14 Developing An Effective Low Tech High Volume Approach To Predictive Maintenance

Predictive Maintenance (PdM):
PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE – A LOW TECH / HIGH VOLUME APPROACH
Developing an Effective
Low Tech / High Volume
Approach to Predictive
Maintenance
Richard Sargent, CPMM

Manager, Maintenance Operations
US Postal Service
Columbus Processing & Distribution Center
Columbus Ohio
US Postal Service mission statement
"The Postal Service shall have as its basic

function the obligation to provide postal
services to bind the Nation together
through the personal, educational, literary,
and business correspondence of the
people. It shall provide prompt, reliable,
and efficient services to patrons in all
areas and shall render postal services to
all communities."
US Postal Service mission statement
reliable, and efficient

PdM in Columbus Ohio
Birth of
A little background:
Maintenance in Columbus in 1982

“Breakdown” maintenance
“Folklore training”
Oldschool, “We have always done it this
way” mentality leadership
Not ready for the automation age
Mid to late 1980s:

Forward looking maintenance employees
realized our current preventive and
(mostly) reactive maintenance practices
could not efficiently provide reliable
results on the newly deployed high
speed sorting equipment
(faltering)
We attempted to perform the

preventive maintenance routes
already in place.
Folklore training proved to be our
biggest obstacle to success.
The employees just flat out did not
know what needed to be done when.
We added locally generated

preventive maintenance routes
thinking that the additional attention
would overcome the lack of
knowledge and skill of our workforce.
Our accomplishment: We continued
to do a poor job, just more frequently.
To compensate for our general lack of

knowledge and skill, we performed
extensive semi-annual overhauls of our
equipment.
We spent large amounts of money on
belts, rollers, gates, bearing assemblies
and overtime.
Performance / Maintenance Cost
April
May
July
January
February
March
October
November
December
June
August
September
1990 – Members of our maintenance staff

attended a maintenance seminar and were
introduced to technologies such as
vibration analysis and ultrasonic detection;
the equipment available; and the benefits
of these technologies in an effective
proactive maintenance program.
It all looked so easy.
Those guys came home all fired up and

ready to make it work for us.
We underestimated the task:
Mindsets are hard to change

Funding is difficult to secure
We first had to prove ourselves, without
a large expenditure for equipment
We experienced several failed attempts

to procure these tools through normal
purchasing channels.
Reasons cited for denial of funding were:
•Initial equipment costs
•Lack of specific return on investment data
I suspect the real reason was that new
technology frightened local officials
1) If you always do what you’ve

always done, and you always get what
you always got, is this what you
really want?
2) How’s that workin’ for ya?

Columbus maintenance staffers contacted

distributors for some of the equipment we
wanted to try. After several contacts, we
were able to secure a no cost, short term
trial (loan) of an ultrasonic detector and an
infrared, non-contact thermometer. This
short term turned into quite a long period
of time.
Columbus was finally able to purchase the

tools we needed using ‘Innovative Funds’.
Our justification was: “eliminate
automation downtime on operating shifts
due to mechanical and electromechanical
failures”
Before the bean counters had time to

change their minds, we immediately
purchased one UE Systems Ultra-probe
2000 and one Raytek infrared non-contact
thermometer
Our first impression to upper management

was not good
We slowed the failures some, but not as quickly

as some of our management staff would have
liked.
We needed to improve the process, so craft level
“Champions” were selected. I was one of these
champions.
A Champion is someone sharing the vision and
willing to work toward continuous improvement.
Craft
employees, with input from
management, developed their own
methods to perform the needed work.
Management staff, with input from craft
employees, wrote the checklists and
issued the routes to perform the PdM
work.
Six months into our process

Twelve months into our process
Eighteen months into our process
We were feeling really good about ourselves
and our progress
Performance / Maintenance Cost
April
May
July
March
January
February
September
October
November
December
August
June
Major reorganization within

the US Postal Service
Thousands of employees retired from

service - management and craft
Management staff was further reduced
by consolidation of duties
Decisions were to be made as to which
projects would continue to be funded,
locally as well as nationally
Columbus struggled to just maintain

the advances we had attained
Having lost many of those who had
witnessed our progress, local support
for PdM funding disappeared
Then….
•Fresh funding from MTSC

•New, supportive Maintenance Manager
By 1995
•116 major mail processing machines
•18 remote locations
• >80 thousand bearings or assemblies
• >40 thousand belts
1995 brought a wakeup call to Columbus

We then fine tuned our PdM package to
include:
Satellite spares in the work area
‘Just in time’ inventory control
Ensuring
high quality by rebuilding our
own components.
The following page contains a comparison

of equipment breakdown incidents in
Columbus to the breakdown incidents in
two unnamed, similar sized facilities that
have not fully embraced the PdM process
PdM
DIRECT COMPARISON, NUMBERS OF BREAKDOWNS
AFCS DBCS DIOSS MPBCS
COLUMBUS 1 93 29 35
SITE 1 591 1613 357 305
SITE 2 49 457 N/A 37

Columbus Today
• New 800,000+ sq ft processing facility

• >130 major mail processing machines
• 14 remote locations
• >150 thousand bearings or assemblies
• >60 thousand belts
• >100 craft employees utilizing PdM
Columbus continues to promote PdM

We have hosted n excess of 75 postal
maintenance departments in our plant to
promote the PdM process and our successes.
I have had the opportunity to visit many plants
and introduce PdM to many people.
Columbus continues to experience

problems related to PdM.
Our problems today are NOT:
 Resistance to the process

 The perception of additional work hours
The biggest problem Columbus

experiences with Predictive
Maintenance today is……
… local corporate amnesia.
Although Columbus has grown to be

recognized as a World Class operation,
this very same equipment performance is
considered by local postal officials as the
minimum acceptable performance
standard.
Columbus utilizes a few management tools

to promote Pdm internally:
Employee is assigned same equipment
consistently
Maintain the test equipment
Continueto collect feedback from
employees
ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRO-

MECHANICAL FAILURES
For many years, it was believed that

electrical and electro-mechanical failures
could not be predicted or prevented.
HOGWASH
Now, a couple of basic questions:
Does PdM really work?
Absolutely!
Is the process easy?
No
…but in time it becomes easier to
realize improvements, to a point.
Will it work for me?
This can only be answered by you. It can,

dependent on craft buy-in, management
support, and mutual participation.
MY SUGGESTIONS
Assemble your team of subject matter

experts,
Examine your current condition,
Look forward to where you want to be,
Brainstorm your proposed path with
your team of experts,
MY SUGGESTIONS (continued)
Project your possible savings,

Contact tool or instrument suppliers for
partnerships,
Discover your best upper management
supporter,
Present your proposal.
MY SUGGESTIONS (continued)
Begin small,
Analyze the early results,
Do not become discouraged by early
setbacks,
Blow your own horn.
BENEFITS
Benefits of a good PdM program:

Successfully manage your workflow more
efficiently
Decrease system breakdowns
Increase uptime and productivity
Enhance your company and product image
Predictive Maintenance (PdM):
Developing an Effective
Low Tech / High Volume
Approach to Predictive
Maintenance

14 Developing An Effective Low Tech High Volume Approach To Predictive Maintenance

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14 Developing An Effective Low Tech High Volume Approach To Predictive Maintenance

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Predictive Maintenance (PdM):

PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE – A LOW TECH / HIGH VOLUME APPROACH

Richard Sargent, CPMM

"The Postal Service shall have as its basic

reliable, and efficient

Maintenance in Columbus in 1982

Mid to late 1980s:

We attempted to perform the

We added locally generated

To compensate for our general lack of

Performance / Maintenance Cost

1990 – Members of our maintenance staff

Those guys came home all fired up and

Mindsets are hard to change

We experienced several failed attempts

1) If you always do what you’ve

2) How’s that workin’ for ya?

Columbus maintenance staffers contacted

Columbus was finally able to purchase the

Before the bean counters had time to

Our first impression to upper management

We slowed the failures some, but not as quickly

Six months into our process

Performance / Maintenance Cost

Major reorganization within

Thousands of employees retired from

Columbus struggled to just maintain

•Fresh funding from MTSC

1995 brought a wakeup call to Columbus

The following page contains a comparison

DIRECT COMPARISON, NUMBERS OF BREAKDOWNS

AFCS DBCS DIOSS MPBCS

SITE 1 591 1613 357 305

SITE 2 49 457 N/A 37

• New 800,000+ sq ft processing facility

Columbus continues to promote PdM

Columbus continues to experience

 Resistance to the process

The biggest problem Columbus

… local corporate amnesia.

Although Columbus has grown to be

Columbus utilizes a few management tools

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRO-

For many years, it was believed that

Now, a couple of basic questions:

Does PdM really work?

Is the process easy?

Will it work for me?

This can only be answered by you. It can,

Assemble your team of subject matter

Project your possible savings,

Benefits of a good PdM program:

PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE – A LOW TECH / HIGH VOLUME APPROACH

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