Rewarding Proactive Behavior in Operations to Drive Asset Reliability

By Michael W. Blanchard, CRE, PE, Life Cycle Engineering

Rewarding individual operators, and operations as a group, means recognizing them for their performance and acknowledging their contributions to their organization's goals. Group recognition is typically tied to lagging metrics, i.e. asset reliability. On the other hand, operator behavior is usually linked to leading metrics, i.e. percentage of inspections completed. To understand how to shift the operating culture by rewarding the reliability-boosting behaviors, we first need to consider how to identify the appropriate KPIs and which behaviors positively affect them.

ASSET RELIABILITY

The inherent reliability of an asset is established once custody has been turned over to operations. Plant operators are then tasked with running the production equipment safely and efficiently while also preserving reliability. Asset reliability can be tracked using asset utilization (AU) or overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) metrics. Reporting of AU or OEE is usually done monthly or quarterly, making them lagging key performance indicators (KPIs). However, if the window of measurement is minimized (i.e. each shift, daily), the KPI becomes leading. Regardless of the metric selected, plant operators must understand how their decisions and actions impact the KPI and the bottom line. Rewarding teams for achieving reliability goals sets the stage for sustainable performance.

It is KPIs and leadership that will support and manage a new proactive process. It also requires incorporating data-driven process management that not only measures results, but also emphasizes process measures (e.g., leading indicators). People must be held accountable. Efforts to improve reliability should be recognized and results from the proactive approach should be rewarded.

Key Performance Indicators
Changing an organization’s culture is usually the biggest obstacle to sustaining asset reliability. Although changing from a reactive to proactive culture is difficult, it is achievable. It requires monitoring and rewarding operating discipline to established processes and policies. By changing daily behavior to proactive, organizations are essentially changing to a reliability-centered culture. When proactive behavior is reinforced and driven systematically, it becomes a way of life.

To help facilitate the change to proactive, organizations need to enforce discipline to process, and change KPIs and the recognition system to reward proactive tasks rather than “firefighting” tasks. So a “good job fixing the equipment so fast” comment needs to be replaced with “that proactive action prevented us from taking the line down for a week.”

A characteristic of a KPI is that it can be measured daily yet can have a significant impact on operations. KPIs provide a complement of leading and lagging indicators that effectively communicate the daily operations of a production plant.

Quarterly AU and financial reports are merely the scorecard for the KPI results. These metrics tend to be lagging KPIs. Since these are so closely related to the bottom line, they are good candidates for team goals. Dashboard tools can effectively communicate KPIs and progress toward goals.

Leading KPIs are performance measures that can be used to indicate potential issues so corrective actions can be taken. Leading KPIs are predictive in nature and tend to communicate change in the production environment. The goal is to use these leading metrics to help analyze expected operational and financial results. Some metrics over time will show little relevance but at least you can track to see if that changes. Leading indicators help you because they:

Correlate operational goals and trends with bottom-line performance
Provide additional information for decision making
Anticipate changes in plant conditions

PROACTIVE BEHAVIOR BY OPERATORS

What are proactive behaviors?
In today’s production facilities, it’s not enough for operators to react and adapt to changes in their environment. Production plant operators need to engage in proactive behavior. When monitoring leading KPIs, they need to plan ahead and prepare for potential threats and dangers in the future by taking the initiative today. To minimize the possibility of negative effects of proactive behavior, operators must consider both the rewards and possible costs of potential actions.

For example, when daily OEE rate drops below a predetermined level and duration, the production plant operator is challenged with the opportunity to do nothing or take action to revive the process. Utilizing experience, plant expertise, and process troubleshooting guidelines, the operator determines the options, and selects an action after conducting a cost-benefit analysis. If unsuccessful, the process is repeated until the daily OEE rate is back on target. This example demonstrates how a leading KPI is used to monitor operational performance and predict threats to the value stream so that actions can be performed to drive performance.

What proactive behaviors impact asset reliability?
There are many task and organization-focused behaviors that can be seen as proactive, however some have significant impact on asset reliability. Here are some examples of proactive behaviors listed in order from most significant to least:

Addressing behaviors and adverse conditions that threaten safety
Routinely applying root cause analysis (e.g. 5-why) in daily work
Identifying equipment in distress and taking actions to resolve
Gathering evidence for an upcoming root cause analyses
Reporting reliability near misses
Sharing risks to value stream with other operators
Submitting asset reliability improvement ideas
Performing routine equipment care
Using standard procedures and practices

REWARDING PROACTIVE BEHAVIOR

How to reward operators for proactive behavior
Rewarding operators for proactive behavior sets the stage for sustainable performance. When reinforcing, explain to the operator exactly what behaviors you value so that those behaviors will be repeated. The words and actions will have surprisingly great impact on operators and will spur them to greater productivity. Reinforce frequently so that employees are continuously motivated and enthusiastic. These guidelines¹ can maximize the effectiveness of reinforcement.

Be specific
Reinforce immediately
Be sincere
Reinforce unpredictably
Reward incremental improvement
Give realistic reinforcement
Personalize the reinforcement

Listen to operators, observe their behavior, become sensitive to their needs, and you will be able to personalize reinforcement for each individual. For example, some people love being acknowledged in public while others might appreciate a private thank-you. It doesn’t mean they don’t want the reinforcement, but it’s important to understand what is most meaningful to different people. Consider surveying several operators to determine what rewards they find most attractive. Recognition and approval are among the most powerful reinforcers. Consider using internal communication channels to acknowledge good performance such as intranet, newsletters, bulletin boards, thank you notes and other forms of communication that can be good reinforcers as well.

Monetary incentives are also powerful reinforcers. Recommend the deserving operator for an award, bonus, or raise, linking increased money to improved performance. The size of the monetary reward should be proportionate to the performance. Operators should be rewarded based on the action or behavior’s impact to organizational goals. To generate spread, a non-linear scaling of reward value can be applied. The lowest level award should be equivalent to “lunch for two” or maybe a tank of gas. The next level award should be approximately three times the value of the lowest level. The highest level award should be approximately nine times the value of the lowest level. Sticking with an increasing reward scales allows you the flexibility to match the reward to the behavior.

CONCLUSION

Proactive operators are innovative problem solvers. They preserve asset reliability leading to increased productivity. Sustainability means making commitments. Establishing goals and working towards them can help empower the operator and reinforce the control they have over their area of influence. Sustainability of asset reliability requires that the right actions and behaviors are in place and are rewarded appropriately.

REFERENCES

http://www.forensicmag.com/article/2013/09/using-positive-reinforcement-employee-motivation ; Dr. Martin Seidenfeld

Michael Blanchard is a Reliability Engineering Subject Matter Expert with Life Cycle Engineering (LCE). He has more than 25 years’ experience as a reliability leader in a variety of industries. Mike is a licensed Professional Engineer, a Certified Reliability Engineer, and a Certified Lean-Six Sigma Master Black Belt. You can reach Mike at mblanchard@LCE.com.