Continuously evolving maintenance management

Maintenance management is not a trade based skill that is taught in our respective trades. It is a management skill that requires understanding about systems and processes. Most companies and individuals declaring a need to consider a maintenance management system have arrived there because of discontent at their current level of performance. The drivers can be internal, (let’s do a better job of recording what we learn about our plant) customer driven (what happened to my job?), management driven (what jobs are planned?) or demanded by outside regulators (did you do the job?). Professional maintenance management is about so much more than simply scheduling a job, it is about maintaining a continuously evolving work plan, ensuring all the resources are assembled at the right place and the right time, linking in technical, health and safety and financial responsibilities and ensuring institutional experience is gathered and leveraged to improve future performance. The good news is that effective and professional maintenance management is extremely easy and achievable, regardless of the size or budget of your operation. However, the skills, experience and resources required to successfully install a maintenance management system are a lot more than simply installing a computerised system on a PC. Networking with other engineers and the MESNZ provides the opportunity to tap into the previous experience of your peers and shortcut your own solution without repeating the same mistakes. The blurring of traditional trade-based lines is evident with the increasing involvement of electrical-based trade staff and engineers in maintenance management and even our own National Maintenance Engineering Conference. Last year’s conference had a healthy electrical involvement. It makes sense when you think of it; if the plant is down, it’s broken. From the operational point of view, it is broken, not broken electrically, mechanically, hydraulically or other. It is down and our demands on the system, processes and management should be the same regardless of the root cause. Like our sister organization, VANZ, we may have different slants on the detail, but the overall picture is the same – maintenance management with the objective of optimised plant availability at the lowest possible delivered cost. MENZ is holding the 2010 National Maintenance Engineering Conference in November in New Plymouth. Whatever your interest in maintenance management, be it tradesman, engineer, manager, supplier, speaker or expert, mark the date in your diary. The Devon Hotel in New Plymouth is where you can listen to and network with some of the finest and most experienced maintenance management minds New Zealand has to offer. This is not just another conference. Last year year’s attendees told us the event was the best value-for-money inspiration fest they had found! I can relate numerous examples where engineers have used the event to take stock, listen to people who have been in the same positions, network with peers and returned to their sites bristling with inspiration, vision and the tools to change their worlds. If you think you have something to offer, we would love to hear from you as we assemble the event details. Being in the heart of the oil and gas industry, we expect to have a distinct petroleum flavour to the event, but that will not detract from our ethos of holistic line management topics – technical, PM, employment, H&S, team management and energy. The Maintenance Engineering Society of New Zealand (MESNZ) is a non-profit technical group of IPENZ. The society’s aims are to provide resources, mentoring and networking opportunities for maintenance engineers throughout New Zealand. The National Maintenance Engineering Conference is the jewel in the crown of a raft of initiatives delivered by the society as it brings together tradesmen, engineers and managers. More details can be found on the society’s website, www.mesnz.org.nz or email Craig Craig@transform.net.nz

Craig Carlyle