All Member Open Forum

Hi Team,

I have a question for who has OMC in their hierarchy. What do you think about it? Does it rol bring  value to you? Suggestion?

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Lucas Lima
Maintenance Manager
Oji Fibre Solutions
Hamilton
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We use them in the Data Center Industry. I've been a part of for 7 years. Before 25 years in manufacturing. For Data Centers, they coordinate with vendors and the onsite operations technicians to schedule preventive maintenance. Data Centers don't have a separate operations and maintenance departments. These folks process change management forms to alert our customers that maintenance is being performed. These activities occur for critical equipment (diesel generators, UPSs, batteries, HVAC) and also facilities - roof, elevators, etc. They really don't do planning as most of the maintenance is outsourced, except minor PMs they have the skill set for. Most of them do NOT have a maintenance background - more coordination and most do very well and are very in sync with the site. For manufacturing I could see evaluating the job responsibilities and if you want to offload the scheduling coordination from a highly skilled planner, that would be more efficient.

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Lee McClish
Director, Maintenance and Reliability
NTT Global Data Centers Americas
Ashburn VA
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I think there are exceptions. Depending on your structure, the coordinator has no direct reports?I do not agree with this role. Exceptions include: site is not mature or if the process is complex. Simple stratum theory. Supervisors, planners, schedulers and engineers report to superintendents. Large facilities may have different (several) superintendents.

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Gary Westerdale
Contractor
Archer Daniels Midland
Decatur IL
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I've worked in organizations with the role and without.  I believe the position can add a lot of value if the role is scoped properly. In most cases I think they need some other responsibilities besides just being a coordinator for operations for maintenance execution.  In the progressing world where operators take on more responsibility for maintenance and equipment care there is plenty of tasks for an OMC to be responsible.  

Even if you don't have a position with the title OMC, if maintenance work is to get done and get done well there is a person in the organization that is performing the function whether they have the title or not.

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Randy Riddell, CMRP, PSAP, CLS
Reliability Manager
Essity
Cherokee AL
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I highly recommend the role with the correct responsibilities tied to the role.  The person is the key liaison between operations production scheduling and maintenance scheduling.

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Matthew Meyer
Allied Reliability
Valrico, FL
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At our manufacturing plant, we have a Manufacturing Engineer Manager, a Maintenance Supervisor, myself as a maintenance coordinator, a lead technician (electrician), 2 toolroom assistants, and 3 mechanical technicians. Because our manager has more responsibilities than a typical maintenance manager and our supervisor is very much hands on as a mechanic and electrician, I am tasked with planning, scheduling, coordinating, sourcing, purchasing tools and parts, procuring services, reconciling the books and other administrative duties. I entered this position as entry level almost 4 years ago and I currently handle middle management duties. Whether a coordinator would bring value to you depends on your team structure and the assignment of duties. 

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Antwain Henry
Maintenance Coordinator
Addison-HVAC
Orlando FL
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At my current organization we refer to this role as the gatekeeper. It does play an important part in the maintenance process. The most important  function is to ensure the asset is ready to be worked on by maintenance when they arrive at a scheduled job. Before creating this role we were seeing wasted time when maintenance showed up for work and equipment was not locked out and ready. In addition 

Primary Responsibilities:

Review and approve work notifications ensuring data quality and validity. Are the planners receiving notifications to the wrong equipment or not enough information? 

Prioritize work request and potential emergency work. Are you working on what is priority to safety and operations?

Coordinate with scheduling for operations readiness so equipment is available and locked out when maintenance arrives. 

Manage simple maintenance task performed by operations. Operator maintenance doesn't fit every organization but if it is being done then this role is responsible.

You may be accomplishing these task through other roles and responsibilities in the org structure but if there is a breakdown in any of these processes then there could be benefit of having a single accountable person. 

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Jesse Day
Sr. Reliability Engineer
Wacker Polysilicon
Charleston TN
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