Let’s face it, when it comes to preventive maintenance inspections, some technicians are more thorough than others. It’s not that some technicians deliberately do a less-than-efficient job. Rather, it’s more likely that no one has ensured they have had the proper training or shared the tips the top-performing technicians use to make sure PM inspections are as efficient as possible.
When was the last time you watched one of your top performing techs complete a PM inspection? Or documented — in minute detail — everything he or she did during the process?
I could hazard a guess that few of you have taken the time to codify your PM inspection process. While it can be time consuming to do so, it might be worth your while to spend some time with your top techs as they complete PM inspections.
The goal would be to have written procedures in place that all techs — not just the top performing techs — could follow.
What’s the benefit of having a consistent, repeatable PM inspection process? Peace of mind for one thing. If all your technicians are performing inspections in the exact same way, it is not a quantum leap that they will be paying the same amount of attention to the things that matter most to you. And the end result of all that attention means that the problem areas that plague your fleet will be found during inspections regardless of who is performing it.
So what’s the next step? You need to spend some time with the techs you think do the best job with a PM inspection. Then develop a procedure manual for how a proper PMI should be conducted and design your inspection form to match the process.
If you use outside service providers to do some of your maintenance inspections, insist they use the same forms your own techs are using and that they follow the exact procedures you have outlined.
You’ll spend a little time in the beginning getting the procedures written and the form just right. But once you do that, you can turn any technician loose and watch as they complete perfect PMIs over-and-over-and-over again.
