. Workforce 2020

If you can’t hire people with the knowledge and skills you need, then you will have to train them. The selection criteria should be “can they learn” and “do they fit”. Hire people for their talents, character and values – people who share the beliefs and values of your organizational culture and have a talent or passion for learning. Learning agility – the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn is a critical survival skill for individuals and organizations. As Living Company author Arie de Geus points out “The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.”

Once hired the challenge becomes teaching them the skills and knowledge your business needs. This means more than simply taking a class. Learning that changes behavior to produce results is a process – not a single event.

About the Author: Bill Wilder, M.Ed. Bill Wilder is the Director of Education at Life Cycle Engineering (LCE). Bill holds a Masters of Education degree from East Tennessee State University. As Director of Education, Bill manages LCE’s Life Cycle Institute, the leading source for Reliability Excellence training. The Institute was created in response to the need for a life-long learning resource for people engaged in optimizing asset reliability and performance.


Ask the Expert 11

How do you build a high performance team?By Mike Aroney, Life Cycle Engineering

Getting the most out of people in a Lean environment is absolutely necessary to leverage the power of teamwork. There are four elements to crafting and developing a high performing team to LEAD an organization in optimizing how it serves customers. LEAD stands for Lead, Empower, Align and Desire.

Lead: Performance begins with a sound body of knowledge, clearly-defined roles and responsibilities and a set of tools for problem solving. It’s critical to remember that the body of knowledge for a high performing team must include understanding group dynamics, how to recognize the development phases of the team, and the leadership actions needed to move through the dynamic phases of Form, Storm, Norm and Perform. A typical leadership error is to put 100% of the focus on the technical problem-solving aspect of the team and neglect the human side of the equation: forming a group of people into a team. It is equally as important to form the team and sustain it as it is to solve the problems for which the team is formed.

Empower: A high-performing team must be empowered to achieve some goal, whether it is to solve a problem, enhance a process, or create more value for the customer. To truly effect change, a team must be given the power, authority and commitment of the organization’s senior leadership to implement the team’s solutions. The leader’s role is to ensure the team performs its function, and more importantly, that the team’s work will be implemented and supported throughout the organization. Before forming the team the leader must interface with the power structure of the organization to set these expectations. A common leadership error is to charter the team with responsibility to create a solution and provide no authority to implement it.

Align: For a high-performing team to be effective, it must develop solutions that support the organization’s key business objectives. The leader’s role is to ensure the team’s solution is clearly linked to these objectives, and the parts of the organization impacted by the solution have bought into it and will support it. To do less is to ensure poor implementation and another demoralizing “flavor of the month”. Most importantly, every organization is perfectly aligned for the results it gets. To sustain the team’s work, the organization’s systems and structures must be re-aligned to support the solution, especially if it requires work be done differently.

Desire: Lastly, a high-performing team requires a purpose which each team member fully understands. Team members need to recognize both the personal and organizational benefits of achieving the team’s purpose. The power of a vision is often underestimated by leadership, as is being involved in decision making, shared information and open communication. A leader’s role is to provide vision, and to share information, not only with the team, but also with the organization and the organization’s leadership. 80% of project failure is attributed to breakdowns in communication. A leader can make his team feel “in-on-things” by sharing information and creating an environment for open communication. The result is “trust” which stimulates creativity, facilitates conflict resolution, and bonds the group into a high-performing team.

About the Author: Mike Aroney Mike holds advanced degrees in Organizational Psychology, Adult Education, and Business Administration, and is a Principal Consultant specializing in Change Management, Business Process Reengineering, Work Control, and implementation of Information Management Systems. Mike has led major business process reengineering efforts in support of Enterprise Resource Planning implementations using People Soft, Lawson, and SAP applications for two global organizations with 21,000 and 36,000 end users. Mike’s approach to change management has resulted in significant changes to corporate cultures that sustain the performance improvements enabled through Reliability Excellence process integration. These strategies include training, communication, Balanced Score Card performance measures, rapid improvement events, leadership coaching and mentoring, and organization redesign. Mike joined Life Cycle Engineering as a Deputy Director and Principal Consultant in 2000.


Ask the Expert 12

How do you create a desire to change?By Brandon Weil, Life Cycle Engineering

Whether a change is personal or professional, success cannot come without the desire to make the change. When attempting to implement problem-solving changes, too many times organizations jump right to executing the solution. Not taking the time to create the desire to change often results in failure to implement and resentment of the change, even if the change was intended to reduce organizational waste, improve employee morale, and make everyone’s job easier. The following outlined methodology helps to create a desire to change. These steps are universally applicable to both interpersonal and organizational changes. Start with listeningOddly enough, when trying to inspire people to change on an organizational or individual basis, listening is the first step. Too many times we start change processes by attempting to push our view of what changes need to occur before people are open to receiving them. By making your point first, the opposite intended effect occurs. Immediately the other person is placed into a defensive position. Individuals forced into a defensive stance are now reacting and defending the current state instead of being open to new possibilities.

Think back to a time where you made a successful change in your life or at work. It doesn’t matter if the change was big or small – any will do. What was it that made you want to change? The answer is often that there was dissatisfaction with the current situation. Frustration over the current state began creating the desire for something better. Probably through talking with co-workers, family members, and friends, you realized that things could be better; these people acted as a sounding board for your frustrations.

To begin creating the desire you must now act as the sounding board for current frustrations. Practicing active listening allows the other person(s) to feel understood and effectively “disarms” them. Now that the target audience for change feels that they have been heard and understood, you can begin to influence them with the vision of the future state.

Create a compelling vision of the futureIn order for a change to be successfully implemented there has to be a vision for the end state. What will the change look like? How will things be different? How will the change affect the target audience? These are all questions that should be addressed at this point. By creating a compelling vision of the future the audience has something to look forward to – forming not only the aspiration to reach the future state, but also a clear picture of what the end state looks like. It is important to only focus on the vision of the end state. Stay away from getting into the details of how to get there or the barriers that need to be overcome. These will be addressed later.

Answer the “What’s in it for me?” questionNow is the time to tie together the current and future state. You must help the target audience make connections between the vision and their current frustrations. Point out how the day-to-day problems, frustrations and waste will be alleviated by implementing the change. Demonstrating how changes will positively affect the audience begins to create buy-in and engagement in the change.

Engage people in the solutionEvery step up to this point has been preparing the change audience to become engaged. If the earlier steps were executed effectively, the audience will want to know how they can help reach the vision. Undoubtedly there will be many details and barriers involved in the change to overcome. This is the point where you can leverage the collective knowledge and talent of the individual(s) to execute solutions. Involving people closest to the change in the process itself anchors the desire to make the change. Desire represents one’s willingness to change. It is ultimately a personal choice to support and participate in a change. By creating a desire, you are one step closer to successfully implementing change.

About the Author: Brandon WeilBrandon Weil has over 10 years of combined experience in maintenance, operations and reliability. As a reliability consultant with Life Cycle Engineering, he has acted as a reliability project manager as well as subject-matter expert in planning/scheduling, work control processes, and organizational change management. Prior to joining Life Cycle Engineering, Brandon was an active member and instructor in the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Program. He has extensive knowledge of electrical theory/application, equipment operation, steam plant operations, power plant systems, industrial safety, leadership mentoring, and a wide variety of electrical generation/distribution systems.

Life Cycle Engineering

For more than 30 years, Life Cycle Engineering has provided engineering solutions that deliver lasting results for private industry, public entities, government organizations and the military. Founded in 1976, LCE is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, with offices across North America.

As a professional services organization our mission is focused on our clients’ people and organizations. It is our company’s cornerstone belief that we will not lead the industry in assisting our clients unless we excel at helping our own people and teams reach their full potential.

As a privately held firm, our business vision is shaped by this mission and influences both our short and long-term planning and decision-making. In every aspect of our business our actions always drive people and organizations to achieve their long-term performance capability (not solely their short-term profit or cost-cutting targets.)

All LCE groups embrace our people-focused model of building strengths and employee engagement so that we can deliver successful and sustainable solutions for our clients. Visit www.LCE.com to learn more.

Our mission is to enable people and organizations to achieve their full potential.


Since 1976, LCE has grown to include the following solutions & services:

Reliability and maintenance solutions for industrial and government markets that help public and private enterprises gain improved financial performance through greater capacity, lower total cost, improved quality and an engaged workforce.

Shipboard engineering and technical support services for U.S. and foreign navies, providing expertise in electrical and mechanical engineering, systems engineering and software development.

Net-Centric solutions that combine Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) engineering, network engineering, information assurance, test and evaluation services, documentation support and configuration management.

Reliability Consulting & Services Engineering & Technical ServicesNet-Centric Solutions

Acquisition, logistics planning and life cycle support services for military ships and shipboard support systems, shipboard combat systems and aviation systems.

The Life Cycle Institute is a life-long learning resource for people engaged in optimizing asset reliability and performance.

A full spectrum of program management capabilities, from financial management and project plan development to planning and estimating for industrial projects.

ILS Services EducationProgram Support Services

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