A System of Maintenance for mall Fleet
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Solving the Problems of the Carrier
Showing that a Wellknown Scheme Deemed to be Applicable to Only Large Fleets can be Adapted to Small Fleets SEVERAL times of late I have been asked to outline a scheme of maintenance for smalll fleets of vehicles. When I came to look up for one of these inquirers the articles I had already written on the subject. I discovered that, on the lace of it, they seemed to be of use only in connection with the operation of large fleets.
Actually, that is not strictly correct. There is, however, in that series no indication as to how any of the systems described can be made use, of in connection with a small fleet. The particular inquirer was the owner of four vehicles and he was in a difficulty as to how to systematize a method of maintaining those vehicles.
The most recent of these several series of articles appeared
in " The Commercial Motor" in October, 1941. They . described the system devised and successfully operated by Capt. J. B. Walton, of S.P.D., Ltd., and no doubt most readers, from that referencealone, have come to the conclusion that it is suitable for use only in connection with fleets of considerable dimensions, particularly as it is known that this company operates many hundreds of machines. That view, as a matter of fact, is entirely incorrect. Although it is true that this company operates a large number of vehicles, the fleet is, nevertheless, split up and dispersed all over the United Kingdom. Some of these collections consist of very few machines, and each small fleet is, so far as maintenance is concerned, operated independently and is serviced after the manner outlined in that series of articles. I do not know that this is a fact, but I can well imagine that more than one of these fleets comprises no more than four, or five vehicles, so that it is true to state that the system is applied to small fleets.
On mature consideration, the reader, I think, will be willing to accept that view and my claim that the system broadly can as well be applied in the case of few vehicles as in the case of a large number of machines. After all, the fundamentals of maintenance are the same. Similar operations have to be carried out to every vehicle if it is to be maintained in tip-top condition, and this system of Capt. Walton's is, in the main, a schedule of operations and of the periods at which they should be carried out. I am, therefore, repeating the schedule of six operations which appeared in an earlier article, whilst I show how the system can be applied to as few as four vehicles.
If the reader studies these schedules he will admit that the operations described could all be carried out in connection with his vehicles and, in the main, that the work should be done at the intervals set down.
Two problems do arise, however, and it is with their solution that I am concerned. First, how to arrange that each vehicle shall automatically be brought in to have the work done, and, secondly, what arrangements should be made for carrying it out.
a So far as the first is concerned, I think the most satisfactory method is the use of a board and hanging discs. The board will be marked out as shown in Fig. I, with a space for each month and four columns in each month, one per week. For the sake of simplicity it is assumed that each month has four weeks.
It will probably be convenient for the operator to take the 1, 2, 8 and 4 as referring to the first, second, third and fourth Mondays in each month and indicating the week in which a vehicle must come in for attention. In the case of those months with a fifth Monday it can be ignored.
. In the first column the operations are numbered 3, 4, 5 and 6. Operations 1 and 2 are omitted because they are of daily and weekly occurrence. There is no need for any system to ensure that they are carried out at the proper time. The board shown in Fig. I is marked out for use in connection with four vehicles. So far as the monthly operations are concerned, the method of marking is simplicity itself. There are four vehicles, each of which requires operation 3 once per month. The vehicles must have attention at that interval, and it is, therefore, convenient to take them in turn, one in each of the four weeks of the month.
• Metal discs bearing the numbers relating to the vehicles 1, 2, 3 and 4 are hung on hooks or nails, as shown under the heading January in Fig. I. The spaces for these four, and for the positions which they will occupy in subsequent months, should be marked on the board as shown so that, when the first week of January is past and aftpr vehicle No. 1 has had its monthly operations completed, the disc is moved to the corresponding position in February and so on throughout the year.
With regard to operation 4, which is to be carried out at three-monthly periods, the method of spacing the marks for the discs is simply. this. There are 12 weeks in three months; four vehicles are to be treated in that period, so that each must have attention every three weeks. That gives the positions as marked opposite operation 4 in Fig. I.
It will be noted that in November and December two positions are marked and then cancelled. The reason for that will appear later. It is in part disclosed by the fact that I have been careful, in allocating' the times for the bringing in of each vehicle, that operation 4 is timed to coincide with the performance of operation 3.
For example, in the first week in January.No. 1 vehicle is in for operation 4. Another vehicle is to be brought in in three weeks, that is to say in the fourth week in January. The natural procedure would be to bring in vehicle No. 2. Actually, as No. 4 vehicle is due to come in during that week for operation 3, the obvious procedure is to carry out operation 4 at the same time. That is the reason why the order in which the vehicles appear for operation 4 is 1, 4, 3, 2, as shown.
Similarly with operation 5. This has to be carried out every six months, that is to say every 24 weeks, so that, for four vehicles, six weeks should elapse between the docking of one vehrcle and the next for this operation.
Bringing in vehicle No. 1 in the first week of January, when it is already in for operations 3 and 4, means that the next vehicle should come in during the third week in February. In that week vehicle No. 3 is already in for operations 3 and 4, so vehicle No. 3 is the one to be brought in.
Proceeding in this way, vehicle No. 4 would come in on the fourth week of March for operation 5, because it is already in for its monthly operation, and vehicle No, 2 in the second week in May for the same reason. Here again it will be noted that I have cancelled those two " appoint ments," as I might call them, for the same reason as the cancellation of the two relating to operation 4 in November and December.
I come now to operation 6, to be carried out annually, so that we must bring in one vehicle per 12 weeks. Beginning again with vehicle No. 1 in the first week of January, 12 weeks forward would carry us to the first week of April. That is the week in which No. 1 vehicle is having attention, so that we cannot make use of that. About that time the only vehicle which can conveniently be handled is No, 4, which, on the fourth week of April, wfts down for operations 3 and 4. I, therefore, cancelled the appointment of No. 4 for operation 5 in the last week in March and transferred it to the last week in April, so that vehicle No. 4 must be in for all four operations in the last week in April.
It is in order to ensure that vehicles are not brought in separately for different operations, but, when in, can have as many as required carried out
that this juggling and cancelling have taken place. In Fig. II a similar board, adapted for use with a fleet of five vehicles, has been drawn up. In arranging this, I have been through the same procedure as already described in connection with four vehicles, but have not shown the cancellations.
elven understanding of the underlying principle and of the need for taking care that the series of operations is planned as described, it should be easy to set out a similar board for any number of vehicles. In case of difficulty, I shall be glad to answer any inquiries on the subject and • plot out the disposition of a board suitable for any size of fleet.
With regard to the second problem, that of the execution of the work, I am of -opinion, especially under prevailing conditions, that it would be profitable to employ a mechanic even in connection with no more than four vehicles. His wages in respect of a fleet of vehicles covering a moderate annual mileage should not amount to id. per mile per vehicle. Having in mind the difficulty of effecting repairs and the correspondingly increased importance of taking time by the forelock and ensuring the absence of the need for repairs, by such a system of preventive tnaintenance, I think that id, per mile is money
well spent. S.T.R.