Fundamentals of Effective Posture Correction

Maintenance engineers' worst nightmare, and the only answer to every problem, is "failure." We feel highly competent when we solve it, but it's frustrating when we can't find a solution…

In our daily work lives as maintenance professionals, we face many problems, and we are expected to solve them as quickly as possible.

Most of us prefer to leave the area without even looking back after fixing the problem.

As I mentioned before, our job is not only to find solutions to problems but also to establish a system to prevent them from happening again.

I will discuss the system aspect in detail later in the article, but first, I want to clarify the confusion surrounding the terminology.

As maintenance professionals, we categorize every problem we intervene in as a failure. However, when you examine books and articles on maintenance management, you will find three fundamentally different terms:

Breakdown, Failure, Defect.

In this article, we will focus more on the term Defect. And our main topic will be Defect Elimination.

When you ask a dictionary for the Turkish equivalent of the word "Defect," you'll find words like "apology," "mistake," or "flaw." However, I prefer to use the word "Duruş" (downtime/defect). And I will use the phrase "Duruşların Azaltılması" (Reducing Downtime) as a translation of the definition of "Defect Elimination." You can see the meaning of the word Duruş (Defect) below:

"Anything that stops equipment, reduces production, endangers health, safety, and the environment (HSE), or creates waste."

Returning to our main topic;

If you want to establish a strong maintenance management system in your business, you need to establish an effective system for reducing downtime.

But what does downtime reduction look like, where and how should you start? These kinds of questions have arisen in everyone's mind.

Downtimes don't only result from physical problems or equipment failures.

Downtimes can stem from equipment design, installation, raw materials, workmanship, quality issues, and of course, human error.

Focus on Small Downtimes

If your business has a work order tracking system, it's very easy to perform data analysis for the problems you're dealing with.

By gathering this data and creating a simple equipment-based downtime table, you'll most likely see that 80% of your downtime is due to equipment issues that account for 5-10% of your business's downtime.

This can, of course, vary depending on the industry or the characteristics of the equipment used in your business.

We can say that the downtimes that make up the 80% are problems that are small in number but cause you more trouble in terms of time. Therefore, we naturally want to prioritize analyzing and reducing these downtimes.

During this process, we conduct root cause analyses, determine the necessary actions, and get to work.

Since these actions involve a comprehensive project, equipment revision, or spare parts procurement, they require both time and budget.

On the other hand, problems that can be solved quickly and require less budget, which account for 20% of the downtime, will still keep you busy.

However, you need to differentiate your approach to small downtimes from large ones.

Often, we set a limit for downtimes exceeding a certain number of minutes and start with a Root Cause Analysis. For small downtimes, this method can be much more detailed.

So, what method will we follow for small downtimes?

Peak-to-Floor/Floor-to-Peak Upward Downtime Reduction Method

The Heinrich triangle is frequently discussed in occupational safety literature. What is meant here is that hundreds of small incidents can foreshadow a major accident.

The same can be argued for maintenance literature.

Many small problems that come our way are actually harbingers of a major failure.

Peak-to-Floor Downtime Reduction

The first method we should apply for downtime reduction is a detailed Root Cause Analysis performed from peak to floor.

It is extremely important that the root cause analysis you are going to conduct is carried out in great detail by competent individuals.

Principles to be applied in an effective Root Cause Analysis

Analysis Process

Problem Identification

Analysis and Identification of Causes

Determination of Possible Corrective Actions and Mitigation Measures

Implementation of Actions

Follow-up Reduction from Bottom to Top

In the second method we will apply for reduction from bottom to top, our approach should be from bottom to top.

While the first method requires more time, cost, and in-depth analysis to find solutions to problems where we reach the root cause, in the second method we need to focus on problems that can be solved quickly, are low-cost, and can be solved fundamentally by the field team.

In bottom-up solutions, brainstorming should be created using detailed problem-solving techniques.