2025 Jan-Feb RETA Breeze

SERVICE

The Shade Tree Mechanic volume XLV — Slow Rollin

I was watchin me some NASCAR over the weekend. That Kyle Larsen fella always seems to show up at the end of a race, you know, life is like a NASCAR Race. I notice that a lot of our teammates seem to be a little like Kyle. They start out the day and can’t be seen. But come lunch time they show up. Then they drop back into the pack, but about quittin time, they are first to the time clock. Well maybe I’m be’n too tough on them, but it looks that way sometimes. I think that there are times that I need to spread the field out a little. I probably haven’t done a good enough job of makin sure the workload was even. Maybe that’s why the same people seem to finish on time and others seem to run into more overtime. If we was to gauge them like race cars, I would say they are slow rollin, same pace all the time. I always thought that some people work at a different pace than others. I guess I thought the guys that were always working a little over time, just wasn’t as fast as the guys who were gettin done right on time. So I’ve done some checkin. Have you ever checked the second repair requests based on when the work was done? I’ll admit that checkin the efficiency of one maintenance technician when compared to another has occurred to me. Checkin the efficiency of different shifts also has some Merritt.

Checkin second repair requests by techni cian will also show some insight into how well the technician troubleshoots and makes the repair. I’ve heard of checkin the work rate based upon maintenance supervisors. All of these can provide some interestin’ insights. But all have flaws. So, let’s look at efficiency by maintenance supervisor. Supervisors normally work the same hours. Sometimes with the same crew. Sometimes with a differing crew. So, if the supervisor works with the same crew, how can we separate the efficiency of the crew from the efficiency of the leadership (maintenance supervisor). Comparin’ supervisors from different shifts is also problematic. Much like comparin’ technicians from different shifts is difficult. Different shifts have different problems. Makin a repair durin’ a sanitation shift is normally easier than makin’ a repair in the middle of a production room at the height of production. Comparin’ different mechanics based upon speed doesn’t work. It just trains your mechanics to get done faster and let the next shift worry about it. Comparin’ the number of repeat break downs also has problems. Simple things like age of the equipment, is a very important variable. If a repair is hurried to get through a production cycle, the quality of the repair will suffer. Sometimes, getting back runnin’ to finish a shift is more

important than making the repair last. But ya gotta remember to go back and fix it right. How many other things were down at the same time? A hurried repair to get to another piece of equipment running may be forgivable. But we gotta’ go back and make things right. I keep comin back to the guys who always finish just before shift end. Are they that good? Can they turn up the intensity, just before the finish line? Do I have a depart ment full of Kyle Larsons? Or are they stretchin out the work? Maybe my slow rollers, those guys who “take the time it takes” are the true maintenance champions. Maybe their Mrs. needs a new car, so they are gettin a little overtime? I’m not sure, but I think it may be time for me to figure out a way to find out a little more. I think that, I’m goin’ to start tracking a few more details. Maybe after a few months, the information will be useful, maybe not. Let’s see. The shade tree grows outside of the little town of Broughton, Ohio. Where everyone is always welcome, the beer is always cold, and something is always needin fixin. There is not a perfect way to measure productivity!

RETA.com 27

RETA.com 27