All too often, leadership within the organization isn’t fully on board with undertaking an optimization project because they don’t yet see the full value in doing so. And, perhaps, you’re not sure exactly how to convince them that the initiative is worthwhile.
So, how do you raise awareness within the organization and get support for what you need to do?
You must build a business case that can overcome the primary objections, illuminate the need and demonstrate the real, tangible value that your project will provide to the organization. If you are thinking your organization should invest in doing a maintenance review and optimization, then you’re probably experiencing some of the signs:
- High production downtime
- Maintenance staff in fire-fighting mode
- Some spare parts collecting dust, yet key spares are not available when needed
- Maintenance instructions consist of little more than a title or some generic text, e.g., “check and lube as necessary”
- Very little, if any, information captured on maintenance work orders
- Scheduled maintenance tasks generally only created after equipment has failed
- Costly equipment failures creating budget overruns
- Higher risk of catastrophic failure, equipment damage and major events due to potential (or actual) equipment failures
- Maintenance KPIs are not in place or are trending towards lower performance
- Maintenance group isn’t highly valued by the rest of the organization
To get the buy-in you need, you need to consider points of resistance you might encounter from Maintenance, Production, and Site Management teams. Show them how the signs listed above are causing real problems for your organization, build your business case backed by data, and demonstrate how your initiatives will benefit each stakeholder group.
What to consider when building a solid business case:
- Potential resistance, fear of change and how the two impact reliability initiatives
- Benefits to stakeholders at all levels and how to sell them
- What analyses and data are required to assess the current state of maintenance and how to use your CMMS to assist
- How to explain how each problem affects the business from a maintenance, production, EHS, and business impact
- How to develop a project proposal and the key items to be included
- What tools to use and how to quantify the additional cost savings to be realized
- How to conduct a pilot project and benefits of doing so
Want to learn more?
Learn to write a business case for your reliability initiatives in our Reliability Quick-Wins/ Change Management training course.
