Stability ◾ 55
Accurate data is essential. But some managers feel that time spent by
workers measuring machine performance is time wasted. Some companies
do not even record equipment failure downtime unless it exceeds 30 min-
utes. A minority measures speed losses.
At Toyota I learned that focus is everything in maintenance. Thus, we
need accurate equipment operation records, and not just of downtime.
Fortunately, technological advances have made this data much more acces-
sible. For a relatively small investment, most companies can readily generate
mean time to repair (MTTR), mean time between failure (MTBF), and other
useful data for their critical equipment.
Once we have identified our hot spots, we can back them up with man-
ual processes or ...