How do you prioritize troubleshooting and maintenance tasks?

In my experience the first step is communicating there is an issue. Too many times a problem is accepted by someone operating the equipment, “It’s just the way it is”, so they find a work around instead of reporting the problem. Communication also plays a key role in determining the root of the failure, knowing exactly what should be happening and what is currently happening can save a lot of time and keep you from working in the wrong direction. Resources such as personnel are determined once a general area is determined, whether it is mechanical or electrical. This allows you to make sure you assign the right people to accurately diagnose the problem.

Assessing the urgency and the impact is a key factor to assign the right priority. Urgency is about time sensitivity, for mission critical applications even a minute of service disruption can lead to substantial financial, operational, or reputational consequences. Impact is about the depth and breath of the failure. one user losing service is different than an entire city losing service. Using a matrix for decision making is a common and accepted practice. Quadrant I: High Urgency & High Impact (Immediate attention) Quadrant II: High Urgency (Address swiftly) & Low Impact Quadrant III: Low Urgency & High Impact (Plan without the rush of Quad I) Quadrant IV: Low Urgency & Low Impact (Schedule and Execute when resources are available.)

A valuable addition to this prioritization process is considering customer feedback. Collecting and analyzing customer feedback on service issues can help identify problems that might not be immediately apparent based on urgency and impact assessments alone. Customer input can highlight specific pain points, allowing for a more customer-centric approach to problem-solving and maintenance prioritization. This approach aligns with customer needs and expectations more effectively.

Firstly, start with the most critical problems that have the potential to affect a large number of customers or essential services. Then consider the number of customers affected by the issue. High-impact problems should be addressed promptly. Finally, delegate tasks to appropriate teams or technicians based on their expertise and workload capacity to handle them effectively.

When it comes to troubleshooting and maintenance, you want to tackle the most important tasks first. To do this, you assess how quickly something needs fixing (urgency) and how much it affects your system (impact). You can use a matrix with four boxes to sort tasks: urgent and impactful, urgent but not so impactful, impactful but not so urgent, and neither urgent nor impactful. Start with the urgent and impactful ones, then move to the others in order. This way, you address the critical issues promptly, making your system more reliable and efficient. It's like fixing the most crucial parts of a machine before the less important ones to keep it running smoothly.

As I have mentioned above. When you are dealing with predictive or preventative maintenance, you have time to check resources and dependencies and can schedule when to carry out the maintenance. When it is breakdown maintenance, resources or dependencies are not considered, it is a high priority and has to be done anyways to restore service

In today's fiercely competitive business landscape, resource optimization stands as a linchpin for corporate prosperity. Yet, it's imperative that this pursuit of efficiency remains a supportive ally rather than a dominant force within our enterprise, ensuring uninterrupted growth during expansion phases. Drawing from my extensive professional journey, I've come to appreciate the paramount significance of aligning resource allocation with the organization's current state. A prime illustration lies in our recent decision to allocate additional team hours to expedite issue resolution, underscoring our commitment to enhancing customer satisfaction—a pivotal factor for contract renewal.

'Time is money' and for a company so is space. Many asset manufacturers have proprietary over their parts, to manufacture specialty tools, and have limited orders shipped. One must know part usage and availability, and back to the critical nature of assets. A number of parts need to be on the shelf to keep reliability. Yet, a shelf takes up space. Pay close attention to a manufacturer's PM schedule to prioritize time and parts. The manufacturer's engineers knew the asset's strengths, they also do well estimating its weaknesses and have created a PM schedule to address them. Also, with the asset usually comes an option for extra parts and a parts list. They're like the insurance you didn't think you needed until you were unprepared.

Communication helps to make sure that customers know when to expect service back. If communication doesn't reach the customers, it will frustrate them and they will lose their confidence in your service. Communication with stakeholders helps in brainstorming. Brainstorming will at times lessen a seemingly huge task as your nightmare may be someone's walk over thereby communication can save you on resources and time.

There are some assets utilized 24/7. This can be a grievous mistake. Machines require maintenance, period. The only way around it is to keep 'unexpectedly' losing production or keep buying new equipment prior to failure. Overlapping shift schedules, onsite company training events, operators going on vacation, etc. can avail maintenance access to assets for PM and repair. Technicians should be free to coordinate directly with production/area managers for immediate repairs. Maintenance Managers/Planners and other departmental leaders should meet regularly to discuss upcoming production flow levels, asset usage times, and critically required repairs. Communication and collaboration are key to coordinating a continuous production flow.

In effective corporate communication, it is imperative to distinguish between communication and mere information dissemination. True communication requires a responsive exchange, demanding articulate expressions to facilitate actionable outcomes. The unchecked transmission of information carries the potential for unintended consequences and misunderstandings. As such, it is paramount for every team member to embrace a profound sense of responsibility for their verbal and written contributions.

As in any projects, listing down lessons learned helps in future ones. If we don't review and adjust, we might keep on repeating the same errors and mistakes in past maintenance and troubleshooting. However, if we keep on reviewing and adjusting we become better at each next task

After the PM or repair has been completed, a report should be made and any concerns remarked to be addressed in a team meeting, or if required with departmental heads. Knowledge is the greatest component for preparation in just about everything. A job can bring knowledge and wisdom - if one uses what was learned. Take advantage of what was learned. Even if it went unexpectedly well. Can it be repeated reliably? What can make it reliable? Was anything noticed that could be changed for the better? If something went wrong, the task used more time than expected, or requirements to complete were not in place, etc. I have made a change in eating because of an odd position under the machine with no room for another position.

Embracing a culture of continuous improvement is essential in today's corporate landscape. Lessons learned are inherent to our actions, but the strategic dissemination of this knowledge within our organizations propels us forward. Utilizing internal tools to share insights enhances our collective growth. Let's foster humility among employees, acknowledging that there's always room for improvement. In relentless pursuit of knowledge, we empower our teams and advance our company's success.

Introducing predictive maintenance techniques can be a novel approach to further enhance the prioritization process. By using data analytics and machine learning, you can predict when equipment or systems are likely to fail and proactively address those issues. This way, you minimize downtime, reduce the need for reactive problem-solving, and provide a more efficient and reliable service to customers.

In as much as automation affects negatively by increasing dependencies, automation improves on efficiency and consistency. The advantages of automation outweighs the disadvantages

There isn't a whole lot of automation to maintenance. Pneumatic systems, temperature and vibration sensors, ethernet connections to ECCs, EGGs, HMIs, VFDs, etc. These are great systems that save a technician's time. However, these systems only assist. One should not allow them to replace direct observation. And, they themselves require technician training and diagnostic tools. Besides the benefit of freeing your operators and technicians, they can often collect data for functional and dysfunctional trends. These can allow you to fine-tune (optimize) and forecast failures in the system. This is another tool for scheduling repairs.

Automation is a reality and companies that do not use this resource will be surpassed. The process must be gradual so that employees learn to use their resources and avoid waste.

The most details you find out from personal conversation with the person who has the issue. Formal procedures, offen, make it too complex and long to solve the problem.

I feel tkt Pri level is first to consider, with particular attention to outages. And never stop thinking from a different angle. I've been called in early a.m. to change a bad circuit pack. Upon replacement issues still present, after further assessment and time the spare C-Pack was bad too.

From my experience, 1. Training 2. More practical base on real situation. 3. "Buddy system" with experience 4. Planning a head 5. Clearity on the task given 6. More training as perfect make better!