Lean maintenance and its many faces

What Lean Maintenance is all about?

Lean Maintenance is the application of Lean philosophy, tools and techniques to the maintenance function. It has the same goals as the application of Lean principles to the manufacturing function: eliminating wasted time, effort and material (and resulting cost) while improving throughput and quality.

As Lean Manufacturing seeks to provide products at the highest quality at the lowest cost in the shortest possible time, Lean Maintenance provides the same attributes to the maintenance function. In fact, Lean Manufacturing depends highly on reliable systems and equipment to achieve its potential.

Lean does not imply cutting the fat or eliminating jobs. It is not an attempt to reduce cost through headcount reductions, which typically don't have anything to do with reducing work. Lean organizations reduce costs by eliminating activities that don't add value to the product stream. It means reassigning people and resources from unnecessary work to value-adding work.

Many tools used to implement Lean principles in manufacturing operations also apply to implementing Lean Maintenance. These tools include:

• 5-S process
• Elimination of the Seven Deadly Wastes
• Kaizen
• Jidoka (Quality at the Source)
• JIT (Just in Time).

I came across in this article some years ago, I think that was 2005. That was during the time I am searching about Lean Maintenance. I like the idea on Lean Maintenance but I never heard this term (Lean Maintenance) in our company department but I assure that we're practicing its application.

Source: Bruce Hawkins, CMRP, CPMM, Life Cycle Engineering | Plant Engineering