Today’s Gremlin – “Assumptions” can get a planner or a supervisor into a lot of trouble. You might be very knowledgeable and have great faith in your trades-persons, but assuming they know what you know, can be dangerous. There’s always discussion about “how much detail” to put in a maintenance job plan. It should be safe to assume your trades know how to perform those basic skills that earned them their trade. But it is not safe to assume they are familiar enough with your equipment and operation to use those skills correctly.
Insulting their intelligence?
Today’s Gremlin – “Assumptions” can result from a planner’s worry about insulting the intelligence of his fellow workers. In many cases, the planner is a trades-person with a lot of experience. Planners are familiar with the plant or equipment and the standards that apply there. That planner doesn’t need much detailed instruction. But, he can forget that the other trades, or even apprentices, may need it. Telling a trade-person “lefty-loosie, righty-tightie” is going too far. But, telling them a specific torque value, or the thread spec for a fastener, isn’t. You don’t know that stuff just by looking at something. And, even if you do know it, how do you know it was right the last time the job was done?
Old-school trades used to keep little notebooks in their pockets for standards that were used on the job. Today, that information is largely available in electronic format but not in the field if there’s no network.
Precision requires more than general knowledge
The correct fastener spec, torque values, balancing standards, alignment standards, and lubrication specs can all vary from job to job. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because you took a grade 5 bolt out, that it’s right for the job. What if the last time the job was done, the proper grade 8 bolt wasn’t available and the job was being rushed. A heavy rotor that runs at high speeds needs a higher ISO 21940 balancing G grade. What tells your trades about that? Longer rotors require 2 plane dynamic as opposed to static balancing. Your trades will know what these are, but if you don’t specify it correctly, they may not apply the correct method or standards.
Assumptions can get you into trouble with details. I’ve seen OEMs modify what appear to be standard parts and assemblies from other manufacturers. For example, a large reciprocating double acting gas compressor had a standard crankcase seal that it had modified with a slight taper to allow for thermal expansion. It was no longer standard, but the change wasn’t visible to the eye without calipers. Rushed to repair the compressor, we assumed the standard seal (available locally and far less expensive) was correct. We installed it, and it failed within minutes of startup. After speaking with the manufacturer (overseas) we found out about our error. As the old saying goes, “the devil is in the details.”
Referencing
Maintenance job plans don’t need to be overloaded with details. It is fine to make reference to standards and specifications. If you do that, make sure they can be found easily. Clickable links are great if you have networks. And don’t just send them to a whole standard! For instance, referring your trades to ANSI/ASA S2.75-2017: Shaft Alignment Methodology, Parts 1 and 2 will almost certainly be ignored – it’s a lot of plough through when you are in the middle of doing the job. Better to send them directly to the information they need for that specific job.
Are planners really that thorough?
Unfortunately most are not. Many planners provide only minimal instructions and assume far too much about the knowledge the trades person will have. They tend to assume the level of knowledge of the best, even though they have no idea who will actually do the job.
Getting it right takes effort
All that detail and referencing requires time and patience. A good planner who isn’t being interrupted and a decent knowledge of multiple trades can do it. But most planners are very rushed and are being interrupted frequently. They are relied upon to make up for just about every missing part and solutions to field problems that arise. Planners usually work in far less than the ideal circumstances. It should be no surprise that they often fall short of expectations and eventually end up becoming little more than parts’ chasers.
They need a smarter way to work
We now have Generative Artificial Intelligence, GenAI to help us. It generates content based on what we ask it for. You can ask it for a training lesson on doing the Tango, or anything else you can dream up. I’ve asked for maintenance job plans for specific jobs. The result was quick, thorough, and surprisingly accurate. The more detailed my questions (prompt), the better the plan. In fact those plans didn’t miss the details that are often assumed to be known. Putting it into a work order would have been tedious, but I’d say the quality was far better than the plans I’ve seen produced by most planners, regardless of industry.
Based on that discovery, a few of us created a tool for boosting planner productivity – both accuracy and speed. We call it AIJobPlanner. It’s a software tool that asks for specific maintenance job related inputs, and then calls upon your own input documentation (e.g.: tech manuals) and what it can find on the internet. The tool creates a job plan to do what you asked, and sends its output to you in a format you can easily use with a work order (e.g.: PDF, or export to files that can be imported to your CMMS/EAM).
Output
You will be astounded by its speed and accuracy – easily better than what most planners produce today. And why not? It has that one job and no one asking it to go find a part or hire a contractor. A good planner who has the luxury of being able to focus on planning, will produce 5 to 8 plans in a good week. AiJobPlanner gives us high quality draft plans in just a few minutes. If you add on another 30 minutes or so to check it for accuracy, provide it with your storeroom’s part numbers and do a quick check on the steps it has outlined, you’ll be producing more than 40 in a week!
This new tool can be a game changer in your operations and we made it inexpensive so it is available to even smaller organizations with limited budgets and higher pressure to reduce downtime.
Training
Training is #1 on my list for planners. After that, since we like to keep them so busy and non-productive actually planning, we can give them a tool that speeds up the generation of draft plans. AIJobPlanner is one such tool aided by Generative Artificial Intelligence. There are training videos for how to use it here.
