The performance of an organisation means the results of its work in their various forms, showing its ability to create satisfaction for customers, employees and society: cost, quality, delivery, safety, morale and environment. For all of these to come about, the organisation must rest on getting full value from its machines, so that productivity rises.
The machine and productivity
Productivity has two senses: the scientific sense and the socio-economic sense. What is discussed here is productivity in the scientific sense.
Output means goods or services — cars, refrigerators, televisions, food, transport, hotel service and so on. Input means the resources used in producing those goods or services, generally divided into labour, materials, machines, capital and energy.
From that ratio it can be seen that productivity certainly involves the machines, because the machine is one of the important inputs — particularly in manufacturing industry.
- The same machines, but more output
- Fewer machines, the same output
- Fewer machines, and more output
The first route means maintaining the machines so that they work more effectively than before: no breakdowns, no waiting for spare parts, and no defective work — so that there is more time available for producing.
The second rests on this thought: if we make every machine work to its full capability, we may not need as many machines as we have now, and can still produce the same quantity. Put another way — the reason we have to use this many machines is that our machines break down often, do not work to the full, or turn out defective pieces in quantity.
The third raises productivity by giving the machine a higher capacity than it was designed for — by modifying it, improving it, fitting additional equipment, or bringing it to a condition in which it needs the least possible time spent looking after it.
From all three routes it can be seen that an effective maintenance system must be the mechanism at the centre of it, along with improving the machines — not merely waiting for them to fail and then repairing them, as used to be the way.
The machine and quality, cost and delivery
A machine that breaks down routinely, a dirty machine, a machine that has lost its accuracy — these are the examples we hear over and over as causes of quality problems in production. Which shows that a machine broken and unusable, or a machine in use but unable to work normally, both stand every chance of causing quality problems. The cause may be neglect, or having no systematic maintenance at all.
When a machine fails once, besides having no machine to use, what else do we lose? Speaking only of the damage that can be reckoned in money, the answer is: the cost of the spare part, the repair fitter’s wages, the wages of the production staff, the chance to sell the goods, the overtime — and in the end all of those losses in money become cost.
A machine that fails routinely, does not run at full power, or produces defects may be the cause of work running late, until in the end the goods cannot be delivered to the customer as agreed — and in some cases penalties follow on top.
Quality problems, high cost and late delivery in the first instance strike directly at the customers who use our goods. But in the next period, when the customer’s patience runs out or another choice appears, they will stop using our goods — and at that point there is no escaping an effect on the whole company.
The machine, safety and morale
A machine can bring danger to the person using it and the person repairing it, through being used incorrectly, used the wrong way, or having no guard fitted. More than that, it sometimes arises from maintenance aimed only at getting the machine usable, with no thought for safety — taking the guard off, making the machine run faster without regard to what the machine can stand — which brings enormous danger with it. And whenever employees lose their morale, a great many further harms follow.
The machine, society and the environment
A machine that has not been maintained enough will not work to its full capability, while still consuming the same energy — electricity or fuel — as before. More than that, it may sometimes consume more.
Such a machine also plays its part in creating pollution of various kinds — noise, temperatures above normal, smoke from combustion, or a chemical leak. Seen at the wider level of society, we find that this is destruction of the environment, because obtaining energy must for the most part be paid for by destroying the environment.
A machine breaking down, looked at only on the surface, merely means there is no machine to use; hurry the repair through and there will be one again shortly. But looked at with a conscience for loss and for improvement, that breakdown is found to have a great many effects — on the company, on the customer, on the employees and on society.