By Robert M. Williamson, president of Strategic Work Systems
How can we continue to ignore the decline of one of the fundamentals of our society: Manufacturing generates wealth? Since 1999, the percentage of U.S. gross domestic product attributed to manufacturing has slid from 16% to 14%. Manufacturing’s share of the national income, which was 29% in 1950, declined to 15% in 2000. Manufacturing job loss has been devastating. In an equipment-intensive operation, reliable equipment is a money machine and unreliable equipment is a money pit. Look at the workforce: The lack of job- and equipment-specific skills and knowledge in today’s manufacturing workplace is reaching alarming levels. The public vocational-technical training infrastructure is but a shadow of its former grandeur. Here’s what others are saying:
Now is the time for fast, focused, and sustainable gains in productivity and cost reductions by improving equipment reliability. We must aggressively improve productivity and lower our manufacturing costs. This means that the entire organization must make a conscious decision to eliminate waste to reduce manufacturing cost (a “Lean” fundamental). For those of us in maintenance , that means working with the rest of the organization to identify and eliminate the causes of equipment downtime (planned and unplanned), improve equipment efficiency, and eliminate defects while lowering maintenance and operating costs of the business’s single largest investment: equipment and facilities.
How? By first focusing on the most critica l, constraint, high-maintenance-cost, high-downtime-equipment, big return-on-investments that can be had: revenue generated, resources freed-up, productivity increased, and costs reduced. How? Identify the causes of equipment performance and reliability problems. Look for signs that equipment-specific skills and knowledge gaps or highly inefficient work practices that contribute to the problems. The lack of proper operations and maintenance skills and knowledge can result in serious, chronic equipment problems no matter how good your planning and scheduling, preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance processes, CMMS and work orders, no mater how well your MRO parts and supplies are maintained. People cause equipment problems by their actions and their decisions.
Without a robust vocational-technical education and training infrastructure in the U.S., with vocational education falling out of favor, with fewer and fewer young people being encouraged to learn a skill and pursue a career in manufacturing, it is only a matter of time before we lose our manufacturing capability in the U.S. Your company, your plant, your leadership, and your fellow employees can make a difference right now. Train and qualify your employees at all levels to be able to address equipment-specific issues right the first time. Focus your training and qualification efforts on the core skills and equipment specific skills required to keep your most critical equipment running like it’s supposed to run, first time, every time. If you don’t know how or don’t have the time, ask for help from professional industrial educators and trainers. Reliable equipment is the foundation for competitive manufacturing. People with the right skills and knowledge using proven best practices can keep equipment reliable, lowering costs and improving your competitive position. The time is now!