I challenge all Maintenance Managers and Plant Managers to increase capacity of their facilities by 5% or decrease maintenance and production induced downtime by 20%. If know how to make it happen great, share it here with others. I will provide ideas as well in the coming days.

Have you ever seen the gates of a plant closed? That company didn’t just go to sleep, it went into a coma – for them, it’s too late to WAKE UP. Their employees’ families will suffer and the impact on their workforce community will be severe! In the coming days and months, there are going to be more surprised workers showing up to closed gates without any notice from their plant! You’re thinking to yourself “it will never happen here”! Guess what? It happened in Whitefish, MT and Wilmington, DE to name a few. Thinking “we had record production here”? Guess what? It happened in Bemidji, MN. Thinking “we are number one in our division”? Guess what? It happened in Long Beach, CA. It is going to happen to many more companies! But it doesn’t have to happen to yours!

I can go on and on with companies who just don’t get it. Call it a gift or call it a curse, but after I visit an operation I can invariably tell you whether your plant will be one that will close. If I tell you your plant will shut down if you don’t change then it will shut down - my track record is 100%. The ones who listened survived and are beating not only their industry competition and setting records within their own company’s facilities as well! A few examples are: Warrick, IN and Hickory, NC!

It is time to listen and take action. Welcome to the AWAKENING!

Begin by tracking Mean Time Between Failure. If you do not know how please send me an email at ricky-smith@comcast.net and I will send you my MTBF Users Guide. Focus on reduction of failures in the short term.

Join me at the International Maintenance Conference in December and let's talk about ideas you can use now to make a difference. I will help you develop a plan. If we all work together we can affect the world's economy.

Read this month's Uptime Magazine on this topic.

Sun Oct 25, 05:17:54 AM CDT

What are your ideas to help companies survive through this tough time?

Sun Oct 25, 05:18:46 AM CDT