I could not find a particular section on the board for this type of question and since vibration is the busiest one I put it here.


Thanks for your thoughts.

Question:
For those having PdM (or Condition Based Maintenance) group/department with a supervisor leading it, to whom in the company management hierarchy this department has to report to ?

Choices:
Plant Manager
Maintenance Manager/superintendant
Plant Project/Engineering Manager
Plant Production Manager
Plant Quality Control Manager
Corporate PdM manager (if exists)
Other

 

This message has been edited. Last edited by: David_G,

David,
When I worked for a huge company, I had to send a report to the Maintenance Manager, Engineering Manager, Production Manager, Maintenance Supervisors (Electrical and Mechanical) and Maintenance Planner of the area of the equipment, as well as my direct foreman.

Your question may mean though, to whom does the team report directly (direct supervisor)?
Sorry if I said too much.

I entered mine into the poll but I'll mention here as well.

We have our PDM folks broken into two separate groups One group are the technicians who do the pdm routes and are involved in other special tests. The other group is the PDM program engineers and component engineers. Both are within the engineering department but in different groups in different office space reporting to different supervisors and different division managers up to the same Plant Engineering Manager. Kind of weird to be split like that. I think that to a certain extent this separation reduces the communication and our work suffers as a result. On the other hand, there must be some advantages somewhere that led us to this organizational structure.... I just haven't figured them out yet

This message has been edited. Last edited by: electricpete,

I have modified the question and this has wiped out the existing votes. Please vote again if the system will allow.

Ralph,

I meant company structural hierarchy as oppose to sending a physical report.

Generally in the consulting arena I report to a maintenance mgr or Director if governmental. Typically I report to area managers (maint & operations) so they get the shock before the report goes to the Plant Operations Mgr, Plant Maint Mgr, Plant Mgr and CEO.

My Div is in the Maint Dept under the Plant Maint Mgr - Plt Mgr - CEO. I have a title of Maint Mgr but really more in keeping with an RE that is also a supervisor.

David,
I "voted". Even though it wasn't a vote, but the entering of the facts of my particular circumstance. This does not mean necessarily that I feel it is the ideal circumstance. I am including an excerpt out of an email from a friend, after moving to a large petrochemical facility. The names have been changed.

I told Frank and George that I see (in reality) the philosophies and desires that we were working on and you continue to strive for. We have an awesome, for lack of better words, system for our Maintenance/Reliability/Asset management at this plant, and corporate wide.
A Reliability Department stand alone from Maintenance that works as peers, not subordinates...

Etc…
I could really go on and on, but there is a harsh form of reality that makes all this possible, money. The company has decided to dedicate resources to this cause, and I’m not talking nickels and dimes, but real capital and manpower (It takes both!). I don’t think the powers to be at *@$!&* truly realize (I didn’t) the magnitude of the original investment. The result: 98.7% Reliability (every month!), not uptime, but reliability. MTBR on rotating equip~32 mos, storeroom full of consumables and very few actual spares…they’re not needed...
Notice the bold type. To me, this is the ideal.

David,

I voted for the Corporate PdM Manager. I feel he/she would possess the level of understanding of input they receive and best communicate findings to their peers.

Gary Forsythe

Hi David,
What about the CMMS Administrator, which is side by side with the Maintenance Manager, Plant Director and Warehouse manager all under the District Director?
Make sense to me!

Best regard, Marcel

PdM within the Maintenance dept.. Why? Is it just because they have to work closely together (which they, of course, should)? But they can work together even being administratively separate although at the same level.

If top management is committed to a reliability approach and, therefore, created a PdM group, its Supervisor/Reliability Engineer by design is charged with the reliability task and should be fully in command in this respect. Let PdM focus on RCFA, equipment monitoring/data analysis, failure prevention, RCM, etc. Let PdM be the head and maintenance - the neck.

At the same time intellectual requirements for the maintenance people are not going to be diminished: craftsmanship level for millwrights and professional skills for their manager is still a challenge. But why PdM should take orders from them? In some cases it may even create conflict of interests or PdM activities may be hindered.

Why not view PdM rather as advisors/consultants from reliability prospective? The requirement of working together with PdM should still remain in effect in a same way as maintenance works closely with Process Engineering, Production, etc.

Dave

Our PDM Dept. consits of one person which was me for 8 yrs. I collected routes,analized data, wrote W.O.'s and completed the work on downdays. I have moved on to the energy dept. and someone else is ion thst position. I don't see why they can't be under the same management. From the large differences I see in machine amplitudes(I mean on one machine 0.03 is no problem & another it can be a major problem), PDM Tech should have the same intimate knoledge of the machine as the millwrights & electricians.
Just my opinion.
DNK

After reading the responses to your question I believe there are some key phrases and words that need to be scrutinized in order to make a sound vote. Lack of understanding, conflict of interest, & subordinates without going into detail these lead to only one sound vote for me and that would be the plant manager.