This month’s issue concerns one possible way to design your PM tasks and frequencies.

PM is like advertising. You know that 3/4 of it is wasted effort. The great challenge is knowing which 3/4 should you eliminate?

 There is a pointer within your grasp that will only point at PM tasks that will make a difference. This pointer is the parts that you use.

 Process: Review the parts that you use and make a listing of all the parts that failed because of breakdown. Sort these so that the most frequent parts failures lead the list. Divide those failures into three categories (this will look somewhat familiar if you are a RCM devotee).  

1. Parts failures where there is a safety or environmental exposure.
2. Parts failures where large costs were incurred in parts, labor, scrap or downtime.
3. Most frequent failures not in the above categories.

 Starting with category 1 look at the parts and the failures. Is there a task that would have eliminated the failure? After category 1 is complete do the same analysis on category 2 and 3. Always include the cost of the task in the review and choose tasks that give you a big bang for your buck!

 This type of approach can be very effective to tighten up a PM program.

 Tip: Add a series of tasks to your PM schedule on your computer system that initiate the review of the 5 most used breakdown parts. Have the analysis be performed by a knowledgeable tradesperson and give it a labor standard or 4 or more hours.