The future of Maintenance -Part1 – Where are we now?

Our future destination does not depend on where we are now, it depends on where we want to go. But, the route to where we want to reach depends on where we are now. However, there it is not only one route. There are many ways or routes that can take us from here to there. Even more, we can change this route after a while and jump to a new one i.e. detour. But we need to keep our target, destination or the arrival station we want always in our focus. Our compass need to point always to our north star. This means that wherever you are and however far you are, you will reach your destination as long as you keep it in you focus and you keep looking to your compass between now and then to direct your journey properly.

Moreover, you may stay longer at some stations on the road and skip others, it is always the commander free choice. Each choice comes with its new possible routes and so on. Finally, you don’t only reach your destination, you arrive there with your eyes open on the next destination that you had picked on your way. This new destination was not seeable to you where you where few month or years ago. But now, it is the next logic thing for you. And so on, life unfolds its new possibilities as we go on.

Our work is no different from our life and vice versa. We see our work through our life perceptions and look back to our lives through the new perceptions we had made in our work. If we choose to stay in one point or at one status for sometime or forever, that’s how it will be in life and work. However, if our choice encompasses the exploration of the ever evolving life around us, so that’s how it shall be in both work and life.

Where are we ? Is not a limiting question but a propping one.

Ignoring where we are now is not a good starting point. Suppose that we intend to implement a computerized maintenance program. Ignoring that most of the team is computer illiterate won’t help fulfilling this intention. This mean that we have some choices to make to fulfil this intention. One of the choices would be to forget about installing the system. This is not a bad choice. Scale of the business and the maintenance complexity can allow for a simple paper based system or sheets based system.

Let’s explore the other choices. On the other side of the scale we can think of levelling up most of the team to be at the level of computer literacy that enables them to setup and use the system efficiently. Or even more, we can think of hiring additional team members or replacing some of the team members with others who are computer literate. In the midway. we can think of the roles needed for running the system efficiently. Then the level of computer literacy we need for each one. After that a little math can tell us the effort we need to create a pilot team. A further step in the future can be utilizing this pilot team to convey the knowledge and hands-on experience to the rest of the team or at least another pilot team and so on.

The bundle of choices and alternatives we came up with already raised our awareness of the real capabilities of our team members. Even we sensed the importance of some members to the work that we can’t let them go away from. Moreover, we might had felt the limitation within the team and the lack of backup for some team members. It was one fork in the road but it changed our view for where we are now and where we can go on the future.

How to reach this target in the future?

That’s a clarifying question. Many times we have a hope to reach a certain target personally or professionally. This can be our personal hope or a request from our work, community or nearby close friends. Regardless of the origin of this target, it will remain at subzero level from the starting point if we didn’t boost it by an intention to reach there. Intentions i.e. when you intend to do something has a little bit of determination than just hopes. This determination takes us to the first action we need to take. Now, we are at square zero. Why? Because we have an action to take to take us to square one. Maybe our target is at the square hundred, but the route will unfold progressively.

Planning is simply jotting down the how. You can consider planning as a first step or you can consider it just a refurbish for square zero. So instead of staying at square zero alone, now you have a plan to sooth you. The real step is when you take an action or even schedule an action. When you schedule an action i.e. set a deadline for taking a physical step then you can consider yourself at step one or on the way to it.

Where the future plan starts from?

As we said the plan is the answer to this question: How we can reach this target? It is simply writing down what we need to do to fulfill this target within this time period. Sometimes the plan specially for a new target starts with a brain storming session where you can hear the weirdest ideas ever. Some other times we just throw a stone in the buddle and let the propagating waves guide our way. So we can simply start by planning any step. Then the previous and following steps will unfold naturally. You can find insights about what should part of our future plans in our course Secrets for Building a Maintenance Program linked below with the discount links

Suppose you want to buy a car. You will start by looking online or going to showrooms. But then you will plan thee budget and to get the driving license. Suppose that you want to install a new machine. Maybe you start by selecting the location. But then you will start asking the availability of its utilities as water, air or electricity. Moreover, you need to plan the process flow and if this location will fit in the process flow or not. This will be followed by sub plans to provide the utilities and to arrange the process flow.

In Conclusion,

Maintenance is not different. Where you want to reach in the future depends on where you are now and how you plan to reach there. Those two questions are not limiting ones. These are propping questions that will sprout many possibilities and hidden gems or problems that we would never known about if we didn’t have a hope that we intended to make it come true and if we didn’t ask these two questions, where we are now? and, How we can reach this target in the future?