Client Profile: A global uranium producer seeking to improve daily and weekly maintenance work management within the fixed plant
Challenge
- Fixed plant is 50+ years old, with a mix of old and new equipment
- Consistent “surprises” with equipment failures
- Existing CMMS (SAP) not fully utilized for managing work orders, scheduling, coordinating parts with warehouse; few people fully trained on software
- Reactive daily scheduling lowered work order completion rate and caused preventive maintenance to be deferred in favor of break-in work resulting in low schedule compliance
- Low-detail work notifications required intensive planner work to troubleshoot, scope, and plan work orders
- No consistent application of work priorities with constant changing priorities contributing to very low worker productivity
- Lack of daily Short Interval Control or accompanying data precluded root cause analysis and systematic reduction of external and internal delays
Approach
- Scoping outlined overall gaps in planning, scheduling, warehouse management, work order assignments, and asset reliability programs
- Rapid implementation project focused on short-term planning and scheduling to resolve immediate issues, manage tradesperson daily and weekly workload, and report consistent, trusted KPIs
- Directly addressed gaps in schedule management by developing a customized tool to import SAP work orders, manage daily assignments, and report work completed
- Built planning quality tools to improve the quality of work order detail, more accurately estimate start dates, adjust work for parts availability, and implement work order quality audits
- Provided one-on-one training and coaching to implement new tools and interpret KPIs
Solutions
- Rapid implementation of planning and scheduling tools
- Implemented tradesperson schedule loading targets
- Developed KPI reporting for key maintenance metrics
- Facilitated key weekly cross-functional interactions
- Developed work notification quality standards
- Implemented 7-week work order forecasting process
- Modified SAP processes and usage to support new tools
- Implemented maintenance delay tracking and reporting
Result
- Weekly planning and scheduling follows a consistent Best Practice process, leading to a weekly agreed schedule and firm baseline for compliance metrics
- Daily and Weekly KPIs provide insights and prompts for discussion to develop risk mitigation strategies
- Work notification reviews and planning quality checklists lead to better information capture from operators, improved detail in work orders prior to execution, and served as input to regular reviews to further improve quality
- Tracked maintenance delays allow feedback and risk mitigation measures when coordinating with other groups in advance of maintenance work being performed
”We have tried to change many times, it feels like this approach is actually going to stick and we have our path forward on how to assure that happens.”
- Maintenance Superintendent
