Road and workshop by Handyman
Page 44
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Manpower, maintenance and the MoT (36)
• To successfully meet the challenge ahead means having fit vehicles with daily availability above 92 per cent and this entails a much closer look at maintenance. The best system in the world will fall down unless attention is paid to detail and routine, however boring certain duties may appear. Whether one is in charge of a public garage, bus or haulage workshop, or smaller transport unit with only half a dozen repair staff, turnround of vehicles or jobs depends entirely upon the planning, guiding and directing of the team. Note that I did not say -drivethe team because today "big stick" methods would simply drive staff next door!
I have already explained that improved output can be achieved by a closer application of labour to its particular and varied degree of skill. This of course is but one aspect—there are others of equal value. Job control in the larger shops is much altered from the earlier times of "bang away lads, here he comes" attitude; it must now be much more a matter of arranging things.
From personal experience I know that in our trade these days it is most difficult to find time to plan and study. However, to make progress, ask oneself a few questions: have lists of work been handed out and then because there is workshop movement and noise in plenty, it is assumed things are moving satisfactorily? If so, try this exercise the next time and make it a habit: look for the man on one task who is crowding another because perhaps only one will be working. Watch for two men in one cab—far too often one is idle, having gone in to assist and then stayed. Mates, particularly skilled men, far too often do one task together. removing a head, gearbox. radiator, etc., using each other's tools.
Examine more closely those permanent companions, because a top-class fitter rarely needs a full-time mate unless he is given an apprentice. Normally he will call for assistance only as needed and often merely at wide intervals. Then there is the job stopper. For instance a fitter may be down below with a diff-casing opened up, then a joiner decides to saw floorboards above him and seconds later out from the pit comes the fitter and stays out until it is all over. Incidentally where has the sawdust gone?
Take another instance: a swivel pin or hydraulic job is being done then someone begins to buff a fibre-glass repair just above and one man stops work. An injector pump change in the cab will usually bring out those immediately below while fuel continues to drip. Why allow this sort of thing?
Move that man away from the cokefired shop stove with that open gearbox, otherwise you will find he has fitted a set of super-short-life bearings! Another example? An electrician insists that he must couple up batteries to test out wiring, so hands, arms and fingers are rapidly withdrawn from the area of fan blades, clutch, big ends, etc., until the danger of starter motor movement is passed. All first-class cases of job stopping.