MPI believes that all work crews want a full-day’s work without experiencing frustrating barriers, delays, and work crew redirection. Crews work most safely and productively when they feel confident that they can complete what was assigned the day before and go home feeling satisfied by a sense of purpose and accomplishment. That’s why MPI begins its Maintenance Productivity Improvement programs with a thorough understanding of what’s working well, what’s not, and what’s getting in the way of an efficient workflow and productive workforce. MPI’s approach to establishing a “current state” productivity baseline incorporates a combination of techniques:
- Quantitative Tool Time Studies from real-time work observations in the field to evaluate the effectiveness of established work practices.
- Productivity Barrier Capture from real-time work crew observations to identify and quantify what impedes field crafts’ productivity.
- Day-In-the-Life-Of (DILO) studies of First-Line Supervision to evaluate high- and low-value activities, field presence, problem-solving, decision-making, and barrier elimination skills and behaviors.
- Job Sampling to identify the impact of simple, basic, and complex work used to simplify work screening and enhance efficient workflow.
- Backlog Segmentation & Analysis to identify contributing factors to workflow inefficiencies and productivity by work types, groups, equipment, locations, and work face accessibility.
- Work Order Completion Time – the time it takes to complete a work order from initiation to closure to identify bottlenecks in the maintenance workflow.
- Key Process Indicators to measure the workflow in Work Selection, Planning & Scheduling, and Execution.
- Individual Interviews to verify perceptions with actual field observations.
- Key Interface Meeting Observations between Maintenance, Operations and Engineering to evaluate alignment, understanding, and application of the current state Work Process.
- Standardization and Documentation of the Maintenance Work Process, roles & responsibilities, key Interface Meetings, tools, methods, and metrics across all Business Teams.
- Organizational structure, span-of-control, work schedules, and site geography to evaluate impact upon workflow efficiency and workforce productivity.
- Leadership Vision and Communication for establishing expectations and managing outcomes.
Upon completion of the Assessment, MPI provides a Management Report Out of best practices, prioritized opportunities for improved workflow efficiency and workforce productivity, and an implementation road map with quantified benefits and cost savings projections for achieving recommended productivity improvements. This comprehensive report also provides the baseline current state productivity from which to launch into the next Phase of a Maintenance Productivity Improvement program – the DESIGN of the “desired state” work process.