All Member Open Forum

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey. 

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Hi Marc,
This is a challenging topic.  My experience says to write the technical details to the lowest skill level that will be doing the work.  That being said, the information contained within the document is more focused on the what, and not the how.  In Canada, we have red-seal tradesman, so we know they have the knowledge of how to do a task, but the procedures should call out to what specification.    I presented on this topic last year at Reliable Plant and have included the presentation and paper.  Let me know if you need any additional information

------------------------------
James Kovacevic CMRP, CAMA, MMP
Eruditio
http://www.HPReliability.com
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Thanks for sharing these!!!

------------------------------
Amanda Moore
Maintenance Leader
Owens Corning
Medina OH
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 08:17 AM
From: James Kovacevic
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi Marc,
This is a challenging topic.  My experience says to write the technical details to the lowest skill level that will be doing the work.  That being said, the information contained within the document is more focused on the what, and not the how.  In Canada, we have red-seal tradesman, so we know they have the knowledge of how to do a task, but the procedures should call out to what specification.    I presented on this topic last year at Reliable Plant and have included the presentation and paper.  Let me know if you need any additional information

------------------------------
James Kovacevic CMRP, CAMA, MMP
Eruditio
http://www.HPReliability.com

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Hello Marc,

I used to be a maintenance tech in the U.S. Coast Guard and during my career saw the transition from using generic "Inspect the Pump" PMs to a little more detailed PM procedures where it told you what to look for "Inspect packing for leaks, if more than one drip a minute tighten packing". Current USCG and other organizations now have maintenance procedures (PM's) that include all required PPE, lockout/tagout instructions, tool and chemical lists and detailed step by step instructions with photos & illustrations. I've developed these procedures and they take time to develop but in my opinion are worth the effort for critical assets. But be realistic do we need a 2 page PM, or really any PM for the light switch in our office?

If you have the critical assets identified I'd start there, using the results of your RCM, FMEA take one recommended task and get your technicians to develop the procedure, identify what tools are required, what barriers they may have encountered in performing maintenance in the past.  Get the planners involved in identifying the parts and consumables that will be required, and have the scheduler work with the team to come up with a reasonable time that a technician of the appropriate level can complete the task.  Then once you and the team think you have a good task use it and modify it using your continuous improvement process.  Once you have a standard for an asset you can share it with other sites for them to tune for their operating context or site peculiarities.
I've found a format similar to the IDCON template can work well, other similar formats are out there, pictures and detailed steps to the appropriate level are key. https://simplebooklet.com/cmsvolume1#page=6

I've found managing the level of detail can be a challenge, as a technician I prefer good instructions but I've seen some that insult what I believe is my skill level. 
Contact me if you'd like to discuss

------------------------------
Hank Kocevar,CMRP
Consultant
Guardian Technical Services
hkocevar@guardiantech.org
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Hi Marc,

I echo what Hank said, but would add that getting a copy of Doc Palmer's book on Planning and Scheduling is a must. I'm only partway through it, but I get the sense, like Hank indicated, you need to balance providing sufficient information with leveraging the knowledge of your technicians, and that in many instances, less detail - with the exception of specified tolerances - is better. His book also provides appendices that provide templates and practical examples.

------------------------------
John Helwig
Asset Management Consultant
CDM Smith
Kensington MD
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-08-2019 08:05 AM
From: Henry Kocevar
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hello Marc,

I used to be a maintenance tech in the U.S. Coast Guard and during my career saw the transition from using generic "Inspect the Pump" PMs to a little more detailed PM procedures where it told you what to look for "Inspect packing for leaks, if more than one drip a minute tighten packing". Current USCG and other organizations now have maintenance procedures (PM's) that include all required PPE, lockout/tagout instructions, tool and chemical lists and detailed step by step instructions with photos & illustrations. I've developed these procedures and they take time to develop but in my opinion are worth the effort for critical assets. But be realistic do we need a 2 page PM, or really any PM for the light switch in our office?

If you have the critical assets identified I'd start there, using the results of your RCM, FMEA take one recommended task and get your technicians to develop the procedure, identify what tools are required, what barriers they may have encountered in performing maintenance in the past.  Get the planners involved in identifying the parts and consumables that will be required, and have the scheduler work with the team to come up with a reasonable time that a technician of the appropriate level can complete the task.  Then once you and the team think you have a good task use it and modify it using your continuous improvement process.  Once you have a standard for an asset you can share it with other sites for them to tune for their operating context or site peculiarities.
I've found a format similar to the IDCON template can work well, other similar formats are out there, pictures and detailed steps to the appropriate level are key. https://simplebooklet.com/cmsvolume1#page=6

I've found managing the level of detail can be a challenge, as a technician I prefer good instructions but I've seen some that insult what I believe is my skill level.
Contact me if you'd like to discuss

------------------------------
Hank Kocevar,CMRP
Consultant
Guardian Technical Services
hkocevar@guardiantech.org

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

​Marc,

You could refer to the following 02 Sources of Information:

"CCPS-Guidelines for Asset Integrity Management" that has a Chapter on "Asset Integrity Procedures" (including Format and Content). You could refer to the same.

Also came across another book by CCPS, "Guidelines for Writing Effective Operating and Maintenance Procedures". Though I haven't referred that in my experience, believe would be of some help.
Guidelines for Writing Effective Operating and Maintenance Procedures

Hope this helps.

Thanks


------------------------------
Sundar Naranammalpuram P.
Navi Mumbai
Maharashtra
India
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Reliabilityweb.com has a book titled "Secrets of Success with Procedures" which not only has some excellent examples of procedures from different venues along with definitions of all common entries, but provides details of how to manage them through their lifecycles. It covers traditional paper-based procedures through to Internet of Things-based approaches.

------------------------------
Jack Nicholas P.E. CMRP, CRL, IAMC
Author and Former CMRP Exam Director
Jack R Nicholas, Jr.
Gettysburg PA USA
jdnicholas@supernet.com
JackNicholasJack R. Nicholas, Jr.Sole Proprietorjdnicholas@supernet.com(717) 338-9166
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2019 05:28 AM
From: Sundar Naranammalpuram
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

​Marc,

You could refer to the following 02 Sources of Information:

"CCPS-Guidelines for Asset Integrity Management" that has a Chapter on "Asset Integrity Procedures" (including Format and Content). You could refer to the same.

Also came across another book by CCPS, "Guidelines for Writing Effective Operating and Maintenance Procedures". Though I haven't referred that in my experience, believe would be of some help.
Guidelines for Writing Effective Operating and Maintenance Procedures

Hope this helps.

Thanks


------------------------------
Sundar Naranammalpuram P.
Navi Mumbai
Maharashtra
India

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Marc,
You sound as though you have a fair grasp of the principles. I would suggest that leveraging the entirety organization is an opportunity industry cannot afford to miss. The traditional PM and PdM tasking can be complimented by the intimacy operators have with equipment. Properly trained in TPM they provide critical observations to the incipient level failures. Tailoring cleaning and inspection tasks is not something to be glazed over, it takes a significant effort. 
The other element I have as a pet peeve is the concept some have of ignoring what history has to offer. While the best of practices would suggest we have installed an asset consistent with the manufacturers instructions, invariably environmental or operational circumstances have the asset operation outside of an ideal window. Additionally subtle influences such as seasonal variations, utility fluctuations, etc, impact asset PM requirements. The references and suggestions offered by our colleagues is invaluable, consider it all. Additionally use every resource and bits of tribal knowledge available, most importantly, document the heck out of everything because in a year or two you'll be looking to improve a little more. Good luck, remember excellence is a journey, not a destination.

------------------------------
Wilfred Venet
Reliability Engineer
BorgWarner
Seneca SC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Hi Marc,
You are not unique in trying to address the opportunities around building an effective PM program. I can say that I have a very effective strategy on how this can be done. Working with a client in Wisconsin in 2018, we started in January with a clean sheet of paper and covered the entire facility, a very large pulp and paper mill, in 24 weeks of work. This included all Operator Basic Care tasks, Lubrication tasks, Mechanical Maintenance tasks, Electrical Maintenance tasks and Contractor tasks. These task were both those that can be executed "on-the-run" and those where the equipment or component must be isolated. But the most important part of this is that I used the experienced employees inside the plant to participate in the process. So it is actually their program and they are helping to implement it.
I have used this same process on very simple machines and components all the way up to a 40,000 HP Rolls-Royce Jet-turbine. If you would be interested in knowing more about this, I have written a white paper on the process. I can provide you with a copy by simply replying and making the request.

------------------------------
Terry Taylor
Senior Consultant
IDCON INC
Raleigh NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Terry, we are in the process of rewriting our PM's. Our old PM's were all generic; however, this time we are using experienced in-house employees to participate in the rewrite program. I would like a copy of your white paper, if this is not a problem for you.

Mike Walker
PdM/Performance Engineer
NAES - Sandy Creek Energy Station
Riesel, TX.
mike.walker@sandycreekpower.net

------------------------------
Michael Walker
PdM/Performance Engineer
Riesel TX
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2019 01:27 PM
From: Terry Taylor
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi Marc,
You are not unique in trying to address the opportunities around building an effective PM program. I can say that I have a very effective strategy on how this can be done. Working with a client in Wisconsin in 2018, we started in January with a clean sheet of paper and covered the entire facility, a very large pulp and paper mill, in 24 weeks of work. This included all Operator Basic Care tasks, Lubrication tasks, Mechanical Maintenance tasks, Electrical Maintenance tasks and Contractor tasks. These task were both those that can be executed "on-the-run" and those where the equipment or component must be isolated. But the most important part of this is that I used the experienced employees inside the plant to participate in the process. So it is actually their program and they are helping to implement it.
I have used this same process on very simple machines and components all the way up to a 40,000 HP Rolls-Royce Jet-turbine. If you would be interested in knowing more about this, I have written a white paper on the process. I can provide you with a copy by simply replying and making the request.

------------------------------
Terry Taylor
Senior Consultant
IDCON INC
Raleigh NC

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Terry,

Can you send me a copy of the white you have produced. 

I am always looking for ways to improve our processes.

Thanks

Darrell Pearse MMP
dkpearse@gmail.com

------------------------------
Darrell Pearse MMP
Maintenance Planner
Vitrum Glass
Surrey BC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2019 01:27 PM
From: Terry Taylor PE CMRP
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi Marc,
You are not unique in trying to address the opportunities around building an effective PM program. I can say that I have a very effective strategy on how this can be done. Working with a client in Wisconsin in 2018, we started in January with a clean sheet of paper and covered the entire facility, a very large pulp and paper mill, in 24 weeks of work. This included all Operator Basic Care tasks, Lubrication tasks, Mechanical Maintenance tasks, Electrical Maintenance tasks and Contractor tasks. These task were both those that can be executed "on-the-run" and those where the equipment or component must be isolated. But the most important part of this is that I used the experienced employees inside the plant to participate in the process. So it is actually their program and they are helping to implement it.
I have used this same process on very simple machines and components all the way up to a 40,000 HP Rolls-Royce Jet-turbine. If you would be interested in knowing more about this, I have written a white paper on the process. I can provide you with a copy by simply replying and making the request.

------------------------------
Terry Taylor
Senior Consultant
IDCON INC
Raleigh NC

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Feel free to add to the following statement.

I feel as if we are all thinking along the lines of leveraging our sites' internal expertise before they retire, combined with the use of a simple standard language that focuses on what to be completed and at what specification rather than how to do it for most cases. We also have the opportunity to document the how, but perhaps we are better off not handing it out to the tradesmen unless they asks for information or support.

I am thankful for your input on the subject and the documents you have shared with me in the pas couple days. Feel free to add to the discussion if you ever have any other information! They have all been valuable!

Have a good day all!


------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Definitely recommend Jack Nicholas stuff on procedures writing, especially for PMs. Doc Palmer

------------------------------
Doc Palmer - Author McGraw-Hill Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook
Managing Partner
Richard Palmer And Associates
Ellijay GA
904-228-5700
docpalmer@palmerplanning.com
www.palmerplanning.com
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-10-2019 08:16 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Feel free to add to the following statement.

I feel as if we are all thinking along the lines of leveraging our sites' internal expertise before they retire, combined with the use of a simple standard language that focuses on what to be completed and at what specification rather than how to do it for most cases. We also have the opportunity to document the how, but perhaps we are better off not handing it out to the tradesmen unless they asks for information or support.

I am thankful for your input on the subject and the documents you have shared with me in the pas couple days. Feel free to add to the discussion if you ever have any other information! They have all been valuable!

Have a good day all!


------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Hi Marc,

I've been developing PMs for many years now, and two things have been essential for me: on one hand it has to be quick to build, easy to manage and convenient to deploy, but on the other hand, it has to produce high quality documents with detailed tasks and maps.
AMSYST has been working very hard to achieve just that. Our product is new but has been getting great feedback from early adopters.
Have a look at amsyst.com and you'll see how you can develop, document and manage your PMs in one solid process. I think you'll like how easy it makes sharing strategies between sites and the precision of tasks in the PM document.

Best regards,

------------------------------
Julien Maffre
Founder & Owner
AMSYST
Rognes
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Marc, 

I recommend you obtain my book "Secrets of Success with Procedures" from Reliabilityweb.com/MRObookstore. It provides proven PM formats, explanation of content and actual examples of procedures. It supplements and does not conflict with offerings like the one from AMSYST.


------------------------------
Jack Nicholas P.E. CMRP, CRL, IAMC
Author , Keynote Speaker and Former CMRP Exam Director
DBA Jack R Nicholas, Jr.
Gettysburg PA USA
jdnicholas@supernet.com
717-338-9166 (Home/Office/Recorder)
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2020 03:02 AM
From: Julien Maffre
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi Marc,

I've been developing PMs for many years now, and two things have been essential for me: on one hand it has to be quick to build, easy to manage and convenient to deploy, but on the other hand, it has to produce high quality documents with detailed tasks and maps.
AMSYST has been working very hard to achieve just that. Our product is new but has been getting great feedback from early adopters.
Have a look at amsyst.com and you'll see how you can develop, document and manage your PMs in one solid process. I think you'll like how easy it makes sharing strategies between sites and the precision of tasks in the PM document.

Best regards,

------------------------------
Julien Maffre
Founder & Owner
AMSYST
Rognes

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Jack,

I watched your RAP video from the Reliability Conference and you mention that you have a P4 software that you recommend.  Would you share that with me privately please?  I have 12 planners and I'm about to embark on a major PM Optimization initiative and I'd love to start out with the right tools.  

Thanks!!

------------------------------
Angela Wall
Senior Manager Engineering & Maintenance Operations
Butterball LLC
Mount Olive NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2020 02:22 PM
From: Jack Nicholas
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Marc,

I recommend you obtain my book "Secrets of Success with Procedures" from Reliabilityweb.com/MRObookstore. It provides proven PM formats, explanation of content and actual examples of procedures. It supplements and does not conflict with offerings like the one from AMSYST.


------------------------------
Jack Nicholas P.E. CMRP, CRL, IAMC
Author , Keynote Speaker and Former CMRP Exam Director
DBA Jack R Nicholas, Jr.
Gettysburg PA USA
jdnicholas@supernet.com
717-338-9166 (Home/Office/Recorder)

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2020 03:02 AM
From: Julien Maffre
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi Marc,

I've been developing PMs for many years now, and two things have been essential for me: on one hand it has to be quick to build, easy to manage and convenient to deploy, but on the other hand, it has to produce high quality documents with detailed tasks and maps.
AMSYST has been working very hard to achieve just that. Our product is new but has been getting great feedback from early adopters.
Have a look at amsyst.com and you'll see how you can develop, document and manage your PMs in one solid process. I think you'll like how easy it makes sharing strategies between sites and the precision of tasks in the PM document.

Best regards,

------------------------------
Julien Maffre
Founder & Owner
AMSYST
Rognes

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Julien, I agree on your points.   The PM procedures/plans I have seen work had those ingredients and those that didn't often did not.

Bad procedures are those too generic - "check or inspect" but don't give any detail.  Those with too much in the procedure are overwhelming and not executed due to complexity.  The PM procedure should not be a training document.  Must assume that skilled and trained crafts people are executing the task.  That should be handled outside of PMs.

Narrow down your PM tasks to critical actions with measured detail (measure gap or dimension X compared to the standard).  I usually try to narrow down my PM worksheets I call them to 1-2 pages of measurables that I want them to document.  Simple with pictures and spaces to fill in information.

Another downfall I've seen in PMs is many times there is no differentiation in down PMs vs on the run PMs or they are mixed on the same document.  Really confusing to crafts people which leads to pencil whipping and a bad culture trained by bad PMs.

------------------------------
Randy Riddell, CMRP, PSAP, CLS
Reliability Manager
Essity
Cherokee AL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2020 03:02 AM
From: Julien Maffre
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi Marc,

I've been developing PMs for many years now, and two things have been essential for me: on one hand it has to be quick to build, easy to manage and convenient to deploy, but on the other hand, it has to produce high quality documents with detailed tasks and maps.
AMSYST has been working very hard to achieve just that. Our product is new but has been getting great feedback from early adopters.
Have a look at amsyst.com and you'll see how you can develop, document and manage your PMs in one solid process. I think you'll like how easy it makes sharing strategies between sites and the precision of tasks in the PM document.

Best regards,

------------------------------
Julien Maffre
Founder & Owner
AMSYST
Rognes

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Randy, you make a great point.  One of our customers generates 2 separate documents, Procedure and Inspection and Test Plan (ITP) from our procedure writing application.  This is of course for large and complex turnaround jobs likely to be performed by multiple crews.  This allows for both a comprehensive procedure and a simple check off form. 



------------------------------
Peter Morris
Managing Director
MCSPRO
Heber City UT
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-19-2020 04:41 PM
From: Randy Riddell
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Julien, I agree on your points.   The PM procedures/plans I have seen work had those ingredients and those that didn't often did not.

Bad procedures are those too generic - "check or inspect" but don't give any detail.  Those with too much in the procedure are overwhelming and not executed due to complexity.  The PM procedure should not be a training document.  Must assume that skilled and trained crafts people are executing the task.  That should be handled outside of PMs.

Narrow down your PM tasks to critical actions with measured detail (measure gap or dimension X compared to the standard).  I usually try to narrow down my PM worksheets I call them to 1-2 pages of measurables that I want them to document.  Simple with pictures and spaces to fill in information.

Another downfall I've seen in PMs is many times there is no differentiation in down PMs vs on the run PMs or they are mixed on the same document.  Really confusing to crafts people which leads to pencil whipping and a bad culture trained by bad PMs.

------------------------------
Randy Riddell, CMRP, PSAP, CLS
Reliability Manager
Essity
Cherokee AL

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2020 03:02 AM
From: Julien Maffre
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi Marc,

I've been developing PMs for many years now, and two things have been essential for me: on one hand it has to be quick to build, easy to manage and convenient to deploy, but on the other hand, it has to produce high quality documents with detailed tasks and maps.
AMSYST has been working very hard to achieve just that. Our product is new but has been getting great feedback from early adopters.
Have a look at amsyst.com and you'll see how you can develop, document and manage your PMs in one solid process. I think you'll like how easy it makes sharing strategies between sites and the precision of tasks in the PM document.

Best regards,

------------------------------
Julien Maffre
Founder & Owner
AMSYST
Rognes

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Marc,

The article at https://www.assetivity.com.au/article/maintenance-management/writing-a-good-work-instruction.html may help.  I think it incorporates most of the suggestions so far.  I totally agree that work instructions should not be training documents, and should be written with the audience (and their pre-existing knowledge) in mind, otherwise they will be ignored.  

Try to focus on those elements that are essential for high quality and safe execution of the task (high risk elements in other words) and that are likely to be forgotten (e.g. a critical sequence, or a vital clearance measurement etc.)

Best of luck

Regards...

------------------------------
Sandy Dunn
Managing Director
Assetivity
Australia
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Over the last couple of years, my company went through this process as well. We started with FMEA analyses, compared this to current PMs, then optimized PMs. We found some that were repeats or crossovers or didn't address some failure modes; so, we took the time to eliminate unneeded PMs, combine PMs, and create new PMs. The next step was to standardize the format, i.e. PM purpose first, tools needed, special tools needed, action items were in all caps, etc. We tried to make statements clear, concise and to the point; however, there was an expected "knowledge of craft" that was assumed as stated by individuals earlier. We did have to include maintenance technicians in this process to ensure we did not add instructions below this knowledge/skill level. However, we did try to include those quirky anomalies that do apply to some pieces of equipment that the soon-to-retire would know about but may not be common knowledge. That is why including these individuals is very important to this process. They will be the individuals carrying out these instructions and it is very important that it makes sense to them. It is recommended that you have a feedback mechanism in place to make corrections to mistakes found and those need to be addressed in a timely manner or technicians will stop giving it and work around those mistakes or ignore instructions all together.

------------------------------
Robert Winters
Sr. Predictive Maintenance Engineer
Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc
New Madrid MO
(573) 643-6203
rwinters@aeci.org
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Marc, 

I agree totally with all that Robert Winters wrote.

For more details on procedures, policy, plans related processes including feedback and follow-up see my book  "Secrets of Success with Procedures" sold by Reliabilityweb.com MRO-Zone Bookstore.


------------------------------
Jack Nicholas P.E. CMRP, CRL, IAMC
Author , Keynote Speaker and Former CMRP Exam Director
DBA Jack R Nicholas, Jr.
Gettysburg PA USA 17325
jdnicholas@supernet.com
717-338-9166 (Home/Office/Recorder)
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-17-2020 11:30 AM
From: Robert Winters
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Over the last couple of years, my company went through this process as well. We started with FMEA analyses, compared this to current PMs, then optimized PMs. We found some that were repeats or crossovers or didn't address some failure modes; so, we took the time to eliminate unneeded PMs, combine PMs, and create new PMs. The next step was to standardize the format, i.e. PM purpose first, tools needed, special tools needed, action items were in all caps, etc. We tried to make statements clear, concise and to the point; however, there was an expected "knowledge of craft" that was assumed as stated by individuals earlier. We did have to include maintenance technicians in this process to ensure we did not add instructions below this knowledge/skill level. However, we did try to include those quirky anomalies that do apply to some pieces of equipment that the soon-to-retire would know about but may not be common knowledge. That is why including these individuals is very important to this process. They will be the individuals carrying out these instructions and it is very important that it makes sense to them. It is recommended that you have a feedback mechanism in place to make corrections to mistakes found and those need to be addressed in a timely manner or technicians will stop giving it and work around those mistakes or ignore instructions all together.

------------------------------
Robert Winters
Sr. Predictive Maintenance Engineer
Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc
New Madrid MO
(573) 643-6203
rwinters@aeci.org

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Marc,

In situations when the FMEA's have been done in the past and current PM's are already in place, but are not efficient or effective, I have found success by holding multi-day focused improvement / kaizen events.

In these events, operators, mechanics and engineers. We review current PM's, the previous 6 months of work orders, and the parts usage. We spend time going through removing the "pencil whip" items and adding items associated with frequent failures or frequent parts usage.

While reviewing each task, we determine, what the lowest skill level is required to complete that task as well as a ball-park amount of time required for each task. For example, on the flux capacitor, the operators can clean and inspect for leaks, as well as replace suction cups, this task should take 30 minutes. Meanwhile, supplying the 1.21 gigawatts must be completed by a mechanic and will take approximately 45 minutes.

After determining who can do what, how long it should take, we organize the tasks in the order that seems to be the most efficient. We do keep in mind that during PM's mechanics or engineers also typically spend X amount of time completing work that was identified and planned since the last PM so we include time for that special project work.

From there as the PM's come up, we follow / track them to see how things really work. Then we set up another meeting for a few hours to re-evaluate and adjust the plan for the next PM. Repeat and tweak until the team is confident that the PM's are good to go.

I am not sure if this will help much in your current situation, but figured I would share,

Robert

​

------------------------------
Robert Zipf
Black Belt, MBA
Hollister Inc
Fishersville VA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

Hello Marc,

There is a video and 10-Page implementation guide for PM's here:  https://mailchi.mp/idcon/preventive-maintenance  It's free.  It aligns with Terry Taylor post.  Terry explains the documentation steps in some detail in his paper, while this video and PDF have some pointers for documentation, but also the full PM implementation.  Hope this helpw.

------------------------------
Torbjorn Idhammar
President & CEO
IDCON, Inc.
http://www.idcon.com
Raleigh NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

First thing, stop writing work procedures in MS Word! It's time consuming, the source document often gets lost and changes to entire document libraries require opening and editing hundreds or thousands of documents.  There is no easy way to keep your CMMS up to date with the latest version of the document, in fact the better job you've done in creating comprehensive work procedures, the more work you have keeping them up to date.

You should check out this application specifically written for creating maintenance work procedures.  The product is called Rift Create.  You can get some more information here.  Riftsoft - Create

Riftsoft		remove preview
Riftsoft - Create All Riftsoft solutions are cloud delivered, RIFT Create being no exception. It can be accessed from any web browser on any device with absolutely nothing to install. By using our cloud infrastructure, you don't have to spend huge amounts of money on purchasing and maintaining equipment. View this on Riftsoft >

Features include:  

• Affordable Software as a Service licensing, nothing to buy, nothing to install.
• Easy to use web interface
• Easy to edit templates to customize your output
• PDF output documents
• Bulk changes and creation of output
• image library to allow use of pictures and diagrams in procedures
• inbuilt approvals process
• Linked to CMMS with version control.

------------------------------
Peter Morris
Managing Director
MCSPRO
Heber City UT
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------

However well the procedures are written, it's important that they are dynamic; new things are learned, and equipment or conditions changes, happen.
Having a supervisor or planner routinely take a few minutes to review the PM with the technician afterwards helps capture these, as well encouraging techs to make notes of their findings. Not an interrogation, simply a review discussion.
This also helps reinforce the importance of PM inspection work, which is often a struggle. Repair work always has visibility, but inspection work not so much.

------------------------------
John Crossan
Manufacturing Maintenance Consultant
John Crossan Consulting
Downers Grove IL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2019 07:42 AM
From: Marc Steeves
Subject: Writing PM tasks - Best Practices

Hi,

I am a new member of SMRP and fairly new at the maintenance game (5 years). I love working with our people to integrate the old with the new and I am looking forward to my CMRP exam in February!

We are investing major efforts towards changing our maintenance culture and part of my role in our business is to support our sites with documents, procedures, coaching or resources they need to support their site's maintenance culture change. Working with multiple sites, it is a nice challenge to tailor our information so that it applies to most, even if they are all at different points in their journey.

One part we believe we haven't been able to transfer or document for our organisation is writing efficient PM tasks. Not only do we want to move away from the generic "check bearing" task to a more specific type of task as our succession plan shows massive amounts of experience will be retiring in the upcoming years, but we want to instruct our teams on why and how.

I understand that these must be tailored to the industry of the business due to cash flow, but I am looking best practices around writing PM task that could help us support our sites. Because we have a descent grasp on the process of equipment criticality, RCM and FMEA, I am looking for the details such as PM formats, amount of information in PMs tasks, which task should be preferred, etc. that we could use to create our own best practice guide. I have been looking online and reading books and articles with limited success in this area. What have you folks seen or used that worked well? What should we stay away from?

Thank you very much.

------------------------------
Marc Steeves P. Eng.
Maintenance Advisor
New-Brunswick, Canada
------------------------------