Presentations & Papers

As part of our mission on bringing profitability to manufacturers, ensuring jobs and prosperous communities.  All of our presentations and papers presented at conferences will be made available to you.  These are additional resources which you can use to improve the profitability your organization.

For those that had the opportunity to see these in person, thank you for attending.

Gate Keeping the Storeroom – The Key to Sustainable Materials Management

Sustainable storerooms and spare parts programs require the right management and governance to be successful. Without this governance, the storeroom inventory continues to grow and leads to an abundance of spares that will end up being obsolete. In addition, the excessive inventory causes the business to tie up cash, which it could be using elsewhere.

The principle way to govern a number of spares in the storeroom is to implement a policy and procedure in which all new parts requests are evaluated, prioritized and ultimately accepted or rejected for stocking in the storeroom. This management practice can yield significant improvements for not only the maintenance department but also the business.

In order to make this process work, the business needs to establish criteria in which spare parts are evaluated and decisions made. These criteria can be a source of fear for many in the maintenance department and storeroom as it could lead to stock outs. These criteria need to be based on the individual business performance and needs. The end result of implementing a process such as this is a storeroom which improves the performance of not only the maintenance department but the business as well.

The 5 Levels of Maintenance Scheduling

Scheduling ensures the right maintenance is executed at the right time. But many organizations fail to schedule work that improves plant performance. Instead, the work is scheduled to last minute and is often not the most important work, but the work of the person yelling the loudest.

In order to effectively schedule maintenance work, there needs to be a systematic approach which not only takes into account the needs of the maintenance department but that of the business. This fully integrated schedule ensures the planned downtime is reduced while maximizing the amount of work which can be completed.

The 5 levels of scheduling enable the full integration of operations and maintenance schedules. Scheduling starts at the 52-week level and cascades into the 16-week, 4-week, 1-week and finally the daily scheduling. The scheduling process depends heavily upon a rigorous prioritization process. The prioritization criteria must be fully aligned with the business risks and agreed upon by the leadership team.

The benefits to the business of proper scheduling are many and include, reduced planned downtime, reduced overtime, and reduced unplanned downtime.