reliability roadmap

Sub:- Roadmap to Reliability.

A.   Basic Building Blocks

B.   Technical strategy

C.   Failure Management

D.   Psychology of maintenance

E.   Knowledge management

Basic Building Blocks

A1.Cleanliness and housekeeping:

Locos  and sheds must look at its best reflecting a positive image and boosting satisfaction level of all stake holders. Serious and sustained improvement can be made by following basic tenets of 5S. 5S is the name of a workplace organization method that uses a list of five Japanese words: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke. (sorting, set in order, systematic cleaning, standardizing, and sustaining). The list describes how to organize a work space for efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items, and sustaining the new order.

A2. Sectional Recordkeeping:

It must include all failure data and their analysis: component wise, system wise, age wise, make wise, root cause wise, responsibility wise, staff wise, shift wise etc. The data must be maintained in section and actively analysed by sectional staff and supervisors. Trend analysis and identification of failure pattern should be done. Central information cell should not be pretext of not doing complete analysis and recordkeeping in section.

A3. An action Plan:

Section wise Action Plan based on last three years summarised analysis indicating root cause, service life, make must be known, prepared and understood by every sectional staff.

A4. Clear Distribution of Responsibility:

Clear explicit responsibility for all Shed officials without any overlapping on field should be issued. Everyone should not be busy in doing same thing or passing the buck.

A5.  Benchmarking:

Benchmarking of maintenance schedule timing and man power deployment compared to other leading sheds should immediately be done and action plan be made.

A6.  MIS:

There is an urgent need to make available minimum basic loco data/reports to floor supervisors to facilitate maintenance. As a first step, all sheds should plan to equip Shed supervisors with key reports before undertaking schedule maintenance of locomotives.

A7.  DISPLAY OF WORK INSTRUCTIONS:

Performance Goals, Performance Review, Corrective and Preventive Action Plan, staff bio-data and skill details, Component vital parameters are to be displayed in each section.

Technical Maintenance Strategy

Integration of complementary techniques to meet the goals of optimum equipment reliability and availability for the least maintenance & operating cost.

B1 Focus on essentials:

Fire fighting and drives though essential for immediate relief should not cloud focused attention on major schedule & OVH. Quality originates from major schedules and sections involved in overhauling of various components. Improving quality by auditing maintenance practices and material replacement & inspection norms of those sections should be done and periodically monitored to ensure that fundamentals (Schedule form; RDSO’s IB & DLW’s DB) are being followed correctly. 

    Doing the Right Work at Right Time has no substitute so this mantra must be implemented during major schedules and sectional overhauls.

 B2. Identify Stage of Diesel Loco Maintenance:

Sheds progress through different maintenance phases in their quest for reliability.

·       Sense of drift and helplessness: It is characterised by Very High incidences of Line failures and very low incidences of Shed detections.

·       Sense of optimism and arresting the tide: It is characterised by High incidences of line failures and very high incidences of Shed detections.

Impending line failures are converted into Shed detections by various fire fighting measures.

·       Sense of control, attending root causes: It is characterised by drastically reduced incidences of Line failures, high incidences of Shed detections. Action plan based on root cause analysis is implemented and condition of released components after stripping during overhauling is keenly monitored.

·       Sustained Improvement Phase-Auto : It is characterised by drastically reduced incidences of Line failures and Shed detections. All failure incidences are in conformity of control chart falling in predetermined range.  Distress signals picked after observing components coming for overhauling are analysed and corrective measures taken on journey to nil defect.

Once current stage of maintenance is identified, Shed should plan appropriate short term and long term corrective measures.

B3.        Data Interpretation:

      Huge data are painstakingly recorded never to see light of the day. Unfortunately readings are taken perfunctorily without any interpretation & follow up action. A large number of failures could be avoided, had we reacted on trend monitoring of data. So, need of hour is to set warning triggers & react promptly. The only way, to make permanent changes, is to change the way things are measured. Measuring is not enough; interpreting the measures is the important step.

B4. Failure investigation:

      Analyzing failures is a critical process in determining the physical root causes of problems. This is an area where our Shed officials have not been formally trained.  Failure investigation highlights symptoms, observations but rarely touches route cause. Each failure analysis report must clearly outline measures to ensure that the failure will not recur once these short term & long term measures are in place.

   

  Failure investigation reports are opportunity to correctly judge current maintenance level, maintenance preparedness & action plan. All loco failures must be critically examined by Sr. DME Dsls to see whether report encompasses all the relevant details & pinpoints root causes & recommends an action plan. Similarly, DME/Diesel/AME/Diesel must critically review all non-schedule failure investigations as per modified failure investigation format issued by HQ.

  

 B5. RCM:

Reliability centered maintenance is ongoing process which determines the optimum of reactive, preventive, predictive & proactive maintenance practices in order to provide the required reliability at the minimum cost.

RCM finds its roots in early 1960s. Initial development was done by North American Civil Aviation Industry. Airlines realized that many of their maintenance philosophies were not only too expensive but actually dangerous. Industry re-examined everything they were doing to keep their aircraft air borne.

In the mid 1970s the US department of Defence commissioned a report on the subject from the aviation industry. This classic report was written by Stanley Nowlan and Howard Heap of United Airlines & published in 1978.

The work demonstrated that a strong correlation between age & failure did not exist. Therefore the basic premise of preventive (time based) maintenance was false for majority of equipments.

Development in the new technology in late 1980s made it possible to determine the actual condition of the equipment & not rely upon estimate of when it might fail based up on age.

         

  Patterns of equipment failure(for airlines)

A.  Bathtub                 4%              

B.  Wear out               2%              

C.  Gradual rise          5%              

D. Initial increase      7%              

E.  Uniform failure      14%            

F.  Infant failure                   68%            

Preventive maintenance is only effective in wear out phase. If you are in the constant failure phase & you replace a part you often more make to the    “infant mortality” phase with a higher failure rate.

 B6. Trend Analysis:

For each type of component failures, it is important to identify the trend, the method in madness, is it age related or random failures are taking place immediately after overhauling. Analysis on all probable possibilities must be carried out to see bigger picture.

B7. Avoid Slip Backs and Relapses:

Failures have tendency to frequently revisit, if root causes are not eliminated and earlier measures taken are not incorporated in maintenance schedules. So periodical auditing of maintenance practices in each section and keeping a hawk’s eye on non schedule failure trend is essential.

 B8. Additional Value Input in Maintenance:

There is an interesting Chinese definition of "Insanity". "When we do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result!" In diesel loco maintenance if we do not do something extra that additional value input in maintenance then we shall remain stationary at same level of reliability. Expecting improvement in reliability without doing something specific is insanity. Doing nothing and perhaps hoping that the problem will go away does not happen in diesel loco maintenance.

B9. Proper feedback to POH shop, DLW, DMW & firm is invaluable:

Only FIR will not work. So focus on suggestions rather than on complaints. PUs should be clearly told specific acts of omissions and commissions. Put yourself in their shoes and visualise, what reports/feedbacks are required for improving the quality.

B10.Periodical Preventive Maintenance Schedules should be leveraged to predict or anticipate maintenance problems by continual monitoring of conditions to identify problems before they threaten loco operation or safety. The oil and other consumables (lube oil, governor oil, gear oil ,suspension bearing oil, lubricant, HSD, water, carbon brush) consumption rate, day wise, trip wise, month wise and quarter wise should be calculated .The consumption rate data should be logged to track long-term variations in consumption rates and its trend analysis. It will help sheds in identifying incipient problems and in implementing solutions before serious engine degradation occurs. Engine condition monitoring of parameters as exhaust gas temperature, fuel and oil pressures, and vibration to detect adverse trends in engine performance and execute maintenance to avoid serious failures should be done in every schedule.

	The frequency of any form of condition-based maintenance is based on the fact that most failures do not occur instantaneously, and that it is often possible to detect the fact that the failure is occurring during the final stages of deterioration.
	Figure shown below is called the P-F curve, because it shows how a failure starts and deteriorates to the point at which it can be detected (the potential failure point "P"). Thereafter, if it is not detected and suitable action taken, it continues to deteriorate - usually at an accelerating rate - until it reaches the point of functional failure ("F").

B11. Continuously Benchmarking & looking around for solutions & best practices of leading sheds must be ingrained in maintenance planning. Develop a shed which will transform from reactive to proactive maintenance. Pro-active maintenance has now been acknowledged worldwide as the single most important means of achieving savings unsurpassed by conventional maintenance teaching.

  “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”.---- Newton

B12. The use of suitable storage environment & protective packaging should make the need for anti deterioration maintenance while spare parts are in store exception. Large number of components failures can be traced back due to damage inflicted during storage, handling, and transportation more often due to lack of appreciation

   A scheduled-maintenance program must be dynamic.

B13. Raise the Bar Progressively: we must not remain static in our acceptance and work level. We must attempt and graduate to higher acceptance level for all measurable parameters be it IR value, vibration limit, exhaust gas temperature etc. periodically we must raise the bar and preferably every year tighten up the rejection limit.

B14. 100% inspection of pre-inspected material

B15.  Running Schedule attention :

•        Independent checking of locomotives and recording observations in diary.

•        Shift supervisors will cross check the defects noted by artisans.

•        During final testing repairing of defects will be checked and certified by supervisors.

•        Quality of work done should also be cross checked by other shift staffs booked on locos.

Failure Management:

C1. Pareto Principle (also known as the 80–20 rule) and exception reports :Sr.DME/Dsls should concentrate on those 20% root causes which contribute 80% failures. Exception reports for each section should be issued fortnightly and deviations should be attended to.

C2.Delegate:  

Hold people accountable for results, give them resources. Don’t tell them how. Tell them what.    If someone is failing, then ask questions. In the Toyota way, Toyota leader seldom gives orders. In fact, leaders often lead & mentor through questioning.

C3. Drive

Drives are routinely started without ensuring basics. Most of drives started with much enthusiasm lose the steam midway. Drives must be completed within 2 months & then second round of drive should be launched to check their efficacy.

Psychology Of Maintenance

D1. Sharing of Concern & Passion:

 Sr. DME must constantly exhort his team so that passion, priority and concern are shared by all his team members in absolute synchronised way explicitly.  Lead the Shed, not manage it.

D2. Mapping and Development of Human Resources:

Cognitive psychology of people engaged in maintenance tells us exactly how the mind works when it comes to maintenance. Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental process including how people think, perceive, remember & learn. Cognitive psychologists (Benjamin Bloom et all) developed a classification of levels of intellectual behaviour associated with learning. Stages are: Knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesise, evaluation & creativity. Every staff must be mapped where he stands in this learning pyramid & we must take him to next level progressively

D3.    Pygmalion effect :

    J. Sterling Livingstone in Sept’88 Harvard Business review – “ The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them, “ Livingstone said in his article “  Pygmalion in management.

    The Pygmalion effect enables staff to excel in response to the manager’s message that they are capable of success & expected to succeed.   The Pygmalion effect can also undermine staff performance with the subtle communication from the manager tells them the opposite. These cues are often subtle. It is an example the supervisor fails to praise a staff performance as frequently as he praises others.

    If the supervisor actually believes that every employee has the ability to make a positive contribution at work, the telegraphing of that message, either consciously or unconsciously will positively affect employee performance.

    Play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw: professor of Phonetics Henry Higgins challenges Professor Harry Southgate to transform the unruly cockney flower   Eliza Doolittle as a respectable member of aristocratic society.

How to harness Pygmalion effect:

·       Encourage your employee to set self goal and objective.

·       Praise creative efforts, even if they are not successful.

·       Spend the importance of the sharing of ideas among colleagues.  

·       Be creative yourself serve as a role model.

·       Standing for your employee innovative efforts.

·       Take pride in your employee achievements.

·       Publicity recognized innovative work.

·       Reward creativity.

D4.        The Galatea effect: The power of self expectation.

    The Galatea effect is a compelling factor in employee performance. The manager who can assist employees to believe in themselves & in their efficacy, has harnessed Powerful performance improvement tool.  

    Others have faith in my abilities therefore I will work even harder to prove worthy. High performance can be achieved by expectations.   Learn to set expectation. Communicate these expectations in a common language.

    Galatea effect says that people form expectations of themselves & others, communicate these expectations through verbal & non verbal cues, behave & adjust their behavior based on how they are treated.

Galatea concept was first introduced in 1957 by Robert Merton, Professor of Sociology of Colombia University. He found that once an expectation is set, we tend to act in ways that are consistent with that expectations, regardless of whether it is accurate or not.

D5.        Golem effect:

Lower expectations placed upon individuals either by supervisors or individuals themselves lead to poorer performance by the individual

D6. Make Cultural Shift:

Real measurable, bottom line change is difficult to get. It comes down to culture as cultures resist change like crazy. Each shed must plan to make cultural shift. Moving from repair focussed culture to reliability focussed culture. Repair focussed sheds are focussed on fixing the problems, fire fighting, managing failures, believe failures are inevitable, doing high level of rework and are deluged with failures, while the reliability focussed sheds concentrate on improving maintenance practices, predicting, planning & scheduling, focus on eliminating defects & believe on continuous improvements & prove that failures are exceptional. Low level of rework, high reliability & long term action plans are hall marks of such culture.

D7. Positive Environment:

We must focus on the values that sectional maintenance staff can generate given positive, supportive, collaborative & empowering environment in which to perform. Mobilising the valuable human assets to their full performance potential is roadmap to reliability. Culture of positivity, no negative talk, calmness & assistance should be built up.

D8. Nurturing of Good Ideas, sectional targets of innovations and encouraging people to think before perfunctorily starting work, do wonders and improvements start pouring in, creating an attitude and environment of “yes; we can”. The attitude becomes infectious and spurs people to move beyond their comfort level.

D9.The power of positive employee recognition

    Prioritized employee recognition can ensure a positive, productive, innovative organizational climate. Provide employee recognition to say thank you & to encourage more of his positive actions. People who feel appreciated are more positive about themselves & their ability to contribute. Employee recognition is scarce. People don’t know how to provide employee recognition effectively, so they have a bad experience when they do. They assume that one size fits all when they provide employee recognition.

Fairness, clarity & consistency are important in employee recognition. Be as specific as you can in telling the individual exactly why he is receiving the recognition.   Tell them how important their job is. Everyone wants to feel that what they do is important. Determine what makes them excited.

D10. The Asch Conformity Experiment:

Conformity refers to an individual’s tendency to follow the unspoken rules or behaviour of the social group to which he or she belongs.

Conformity can be referred both by need to fit in and a belief that other people are smarter or better informed.

D11. PURPOSE: a purpose that creates values for society, something higher, sense of satisfaction, contribution has to be made part of every one’s work content.

D12. Howthrone experiment

Elton Mayo, a professor of industrial management at Harvard Business School led a landmark study of worker behavior at Western Electric, the manufacturing arm AT&T.

Instead of treating the workers as an appendage to the machine, the Hawthorne experiment brought to the light, ideas concerning motivational influences, job satisfaction, and resistance to change, group norms, workers participation & effective leadership.

Sheds that don’t pay sufficient attention to people & deep sentiments are consistently less successful that those that do.

The change which you and your associates are work to effect will not be mechanical but humane. The desire to stand well with one’s fellows, the so called human instinct of association, easily outweighs the merely individual interest and the logic of reasoning upon which for many spurious principles of management are based.

Gardener Shadow:     The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow. Being present & paying attention matter more than which you actually do in the garden.

Knowledge Creation & Management

E1.Training the Workforce- It is the combination of man and machine that defines effectiveness and performance of the machine. Diesel loco maintenance without fully trained and skilled workforce shall remain woefully inadequate to meet challenges of reliability. A chain is as strong as its weakest link so improving knowledge and skill base of every staff is most essential.

Training Improves morale & job satisfaction ensures less supervision and increases productivity.

The Israeli Air Force Commander, General Mordeci Hod remarked after victory over Arabs in 1973 that even if two sides had swapped planes, the Israelis would still have won the war.

Before we build cars, we build people.  You can have the best tools, most productive process but none of    them    will produce results unless you have trained people.

Strangely, similar to last mile connectivity issue, person nearer to job remains woefully ignorant of correct practices and cheerfully ill prepared to implement them. This issue needs to be tackled by preparing sectional book of knowledge and imparting daily peer based training by each shed. Regular Knowledge & skill based categorization to identify area of weakness and imparting focused training is the most important step of maintenance strategy

E2. Book of Knowledge:

 All relevant instructions must be compiled and made available section wise. Tacit knowledge, fragmented knowhow scattered all over must be culled, compiled and disseminated to all maintainers; to bridge the wide chasm in knowledge level.

E3. We need to learn from both their knowledge and their failures or limitations. Let’s make our sheds learning organizations and unleash huge intellectual capital available with us.

E4. Lessons Learnt:

          Experience gained/lessons learnt from past failures must be incorporated in maintenance strategy. Constantly upgrade schedule form, maintenance practices/testing procedures by learning from past failures.

There is a silver lining to every failure. For it is only through costly experience and errors that managers can develop effective intuitive judgement. "Good judgement is usually the result of experience. And experience is frequently the result of bad judgement". And, not unlike sticking one's hand into the fire, what we learn from our mistakes is often more indelible.

E5. Tell Tale Sign Compendium:

   Tell tale sign compendium section wise must be created and staff should be trained   accordingly. Visual signs on components tell their tale in their own language, we must equip and train the maintenance team to acknowledge and decipher these tell tale signs prophesying like oracles of Delphi.

E6. Leverage the knowledge and skill:

Sheds are virtual storehouse of knowledge and skill but they remain storehouse only. Task before Sr. DME is to transfer knowledge and skill from best in the field and bridge the knowledge and skill differential between best and average staff. Knowledge creation and management should be pursued, where relevant information should be available virtually on tap.

We should recognize and develop good ideas, it is not important to try to be clever and come up with all the answers, but it is desirable to form technical competency to evaluate answers. Getting every employee’s mind into the game is huge part of Sr DME (D)’s job. He should be sponge, absorbing and questioning every good idea. The first step is being open to the best of what everyone has to offer. The second is transferring the knowledge pool across the shed and the third is to stretch their mind where they can improve their ideas further.

Sr. DMEs must challenge their team members to open their minds to envision how they can improve reliability by looking at situations from a different perspective. Pride in workmanship, valuing the role of crew and focusing on the end user must be kept in mind. Maintenance is an investment not a Cost & key to meet transportation task of IR.

In his classic philosophical novel “ Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Enquiry into the Values” author Robert M. Pirsig States that  to truly experience quality, one must both embrace & apply it as best fits the requirements of the situation.  Journey of reliability is a journey of faith, passion & perseverance. It should not be treated as dull & tedious drudgery but an enjoyable pursuit by agents of change. Apostates have to turn into Apostles of change.

                                                                          (P.K. Mishra)