Vehicle maintenance has been, and will always be, a very critical part of the cost of doing business for any fleet. Whatever the size or current status of a fleet, it can be continually improved through an excellent performance of the maintenance team.
So says Enrique Mora, a consultant member of the Institute for Operational Excellence (http://instituteopex.org), an expert resource for organizations and individuals who want to design their enterprise to achieve operational excellence.
“All the members of the maintenance team need to communicate well with each other so they can understand the best ways to contribute from their positions to the successful accomplishment of the purpose,” he explains.
“Top-notch technicians are, of course, vital in the mission of maintenance. The efficiency of the maintenance team, though, requires that they be able to do their job with the optimal timeliness and quality required in order to consider the maintenance operation as a whole, an excellent one.”
This will not happen, he points out, if the parts, work areas and tools and equipment that technicians need to perform their jobs is lacking.
“Excellence is not something that can be achieved by some and not by the rest of the organization,” states Mora. “Going in the correct direction of operational excellence requires some mindset changes at every level and position.”
COMMUNICATION
One essential area for achieving operational excellence is more effective communication, Mora says. The objective is to improve communication between all functions within an organization to the point that everyone understands how each person benefits from helping the maintenance operation arrive at a level of excellence, plus has a clear understanding of the vision and mission of the company.
This, he notes, results in a number of benefits:
- Everyone will acquire more knowledge about the maintenance operation, the processes and the importance of their individual and team role as members of the company.
- Sharing information and knowledge brings, as a result, a new concept in terms of team building, function interchangeability/flexibility and improvement of the culture of cooperation.
- As more information flows in real time in every direction, everyone recognizes the opportunity to prevent any delays or mishaps that could impact the maintenance of the fleet.
As things advance in these directions, Mora says individual accountability grows.
“When employees are equipped with the right knowledge and feel empowered and free to take direct actions or interact with others, there is value-added activity in the entire organization as they sense the real ownership of their assigned responsibilities and the attainable results.
"Consider this statement from author Napoleon Hill, ‘Whatever the human mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.'"
