Maintenance System at ACME - Case Study Example

1. Investigation: The strong and weak points in the ACME maintenance system are tabulated below based on the five main processes of maintenance system. The scenario used in this tabulation is contained in the document titled “what price maintenance?” Processes Strong points Weak points The Strategic Process ACME has a strong policy that requires the maintenance department to work for the Operations department, serving them like a customer; ACME encourages the applicable experts (fitters) to professionally handle their respective maintenance tasks; Experts at ACME follow standards and data of work are properly documented, even though not all were utilized to keep the plant working. The workload appears overwhelming and the experts failed to uphold the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which include making sure that the plant is running smoothly, and identification of faulty system in the plant. The maintenance supervisors were slack in recognizing the danger of letting the plant pack up. The Work System ACME has the manpower to handle its maintenance challenges; data are collected processed and stored; the experts are properly scheduled to handle their respective tasks within the organization; Once carried out, their job could be great and reliable; The experts perform and execute their duties with all observable precision; The major weak points at ACME lies in the problems of under-reporting; when faults are detected, maintenance supervisors kept the findings to themselves for the fear of being reprimanded or ignored; the maintenance manager strongly resisted the suggestion to purchase new materials so as to maintain the same costs; Inability to try a new material or tools may have affected the quality of work at ACME. The Feedback System The feedback system is well-arranged in a way that fitters are expected to inform their supervisors of their findings during work; supervisors, on the other hand, is expected to intimate the maintenance manager if any problem fault) has been discovered; and the maintenance manager needs t liaise with the operations on the findings. This feedback system monitors the output against input to discover the necessity to improve the process. However, the maintenance supervisors did not utilize this feedback strategy; the maintenance manager did not have enough information to work on; As a result of this, the appropriate maintenance report is not produced, which could have helped in measuring the level of performance of the ACME’s operations.. The Continuous Improvement System Experts at ACME design out their work procedures to achieve maximum productivity; they put in place corrective systems that would guarantee quality production irrespective of the tasks they may be working on; But the maintenance manager at ACME rejects any idea for innovation based on the possible addition to the cost of running the organization; the maintenance managers refused to send the maintenance supervisors to attend an external training that would likely give them new innovative ideas; to avoid cost escalation, the maintenance manager also kicked against the acquisition of new technologies and new techniques to keep the running costs as they currently are. The Environmental Process Environmental disturbance is mitigated through strict adherence to the legislation and standards for business practices that encourage that environment must be given the priority it deserves; the experts understand that they should not let production pressure force them to do anything detrimental to the environment. The major weak point in this regard is the shortage of resources for experts at ACME to involve in plant modification that would reduce the rate at which the environment is being destroyed: whatever production system the organization has chosen cannot completely reduce the environmental disturbance, but could help in understanding how such a problem can be drastically mitigated. 2. Analysis of the level of performance of ACME:- (i) The strategic process—Looking critically at the strategic process at ACME, it is clear that the strong policy established in the organization requires the maintenance department to work for the Operations department, serving them like a customer in order to make sure that the operational activities are not halt suddenly. This decision makes ACME appear success-oriented as it encourages the applicable maintenance experts (fitters) working in the organization to handle their respective maintenance tasks with utmost care so as to promote smooth running of the organization’s operations. Experts at ACME follow standards and data of work are properly documented, even though not all were utilized to keep the plant working. The maintenance supervisors have made some mistakes by keeping the fact about the functionality of the organization plant from the maintenance manager to avoid personal disagreement with him. This action appears to have created the main problem that lead to the organization’s plant halting abruptly. It is also understandable that the workload at ACME seems overwhelming; and due to oversight, the experts had failed to uphold the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which include making sure that the plants are running smoothly, and the identification of faulty system in the plant. The maintenance supervisors were slack in recognizing the danger that lets the plants stop working. From the above explanations, it is true to state that the strategic process at ACME is well-planned but uncoordinated, due to the performance of the maintenance supervisors. (ii) The work system:- The work system at ACME reveals a pattern of systematic approach because the organization has the needed manpower to handle all its maintenance challenges. The procedures used at ACME necessitated that data are collected processed and stored in the database where it could be accessed by every member of the maintenance department. As a result of this, the experts are properly scheduled to handle their respective tasks within the organization. The good news is that if these tasks are carried out, the experts’ jobs would be great and reliable; The experts performed and executed their duties with all observable precision. On the other hand, the main weak points at ACME lies in the problems of under-reporting; when faults are detected, maintenance supervisors kept the findings to themselves for the fear of being reprimanded or ignored by the ever querulous maintenance manager. It is in their belief that the maintenance manager was not cooperative as he often strongly resisted any suggestion to purchase new materials so as to maintain the same costs of maintenance for the organization. The danger is that inability to try a new material or tools may affect the quality of work at ACME. (iii) The feedback system:- For any organization to successfully harness its resources together for the purpose of improving its efficiency, feedback is quite essential. The feedback system at ACME is well-arranged in a way that maintenance workers (fitters) are expected to inform their supervisors of their findings during the course of carrying out their work. This system also expects the supervisors to similarly intimate the maintenance manager if any problem (fault) has been discovered in the organization’s plants. Finally, it is duty of the maintenance manager to liaise with the Operations Department on the findings. This feedback system monitors the output against input to discover the necessity to improve the process. However, the maintenance supervisors at ACME failed to employ this feedback strategy—they kept their findings to themselves while the organization’s plants deteriorated until they packed up. The maintenance manager did not have enough information to work on in relation to the efficiency of the plants. Therefore, the appropriate maintenance report is not produced, which could have helped in measuring the level of performance of the ACME’s operations so as to suggest for system revamp in case some faults are detected in the course of operations. The failure to utilize the feedback system at the organization could undermine any plan to stick to standards or prevent environmental degradation. (iv) The continuous improvement process:- It is imperative that organizations consider critically the process of perpetually improving their systems. One important application of this procedure is that it helps organizations to adopt new and highly effective methodology in their processes so as to meet and supersede any competition in their area of operations. It is clear that the experts at ACME designed out their work procedures to achieve maximum productivity. They also put in place corrective systems that would guarantee quality production, irrespective of the tasks they may be working on. But it was quite unhelpful that the maintenance manager at ACME had rejected every idea for innovation based on the possible increase in the cost of running the organization. The maintenance managers refused to send the maintenance supervisors to attend an external training that would have given them new innovative ideas just to avoid cost escalation. This practice is improper and anti-growth as ACME experts would remain un-modernized and be unable to compete with their counterparts in other organizations. The maintenance manager also kicked against the acquisition of new technologies and new techniques to keep the running costs as low as possible. Technically, any organization that refuses to modernize will always find its work strategy outdated and uncompetitive. One of the secrets of successful organizations is the willingness and seriousness at which they worked hard on achieving their long-term improvement procedures. (v) The environmental process:- Nowadays, it has become non-negotiable that organizations must pay serious attention to the environment, constantly weighing the impacts of their operations on the preservation of the environment. ACME is not exempted from this general expectation. However, ACME’s environmental disturbance is mitigated through strict adherence to the legislation and standards for business practices that encourage that environment must be given the priority. It is interesting that the experts at ACME understood that they should not let production pressure force them to do anything detrimental to the environment. Hence, this requires regarding the environmental legislation with utmost respect and following all standards that aim to protect the environment. But the major weak point in this area is the shortage of resources for experts at ACME to involve in plant modification that would reduce the rate at which the environment is being exposed to destructive elements. Notwithstanding, whatever production system the organization has chosen cannot completely reduce the environmental disturbance, but could help in understanding how such a problem can be drastically reduced. ACME needs to adopt a definite environmental preservation policy that would help its experts to consider the importance of protecting the environment in each step of their operations. 3. Critical prioritisation Based on the critical analyses conducted in the foregoing, the five serious shortcomings in ACME’s maintenance system are highlighted below: (i) Poor communication:-This scenario shows that there is poor communication procedure between the maintenance department and their operations counterpart. Even the maintenance manager, Derek Piper, saw himself a man with all the necessary wisdom of maintenance—therefore, he hardly took advice from his subordinates, Harry Warner and Mick Brice, who were his maintenance supervisors. He rather preferred to deal out orders most of the time. This kind of behaviour had driven his subordinates away from him, even that the maintenance supervisors, the electricians and fitters who should be reporting to him often decide to keep facts to themselves. This poor communication has caused a problem of reporting and hampered the provision of feedbacks. The maintenance manager is totally cut off from the real happening in the organization since he did not receive the appropriate information for him to prevent a total collapse of the organization’s plants. Poor communication is also responsible for cold relationship between the maintenance department and the operations department, as the latter also refused to provide the necessary information to the maintenance department. This is a serious shortcoming because it shuts down the organization’s communication network and set the various departments apart. ACME’s human resource department should be blamed for this grave problem. If there has been a definite communication process through the adoption of NEW REQUIREMENTS for reporting, which Derek opposed; the maintenance supervisors would have lodged their complaints and prevented the plants from shutting down. (ii) New technologies.- It was a serious shortcoming for the organization not to have accepted the idea of modernizing ACME. Modernisation can come in the form of buying new modern equipment and utilization of new technologies. The maintenance supervisors suggested that Derek should buy new handheld condition monitoring probe, for example, but Derek underrated their suggestion as a waste of ACME’s funds. This can also entails sending the experts at ACME for better training that would improve their working systems. Harry indicated that if he had gone for the 3-month course compressors’ makers often give; he would have learned better how to monitor compressors’ efficiency. The maintenance manager should be blamed for deterring the supervisors from attending the external training that would have improved their knowledge and helped them to contribute meaningfully to the progress of the organization. In the absence of this, ACME would be unable to modernise its procedures and constantly impact the quality of performance of its employees. (iii) Ineffective leadership:- All the problems described above occurred because of ineffective leadership displayed by the maintenance manager, Derek. Instead of patiently listening to his subordinates, he balked at them and forced them to keep quiet on important information they should have revealed to the maintenance department. This is a serious problem because it affects the rate of reporting and providing useful feedbacks to ACME. It is quite unprofessional for Derek to have made the other workers appear useless in the issue of maintenance in the organization. And this problem has increased mistrust between Derek and his supervisors. (iv) Organizational Structure:- There is also the problem of ineffective organizational structure at ACME. The structure does not make each department a complement of the other, rather, it recognizes Operations department as a customer that the maintenance department must worship and serve. From this perspective, the CEO of the organization, Jim Gordon makes the maintenance department answerable to the operations department, and not the other way round. Therefore, it was difficult for the maintenance department to receive vital reports and feedbacks from the operations department. This schism is able to complicate the issue of communication, and vital information would be restricted between the two departments. If there had been adequate communication, ACME plants would not have stopped working and thrown the entire organization into a big problem. The CEO should be blamed for endorsing and defending such a controversial organisational culture that could tear the entire organisation apart. (v) Interpersonal relationship:- It appears that there is a frosty relationship among the maintenance workers at ACME: their personal discussions are full of teases and annoying statements. Derek often used some expressions like “get it off your chest”, “What” Are they thick or something?” and “So you are questioning my authority....” These expressions reveal that there was no friendly relationship among them. And when things like this occur among co-workers that are expected to exercise some forms of restraints in emotional outburst, it will be difficult to hold meaningful conversations that would be useful towards working in collaboration to achieve the organisational goals of ACME. Derek, the maintenance manager should be blamed for this problem, because he normally acted rudely to the other maintenance workers and refuse to accept any of their opinions. This problem can lead to poor performance as workers are not given the chance to express themselves and contribute practically to the maintenance processes at ACME. The same harsh conversation was even perceived between the maintenance manager and his boss, who clearly showed his anger for the shut-down plants. 4. Recommendations The following recommendations are necessary to change the current situations at ACME in order to make the organisation’s maintenance department to be quite effective—this involves concentrating on issues like work system, feedback methodology, continuous improvement procedures, and environmental issues. All the facts outlined below can take care of all these significant aspects of ACME’s maintenance strategy: (a) Streamlining in-house communication: Having robust internal communication at ACME can help solve some strategic problems—the two maintenance supervisors can contribute immensely to the reports and feedback about the maintenance activities if there is a channel of communication through which they could pass their pieces of information to the maintenance manager without having to meet him often and argue angrily about matters. This kind of proactive communication can be done through the application of some software that allow multi-users to relay instant messages, processed data, archives from database, and so on (Weiss, 2007). Though periodical meeting may be necessary; say, one in two months, but the supervisors can often send their observations and ideas about the functionality of the plants to Derek, the maintenance manager. These reports can contain information about the fitters’ performance, the state of the organization’s plants, information about faults and other technical problems affecting the plant, some personal problems affecting the fitters and so on. Alternatively, they can process their facts, information, data and send them to Derek, who will analyse them and call for physical meeting whenever certain part of the information is not clear to him. Streamlining in-house communication is helpful to lessen the pain and disappointment supervisors have when they had to meet the maintenance manager face to face because of his unfriendly milieu (Weiss, 2007). This recommendation is made to facilitate inter-departmental communication among the workers at AMCE as they relay their message to the maintenance manager. The estimated cost for this change should be less than 1000 (low budgeting), because communication software cost about 500 pound. The expected benefits of this recommendation are that: (i) smooth transfer of data, information and statistics would be possible between the operations and maintenance departments; (ii) and, efforts can be made to rectify some problems ACME’s plant before they could stop working altogether. (b) Increased budgeting: Another important area where the maintenance manager can change the situation at ACME is to discuss elaborately with the CEO to increase the budget for the organisation’s maintenance department. Increased budgeting will help the organisation afford some other performance-enhancing processes it had not been able to accomplish before (Weiss, 2007). These developmental processes include sending the maintenance supervisors out for external training that may improve their skills. Invariably, they can utilize their newfound skills to improve their jobs at ACME. The supervisors had also requested for the purchase of some tools that would help them do their job better. So, more money should be spent on buying new equipment and tools that would improve the quality of operations at ACME. The supervisors can learn about new technologies from the external training they attend. And if some software and equipment are needed for them to replicate similar technology at ACME, budget must be allocated for this purpose. The cost for the training and the acquisition of new technology and tools is estimated below. The entire cost estimation is medium (1000 to 10,000 pounds) (i) Maintenance technology course (organised at a technical college) =750 pounds (for the two supervisors. (ii) Transportation to and from the course= 120 pounds. (iii) Acquisition of new tools and equipment (technology) =2500 pounds. (iv) The purchase of communication network software =500 pounds ............................ Total 3,870 pounds The reason why this recommendation is made is to address the problem of extra budgeting, which Derek Piper is seriously worried about. As shown above, the estimated cost for adequate budgeting is medium (3,870 pound). With increased budgeting, Derek can purchase new tools that will improve the maintenance at ACME and help trained the maintenance professionals—these are the expected benefits from this change. c. Organizational transformation: The current organisational culture at ACME does not encourage the activities of the maintenance experts. There should be organisational transformation whereby all the departments within the organisation can work in collaboration with one another (Weiss, 2007). This transformation should attempt to establish strategic process at ACME while paying attention to the work system, continuous improvement procedures and environmental protection. At the moment, the culture at ACME places the Operations department above the maintenance department. The latter is expected to serve the former like a slave. This condition does not create an environment of equality (Weiss, 2007). And it will also hinder smooth transfer of information between the two departments, as the operations department is currently unwilling to share information with the maintenance department. Also, the new organisational culture can reflect a better way of communication among the workers of ACME. This may require that personal disagreements and squabbles will be replaced by productive discussions that would help the activities within the organisation. Great organisational culture will likely reduce the waste of time on ineffective communication among the employees of ACME. Derek needs to collaborate with the Jim Gordon and the Operations Manager to design a workable organisational structure that would facilitate the process of communication and reporting, which have been the two main problems that had been facing the organisation. This recommendation will help to change the organisational structure at ACME by emphasizing that all departments should work in collaboration with one another; this entails sharing vital information among themselves and solving problems together. The estimated cost of transforming ACME’s structure would be a little over 1000 pound (a low budgeting). Money would only be spent on holding periodic seminars and workshops that would give the workers a new idea of partnership at ACME. The expected benefits from this recommendation are that information transfer would be quicker, and each department can contribute meaningfully to the success of ACME by working together to prevent the collapse of ACME’s plant. 5. Alternative Conclusion:- The two main problems I have personally observed about the operations at ACME which threaten the organisation’s maintenance process are: (i) human mistakes and (ii) systems problem. (i) Human mistakes: The failure in the maintenance procedures at ACME is mainly due to the mistakes committed by the human elements of the organisation. From the case study or scenario for this assignment, the CEO of ACME and the maintenance manager, Derek, do not appear to have enough knowledge of what management is all about—that is, instead of sitting down to discuss the problems affecting the organisation, they resort to bullying and shouting on top of their voices. Only effective inter-personal management can lead to successful maintenance strategy. It is clear in the scenario that the two maintenance supervisors got tired of working with Derek because of his rude approach and unwillingness to take advice from people working with him. If I were the maintenance manager, I would work hard to remove this human behavioural mistake. I would set up a smooth communication system that would allow my supervisors to freely discuss their findings and ideas with me. I would encourage them to meaningfully contribute to the processes of identification, reporting and resolving all maintenance problems (Weiss, 2007). By doing so, they could develop a strong confidence in themselves and their duties to maintain high culture of maintenance at ACME. The human mistakes in the scenario caused Derek his respect and recognition by his subordinates. Not only that, it discourages the supervisors from telling Derek the true happenings in the organisation. As a maintenance manager, I will persuade my subordinates to pay close attention to every detail about the performance of the operations department in order to discover any faults in the plant, which the operations department may have been hiding from the maintenance department. I would encourage them to provide me continuous reports about whatever things they do right and those they did not do right. I would patiently listen to their opinions while holding meetings with them. Through these channels, it is possible to discover how ACME plants are functioning, and in case of any destructive faults, proactive plans can be drawn up to quickly address the issue to prevent total collapse of the operations plants. Removing these human mistakes will help ACME to attain its planned productivity within a specified period of time without having to deal with disappointment and other failures human errors have caused the organization. (ii) Systems Problems:- It is important to state that the systems problems originate from the human mistakes. According to the scenario in this assignment, the systems problems led to the collapse of the plants, which invariably disrupted the production activity at ACME. If I am employed as the maintenance manager, I will liaise with the operations department to carry out the following procedures: (i) periodic visitation to the plants to observe how the operations department workers use the plants; (ii) comprehensive inspection of the plants to see if the workers follow the safety instructions given to them; (iii) hold periodic meeting with the operations manager to address issues that may affect the efficiency of the plants; (iv) establish routine quality assurance inspection to be carried out by the maintenance inspectors; (v) establish smooth communication network with the operations and management department to facilitate exchange of information and ideas that would help the organisation maintain its safety goals in the long-term. The points highlighted above will be carried out if I am the maintenance manager of ACME. I truly understand that without undertaking the processes mentioned above, it will be difficult for the organisation to progress, because failure to resolve the issues of human mistakes and systems problems are central to higher efficiency by the operations department. In conclusion, these two situations occur to every organisation; but the rate at which such things affect the performance or productivity varies from one organisation to the other. Maintenance in an organisation is a dynamic issue: it requires constant management so as to achieve the organisational goals of offering quality goods and services to their teeming customers. Whenever the human aspect of the production has become problematic through poor intra-organisation communication, lazy working culture, and poor management, it is often leads to systems collapse—which could mean that the entire plants suddenly stop working. A good maintenance manager will pay serious attention to this issue so as to map out a functional strategy that will address the human problems in the organisation. There is no doubt that ACME will become improved if a new maintenance manager is appointed to handle all the situations highlighted in the foregoing. It is generally believed that when an organisation makes the right decision to pay close attention to human management, other areas of its operations will become successful. (iii) Environmental issues: The implementation of the recommendations highlighted above would help ACME to operate in an environmentally friendly condition. What this signifies is that the work system will be modernized through the acquisition of latest technologies and the training of personnel to man them, the feedback procedures will be revamped to create a condition of smooth communication between the operations department and its maintenance counterpart; and through this, continuous improvement of maintenance processes will be guaranteed. All these factors would help ACME to maintain a culture of cleanliness that would guarantee the sustainability of the environment where the plant is located. In fact, all the points raised above are interwoven, and it takes a proactive maintenance manager to successfully harness all these areas of maintenance strategy (Weiss, 2007). Derek may require some training that would encourage him to see his management position as an opportunity to build the skills of his subordinates, and not to silence them into unprofessional state. References Weiss, W.H., 2007. Plant and maintenance manager’s desk book. 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