Reliability Road Map - Taking  Diesel Shed to next level of reliability:

A model Road Map to propel Diesel Sheds to next level of Maintenance Reliability is outlined below.

1. Belief and Visualisation: Shed in-charges must have innate faith on themselves & their team for bringing turn around. The task of changing Diesel Shed may seem overwhelming if not impossible, but this requires strong visualization of end result by every member.

Gain Team support: Without work team support, even best efforts will never be effective and are doomed to fail. People are more supportive of change when they have a role in deciding and designing that change. To gain support, team members must be involved in the development of the vision and action plan, as this will promote ownership and sharing of common vision.

2. A Challenging Journey: Before we embark on this journey, it must be understood that had change been easy, every Diesel Shed would have been automatically at optimal state of reliability level, but that is not the case and this calls for concerted effort to chart a reliability roadmap and pursue the same relentlessly.

3. Current Status Mapping and Reality Checking: Each section must record reliability indices like line failures, shed detections, cases of out of course repairs, service life of component obtained, productivity per person and other KPIs (key performance indicators). These Figures must be benchmarked with leading sheds for doing a quick reality check. Acknowledgement of reality is a first major step in building reliability roadmap. Gap analysis in each section will help in bridging the gap between reality and vision.

Workforce skill Capability: Analysis of past failures indicates workmen skill deficit causing loco failures due to bad workman ship.  Each staff must be mapped to ascertain whether he has the skills required to effectively maintain Diesel locos in his assigned area.  Skill deficit can be met by mentoring by senior tradesmen, scrupulous compliance of Work Instructions and in some cases; assistance of external training (welder training) can be planned.

Workforce knowledge Capability:  assess each staff to determine his task specific knowledge and arrange daily peer based training. Associate personally in on-site training on specific topics causing failures.

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Theoretical and practical understanding of Known Best Practices should be checked. Educate yourself and team members in “Known Best Practices” in Maintenance and Reliability of Diesel locomotives.

– Speaking with successful managers and senior supervisors, artisans on maintenance and reliability issues during field visit of leading sheds. Educate your staff in what has been learned.

– Develop a book of knowledge comprising all MIs, IBs, TSOs, “required reading” assortment of articles, documents, compendium on Known Best Practices in Maintenance and Reliability. Begin engaging the conversation about known best practices. Tap the collective wisdom and latent knowledge pocket available in Shed.

Root cause analysis.  Root cause analysis processes will help you address the causes behind repeated failures or resolve those nagging issues that just won’t go away. Although the concepts of RCA are fairly simple, it is a good idea to have formal training.

– Develop an action plan with tasks, goals, targets, and a clear definition of roles and responsibilities for everyone. You should define who is responsible, who is accountable, who is consulted (two way communication), and who is informed (one way communication)

– Execute the plan, manage the plan, and track the plan closely using specially designed progress sheets. People like to know their progress. Personally monitor key sections which are the biggest roadblocks. 

Focus on Proactive maintenance: Follow Preventative schedules issued by RDSO, but, use Predictive and condition monitoring techniques in all minor and medium schedule attention to identify impending failures. Use technologies such as Thermography, Ultrasonic Detection, Vibration Analysis, Spectro Analysis, trend analysis, exception reports, or just simple visual inspections. Teach everyone to keep his eyes and ears open and report all abnormalities noticed.

Sustain the change:  Each member of the Shed has to be preoccupied with Failure. Any incidence of locomotive failure is a symptom of system vulnerability and should be treated as windows on the health of the locomotive. All power control messages and en-route misbehaviours should be logged and used as learning opportunities. Create a climate where it is safe to report and question assumptions. Shed In-charges must be patient and should focus on behaviour more than attitude. They should concentrate on majority not the outliers and develop culture to Celebrate and promote results. It is essential to Maintain focus on big picture and they should continuously seek and welcome in-put from all quarters by practising active listening.

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Continuous improvement. If you accept your current reality, you will get what you have always got. If you decide to break the status quo then implementation of Reliability Roadmap is essential. A continuous improvement philosophy to all of the above elements is imperative, if we want to continue to improve. Generally we are all good at implementing things, but, often we don’t check how well the changes have worked. Constantly review the outcomes, audit the maintenance practices and apply course correction by involving your team members including sectional staff.

Keep in mind that the roadmap is a guide in which situation specific changes may be required. There may only be some of these areas that you need to work on as many of the steps have already been undertaken or can be completed in parallel which may shorten the journey. Success can only be achieved by a true leader. Good luck on your journey.

( P. K. Mishra )

                                                                      Chief Motive Power Engineer