During my first days at the Plastics factory in PNG, I was introduced to some not very happy electricians and fitters. I easily saw that there is a problem in the work place. One of my first jobs was to know the people I will handle and how to motivate them.<>While James, a fitter, was working, I approached him and ask how things are going? He honestly answered that production is blaming them for the machine breakdowns....always. This is almost the same answer I had from most of my other fitters, electricians and so is with my superintendent. For years, they have been accepting blames given to them. I had a rule given to them which is the “no blaming” rule. I told them that if any blame is handed out to them and/or if they make mistakes as well, as their superior, all they have to do is tell me and I will handle them.
Checking at the history, there has been no regular maintenance for machines. There are policies but are not implemented. So, when the next problems occurred, I would always be there at once to help them solve the trouble or machine problem. After some occurrence, I saw that the problem is usually on the operations side. Set up is the usual cause then as I and all personnel present has been witnessing then. The other department never heard any criticisms from me whenever we prove that it is their fault. Operators are in doubt of giving us information on what happened before the machine breakdown because they themselves are afraid to be blamed also. I then told them that we need to work hand in hand to finish issues and stop looking who’s to be charged.
I requested that all causes should be written down and be more specific. They have it already in the system but were not implemented, so they did. After some time, the data would rarely say that the machine problem is due to lack of maintenance, especially when we have already stabilized the preventive maintenance system. Problem still occurs once in a while and I would tell my men to just work on it and look for the root cause so we can prevent them from happening again. With that operators co-operated well as they no there will be no one to be blamed and we will just sort the problem out.
My men felt relieved with this and worked happily since then. My superintendent was very happy also as his chronic headache was gone when the issue was resolved. Case closed.
Checking at the history, there has been no regular maintenance for machines. There are policies but are not implemented. So, when the next problems occurred, I would always be there at once to help them solve the trouble or machine problem. After some occurrence, I saw that the problem is usually on the operations side. Set up is the usual cause then as I and all personnel present has been witnessing then. The other department never heard any criticisms from me whenever we prove that it is their fault. Operators are in doubt of giving us information on what happened before the machine breakdown because they themselves are afraid to be blamed also. I then told them that we need to work hand in hand to finish issues and stop looking who’s to be charged.
I requested that all causes should be written down and be more specific. They have it already in the system but were not implemented, so they did. After some time, the data would rarely say that the machine problem is due to lack of maintenance, especially when we have already stabilized the preventive maintenance system. Problem still occurs once in a while and I would tell my men to just work on it and look for the root cause so we can prevent them from happening again. With that operators co-operated well as they no there will be no one to be blamed and we will just sort the problem out.
My men felt relieved with this and worked happily since then. My superintendent was very happy also as his chronic headache was gone when the issue was resolved. Case closed.
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Very good and informative action. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteSherin