Steps to Executing Increased Productivity Plantest

By Dave Lubach, Associate Editor

December 2014

After managers have gathered and analyzed data from their CMMS and created and implemented relevant KPIs based on that data, they can use the results of those efforts to create and implement a plan to improve department productivity. One challenge in the implementation process is convincing staff that any changes are positive steps.

“How do you get buy-in? That’s what it’s all about,” Shouse says. “It’s retooling and retraining. (Technicians) have to see the need. They’ve got to understand why there has to be change. A lot of times, it’s going to be more education. They’re going to have to learn how to use tools, and trust me, it can be painful.”

Developing an open-door relationship with technicians is an important step in addressing productivity.

“It’s amazing if you ask what people will tell you,” McElroy says. “But it needs to be asked in (the technicians’ terms). We want to see the world as they see it. We want to see what they are looking at. The eyeballs of a tech open worlds. They just look out at the worlds that we never see because we try to make them clerks.”

It also is important for managers to develop a climate where technicians know that efforts to improve productivity inside their departments carry good intentions with them.

“The whole idea of people crossing their arms and saying, ‘I’m not going to learn that’ are few and far between,” Shouse says. “But (technicians) need to understand that it’s not the desire to replace them. It’s to enable them.”