the people side of world-class manufacturing and maintenance

Lean Equipment Management

Are you spending too much time focusing on programs and activities at the expense of results?

Equipment-intensive businesses cannot compete without reliable equipment. Improvement programs and activities often take too long and require a leap of faith. Competitive manufacturers and facilities will have to find new, innovative, and increasingly flexible ways to make their equipment more reliable to stay ahead of the competition… with fewer people than in the past. Learn more



Featured Articles

A Tax on Maintenance
Tax-and-spend initiatives are not new—spending resources that don’t yet exist only to raise taxes to cover the loss. There are numerous, sound historical examples from the 18th century of the downside of these strategies. Today, what is often overlooked are the tax-and-spend strategies that catch many of our maintenance organizations off guard and undermine their best efforts. Beware of the “maintenance tax” and the unintended consequences.
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Mastering the Art of Stewardship
People who are closest to the equipment and processes, closest to the facilities and machinery, are the ones who can make or break the competitive position of the business. Quite often, our challenge is to help everyone understand and appreciate that if we don’t do that, if we abuse or ignore equipment problems, then we are potentially opening the door to the competition—here or in a foreign country. Mastering the art of stewardship might not be easy, but it can be well worth the effort, especially considering the alternative. So what is it that makes it so difficult to achieve in today’s workplaces?
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The Racing Theme: About Our Logo

SWS Pit Crew logoMotorsports racing provides us with many models for high-performing organizations. We have learned that championship racing teams practice many of the principles our clients strive for in modern manufacturing and maintenance, from teamwork and leadership to cost effectiveness and equipment reliability and much more. Our ongoing study of championship race teams and pit crews helps us teach our clients to improve their competitiveness and be more effective in their own races.
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