Enhancing Plant Reliability Through Collaborative Operations and Maintenance

In the world of industrial operations, plant departments mirror the dynamics of a family—each role interdependent and collaborative.

When we compare departments to family roles, the operations team often acts as the strategic decision‑maker—"the wife"—while maintenance functions as the dependable partner—"the husband." This perspective helps us understand how priorities are set and executed.

In any partnership, the party that steers the agenda is typically the one who leads the budget and strategy. Operations sets the direction for the plant, while maintenance carries out the necessary actions to keep that vision alive.

Maintenance teams frequently end up with a “honey‑do” list—a queue of tasks that the operations side believes must be completed soon. The key to controlling costs and avoiding budget overruns is to scrutinize each request: Is the job truly essential? If every item on the list receives a “yes,” the plant’s budget will spiral out of control.

Approach the list as a joint partnership: split tasks into essential maintenance and improvement work. Repairs are usually more critical than upgrades, so prioritize accordingly and agree on a maximum completion date for each item.

For those new to the role, it can be tempting to label every upgrade as high priority. A balanced view—recognizing that repair work often has a higher impact on reliability—helps maintain focus and prevents scope creep.

Clear priority rules and agreed‑upon finish dates strengthen the partnership. Operations and maintenance share a joint backlog and set priorities that align with available resources, ensuring that commitments are met and that work zones are fully accessible when scheduled.

HANDYMEN AND A PLAN

In many plants, maintenance staff are managed by operations and work in shifts. A high number of handymen on a shift often signals either frequent breakdowns or an overload of non‑critical jobs. Both scenarios are undesirable, indicating either poor reliability or inefficient planning.

Just yesterday, my partner and I reviewed three household tasks we felt needed attention. While a full‑time handyman would be ideal, the cost is prohibitive—similar to the expense of keeping a full roster of on‑call technicians in a mid‑size plant. Typically, a 70‑person maintenance team will deploy one or two craftspeople per shift to address unexpected failures.

Maintenance teams often struggle to finish work on time because of inadequate planning and scheduling. Unplanned jobs that start on a Saturday morning lead to frantic trips to suppliers and delayed completion. When work lags, the operations side may threaten to outsource, mirroring the same dynamic in the plant.

Effective planning is a core reliability enabler. Unplanned work invariably takes longer, increases downtime, and erodes trust between departments.

OH, THAT TEENAGER

In many plants, the engineering department feels like a “black hole” where requests vanish or get buried. The root cause is often an unrealistic workload and an overemphasis on capital projects, which pushes maintenance work to the sidelines.

Limited interaction between engineering, operations, and maintenance is a common pitfall. Engineering designs without consulting those who will operate and maintain the equipment. Conversely, maintenance may install new assets without following a robust management‑of‑change process, neglecting updates to preventive maintenance tasks, bill of materials, and documentation.

For further discussion or suggestions, please email Idhammar@gmail.com.

Torbjörn (Tor) Idhammar is partner and vice president at IDCON Inc., a firm specializing in reliability and maintenance management. He leads all IDCON projects and consultants, offering training and support in reliability assessments, preventive maintenance, operator‑based reliability, planning and scheduling, materials management, and root‑cause problem elimination. Tor is the author of Condition Monitoring Standards (volumes 1–3). Contact him at 800‑849‑2041 or info@idcon.com.