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in work control. The maintenance program fills this potential void. As supervisors are phased out, mean- ingful tasks must be created to match their considerable talents and experience. Maintenance engineering and reliability tasks are potential solutions. Above all, avoid having former supervisors feel they are redundant as some might try to preserve the status quo or downplay the team effort. Team formation also means choosing team players carefully to avoid taking on difficult behavioral changes that are required to make the team functional. And, decide whether the new team will be salaried or hourly; salaried employees may be looking for the "perks" (like flexible lunch periods), but maintenance work assignments may not permit them the same latitude afforded salaried personnel. Establish team decision-making param- eters carefully. A team may be qualified to make decisions on how to perform work but not when. Determine in advance the boundaries within which the teams can make decisions. Determine how craft skills will be eval- uated and remedial training provided to improve lagging skills. A team could become a hiding place for a worker who needs skill training. Similarly, others might become "whistle blowers," anxious to point someone out who doesn't carry a fair share of the work. These situations can demoral- ize the teams overall efforts and should be precluded before they can develop. One newly formed team established a way to find and correct training needs. By linking skills with incremental wage increases, craft personnel were able to request consideration for an increase. A group of the candidate's peers assembled a group to judge the candidates knowledge. Questioning was tough and fair. If the can- didate met the interview requirement, he was then tested for practical experience. For example, a unit of equipment had been rigged with several faults. The candidate was given an opportunity to diagnose and correct all of the faults and restore the equipment to satisfactory condition within a specific period of time. If both the interview and the practical experience requirements were met, the candidate was endorsed for the new skill status and wage increase. Most team members have not had the training or the experience to develop their own work control procedures. However, a solid program can guide them in develop- ing these skills. Finally, as the team settles in, verify that a good working relationship with operations exists so that new team members will not have to struggle with "people" problems. Business-unit organization—Business units, in which one supervisor is responsible for both operations and maintenance, are a very practical and workable organization. Aside from removing the obvious 'finger pointing' between operations and mainte- nance, the business unit builds leadership and professionalism. If, for example, the unit manager is a long-term production type, he can aid the development of greater 'profes- sionalism' among craft personnel. They depend on him to lead and he is fully depend- ent on them for quality work. Thus, the busi- ness unit manager who exhibits quality lead- ership will realize "professional" support from craft personnel in return (Figure 3). The business unit also brings equip- ment operators and craft personnel into closer working proximity. There is opportu- nity for them to create an operations-main- tenance team. Soon, the capabilities of operators to perform specific, helpful maintenance tasks become apparent. Similarly, equipment operators learn more about the way their equipment works and are better able to identify potential prob- lems. As the operations-maintenance "team" effort grows, the equipment opera- tors see maintenance personnel in a differ- ent light. They are more confident and report problems promptly and correctly. Maintenance personnel, in turn, volunteer shortcuts in adjusting or calibrating equip- ment. A real team environment emerges. Business units are a potentially valuable method of improving maintenance produc- tivity. Many of these same benefits can apply to the team organization as well. Pay Attention to Critical Elements Critical parts of organizations must be carefully examined. Some, like planning, have existed for a long time and are still misunderstood. Others are new as with maintenance and reliability engineering and present challenges in their use and placement in the organization. Planning—The significant benefits of planning and scheduling warrant the correct use of maintenance planners. Their principal task is to organize selected major jobs in advance. Selection of these jobs should adhere to criteria. Resulting work can then be carried productively, with minimum man- power in the least elapsed downtime. This productivity assures quality work to yield longer periods before work has to be repeat- ed, thus slowing the rate of material and spare parts consumption. The benefits are real but often the incorrect use of planners as "parts chaser" or "work order administra- tors"can limit planning effectiveness. Ensure that program documentation establishes their duties and responsibilities, correct uti- lization and verification of compliance. Maintainability and reliability—Ensuring equipment maintainability and reliability are vital objectives for mining operations. Yet, they have also been elusive for the lack of an organizational structure and a cohe- sive strategy to achieve them. A mainte- nance engineer provides the tactics that ensure equipment maintainability while the reliability engineer focuses on equipment defect elimination. They function in unison to support the efforts of field supervisors. The maintenance engineer, for example, 58 E&MJ; • MARCH 2016 www.e-mj.com M A I N T E N A N C E Figure 3—The business unit manager controls both operations and maintenance. If the maintenance activity is large and complex, he may utilize a planner exclusively. Otherwise, planning services would be made available as needed.