Successful implementation of quality management is one of the most essential elements of running an organization profitably. Successful implementation involves determining how to automate business processes, conform to regulatory standards, and leverage the data needed in multiple processes. However, it is often seen that companies rarely use quality management systems in their organization’s maintenance departments. This may seem strange when we consider the fact that a high percentage of equipment failures occurs due to poor maintenance methods.
The Components of Quality Management
Quality management components usually include two types of activities. Quality assurance control activities designed to ensure that quality is built into the process. Quality control includes activities designed to ensure that desired quality levels are actually achieved by the process at all times.
It is irrational to expect that quality assurance will be 100 percent effective in preventing maintenance and commissioning errors. The activities are controlled to a large extent by human actions, which mean that possibility of mistakes will remain high, regardless of the strictness of procedure implementation. Inspecting every defect using quality control methods can prove to be highly expensive to the company.
How Quality Management Can Minimize Potential Failures?
Meticulousness maintenance can only be achieved by well-trained people using proven methods and procedures. Quality assurance can be incorporated in maintenance department of a company by inserting steps in the procedures that require multiple checks. This can be tough and time-consuming, but it can minimize the chances of potential failure significantly.
Quality management means having a series of steps in place that ensure that the personnel come back to check and re-check systems and tools for inadvertent errors. The use of advanced quality management tools will enhance the ability of the organization to find defects, if any. The system can be used to detect misalignment, close couplings, leaking fittings, missing insulation, loose electrical connections, and other installation faults after maintenance work.
Taking All Concerned On Board Ensures Successful Implementation
It is important to register support from all levels of the organization, which is crucial to the success of implementation of quality management. For effective implementation of quality management processes in the maintenance department, the management and the staff members must be shown its potential value and what it brings to the organization. Studies also show that a well-designed and executed quality management maintenance program costs significantly than preventive or predictive maintenance alone.
A solid quality management program identifies potential problems that could occur in maintenance and also runs quality checks and documentation expectations. Once the process steps are written and the flow chart is approved by all departments involved, it becomes an official control plan. The project and quality assurance teams’ heads then approve the control plan with the final process steps.
Quality management in maintenance helps identify potential failures as well as the severity of the resulting failures, likelihood of occurrence, and the ability of your maintenance team to detect the failure. To guarantee that your measuring systems do not introduce errors into your process, both manual and electronic measuring devices must be calibrated and used at various stages to ensure that errors do not creep in.
