Rotating equipment needs to be serviced, air compressors are no different. Whether it's an emergency repair or planned maintenance, most plant managers would agree that getting back up and running quickly is the main priority. Downtime can be costly and take away from precious production time. Because of this, the quality of a service may hinge on factors that influence uptime.
How do service providers address the quality factors that plant operators care about? Through service quality indicators (SQI). SQIs are metrics that denote which items matter most to manufacturers when it comes to services. If a service provider has these in place, it indicates an effort to prioritize the service experience and a recognition that these indicators could vary by manufacturer.
When it comes to servicing air compressors, I’ve found the following four SQIs are factors that manufacturers and plant managers care about most.
- On-time completion of scheduled maintenance. Just as changing the oil in your car at the right time helps ensure longer life for your engine, timely routine maintenance is critical to the health of your compressor. This metric takes a historical look at how often planned work is completed on time.
- Time to respond to a request for repair. How long is the time between submission of a request and receipt of a response? If you have an air compressor that's down, you want to know your request for service was received and is being responded to.
- Time to resolve a request for repair. How long is the time between when the request is submitted and the resolution of the issue? In other words: How soon can you get back up and running following an issue?
- First-trip resolution for repairs. How often are issues resolved during the first service visit? Was there more downtime because the service technician didn’t have the correct parts or tools for the job or wasn’t well-versed enough in the issue to resolve it on the first visit?
Are these the right indicators? If not, what metrics matter the most to you? We know measurement is critical for improvement (thank you, Peter Drucker), but are you measuring the right things?