From Chaos to Clockwork. The Drive to Peak. Route 7 Comprehensive assessment

Paul Boughton

You are invited to join Roald Rodseth on the Drive to achieve Peak performance

Having found a way through the sea of detail during Route 6, what matters now is how to develop an asset management program that will ensure that the machines and equipment in question are able to perform to Peak performance levels, for as long as possible and at the lowest possible cost.

Stages on the DRIVE to Peak

The answer lies in what is known as the Stages on the DRIVE to Peak. These stages describe how one can move a plant from a position of chaos to one of clockwork. They represent the fasted way of achieving Peak.

Stages described

The stages are described in the following:  

1. Forming. The first stage is related to the ability of the plant’s machinery to actually make (or form) the product and focuses the attention on the provision of critical spare parts.

2. De-forming. The next stage is related to product quality deviations which are as a result of machines deviating from the required specifications. As a result, the product is deformed, hence the name of the stage. The focus here is on measuring the machines condition with respect to its compliance with the requirements to make the product.

3. Breaking. Having established the ability of the plant to actually make the required product, the next issue becomes facing the reality that the level of breakdowns experienced on the plant is too high. The pressing issue now becomes the reduction of these breakdowns.

4. Improving. Addressing the reduction of breakdowns naturally leads into the establishment of a systematic approach to plant improvement and this is the focus of this stage.

5. Preventing. The next level of sustained performance can only be achieved by a focussed drive to establish a meaningful preventive maintenance program and this is done during this stage.

6. Knowing. At this point in the development of the plant, it is no longer intuitively clear where to focus the attention in order to improve further. The establishment of an effective performance measurement system becomes the focus of this stage.

7. Competing. In order to establish the business as a serious competitor, it will be necessary to move to a new level of sophistication with a focussed drive to become a lean operator.

8. Leading. In order to become a leader in the field, even higher levels of sophistication across the board will have to be achieved. Optimisation for efficiency and effectiveness are hallmarks of this stage.

Safety

Safety is of overriding concern and in reality is Stage 0. Safety issues need to be dealt with before any Stages are considered.

A framework

The Stages on the DRIVE to Peak form a framework for developing the optimum asset management programme for plant, machines and equipment. These are in effect a series of questions that need to be asked and answered for each item in question.  The outcome of this process is a comprehensive assessment of the asset management needs of the machine in question. This is known as the asset management Demand.

The final stage

Next time the final Route will be addressed.

Roald Rodseth is Managing Director, Radiant Operations International (Pty) Ltd in conjunction with DesSoft

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