Great Maintenance Supervisors How to be one?

Ideas for Effective Maintenance Supervision

By Ricky Smith CMRP (rsmith@gpallied.com)

Maintenance Supervision is at the heart of any maintenance and reliability program. Do

not let my words confuse you, Maintenance is act of Maintaining, Reliability is % of time
equipment meets the end users need, rate, pressure, capacity, cost, etc.

Creating effective maintenance supervisors is one of the most important investments

you can make. This article provides lessons learned from successful and not so
successful maintenance supervisors and hopefully will provide ideas which can take
one to the next level.
Many companies invest their money and time in areas to improve equipment reliability
and maintenance and never receive a return on investment because whatever they did
was not sustainable or was not accepted by the maintenance Staff. If you could decide
to execute one thing which will provide a serious improvement in equipment reliability it
would be to improve the leadership, management, and technical skills of your
maintenance supervisor or supervisors.

Lets identify the traits required of a successful maintenance supervisor.

1. Live and Breathe Excellence in everything you do; talk it, walk it, and share it
2. Be Technically Proficient a maintenance supervisor does not need to be a
maintenance person however they need technical skills on proper maintenance
in order to lead a maintenance crew. Ask for help or send me an email, I will help
you.
3. Seek Self Improvement Each day improve at least one thing.
4. Provides Education and Training for your Maintenance Team - Provide your
team 10-20 minutes of Single Point Lessons a week. These are topics which
begin to build confidence in them and you. Send me an email and I will provide
you access to my library of the single point learning sessions.
(rsmith@gpallied.com) This area begins to gain you more respect from your
team.
5. Accept Responsibility for your Actions - Always accept responsibility even if
you are wrong. Being humble is a trait of great people throughout history.
6. Be respectful of your Staff and others Treat people like you would like to be
treated at all times. This develops a team atmosphere and breeds success.
7. Be a leader even if it means you make mistakes sometimes admit your
mistakes but shake them off and never repeat them again.
8. Never Accept Credit for Anything - If something works well that you did either
do not say anything and smile to yourself or give credit to the right people.
9. Know the Proactive Maintenance Process Well hold people at all levels
accountable to follow it even if it is painful.

A maintenance supervisors main responsibilities to ensure effective execution of

maintenance work include:
1. Work Identification which includes the following. PM
inspections (15%), Results from PM (15%), PdM inspections
(15%), Results from PdM (35%) and 20% from work request,
operator care, commissioning, projects, etc.
---(Mean Time Between Failure is a great metric to ensure your
PM/PdM Program is effective)
2. Maintenance Planning 90% of all Work must be planned to
some level. The level is determined based on the skill level of
your staff. At the minimum a planned job must include
repeatable procedure, parts required kitted, potential parts
identified and reserved by the planner (you may need this part
but there is low probability), drawing, specifications, special
tools required, etc. The job cannot be scheduled without the
complete plan completed and parts kitted. (this is a hard fast
rule not to be violated)
*** Planners do not report to the maintenance supervisor in
order to ensure the supervisor cannot influence a planner to
move toward reactivity however the supervisor must work as a
partner with the planner to ensure solid job plans are prepared
and developed. Your role is to be a true partner with the planner
and do not ask them to expedite parts or material because of an
emergency. That is your job.
----(% of Planned Work is the Metric used in this area)

3. Maintenance Scheduling can only be developed when a job is

planned and parts are kitted in order to operate in a proactive
environment. Scheduling Maintenance Work in a Maintenance
Supervisors area of responsibility requires cooperation and
agreement with the area production supervisor. The work
should be scheduled one week in advance and cover at least
90% of a maintenance persons time. The maintenance
supervisor insures the schedule can be executed on time with
effective results. Daily the scheduler, maintenance supervisor,
and production supervisor will need to discuss in a short
meeting any changes to the schedule.
---(Schedule Compliance by day in a week is the best metric
for this process)
4. Maintenance Work Performed effectively is the total
responsibility of the maintenance supervisor and maintenance
technician. A Maintenance Supervisor now becomes coach and
not a player. If the plan is being executed to standard the
supervisor needs to ask why and be sure the decision is
technically correct.
---(Rework is the best metric for this area)
5. Work Order Close Out is the responsibility of the maintenance
supervisor to insure the codes are correct. The supervisor must
require strict adherence in this area. Without correct data entry
metrics, KPIs, and reports will not be accurate. Metrics should
never be used to talk down to someone or the team. Always be
positive no matter what you hear from your management. If a
metric does not show the results management expects ask the

maintenance team their thoughts on the metric and how they

would turn the metric around. Implement their strategy even if
you have to lead them to the answer. Develop the process and
expectation for work order close out as shown below. A little
guidance insures consistency.

Tool Box Training for Work Order Close Out

6. Continuous Improvement can only take place when you have
a consistent maintenance program. This requires:
a. An effective PM / PdM Program (MTBF is going up)
b. An effective Planning and Scheduling Process (wrench
time is going up and more is being completed effectively
and efficiently)
c. Repeatable Work Procedures with specifications and
standards.
d. Supervision means QA/QC of the entire process to insure
people are following the process for proactive
maintenance.

Key Performance Indications (KPIs)

KPIs are key to the success of any organization and even more as a maintenance
supervisor. If you do not know where you are, you will never arrive on time. Follow the
Guiding Principles listed below for use of KPIs and how to use them effectively.
1. Every process you follow must have a measurement of success
or KPI. Examples are:
a. Preventive Maintenance PM Labor Hours vs
Emergency Labor hours

b. Planning Percent of Planned Work (planned work is

defined as all the parts have been identified and kitted, a
repeatable procedure developed, specifications and
standards identified, estimated time has been identified.
c. Scheduling Scheduled Compliance by day and
measured by the total week. If a job is moved to the next
day for any reason you do not receive compliance for it.
d. Total Maintenance Process Mean Time Between
Failure (MTBF) of specific assets, systems, lines,
facilities, etc.
2. When a KPI is going in the wrong direction it is time for a
meeting with your maintenance staff and planner/scheduler.
This must be a non-threatening process.
a. Ask your maintenance team if they see anything wrong
with the metric and listen, listen, listen to their feedback.
b. Ask them next what should the team change / improve
which will allow the KPI to move in the right direction.
Make it their idea always and thank them for it.
3. Celebrate success once a milestone or target has been met on
a KPI with the crew. Bring in donuts or whatever and say thank
you to each person and shake their hand sincerely. They know
if you are sincere.

We could talk on this subject all day long however we will stop here for now. Take a
hard look at the ideas identified in this article. Allow your maintenance staff, your
manager, planner/scheduler to read it and ask everyone to help you with this journey
and if you are not doing what you committed to please let you know. We all need a little
advice and encouragement from time to time.
If you would like to have access to all my information folders on the internet send me an
email at rsmith@gpallied.com. I am there for you anytime you need advice or consoling.