'While improvisation is great in a theater, it introduces potential quality problems in maintenance.' Technicians must have the correct tools and equipment, parts, materials, supplies and consumables available for the job. 'If the wrong things are made available, then the technician must improvise,' explains Levitt.

The most important element of quality is that technicians have a complete knowledge of the scope of work they will be doing, plus have the necessary skills to perform the work.Some of the key elements for achieving this are: 'In maintenance, as in manufacturing, we know much of what is needed to produce quality work and a safe work environment,' he says. While Deming's focus was on manufacturing, his style of management applies to maintenance as well, according to Levitt. The key, he said, was to practice continual improvement, and to think of manufacturing as a system, not as bits and pieces. These points were the basis for transformation of Japanese industry.ĭeming taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations can increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs by reducing waste, rework, staff attrition and litigation while increasing customer loyalty.

In developing his Guide for Transforming Japan into a World Power, Deming created his 14 Points for Management.

He was regarded by many as the leading quality guru in the U.S.Īfter World War II, Deming was invited to Japan by the country's industrial leaders and engineers to help them transform their businesses. Edwards Deming is known as the father of the Japanese post-war industrial revival. He is president of Springfield Resources, a Lafayette Hill, PA-based management consulting firm that services clients of all sizes on a wide range of maintenance issues. Levitt has conducted more than 500 training sessions for more than 15,000 maintenance leaders from 3,000 organizations in more than 20 countries. For example, in some circumstances, maintenance quality may mean no downtime, or safe operation, or on-time turnaround, or quick response, or no repeat repairs, or keeping a vehicle in spec or a satisfied customer.Ĭonsequently, the first step in improving the quality of any maintenance operation is to define quality in the way most useful to the operating environment, advises Joel Levitt, a leading trainer of maintenance professionals and the author of a column on management that appears regularly in Fleet Maintenance. Maintenance quality improvement means very different things to different people and organizations.

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