How to capture key employee knowledge and operating data before the employee retires.

The U.S. Department of Labor says that at least 30 percent of the existing workforce will be eligible for retirement in five years. It predicts that US utilities alone will have to replace at least 10,000 retirees. The loss of undocumented processes, equipment operation details, “work-arounds”, and “tricks of the trade” could increase company’s probability of catastrophic failure.

The typical EAM/CMMS database has not been kept up to date. Here are some ideas on how to capture information before employees retire.

		CAPTURING ACTUALS
1	Long term	Train maintenance staff to enter work order records in the CMMS to capture historical information such as
			Create work order record in the CMMS for work performed
			Enter Asset identifier which was affected (on this work order)
			Enter Type of work (repair, PM or non-repair)
			Enter Failure/Problem coding
			Enter Actual man-hours
			Enter Actual findings and actions taken (in text format)
			Status change to “work complete” when work is done

2

Long term

Have printed work order taken in the field (when work is to be performed). Worker records comments, actions taken and actual hours/materials. Return this paper to clerical staff and have this data entered into CMMS.

		CREATE WORK TEMPLATES (JOB PLANS)
3	Long term	Capture comments, actions taken and actual hours/materials on paper and file this paper in a file cabinet – sorted by system (or asset) (or asset classification).

4

Long term

Capture actions performed and convert to job plans. Have an extra person record actions-taken while repair maintenance is performed. These job plans should then be entered into the CMMS.

		CAPTURE PROBLEM CODES
5	Long Term	Build a failure/problem code hierarchy. For each repair work order, enter a problem code.

6

Long term

Print out completed repair work for last 6 months – sorted by asset (or asset classification code). Ask yourself, what caused this breakdown. Could have this repair have been prevented?

		INTERVIEW
7	Short term	Take the last week on-site for the senior staff member and remove them from shift routine. Begin an interview process. Consider taping this interview.
		A	Identify the most significant assets (and/or facilities). Apply a priority ranking.
		B	Identify any in-depth repair procedures – not previously documented
		C	Obtain staff review in terms of strengths and weaknesses. Record recommendations for improvement.
		D	Get any opinions on current CMMS product in terms of functionality or data management or reporting capabilities.
		E	Ask “what single action taken” could add significant value to the overall efficiency and productivity of the organization.