We operate a small shop, 85 employees, fabrication and machining work. We have a lean staff, our maintenance area comprises of two people who are kept quite busy with day-to-day activities related to keeping our equipment running. We have no PM, seems our system is 'run it until it breaks, then repair or replace'. Operators are asked to do routine maintenance (oil, lube, clean, etc.), but no records are kept. I'm looking for opinions for minimum requirements to satisfy ISO9001:2000 requirements. Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thanks

Chas

Well, 6.3 seems to talk about maintaining equipment. This is of course using the language 'the organization shall determine' which allows you some flexibility in determining what your program is. The text is:

'The organization shall determine, provide and maintain the infrastructure needed to achieve conformity to product requirements. Infrastructure includes, as applicable:


A - buildings, workspace and associated utilities
B - process equipment (both hardware and software), and
C - supporting services (such as transport or communication).'


Are you having a problem convincing management that a PM program would be beneficial? Or are you looking for minimum compliance? The answers to these questions might lead to different ideas.

At the very least, if operators are performing some maintenance, get them recording the information. Personally, a preventive maintenance program makes a lot more sense than waiting until it breaks.

Silly Girl

I would have them (operators / maintainence) record it when they do the oil / lube / cleaning of the machines. (it is preventative)
Keep a simple record /form at each machine for them write it down.
Maybe you'll see a pattern as to breakdowns on machines that are not being
oiled / lubed / cleaned.
We all have machine parts that we have no way of knowing when they'll break
Its a start.
Ed

Silly Girl
Top management has heard 'say what you do, do what you say' so many times I think they believe we can document what we do (or in this case what we don't do) and be compliant without making any changes. I guess I am looking for the minimum requirements at this time, thinking the system, when in place, will drive improvement. Too much change initially could kill the whole effort. Thanks for the input.

Chas

In addition to what was already posted...

There is no explicit requirement for maintenance, but also look at 7.5 .1 c) “the use of suitable equipment” It is hard to argue that equipment that is not working is “suitable”.

We operate a small shop, 85 employees, fabrication and machining work. We have a lean staff, our maintenance area comprises of two people who are kept quite busy with day-to-day activities related to keeping our equipment running. We have no PM, seems our system is 'run it until it breaks, then repair or replace'. Operators are asked to do routine maintenance (oil, lube, clean, etc.), but no records are kept. I'm looking for opinions for minimum requirements to satisfy ISO9001:2000 requirements. Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thanks

Chas


From what you describe, it would appear pretty clear why two people out of 85 are kept quite busy doing repairs...

There may be a way to calculate the cost of not having a PM program:

Ask accounting to tell you what you spent on repair parts,
add in the wages paid the two guys,
track the unscheduled downtime related to repairs and breakdowns as lost machine time,
factor missed deliveries due to breakdowns,Add these all up, adjust a bit if needed, and you get a general idea of what your current method is costing you. I expect it will be a pretty significant number.

Chas

You should have PM schedule chas,and records for it , you should ,with or without referring to standard , this is a mininmum requirment,

you should have planning for every process ,remember PDCA?

SAMER

Chas,

After reading your post, especially the sentence '....seems our system is 'run it until it breaks, then repair or replace'.......'. It makes me wonder if you had purposely choosen your user name to convey a subtle message. :biglaugh:

Rgds

I agree with hjilling; you need to crunch numbers and see what the lack of preventive maintenance is costing your company. Take suggestions from the machine operators and the 2 maintenance workers about what could be done to extend machine life/dependability and measure the costs of those suggestions vs cost of machine replacement/downtime/product nonconformity.

If machine breakdown is affecting product quality, don't forget to include cost of rework and scrap from this.

The standard doesn't give you a bunch of "shalls" for implementing a PM program of any kind, only that infrastructure is to be provided and maintained to achieve product which conforms to specs. A good PM program, tailored to your company's situation would do this, and may save your company $$$ and headaches with production schedules and customers.

Chas,
I am at a 35 employee moldbuilding shop. We also run it till it breaks and then repair it. I tried having a list of maintenance items with a check-off list on each piece of CNC equipment. This caused more problems with ISO than it solved. The forms always had too many gaps in them. Either the operator did not check-off on the form, or that piece of equipment was not operated that day. A form on the shop floor that is not properly filled in is worse than no form. We determined the minimum maintenance we are comfortable with for each piece of CNC equipment. At the beginning of each month I output a maintenance request form for each machine on my list for that month. I give the forms to the production manager and he delivers them to the operators. They then perform the listed maintenance item and sign the form. A few days later I get the signed forms back and file them in the maintenance folder for that job. All other maintenance is handled with a generic maintenance request form by the production manager.

JCTB

I don't know, and I hate to judge, but it seems to me that the smaller the operation, or operating resources, the more important that maintenance and preventive maintenance would be? I would think that there is significant cost savings to be had by being proactive instead of performing breakdown maintenance. I kinda liken it to taking care of my truck. Sure, I can neglect to change the oil (preventive maintenance), change the air filter or rotate the tires (predictive maintenance) and save maybe what- 100 dollars and have to buy a new engine and have it put in (breakdown maintenance) for several thousand.

I understand that you may be kind of hamstrung by what your employer mandates, but isn't it your (our) job to guide the employer to help make the company more profitable, safer, higher quality?

Greetings SteelMaiden,
I did not mean to imply that we ignore any maintenance requirements of our equipment. Each of our machine operators are trained in the proper daily and weekly maintenance of the equipment. The operators also know they are empowered to stop the process at any time if they think there is a problem. We also have service contracts with the mfg. or independent contractors on our newer equipment. The forms I described using are the way we (I) and our consultant came up with to satisfy part of 6.3 Infrastructure. Could the process be better? You bet it could! However, I did what I had to do to attain and maintain certfication.
Thank You for your input.
JCTB

JCTB,

I worked summers in a glass production factory while in college. They were ISO certifed for years and used a system such as you described in your two posts.

:topic: I say "were" because the plant is being moved to Mexico this summer, (with all of it's processes).

AH, well then, you are actually using pm, so just make sure that everyone is on the same page so somebody doesn't say "gosh, no, we don't have a maintenance program.";)

I don't know, and I hate to judge, but it seems to me that the smaller the operation, or operating resources, the more important that maintenance and preventive maintenance would be? I would think that there is significant cost savings to be had by being proactive instead of performing breakdown maintenance. ...


Good point!

Since ISO doesn't provide much guidance for preventive maintenance, you can refer to ISO/TS-16949. It is not binding for ISO systems, but is still good info:

7.5.1.4 Preventive and predictive maintenance
The organization shall identify key process equipment and provide resources for machine/equipment maintenance
and develop an effective planned total preventive maintenance system. As a minimum, this system shall include the
following:
 planned maintenance activities;
 packaging and preservation of equipment, tooling and gauging;
 availability of replacement parts for key manufacturing equipment;
 documenting, evaluating and improving maintenance objectives.
The organization shall utilize predictive maintenance methods to continually improve the effectiveness and the
efficiency of production equipment.

7.5.1.5 Management of production tooling
The organization shall provide resources for tool and gauge design, fabrication and verification activities.
The organization shall establish and implement a system for production tooling management including:
 maintenance and repair facilities and personnel;
 storage and recovery;
 set-up;
 tool-change programmes for perishable tools;
 tool design modification documentation, including engineering change level;
 tool modification and revision to documentation;
 tool identification, defining the status, such as production, repair or disposal.
The organization shall implement a system to monitor these activities if any work is outsourced.