Interview with Ben Stevens
IIR Oct 6 2003
Farzaneh Majed (FM): How has the Maintenance function evolved in the
last decade?
Ben Stevens (BS): You don’t ask easy
questions do you?
I think the following issues have been the key issues:
- Emerging realization that maintenance is a
significant contributor to profitability and it's impact is controllable.
- Increasing
sophistication of the computer systems to the point where their
capabilities far outrun the ability of the mtce group to use them
effectively.
- Increasing attention
being paid to RCM and other quality improvement techniques
- Wholesale shift from
re-active to pro-active and predictive maintenance
- Emergence of research
into maintenance, failures, breakdown causes as exemplified by the
publication of many books and countless articles
- Transition from
mainly centralized delivery of maintenance (from the central workshop) to
local delivery backed up by specialized central expertise
- Emergence of the
pressure to optimize costs
- The death of the
apprentice
- Gradual emergence of
contract maintenance
FM: How do you see the maintenance function changing in the near
future?
BS:
- Recognition of maintenance as a professional career
worthy of a standardized body of knowledge within a college/university
environment
- Increasing skepticism
of the standard software tools as the "solution"
- Instead a turning to
the "forensic" approach exemplified by expert systems,
intelligent agents, targeted analysis
- Emergence of the
knowledge base as the collector of maintenance information
- Wholesale retirement
- especially in North America - of a huge proportion of skilled
maintenance technicians (the flood of 60's European tech school immigrants
hitting retirement age)
- Greatly increased
pressure to optimize costs
- Huge increase in
outsourced mtce, outsourced parts management
FM: What advice you have for the Maintenance Managers to project the
maintenance department as a profit-center rather than a cost center?
BS:
Maintenance dept as a profit centre is just a passing fad - except for
companies who supply outsourced services. Stay current with the literature and
the trends, but be a late adopter on this.
FM: What was your best memory of your career?
BS: Assuming I confine my
"best" to the maintenance related part of my career....
The "high" one gets from a Maintenance Manager
understanding that we really understand his needs and have a solution which
works for him and the equal high from seeing the light-bulbs turn on among
conference and workshop delegates and their positive reactions to what they
learn.
Now if you were asking about the funniest memory, I could go on
all night......
Ben Stevens is a regular speaker on our conferences and seminars
and if you would like to contact him for more information or some questions,
here are his details:
Ben Stevens
President, Optimal Maintenance Decisions (OMDEC) Inc.
ben@omdec.com
