Contact MHC

QSI Online - a wealth of insight

Getting Mobile Maintenance back on track for a leading gold business

Brianne Mathieson, Randall Brewer — September 2011

Recent Engagement: Our client recently upgraded their Asset Management system along with all supporting processes and procedures at one of their key complexes. The system implementation had not been wholly successful at site level and Maintenance data histories and asset hierarchies were lost in the transition to the new system, effectively forcing a group reliant on a thorough knowledge of machine and equipment histories to operate in a void of information. As a result of the system transition and pre-existing, deficient maintenance practices, the Mobile Maintenance group across two sites, was hampered by poor work identification and prioritisation, insufficient work supervision, and substandard data capture and management.

An internal study of the Mobile Maintenance group across these sites was commissioned, and the root causes were essentially confusion around key roles and responsibilities, low compliance to the global standards, budgeting using inaccurate data and poor preventative maintenance practices.

Marchment Hill Consulting (MHC) was engaged in a two-part project focused at closing the gaps in process compliance and implementing a number of improvement initiatives to address some of the wider general issues, such as inadequate work supervision. The project comprised an initial review and gap analysis, and a redesign of processes and tools which is the focus of this engagement profile.

MHC conducted a thorough review of the company-wide standards and how they applied to Mobile Maintenance through a series of interviews, observations and workshops. The review provided a comprehensive gap analysis; specific to each Maintenance group and each site. In addition to quantifying the process gaps, the review focused on engaging key people, such as workshop supervisors and supporting planning and scheduling roles, who were essential to the long-term success of the redesigned processes. The review also highlighted a number of deficiencies beyond the processes themselves, such as effective training and performance management practices, which were vital to making the new system work.

Figure 1: Gap Analysis for Completing Work Orders, with non-compliance highlighted in yellow, additional or alternative steps in green, and specific issues overlayed in red callout boxes (click diagram to enlarge).

As the standards were high level, the gap analysis was supported by a detailed and prioritised issues log (see Figure 2) to enable Maintenance management to compare the issues at both sites, decide which issues to prioritise for resolution and to take advantage of any economies of scale. The issues log formed the basis for the design and implementation of the supporting tools.

Figure 2: The Issues Log, comparing the issues at the two sites (click diagram to enlarge).

The supporting management tools were central to the success of this engagement. For example, the gap analysis highlighted that work orders were not being fully completed. When questioned, all supervisors acknowledged they were responsible for this, but had no time to oversee work order completion as they were too busy completing administrative and reporting tasks. MHC conducted observations to validate the claim.

To address this issue, MHC designed an automated reporting and planning tool (Figures 3, 4 & 5) to alleviate some of the administrative burden on supervisors.

Figure 3: The control panel for the automated planning tool. This allows the user to perform a number of complex tasks in a matter of minutes, using only one screen (click on diagram to enlarge).

Figure 4: An example of the automated reporting function incorporated into the tool. These reports were generated from scratch each shift before the implementation of the planning tool (click diagram to enlarge).

Figure 5: The output – fully automated completion of shift logs; N.B. names have been changed for confidentiality (click diagram to enlarge).

All plans, schedules and reports are now managed through a simple and practical management interface that is designed to make these functions more streamlined and less administration intensive.

Our client gained comprehensive knowledge and insight into the areas of process non-compliance, as well as a detailed issues log which has recorded and prioritised the related issues or reasons for the non-compliance. They received redesigned processes for Maintenance tasks which are fully inclusive of all areas and activities, and are relevant to the nuances of these sites.

In addition, our client gained process ownership from the workshop floor. Prior to this project, the supervisors were unaware of a standard for their daily tasks and how to manage work against it. Following this project, they are not only aware of the processes and how to make them work, but engaged and taking direct action to meet the key priorities of the business.

Get in touch with the authors — Brianne Mathieson , Randall Brewer »

You might also be interested in:

« Back to QSI Online