his locker to put on his older boots. Aaron was at his locker, and the two chatted for a moment while they got ready. The first thing Bill did was swing by the jobs. This was always a good idea in case a job needed special tools, or maybe the job would not require him to lug his whole toolbox to the jobsite. As he went by the first job, he easily found the deficiency tag matching the tag number on his work order. Bill had the work permit, and there were LOTO cards everywhere, so he knew it was safe to work. The valve was at chest level, so there would be no need for scaffolding or a lift truck. The valve was a 4-inch high-pressure globe valve. Bill decided to look over the other job and then get a valve rebuild kit.
At the demineralizer, the area was also cleared, and Bill had the right work permit. But Bill was uneasy. The deficiency tag was hung near a pipe flange, but Bill wondered if the line was an acid line or just a water line. In either case, Bill knew the operators would have drained the line, but it would not hurt to put on some acid-resistant gear just in case there were drops on anything.
Bill headed to the storeroom for a valve rebuild kit and to the toolroom for some acid gear. There was a line at the storeroom, so Bill changed direction and went toward the toolroom first. On the way, Bill had an idea. He knew Aaron was an experienced mechanic and had worked on the demineralizer many times. Maybe he would know if the flange was on an acid or water line. After asking around, Bill caught up with Aaron at the pump shop. After a few minutes discussing with Aaron, the two men walked over to the demineralizer. Aaron was confident that the line was only for water, and so Bill decided to skip the acid gear. It was now break time, so Aaron and Bill headed for the break room.
After break, Bill got in line at the storeroom. The storeroom happened to have a rebuild kit for the 4-inch valve. Bill took the valve kit and his toolbox up to the mezzanine floor and got to work. This was an interesting type of valve. Bill was hoping that it could be rebuilt in place. After unbolting several screws on the top of the valve, Bill was able to remove the internals but found bad news. Although Bill had the right kit to replace the valve internals, it was obvious that the valve body was shot. The whole valve would have to be replaced. The only problem was that Bill was not a certified welder and this high-pressure valve had welded connections. Bill went straight to his supervisor and explained the situation. The supervisor wanted to complete this job today and called the crew’s certified welder on the radio. The welder could come over in about an hour and start the valve job. The supervisor asked Bill to return the valve kit to the storeroom and check out a replacement valve for the welder. Bill waited again at the storeroom to make the exchange, then took the new valve to where the welder was and explained how far he had gotten along. Then Bill took his toolbox over to the demineralizer to be ready to go after lunch.
After lunch, Bill took the flanged connection apart at the demineralizer. In order to obtain access to the leaking flange, he had to disassemble two other connections as well. All three flanges looked like they had Teflon gaskets, so Bill went to the toolroom for material to cut gaskets. Since he was waiting in line at the toolroom, it was a good time to call the dentist to make an appointment for next month. With the gasket material in hand, Bill went to his workbench and cut three gaskets using one of the old gaskets as a template. Bill realized that with these gaskets, he could finish up this job in no time. He wondered what the next job would be if he went back to his supervisor. It would probably be cleaning under the auxiliary boiler. He hated that job. Why couldn’t he be given a pump job or something important? Well, there was no sense worrying about it. Bill gathered up his gaskets and started toward the job. On the way, he passed Gino, who was cutting out some gaskets at his workbench. After stopping to compare notes for a few minutes, they both noticed it was almost break time, so they decided just to stay in the shop and talk.
After break Bill started reassembling the flanges. Most of the bolts looked in good shape, but a couple looked a little ragged. Bill thought that he had a good handle on completing his assignment, so it would probably be a wise use of time to go to the toolroom and replace those bolts. The toolroom had an open crib for bolts, so he did not have to waste any time in line acquiring new bolts. Soon Bill finished the job, and he wiped down and cleaned up the area. He then reported to his supervisor so the work permit could be signed off and taken to the control room. By then, there was about an hour and a half left in the workday. It was customary that the crew could use the last 20 or 30 minutes of the day filling out time sheets and showering. Therefore, instead of starting a new job, the supervisor decided to have Bill go assist Jan, who was finishing up a job on a control valve. Bill helped Jan complete her job. Then he filled out a time sheet and headed to his car at the end of the day.
On the way out to his car, Bill thought about how you had to keep busy all day long just to finish one or two jobs. It just seemed that something was not right.
Did you see anything that could have been improved? Could these improvements apply to your work? Bill and his crew could have used several of the tools shared at www.maintenanceinsanity.com to have made their day a lot more productive.
So what is wrong with this picture and poor old Bill? To understand why people do not change, we will review some common characteristics that we all have:
Combine the time lost on these scheduled events with all your add-on and emergency work, and it is easy to see that Bill and his team are stuck in the insanity loop. How do we ever keep up? Can we improve? Now review this story one paragraph at a time and identify actions that could have been taken by the assigned P&S role (maintenance coordinator, productivity coordinator, planner, scheduler, team manager, material coordinator, store’s personnel, and mechanic) to improve this typical day. This simple story shows the justification and potential benefits for improving our P&S processes.
Need more to prove to yourself that a change is needed? Answer these questions. How often . . .