Maintenance usually doesn't get a lot of attention, and the people who do it rarely get the respect they deserve. In public works, that's a costly error in the way we think and do business. In this presentation, we offer (1) a way to conceptualize maintenance so that it's done efficiently, (2) practical ideas for making maintenance easier, and (3) guidelines for communicating maintenance needs to the powers that be.

1. MAINTENANCE:
HOW TO NOT HATE IT
Brian Gongol
DJ Gongol & Associates, Inc.
April 7, 2017
Iowa WEA Region IV Spring Meeting
Atlantic, Iowa

2. Terrorism is scary.

3. We spend massive sums on detection
 NSA
 CIA
 TSA
 FBI
 Homeland Security
 Local law enforcement

4. Cameras

5. Sensors
 Radiation
 X-ray
 Biological weapons
 Full-body scanners

6. The detection doesn't always work
Resulting in failures
that grip the
world's attention

7. Detection failures
 1993 WTC bombing
 Khobar Towers bombing
 9/11
 Shoe bomber
 Underwear bomber
 Boston Marathon bombing
 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (?)

8. More attention leads to more surveillance
Even though the events are incredibly rare

9. Story-tellers magnify the story
Reporters, pundits, politicians, and others

10. ...until we spend billions without thinking twice
$16.6 billion a year

11. What's a lot scarier?
Deferred maintenance.

12. Scarier, really?
Not to diminish the tragedies that have occurred,
but they are extremely low-probability events.
Your individual chances of being affected are
indistinguishable from zero.
But our choices as a society mean that
infrastructure failures are certain to occur,
with extremely widespread impact,
and can range from inconveniences to calamities.

13. Truth time
It should terrify us to think that we
choose to put ourselves at risk
solely due to a lack of willpower
to take responsibility for
an entirely preventable condition

14. $3.6 trillion in deferred maintenance
 Anti-terrorism:
 $16.6 billion spent yearly
 $50 per person
 Deferred maintenance:
 $3,600.0 billion needed
 $11,000 per person

15. That's $3,600 billion
 Or about 217 years of anti-terrorism funding

16. Nobody talks about it, though.

17. A simple question and a troubling answer
Who has been asked to defer maintenance
because of a budget shortfall?

18. A simple question and a troubling answer
Who has been asked to accelerate maintenance
to make up for what has been deferred?

19. That gap you're seeing
We treat "maintenance" like a bank account
from which we only ever borrow

20. Maintenance means just holding the line
What we should really advocate is
continuous improvement

21. You're in an unenviable position
Having to address an expensive problem
with under-funded resources

22. A three-fold strategy for easier maintenance

23. 1. Fix our concept of maintenance
It can't always be an emergency

24. 2. Make practical maintenance easier

25. 3. Communicate the problem effectively

26. CONCEPT

27. Even nature has maintenance cycles

28. Small forest fires are natural

29. Big fires result from human intervention

30. Not all maintenance is worth doing!

31. Maintenance is about one thing
Getting the full life-cycle value from a product

32. Extending life means actively saving money

33. Think of operational savings in pretax dollars
$1.25 to $1.33 in pretax income
to the ordinary taxpayer

34. So let's save some money!

35. Types of maintenance
 Fix on failure
 Scheduled
 Preventive
 Predictive

36. Each approach has its place
But it's up to you to figure out which way to go

37. Fix on failure
When it's cheap, simple, and in-stock, like a pen

38. Scheduled maintenance
When there is lots of data from prior experience

39. Preventive maintenance
When a failure puts you at serious risk
of long-term downtime

40. Predictive maintenance
When the signals of trouble are well-known
and surveillance is cheap

41. In the context of your health...

42. Fix on failure
Bandage on a papercut

43. Scheduled maintenance
Getting your annual physical
(prostate exams, colonoscopies, cholesterol tests...)

44. Preventive maintenance
Regular exercise

45. Predictive maintenance
 Blood pressure checks
 Body-composition bathroom scales
 Blood-sugar tests

46. We rely too heavily on fix-on-failure
(Not a recommended
maintenance strategy.)

47. You would never fly Fix-On-Failure Airlines

48. Now that we get the concept...

49. PRACTICE

50. Avoid the curse of Shary Bobbins

51. Always put safety first

52. You are the most valuable piece of equipment

53. Lock out, tag out

54. Check for gases

55. Seriously. Check for gases.

56. Prevent slips, trips, and falls
Carpet pattern designed as if to maximize disorientation
CenturyLink Center, Omaha

57. Prevent muscle strain

58. Keep safety equipment in good repair
 Guards
 Belts
 Sensors
 Handrails

59. Measurement means control

60. Everyone knows quantitative measurements

61. Pump run times

62. Energy consumption

63. Flows

64. Pressure readings

65. Oil temperatures

66. Motor casing temperatures

67. But qualitative measurements matter, too

68. Vibration

69. Smells/scents/odors

70. Smells/scents/odors
 bitter
 burnt
 citrusy
 fermented
 fishy
 fresh
 fruity
 grassy
 hot
 moldy
 musty
 oily
 oppressive
 organic
 pungent
 rotten
 sharp
 smoky
 sour
 sulfuric
 sweet

71. Sounds

72. Sounds
 bassy
 buzz
 chirp
 clack
 clap
 click
 crescendo
 dissonant
 echo
 grind
 growl
 harmonic
 hum
 knock
 loud
 muffled
 piercing
 ping
 quiet
 rattle
 rhythmic
 ringing
 rumble
 screech
 sharp
 squeak
 squeal
 staccato
 tap
 whinny
 whoosh

73. Why take measurements?
And keep qualitative records?

74. From fix-on-failure to anticipation
Making the change means
collecting and using data

75. Not appropriate to everything

76. Litmus test
If downtime would wake you in the middle of the night
and a replacement isn't on your own shelf,
use some kind of predictive/preventive measurement

77. Make it easy to measure and record

78. Make it easy to review performance

79. Take the time to review

80. I-35W: Calculations were "too much work"

81. Take records straight to a tablet or netbook
 Eliminates handwriting errors
 Eliminates copying errors
 Promotes rapid visualization

82. Prices are so low, it's highly justifiable

83. Use free resources

84. E-mail

85. Calendars

86. Charts, checklists, and task lists

87. Correction: GOOD checklists

88. Follow the 7x7 rule

89. Make it comprehensible in one look

90. Make them easy to digest at a glance

91. People like to keep up unbroken chains

92. "X" days without a safety incident

93. Know your indicators
 Problem indicators
 Smoke from under the hood
 Planned indicators
 Squeaking brakes

94. Conduct a post-mortem on failures and incidents
 What did it cost you?
 What signals were missed?

95. Primary predictive-maintenance indicators
 Temperatures
 Oil/lubricant conditions
 Ultrasonic analysis
 Vibration
 Performance trends

96. Nobody wants to do the dirtiest job

97. Create a culture that encourages maintenance
Starting with ownership of the process

98. Wax/paint/clean the equipment

99. Broken window effect

100. A baseline for what's right...
...makes it easier to see when something's wrong

101. A hidden payback
When you practice regular maintenance,
you get to know the equipment
on an expert level
Expert-level understanding makes
trouble resolution much faster

102. What you have in common with machines
Some of the things that
make your life more pleasant
help equipment, too

103. Winter heating
Proper heating in winter prevents freezing

104. Summer cooling
Well-ventilated motors
are more reliable and more efficient

105. Turn better maintenance into a game

106. Rival departments (or shifts)

107. Rival communities

108. Leverage your efforts & improve motivation
Friendly rivalries with
something on the line
(pride or a small wager)
raise the level of performance
all around

109. Make it a measurable goal with a small wager
Doughnuts?
Lunch?
A round of beers?

110. Buddy system aids information-sharing

111. Create your own "peer group"
Valuable for comparisons in reports

112. If you're doing well
The peer group helps you take credit

113. If you're doing badly
Peer pressure can motivate improvement

114. If you need more resources
The peer group helps you make the case

115. Reward good maintenance ideas
Multi-thousand-dollar ideas go un-shared
because people don't think they'll be rewarded

116. Rewards beget buy-in
"You can achieve amazing progress
if you set a clear goal and find a measure
that will drive progress toward that goal
in a feedback loop."
- Bill Gates

117. Use mental tricks to help yourself
Make maintenance automatic

118. Conserve mental energy
Don't make more
choices than
necessary

119. Color-coded tools

120. Opt-in versus opt-out
 When the default option is participation, one-third of people
stick with retirement plans who wouldn't have signed up on
their own

121. Add a third choice to make

122. Add a third choice to make

123. Batches of three
Just clustering tasks and choices
in groups of three
reduces the mental tax
of decision-making

124. Conserve mental energy for what matters
"What do you want for dinner?"
"I don't know. What do you want?"
"I don't know."

125. Tools under $25 to improve maintenance

126. Kneepad

127. Graph pads

128. Fold-out two-wheeler

129. Lock-out, tag-out devices

130. Pilot's kneeboard

131. Custom toolkits for frequent tasks

132. Foam roller

133. Reach extender

134. Zip ties (cable ties)

135. Carabiners

136. It is not wasteful to duplicate tools
 If it's the difference between doing the maintenance and not
 If it saves time on a quick payback period

137. Play hurt sometimes
Figure out what is adding extra strain,
then eliminate it

138. Concept and practice: Done.
Now...

139. COMMUNICATION

140. Get the resources you need

141. Explaining to people who don't do maintenance
Maybe not even at home

142. Give them three forecasts
Best case, worst case, and most likely
(Remember: People default to the middle)

143. We have to engage people who think:
 Infrastructure happens by magic
 The work gets done by people who are beneath them

144. Professionals speak up for themselves
 CPAs funding "Feed the Pig" commercials
 Medical journals in the news
 Trial lawyers making campaign contributions

145. We can't be timid about real needs!
Worn-out infrastructure is no good
for the people actually doing the work,
and it does no service to customers

146. Reluctant? Why?
Too time-consuming?
Too much effort?
No motivation?

147. Just because we don't do it now...
...doesn't mean it goes away.
It usually just gets worse.

148. If time is short...
Can a better strategy save time?

149. If time is short...
Are you valuing the opportunity cost of your time?

150. If it requires too much effort...
Are we just hoping to run out the clock
and avoid the eventual catastrophic failure?

151. If you're unmotivated...
Think about saving yourself a 2 a.m. weekend call

152. If it's external, examine why
 Not enough staff or hours in the day?
 Not enough funding?
 No support from "on high"?

153. Just because it isn't done
...doesn't mean it doesn't have to be done

154. Troubles happen
 Potholes
 Bridge collapses (I-35W)
 Levee failures (Hamburg)
 Main breaks
 Sewer backups

155. People see (and feel) potholes

156. Water-related utilities are relatively invisible
We have to speak up about the invisible
"potholes" in water and sewer systems

157. Cost deferral isn't cost prevention

158. Cost deferral is usually cost compounding

159. If we don't communicate what we need
...we shouldn't be surprised if we don't get it.

160. You have to tell them what you need

161. Add a little bit of "Why?"
Make it a "Why" that matters to the decision-maker

162. Words matter
"Honey Wagon"

163. Euphemisms don't really help
But we must consider
real perceptions and
their consequences

164. Since 1989, people have watched

165. ...which is a more compelling title than

166. Words really do matter
The same food waste
is perceived differently
when it moves
from the garbage can
to the compost bin

167. Words really do matter
Consider the magical transformation
from sludge to biosolids

168. Honest improvements to "Maintenance"
 Asset manager
 Capital-preservation specialist
 Incident-prevention supervisor
 Public-health technician
 Service reliability agent

169. Alternative titles to avoid
 Museum curator
 Crisis-response team
 Equipment babysitter

170. People rarely ask what maintenance will cost
Or how much good maintenance
changes the life expectancy

171. Caring for assets makes you a:
 Guardian
 Conservator
 Trustee
 Custodian
 Steward
 Fiduciary

172. "Cheap" isn't always cheap
"Cheap" up-front
may cost you a fortune

173. Doing maintenance right saves you grief
AVOID PAIN!

174. Good maintenance saves customers money
PLEASE THE PEOPLE!

175. Summary:
 Do the right maintenance for the right equipment
 Fix-on-failure, scheduled, preventive, predictive
 Use your brain as often as your hands
 Place a real value on maintenance and communicate it

176. Questions?
 Thank you for coming!  Brian Gongol
 DJ Gongol & Associates
 515-223-4144
 info@djgongol.com

177. References:
 Cost of anti-terrorism:
 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/11/u-s-spends-over-16-billion-annually-on-counter-
terrorism/
 Cost of deferred maintenance:
 http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/news/
 Retirement opt-in participation:
 http://www.nber.org/bah/summer06/w12009.html
 Airport security photo (public domain):
 https://twitter.com/TSAMedia_RossF/status/375424954600157185/photo/1
 I-35W "too much work":
 http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/52124637.html
 I-35W photo (public domain):
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I35W_Collapse_-_Day_4_-_Operations_%26_Scene_(95).jpg
 Osama bin Laden screen capture:
 http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/usama-bin-laden
 Aircraft boneyard photo (public domain):
 http://research.archives.gov/description/6505216
 All other photos and illustrations are original work by Brian Gongol. Copyright and all other rights are reserved.