September 26, 2005

21st century maintenance

Jeff Owens, president of managed maintenance service provider ATS, tells Martin Ashcroft why training and culture are every bit as important as technology

Do your maintenance people behave as if they are a different breed from everybody else? When you want to change something, move a machine, etc., do they tell you it can't be done? Don't you wish you could outsource maintenance? Well, actually you can, and some of the best manufacturers in the US have done so already.

Analysis of the waste in manufacturing processes often leads to a redesign of factory layout, but if your maintenance people operate in a silo, without a vested interest in the overall performance of the plant, it can be very difficult to get them to join in.

Jeff Owens, president of managed maintenance service provider ATS (Advanced Technology Services Inc.), knows this from his experience with clients. So, has Owens seen a recognizable path in his customers' journeys, and is there a particular point where maintenance has to get on board?

"Say you started on a lean initiative and you found you were having a hard time making it work," he proposes. "Many times that points to maintenance not being connected with the culture of the organization." To put that right in-house, Owens points out, takes much time and energy, which distracts a manufacturer from core business. "So I think that's when maintenance comes on board. If you have any area of your organization that's not cooperative, it makes it pretty difficult to do."

That was the situation at Eaton Hydraulics in Greenwood, SC, before ATS took over maintenance. Within a year, downtime was reduced 36 percent, from 55 to 35 hours a day. Quality improvements reduced scrap by $1000 per working day and productivity increased from 62 percent to 72 percent. Is Eaton a typical customer, I wondered? "Our customers, for the most part, are the larger manufacturers," says Owens. "They're people who spend a lot on their fixed assets and where downtime costs a lot. Eaton, Caterpillar, Honeywell. We really don't go way down the supply chain." Although most customers tend to be the larger, asset heavy manufacturers, however, ATS does have contracts with smaller manufacturers, especially if there is a large client's plant in the area already that they can leverage resources from.

But lean is a common theme. "We have found that our customers are very much into lean," he continues. "We are an enabler of lean. We are a piece of it. At Eaton Hydraulics they are working on many lean initiatives, and because we are partners, we're right in the middle of that. With ISO or QS, an auditor would come in here and when it comes to maintenance, as we are an ISO company ourselves, we commit to our customer to pass all those audits. It's the same way with lean. They have lean initiatives where ATS has to play its part and together we get the desired results. A lot of lean involves machinery and processes and housekeeping. Maintenance is all over that."

Technology is highlighted in the company's name, and there is plenty of it on offer. Data on the health of equipment is gathered in much the same way as a doctor would for a patient. In this case, equipment is the patient and detailed analysis of its vital functions can predict when intervention is required. ATS uses thermal imaging to create a visual picture of temperature, identifying hot spots which are typically associated with high electrical resistance or mechanical friction. Ultrasound measurements are used to find leaks of air, gas, steam or vacuum in processes, and oil analysis can also predict and prevent maintenance problems before they occur. Vibration analysis detects misalignment and bearing defects. Professional maintenance in the 21st century is a highly technical business.

As ATS grows, it is building a strong portfolio of documented returns on investment. But even though the math might add up pretty easily, there's much more to outsourcing than that. "When you go into a brand new opportunity and they don't know you," says Owens, "it's a big decision-a leap of faith." ATS is happy to take prospects to other facilities where it operates, and to introduce them to its clients. A lot of due diligence is done, says Owens, because everyone must be sure that the decision is the right one. "Once you do it, it's hard to go back," he says. "And it's in our best interests, too, because the last thing we want to do is pull the trigger real fast, not have a cultural match and have the thing fail. That's not good for our reputation."

The biggest issues are with the people. ATS takes over the maintenance function lock, stock and barrel, but some of the client's employees have long service records. Understandably, it creates a great deal of uncertainty for them to be told they are no longer going to be an employee of the manufacturer they have worked for for years, but of some new company they've never heard of that's taking over maintenance.

That's why culture is just as important as technology, says Owens. "If our cultures don't match and we don't work well together, it's not going to work. We're a guest in their plant. We've got to be able to match together and have common objectives. We make it very clear to our guys managing these operations that they must understand what the customer is trying to accomplish. We ask them to record every day what the customer's production numbers are and what his goals were-is he ahead or behind? Our guys need to know that. In typical maintenance, they don't care. What we're saying is we're part of your business. We want to help you be successful. If our customers are successful, then we'll be successful. Their initiatives are our initiatives, whether it's lean or six sigma or whatever."

Owens believes that US manufacturing is on the verge of a skills crisis, as experienced workers retire and leave a gaping hole behind them. Determined to avoid this in its organization, ATS recruits high school graduates who first pass a test to determine if they have the aptitude to be a multi-skilled technician. These youngsters then get an 18-month training program including classroom training, lab training and on-the-job training. "By the time they're 25 they are great technicians because they started with us when they were 18," says Owens.

ATS also has a training program for mature employees, to turn them into what Owens calls "multi-crafted technicians-someone who can work on a machine with a fluid power, electrical or mechanical problem. In the past that has not been the case. People stuck pretty close to their trade. We believe that to be competitive in the world you need to have one guy who can troubleshoot."

If they don't have the aptitude for it, however, they won't go through the program, says Owens. "A lot of people take their entire maintenance organization and stick them in training. Half the guys don't want to be there, aren't ready for it, or don't have the aptitude for it. Our policy on that is, if they're a great electrician, let them be an electrician. We need those people. But we want to convert our workforce over time into multi-craft."

"Our culture, I believe, is the biggest differentiator of our company," concludes Owens. "When you compare our culture to typical maintenance there is a big difference. There are maintenance operations out there that are in-house that are fantastic operations and they're not potential customers for us, but there's not too many of them. We're really after the ones that need help."