Maintenance Technology October 2016 - 11

PLANT PROFILE

A VEHICLE'S DRIVETRAIN translates the power of an engine
into the mechanical force of the wheels. Likewise, the maintenance program at the Fort Wayne, IN, manufacturing facility of
Dana Inc. is translating the power of effective data collection into
equipment assets.
"As a global automotive supplier, we are operating within an
increasingly competitive industry sector," said Mark Howard,
plant manager. "As a result, we must continually seek ways to
Above. A partially assembled
improve our manufacturing efficiency and reduce produccarrier showing ring wear and
tion costs while maintaining the highest standards for safety
case assembly.
and product quality. Through better data utilization, we have
recognized opportunities offered in our maintenance program
and processes."
The company's "four-panel maintenance programs," inspired
by the strategic use of its CMMS system, have reduced costly
equipment downtime and expensive repairs that are avoided by
preventive-maintenance planning-all of which can be quantified
by maintenance data.
"The role of the maintenance group is to keep the machines
running, and as efficiently as possible" stated maintenance
supervisor Bob McKenna. "We have made a concentrated effort to
gather data, compile it, understand it, and have been successful in
strategically utilizing it to make better maintenance decisions. "
Most useful, according to McKenna, has been the ability to
track maintenance efficiency. "In all my years in maintenance, I
had never seen a system for successfully tracking and quantifying
an efficiency rate for maintenance activities," he said. "However,
we have been able to accomplish this by comparing the number of
work orders that are written each day and each week with actual
completion to calculate our efficiency rating. Our initial goal was
70% efficiency, which is really good for maintenance in this type
of environment. We are now up to 81%."
Dana's maintenance transformation in Fort
Above. A pallet of completed ring gears.
Wayne began in 2014 when the company
incorporated a CMMS program from eMaint
Below. These grinding wheels are used to grind
(eMaint, Marlton, NJ, emaint.com) and began
the pinion wheels to size.
collecting and tracking data to help streamline
its maintenance practices. Two years into the
program, the positive results speak for themselves.
"We have been able to gather more precise data that is maintenance related, which has enabled us to make better maintenance
decisions," McKenna said. "We can quantify actual cost/savings
relating to maintenance activities to our management, which
fosters an increased understanding and support of maintenance
programs. We are in an extremely competitive business climate,
so anything we can do to keep costs down is beneficial."
The company is also tracking open PMs. "I am a firm believer
in reliability techniques and training, so we track PMs every
day," McKenna continued. "Sometimes we simply cannot shut a
machine down. So we coordinate this in our daily morning meetings. We recently had an outside firm track some of our machines.
They reported the equipment was in amazing condition, and this
is due to our PM program, the dedication of our maintenance
team, and cooperation we have received throughout the plant."
The company is a supplier of highly engineered drivetrain,
OCTOBER 2016

MAINTENANCETECHNOLOGY.COM | 11

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maintenance Technology October 2016