The risk payoff

Maintenance is one of the more risk averse professions. Strangely, we are one of the management professions that has been most affected by change over the past thirty years also.

Even at the start of the 21st century the tendency to lean away from risk is pretty strong. 

I have met maintenance managers who wanted to run the optimized RCM regimes alongside their old ones for a while to "see how they go". 

The same mindset that makes managers who were adamant that the plant still needed to have the 9 month turnaround even though we had proved conclusively that there were no time based failures to deal with.

The reason is always the same, falling back on our unique responsibility for safety and performance. A valid reason, but often one that is misused and misquoted to win an argument. (You know what I mean)

But if we can learn anything from the entrepreneurial history of the past few years it is that a little risk often pays large dividends. In fact, it is often a tie breaker that sets the leaders out in front of the pack.

Here are a few small risks that you could take today...who knows, they might even make a huge difference to your bottom line.

1) Get rid of the expensive on-premise SAP style architecture CMMS you have been running with since the 1990's. (A long time in technology years)

The world is moving online. SAP realizes that their future is online. Oracle founder Larry Ellison has already dipped his toes in the water.

Instead of on premise, closed systems that require a lot of infrastructure and networking... have a look at eMaint. A pioneering company who have been online delivering Software as a Service since the 20th century. (Sounds like a long time when you say it like that)

(The risk... you could upset the IT dept. The benefit - You could upset the IT dept!!)

2) In fact, if you want a niche reliability system you can have a go at building your own now using the free software platform from Force.com. 

3) Take a good resource off the front line, off the tools I mean, and use her to develop a comprehensive lubrication plan. From audit to execution. (The risk - you might not have enough resources to do the work! The benefit - you never did anyway)

4) Set up an internal mentoring program, possibly using recently retired employees, via DimDim.com or similar. (It's free by the way)

Good luck.