Balancing maintenance and production teams for efficient plant operations: Are you ready to bridge the gap?

A plant is operated by production team and maintained by maintenance team. Actually both the teams are two sides of a same coin . We need to be respectful towards each other so that our prime motive ,which is smooth functioning of the plant can be achieved.

One thing I found helpful while I was leading both the maintenance team and production team was to set same/similar OKR’s for both unit. The result skyrocketed the LEF from 45% to 73%. When team goals are aligned — the result is super explosive ??.

Both are equally important to achieve the final objective. As a good team player, I will try to make them understand about any critical situation.

An example of a tool that works like magic is having a Pre PPM meetings and Post PPM meetings. During Pre-PPM meetings, scheduling, task to be done, tools to be used, parts to be replaced and duration of PPM activities are all important ingredients to be extensively discussed. All these would enable good scheduling and balance loss time to maintenance time.

Based on job priorities, the strategy keeps on changing. The maintenance boss has to discuss with other departments and the final plan has to be made. Effective scheduling will reduce the work load.

Production team goals has to be re-aligned with the goals of maintenance unit in other to achieve the common objective of the company to cut down wastes and loss of productive hours. Destructive rivalry between the two units has to be eliminated. The "Us" language should be always be used rather than "They". Pejorative discussions regarding the other team should be stopped, just like with any other actions that are counter-productive to business success.

Strongly agree that predictive maintenance is like yearly medical checkup. Eventhough we are feeling fit, routine medical check similar to predictive maintenance is a good way.

Communication is one if not the most essential skills in cooperate environment. It bridges gaps between different arms of the organization. Aligning it to production and maintenance team, Maintenance Management System is then an essential explorative tool to be considered. Maintenance Management System is a platform for production team to report and communicate maintenance issues to maintenance team while maintenance team provides updates on task reported alongside closure updates.

Both the Verbal and formal mail communication is best to avoid unwanted troubles. SAP notification is one of the effective way of communicating the job to the maintenance team.

Communication is one if not the most essential skills in cooperate environment. It bridges gaps between different arms of the organization. Aligning it to production and maintenance team, Maintenance Management System is then an essential explorative tool to be considered. Maintenance Management System is a platform for production team to report and communicate maintenance issues to maintenance team while maintenance team provides updates on task reported alongside closure updates.

Inter depertmental information sharing is always found suitable for both the teams. Production Operator need to keep an close eye on every rotary and stationary equipment. Any slight changes in behaviour need to be informed to the maintenance team through proper channel. The maintenance team also should inform the production operators if any special precautions need to be taken for any equipment handling. Periodical buddy system round up ( maintenance lead and production lead together walk around) is proved to be very effective. Plant functionality and maximum output is the primary objective and it should be attained at any cost.

My first Job which was a crude oil and gas processing plant had a very awesome tactics. The fresh engineers , irrespective of depertment, they have to work for both production and maintenance team. 2 wk in operation and 2 wk in maintenance. This would follow for 1yr untill our probationary period is over. This tactics was followed so that the new people can get insight about the struggle of both the teams , and when they join their primary team ( production or maintenance) they can run the show in a more efficient way .