Help...Need Advice Fast

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Here's the situation:
The place I work for builds and operates a particular piece of medical lab equipment (If I said what it was it would reveal where I work). Part of my job is to do maintenance and repair on this machine.

We have 17 of these machines. The current maintenance procedure calls for certain items to be replaced weekly. This takes about 4 hrs. There is only about 4hrs during the day when the machines aren't in use. There are 3 of us technicians and we also have to be present during working hours to do repairs. The lab runs 7 days a week. Yo can see where this is headed. It is physically impossible to do all of the recommended maintenance in the allotted time.

The way we have been working is that I work Wed-Sat and do primarily repairs. Another guy works Sun-Wed. And the third works mon-fri from 1pm-9pm. Monday we only run a first shift. The problem is that these 2 guys have been doing an abbreviated maintenance all this time. It turns out that most of the items in the PM procedure only actually need to be done about every 6months.

Now they want to rearrange the schedule so I will be doing more PM's. The problem is that I'm going to be expected to follow this procedure and still get it done in an hour like the other guys. I've already lost one job under the same circumstances and now I'm afraid it's happening again. If I skip stuff on the maintenance I run the risk of getting caught and then what do I say? I'm just doing what the other guys do? If I do everything to the letter, I get in trouble for working to slow because obviously everyone else is able to get the work done in an hour.

My Aspie nature wants to follow the procedure and follow the rules. I'm having trouble processing what to do when those 2 things are opposed. Is there another option I'm missing?

That is a tough dilemma. If that was me, I'd ask the other guys about it. If they also are being told to do the full PM procedure but still do the abbreviated version and manage to get away with it, then chances are good you can get away with it as well.

On the other hand, the reason that all the pressure is being put on to you may be due to the fact that you are simply more thorough than the other guys. In that case, I'd recommend a heart-to-heart with your manager, explaining that you either need more time or more employees to get the job done. (If they say, "but the other guy can do the full thing in under an hour by himself" then delicately remind your boss that the other guy is doing the abbreivated maintaince, not the full P.M.) If it really can't be done in the time allocated with the # of people on the job, compromises will have to be made. After all, even if you get fired I doubt the next guy they hire will be able to do the impossible.

I wish I could offer more useful advice, but the situtation you depicted was a little vague.

06,

First, I'd like to do a bit of math. Let's see...

17 machines each needing 4 hours of maintenance weekly (you mention a 4hr time window that's needed). Multiply that and it works out to 68 hours of maintenance weekly.

If my calcs are correct... First you have 3 techs and those machines shoud be shut down for that 4hr time window while you are on the premises. Your Wed - Sat shifts allow collectively 16 hours of maintenance based on spending that 4hrs daily doing the repairs. You have another tech working Sun - Wed, giving another 16 hours. 32 hours being done vs 68 hours needed. We still have a defisit. If the Mon - Fri tech is doing his job, that's 20 hours, bringing the total to 52 hours. We are still tragically short of the 68 hours needed.

From what I read in your post, those 2 other guys don't seem to be doing their full job but they seem to be getting away with it. How much maintenance time are those machines really getting? Now there's talk of re-arranging your work schedule so more will be expected of you and you're already not able to meet the deadlines.


I see one (or both) of two things:

(1) Your supervisor must be the living epitome of incompetance when it comes to the logistics of managing a workplace with equipment that needs a lot of maintenance and scheduling the staff accordingly to keep things in tip-top condition

(2) Your supervisor has caught on to your vulnerability and has you in his crosshairs. He knows himself that the expectations are beyond reason and he is carefully concocting a scheme that will make you look like you are the cause for everything that has gone wrong in the place. Let's face it. We Aspies run well above average in workplace bullying statistics. I've experienced it myself. If that's the case, he'll be the one to save his ass and you'll be the one left with a ship-wrecked career


Are you any good at writing? The best I can suggest is to document your observations as attentively as possible and chances are you'll very soon see a pattern emerge. I also suggest you Google the term "workplace bullying". Chances are you'll find a closely matching pattern or story. If it comes to that you have to defend yourself, your documentations will hold a lot in your favor and give your bully one hell of a scare

Whatever the outcome, good luck

The truth is a bit of both. My supervisor is the world's biggest moron, however if it comes down to his ass or mine I know who'll get tossed. I don't think he's really bullying (that happened in my last job). However, he does seem to have some animosity towards one of the other guys, I'll call him G. The third guy, J, is the newest and has mentioned to me before that he is uncomfortable not following the procedure but didn't want to rock the boat.

I believe the supervisor has recognized that I'm more thorough, and some of the operators of the equipment have told me they know G doesn't do the complete maintenance. So it could be that the super is using me to set up G.

I think I'm on pretty secure ground so I believe I'll follow the procedure and let the chips fall where they will.

Thanks for listening. NT's make this stuff look so easy.

Here is what algorythms recommend:

Step 1:
Start with a complement and thank your boss for bringing up something that has been a problem for the whole lab. That is what bosses are for

Step 2:
Present the data as a group. It is a lab problem...Put together the numbers of hours the EQUIPMENT is available for service and the number of hours the manufacturer procedure recommends.


Step3:
People are most likely to accept ideas of their own creation (or those they think they created) and there are many, many possible solutions - so let your boss choose. Generally this comes up in a brainstorm meeting


1) Get an extra machine so one can be rotated out of service nd pm'd in stages

2) Call the manufacturer - or your sales rep and explain the problems the excessive maintenance is causing with emphasis on the fact that the heavy reommendations make the compeditor's devices look good. Make manufacturer provide a new workable schedule.

3) Do the PM in stages as close to the schedule as possible. Generally we schedule pms of our equipment at 50% mean time to failure.

4) If the systems are out of warrenty, calculate the risks and benifits of a reduced schedule and if it seems ok, go with it. --- Make your boss write up/approve the revised schedule.

5) If you are subject to GMP, ISO, or FDA regulations, etc... sugguest that your boss have the GMP/QA person draft the revised PM and document it. So long s you document the procedure and have a rational justification you will be ok.

6) Get manufacturer's training on the PM. Perhaps the schedule is a CYA for the manufacturer or maybe there are tricks and shortcuts you don't know.

We are the designers of the equipment (although the machines are built for us by another company) and I am the service person. The schedule and procedure were my boss's idea, so naturally he is fairly protective of them.
We did at one point have 2 extra machines for purposes of rotation, but Operations immediately saw them as extra productivity and put them into service.
I talked it over with the other guys and let them know that I was going to be following the procedure, as long as it takes. They agreed that it was the only way our boss would see that changes needed to be made.

Nice approach. Sounds like we are in a similar business --- I design medical delivery devices.

When I worked in the service group- it was normal to base pms on our best estimate and then as we did pms and collected data (for example in one case it took three pms before a part we inspected for ware was actually worn) we often were able to change time intervals.

This did not mean that the person (in this case your boss) was wrong - just that there was more information to optomize.

Glad to see the happy ending.

Make sure when you communicate with your boss you keep documentation of all information given to him. Also approach things as a systems problem, not as a personal problem. Don't say it is not do-able, the boss doesn't want to hear that. Try to offer some type of solution but don't feel bad if the boss doesn't want to try it. The purpose of offering the suggestion is to get something on the table, and not look like a complainer or negative. That always makes a better impression. You don't need to solve the problem yourself, just get a dialogue going. Good luck!

Since the machines are already running 20 hours per day, the solution would be to go to a 24-hour schedule and rotate the down-time so that there is always a machine available for maintenance. That would give you 42 maintenance slots per week with 16 of 17 machines available at all times. Operations may not like having "spares", but in the context of routine maintenance the machine that's out of service isn't really a spare, as a spare (to me) is a machine that is available but not in use - a machine that is being serviced isn't available. Incidentally, you could point out that the reason machines need unscheduled repairs is because they are not getting proper schedule maintenance. Operations may decide it's easier to adjust the bookings weeks in advance to accomodate scheduled maintenance rather than juggling the bookings in a panic when a machine is broken.


I would not try to drag other people into this, as they will be defensive and you'll be arguing with everyone instead of just the boss. Instead, apprach the boss and tell him "I notice that some parts that are scheduled for monthly replacement are really not worn out. Would it be OK if instead of replacing the part I put a note in the service log saying that it was checked and found to be OK?" This puts your boss on the spot - he has to either agree that maintenance can be skipped or reiterate that the scheduled replacements must be made. DON'T SAY ANYTHING. The next time you do repairs and find a part that had not been replaced for six months, pull it out and take it to the boss and tell him that the reason the machine was broken was because *someone* hasn't been following the authorized procedure. You aren't trying to prove that the maintenance CAN be skipped (as the boss decided it can't and you don't want to be seen as re-arguing the same point), but showing that maintenance HAS been skipped by someone else. You don't have to say it was willfull - you could say that the procedure is complicated and maybe a more detailed check-list (with signatures for each step) should be provided. You could *gently* remind the boss that you would hate to get sued by a patient who was injured because of poor maintenance practises.

BTW, there used to be a big problem with fraudulent maintenance in the auto industry. Two things have solved this:
1) The auto manufacturer publishes a book listing the pre-determined time for each maintenance task. If a task is supposed to take 30 minutes then the repair shop can't bill the customer for anything more than 30 minutes and the service staff can't be expected to do it in less than 30 minutes. You could ask your boss to go through the maintenance list and figure out how long each task is supposed to take. You are then justified in asking for that much time to do the work, and if the other staff do the work in less time then it will look suspicious.
2) The government mandated that repair shops must keep all parts removed from the vehicle, must show them to the customer and explain why each was replaced, and must keep the old parts on-site for a period of time (7 days?) before throwing them away or sending them for refurbishment (unless the customer signs a waiver, which is usually in the fine print on the bill but can be crossed-out). This serves two purposes -- it prevents a repair shop for billing the customer for work that was never done, but also prevents them from doing needless work just to inflate the bill and then installing removed "almost new" parts in someone else's car. The old parts are kept so that the customer can complain to the government if fraud is suspected and the government can go to the shop and demand to see the old parts. You could suggest to your boss that he keep all removed parts for a period of time so that they can be compared to each other and to new parts "for quality control purposes". The other guys will have no choice but to do the work.


Well, since you're working with medical equipment, the odds are pretty good your shop is licenced and inspected by the state's medical authority. If your boss insists on doing 4 hours of maintenance in 1 hour then you could make an anonymous complaint to the government so that the business would be inspected. Of course, if they ever found out it was you then you'd lose your job.

The obvious solution is to have spare machines. Two were built for that purpose (at a cost of $60K) and operations promptly hired more operators and put them into production. Unfortunatlely, my boss seems to be unwilling to take a stand on this.

The other part of the equation is that my supervisor has no repair and maintenance experience whatsoever. In fact his whole background is very vague. Supposedly he is an engineer, but no one seems to know exactly what his degree is in. At any rate, he has no concept of how long the various tasks take.

The solution I've come up with so far is to come in before the operators and commandeer a machine for maintenance and then take as long as it takes. Operations will probably then complain about down time, but they were the ones who complained about maintenance not being done in the first place, so hopefully this will get some genuine give and take dialog started.

We are kind of in a loophole as far as government supervision. Since we are the manufacturer of the machine, we can set our own maintenance procedures. Also, lab equipment isn't as strictly regulated as patient contact devices. A word of advice after 15 years repairing medical equipment...don't put too much weight on lab results.

When it comes right down to it, I'm just trying to keep my job. So I'll follow the procedure, as long as it takes, and if he complains that I'm not doing it fast enough I'll ask him to demonstrate how it can be done faster. By the way, J is on board for following the procedure. C is goofing off more so that it takes him the same length of time as J and I, without actually doing any extra work.