The maintain-erator. What sounds like the latest twist in The Terminator series could in fact be the most appetising mash-up since brunch. The combination of maintenance and operator roles is proving a winning formula at Alcoa Manufacturing GB, Kitts Green – the UK's only aluminium rolling mill and winner of Britain's Best Process Plant at the Best Factory Awards 2014.
"We've introduced an animal called a maintainer-operator," explains the site's engineering manager Paul Warham. "The idea is that this person has been recruited with no preconceived ideas of being in maintenance or operations. On the best day they'll do six hours of production and six of maintenance. On a maintenance-intensive day, they'll do all 12 hours with maintenance, or vice versa on a busy production day."
The maintainer-operators are more than equipped for the challenge. Recruits hold City & Guilds qualifications or are former maintenance apprentices, explains Warham. "These guys are our first line," he says. "If the machine in their area stops, then they're on hand to fix it. And if they can't, they call on our specialist maintenance guys to help. They wouldn't walk away, they'd stay and work with them. That way, it's continual training and development."
Ten maintainer-operators are deployed across three factory areas at the Alcoa site. The individuals add instant technical expertise for shift team leaders encountering a problem with plant. But just as crucial is their ability to take something away, says Warham. "If you have a separate maintenance team, they just become visitors to the area. They come in, do their work and walk away. The maintenance-operator breaks down those barriers. This is about being part of one autonomous team."
Self-sufficiency has been good for business. Downtime has remained stable at 5% despite a 30% reduction in dedicated maintenance personnel on site since 2010. As well as boosting the maintenance muscle of shift teams, the combined role has released Alcoa's full-time maintenance engineers to concentrate on business critical kit. And when you're home to a 54-year-old aluminium hot mill, worth more than £200m, every second is precious, says Warham.
"We're looking to transition from a preventative maintenance approach to a predictive one so our assets are available when we need them. The maintenance-operator plays a vital role. You have people inside the team, building that team ethos, predicting failure, preventing it before it happens, making sure everything is disciplined and well scheduled."
Share a skillset at Coca-Cola
Another site where a new approach to the maintenance role is proving a hit is Coca-Cola, Sidcup. The plant faces a high-variability, high-volume mix as supermarket customers demand bottles and cans in an ever-increasing range of sizes and styles. It means the only things moving faster than the lineside cappers, conveyor and fillers are the engineers who look after them.
"When I first came to the site in 2006 there was a very high dependency on the engineering skills in a very small maintenance department," explains Chris Doyle, senior manager – engineering at Coca-Cola.
And if the maintenance department wasn't able to offer an immediate answer, then production would pursue
plan B. "We'd throw money at a problem. In 2006, when our aseptic line went in, we had spent £800,000 on top of a £1.2m contract with the OEM to help maintain the new equipment on the line."
The short-termism led to soaring levels of reactive maintenance across the plant and a spiralling repair bill, explains Doyle. "As the site grew, we recognised we couldn't sustain that. Our philosophy borrowed from the adage that if you teach a man how to fish then you feed him for a lifetime."
A revised set of principles dummied as a hook. "We set three principles," explains Doyle. "Don't come and talk to us unless you've followed standard processes first. Number two: have you sought advice from your colleagues? What skills do we already have on site in other areas? And three, if you've exhausted those two, have you contacted the OEM to ask for advice?"
Clear visual SOPs and structured clean, inspect and lubrication (CIL) plans provided the line. Mark Hodgkins, maintenance manager at Coca-Cola, explains: "We break all our short-term asset care into CIL plans. A typical plan is laid out and shows a picture of what the equipment looks like before and after ideal state, whether it's a running task, how long the task will take and the cleaning equipment you need."
But the real sinker has been a rejuvenated engineering structure, which emphasises close relations with production. "Part of the turning point for us was to introduce a matrix structure with asset care supervisors planners and asset care supervisors," explains Hodgkins. "The asset care supervisors report to maintenance and asset care planners and shift technicians report into manufacturing, but we as a maintenance department help shape their objectives."
Think of your factory in footballing terms. Production is the goal-obsessed strike force and maintenance the stalwart defence. What Coca-Cola has achieved through asset care planners and supervisors, supplemented with maintenance technicians, is a midfield supply line connecting the two. Hodgkins explains: "All of the CIL tasks are constructed by our engineering technicians, with the guidance and support of the asset care supervisors. Each line has four technicians accountable for a zone on that line. By the technicians sitting down with the asset care supervisors and going through the manuals, it's consolidating their understanding of key equipment and closing the gaps."
Short-term CIL tasks are complemented by longer-term asset care activity like machine strip downs and servicing using a modular approach, adds Doyle. Again, the asset care planner adopts a coaching role. "When the technician comes on shift, they are giving work orders and planned asset care to carry out, and the parts are ready from them on their line's work-in-progress shelf."
Momentum is maintained at daily site-wide engineering meetings. Here, technicians and asset care supervisors touch base with the core maintenance department on the previous days' equipment failures, and discuss solutions. "All shift technicians attend," says Doyle. "It's an engineering forum where those guys can discuss issues around their line." And there's no danger of traditional complaints about production playing hardball making it onto the agenda, assures Doyle.
"There are two key things that drive performance – equipment and people; they have to be in harmony. My overall objectives depend on the overall site scorecard, the same as my counterpart in production. We need to be supporting one another to deliver."
Job done according to recent history. In partnership, maintenance and production have banished reactive work to a minority of all maintenance activity and brought equipment expertise back in-house. Planned downtime has dropped from three weeks to seven days. And a structured asset care programme means kit can handle the constant changeovers and high flexibility essential for satisfying the site's supermarket customers.
The factory will cut the ribbon at the official opening of a new £17m canning line this spring. You can bet your bottom dollar that a team of engineers and operators will be working hand in hand to ensure a harmonious launch.
Want to see the Coca-Cola maintenance methodology in action? Sign up for an exclusive WM factory tour on 21 April. Visit www.wmfactorytours.co.uk or email Julie Knox on Julie.Knox@findlay.co.uk or call 01322 221144
Once more into the breach: sustaining ageing assets
Sustaining ageing assets accounts for the lion's share of the maintenance team's time in UK factories, according to WM's Maintenance Report 2014. Over 50% say squeezing one more run out of equipment so retro it came in psychedelic flared packaging is their predominant engineering challenge.
A proactive maintenance programme can keep old machinery purring. But you'll also need to be on constant lookout for obsolescence of key parts, says Stef Smith, associate director at maintenance services provider, PEME. "The biggest problem with ageing assets is obsolescence – and obsolescence is hard work. Internally you'll have no view on what's becoming obsolescent unless you look for it and obsolescence strikes at component level."
Engineering departments should keep track by proactively risk assessing key kit, says Smith. The analysis should take place at least every two years and establish back up suppliers and lead times. "You do this on a component-by-component basis. It's a significant amount of work, but the worst thing that can happen is you have a breakdown, you realise you don't have a spare and that you can't buy one."
If your risk analysis spots a waning component then one possible solution is remanufacture. "A lot of our customers have machines built for 30 years but after 10-15 years the electronics cause problems," explains Richard Chamberlain, UK service manager at Bosch Rexroth. "Rather than rush into a retro fit, we will discuss remanufacturing components. We replace all the wearing components on drives and motors."
Remanufacturing costs around 30% of a full retrofit and can add around five years to a machine's lifespan, according to Chamberlain. Even your most graceful of golden oldies will only last as long as its electrical sub components, according to both Chamberlain and Smith. Advances in electronics mean that shelf life is shortening to 10 years or less. The surest way to spot electrical wear and tear is to engage eyes and ears when you switch it on, says Chamberlain. "It's like a Sky box, TV or computer at home. If it's taking longer to power up, then it's the first sign of problems."
And if old Bessie is finding it hard to catch her breath, don't shy away from filing that capex request with accounts. Smith concludes: "People need to get it into their psyche that an asset no longer last for 100 years. You can't keep something going until the end of a time. There is a point where the best thing to do is get a new one."