Does anyone have a proven change management procedure for minor plant modifications that maintenance teams are often requested to undertake

trevors,

Be often maintenance guy change some equipment by change model and manufacturer as similar exist equipment.

I'm not clear that you said. I have a small tip for you. You should to review your maintenance business work process, all process must be linkaged.

trevors,
We use an Equipment Mod form that circulates around. The modification can originate from anyone. The proposal is circulated to all 3 shifts of affected operators, Supervisors, maintenance, Sanitation, Safety Coordinator for approval and comments and is ultimately approved by the Maintenance manager and the Plant Superintendant.
Once approved, it is released to either the Maintenance Planners or the Automation Team for completion. If the Mod passes evaluation, it is important to update all documentation, Bill of Materials, etc.
It tends to slow down the wheels of progress a bit, but getting the various "angles" up front helps ensure the success of the Mod. Our people have great intentions, but they aren't all-knowing. This process lessens the likelyhood of one guys good idea becoming an problem for another department.

Blair's decription is very similar to what we do, and the type industry might have an influence on the procedure. However it may depend on the extent of the change.....where sometimes a Risk Analysis needs to be performed. On the form, a list of what needs to be done once the change is approved, is included and this sometimes is quite a bite of work becuase one thing leads to another. So a request for change needs to have a solid rationale.......steer away from the "nice to have" ideas.

quote:

Originally posted by Rennie:
Blair's decription is very similar to what we do, and the type industry might have an influence on the procedure. However it may depend on the extent of the change.....where sometimes a Risk Analysis needs to be performed. On the form, a list of what needs to be done once the change is approved, is included and this sometimes is quite a bite of work becuase one thing leads to another. So a request for change needs to have a solid rationale.......steer away from the "nice to have" ideas.

Blair / Rennie

Thanks for your advice , how does your change management process handle "emergency" repairs that typically occur when your mtce team are under pressure to make "temporary" modifications just to get the plant up and running again, i am concerned that any risk assessment is likely to have different outcomes in terms of should the job proceed or not in this situation compared to normal operations , and if it does proceed how best to capture all the changes that have been made in the heat of the moment just to get the plant going again

All temporary changes should be recorded for normalization asap as the time permits such as during next shutdown. The existing plant change procedure can be used with a special category to indicate a temporary change.

Trevor,

Hmm........now you've mentioned a completely different scenario: emergencies.

It is very difficult to write a 'general' procedure to cover all emergencies.

Although the plant is down and people would be breathing on your neck, here comes into play the competence of the people involved. Don't let pressure rush you blindly into easy quick fixes solutions without having considerations of what might be the consequences of your actions (or the failure of your fixes)'cos this could be a recipe for disaster.

i was in a situation in which I had to 'kick' my boss out of the office, to eleviate this pressure so that we could start analysing the situation for the best solution. Luckily this was an exception...phew!


I would say a procedure should be written to describe a method on how the information is easily gathered, analysed and decisions taken and most important by whom.

Nothing too detailed but mostly common sense.......who are the key personnel to be involved and how is the information shared..... information should easily flow to the next shift and to the persons concerned. Once plant is back and running on a temporary fix...then monitor and monitor and agian monitor. While monitoring re-think what you have done to make sure you're not sitting on a time bomb.

Change should be documented and once the storm has calmed down start immediately the preparation for the proper repair to restore the situation to normal.

This is only my opinion but we know taht modifications could be quite a hot topic...don't forget the serious industry disasters or accidents which have occurred in the past because of changes which could have been thought of as being minor...sometimes minor changes are like a trap 'cos poeple do not study the consequencies of things going wrong.

That is a tough one because it takes a culture change.

The problem is that it is the hero cowboy mechanics that get all of the acclaim for doing the near-impossible with almost nothing while Production is tapping their toes and waiting.

We are not there yet either. But it gets better every year. Our Maintenance Team Leaders and most of the Maintenance Management are very good about making work orders to make approved permanent repairs. If possible, assign the work order to the Mechanic who made the temporary repair. Make it clear that you frown on "Perminently Temporary"

If you have a Risk Assessment Process in place, I would recommend rotating your Techs through some of the meetings. Even if the have nothing to add to the process, they'll walk away with a new way of thinking about the cause and affect of those Non-OEM, tempory repairs.

Over here the OSHA requires all changes to be documented and approved. Additionally all parties involved have to be familar with the change if it'll affect them.