Don't think of maintenance managers as "watchdogs" and "scapegoats"

There is a popular saying in the factory that the people in the maintenance department are "watch dogs" and "scapegoats". During the holidays, the operation post can be rested, which is a good opportunity to repair the equipment, they have to stay on the equipment site to repair the equipment, overtime can not rest - they are watchdogs. Factory problems, production suspension needless to say, what quality problems, safety accidents, environmental complaints or occupational health, almost all related to equipment, or is caused by equipment problems, equipment maintenance personnel must sit in the defendant's seat. Factories run smoothly, senior leaders seem to think that equipment should be the way it should be, and maintenance personnel are forgotten. When thinking of them, it is always in unpleasant times. This has become an immutable law in the enterprise. In our enterprise, the treatment of equipment maintenance personnel is generally lower than that of operating personnel. For example, in the steel industry, it is understandable that operators used to work in high-temperature and high-risk sites, and the treatment was higher than that of maintenance personnel. In today's steel companies, operators sit in a DCS control room with a suitable temperature, facing the computer screen operation. The equipment maintained by the maintenance personnel is more complex, the maintenance technology is more difficult, and even drills into the device that has not been completely cooled to repair the equipment, sweating, but getting lower treatment. Many people try to transfer to operational positions. In order to compensate for these positions that no one wants to go, companies transfer employees who do not perform well in other departments to maintenance positions. So a vicious circle is formed - the more no one goes, the lower the quality of the people who stay there, the lower the treatment, and the less people are willing to go. The consequence of this phenomenon is that the maintenance of equipment is getting worse and worse! Once I went to a steel mill to investigate, the person in charge of the equipment who led me on the tour often reminded me to pay attention to bypassing the equipment, saying that there were often steel bars in rolling that ran out of there and hurt people! This shows the poor maintenance of its equipment. Once, when I was on a plane, I found that the commentator article in the Civil Aviation News bluntly called for improving the treatment of civil aviation aircraft maintenance personnel. It can be seen that this phenomenon also occurs in civil aviation or other areas where safety is the core. It is not necessarily accurate to understand that some pilots are emotionally unstable and want to jump ship to other airlines because the aircraft mechanics are dissatisfied with the low treatment and jump ship. The deep reason for the emergence of the situation of "watchdogs" and "scapegoats" is that the senior leaders of the enterprise have insufficient understanding of equipment management, or treat the equipment system with the habitual thinking of 20 years ago. They didn't see two changes: 1. Rapid technological progress in equipment: In recent decades, the technological progress of equipment has developed geometrically. Some semi-automated equipment gradually becomes fully automated equipment, discrete equipment is gradually integrated into one, process-oriented production lines are increasing, computers, single-board microcontrollers, programmable controller PLC gradually replace the traditional control system. The operation speed of the equipment is getting faster and faster, the output scale of the equipment is getting larger and larger, the volume and weight of the equipment are also getting larger and larger, and the accuracy and complexity of the equipment are also getting higher and higher. Almost immediately, the latest results in human research are integrated into modern devices. In turn, once such equipment fails, its production losses become more and more large, and it affects the working conditions of upstream and downstream equipment, the role of safety and the environment is becoming more and more obvious, and the difficulty of maintenance is getting higher and higher. 2. Changes in maintenance technical requirements: Traditional equipment is relatively simple, and many problems can be solved by mechanical fitters. But contemporary equipment is almost all mechatronic entities, and the requirements for maintenance technology are getting higher and higher. Take the repair of cars, for example, the previous car repair was dominated by fitters. The control circuits of contemporary cars are very complex, dozens of wiring harnesses control the car's start, lighting, air conditioning, rearview mirrors, reversing, audio, acceleration, brakes, glass up and down, wipers, seat positions, door locks, etc. Traditional fitters are powerless in the face of such cars. The same is true for the maintenance of equipment used in production, which requires mechatronics talents and technical support. The biggest difference between maintenance and production is that maintenance requires diagnostic and analytical capabilities, continuous learning, and the summarization and refinement of experience. The operation of production is basically fixed, standardized and easy to control. The failure of equipment is ever-changing, requiring maintenance personnel to soberly analyze and judge, and need to flexibly apply existing experience and mechatronics knowledge to solve. In view of the above changes, enterprises must adapt to this trend in performance evaluation and incentives. Many companies do not realize that equipment is the skeleton, muscle, vascular and nervous system of the factory, and is one of the core elements of enterprises to create value-added. Without understanding the equipment, equipment management and maintenance from such a height, of course, there will be a state of "watchdog" and "scapegoat". In the factory, almost all people think that the maintenance department is for production, but no one thinks that these two departments are not a relationship between A and B, but a partnership, a brotherhood. When the production task is urgent and the order delivery requirements are urgent, the maintenance department should be anxious for production, closely cooperate with the production department to complete the work task, and ensure punctual delivery. When the equipment is in poor condition, the production department should be anxious about the equipment, fully cooperate with the equipment department to restore the equipment state, and do a good job in maintenance. When there is a contradiction between production and maintenance, whether production makes way for maintenance or maintenance makes way for production, the two sides must sit down and discuss, the two evils take the lighter, and the two benefits take the heavier. Scientific determination is made whether to shut down for maintenance or continue production. Rather than arbitrarily, production scheduling has the final say. Enterprises should completely change the original unreasonable places in terms of salary incentives. In order to change the original vicious circle state, its breakthrough is to first improve the treatment of maintenance personnel, so that this part of the people gradually become the commanding heights of the factory's salary, become the envy of everyone's work, naturally there will be a continuous flow of excellent talents to these positions, naturally will change the state of low quality, naturally will reflect to the maintenance of equipment, so that the state of equipment gradually improves, will create higher efficiency. This input-output ratio should be very impressive. Sharpen the knife without mistakenly chopping woodworkers! This is the best example. We sincerely hope that the situation of "watchdogs" and "scapegoats" will become history. In fact, the equipment maintenance and management staff are still very cute. Let's use the following song to praise this group of lovely people. We have neither a pennant nor a war drum; criticism, accusation, and familiarity; still obscure, still tinkering; rescue, firefighting, we are familiar with the road; production is smooth, it is none other than us! The ringtone of the mobile phone in the middle of the night often wakes up our dreams; no regrets, who let us be the mother of the device! Excellent product quality, there is our painstaking efforts; safe and healthy working environment, rely on us to care! Emptiness and loneliness, far away from us, far away... Enterprise efficiency is our greatest comfort and encouragement; this is us - the equipment management workers of the factory; the patron saint of the equipment, the backbone of the enterprise!