Frederick E. Smith is a career manager in track maintenance and construction and has been employed for the past seven years by the New York City Transit Authority. He has held the positions of general superintendent of both Track Construction and Track Maintenance before his promotion to chief engineer, Division of Track, within the Department of Rapid Transit.
A graduate of the State university of New York at Buffalo, he holds a Bachelor's Degree in civil engineering, magna cum laude, and a M.B.A. with a concentration in financial planning and control.
Mr. Smith began his career with the Long Island Railroad as a junior engineering management trainee, working his way up to assistant supervisor and supervisor of track before leaving to join the New York City Transit Authority in 1984.
Most recently, Mr. Smith was appointed vice chairman of the American Public Transit Association's Track, Noise and Vibration Subcommittee. Mr. Smith is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of New York.
SURVIVAL IN THE MAINTENANCE ENVIRONMENT
The usefulness of project management techniques and principles in the construction and contracting business goes without saying. In order to compete in today's economy, construction management firms must assemble highly qualified and experienced professionals, and then support them with progressive management tools and equipment. Failure to do so leads to excessive staff, poor information, high overhead and lower profits. But, what about maintenance?
When it comes to maintaining the plant, equipment and overall infrastructure, “seat-of-the-pants” management through rough times just doesn't cut it! For private sector companies with maintenance divisions and most public sector industries (including rail and highway transportation, electric and gas utilities, water authorities, etc.), recession and budget cutbacks mean a struggle with near-sighted financial officers.
Why the struggle? What is the first expense center to be squeezed in financial hard times? That's right: Maintenance. Companies try to cut costs now with, hopefully, a minimum effect on operations and/or production. But, many of us know all too well what the effects of reduced maintenance budgets are to the resources of a maintenance manager. Maintenance managers have to dig in and defend their territory. The best defense is a good offense. That offense can be improved efficiency and cost reductions through project management techniques.
Survival for a manager in a maintenance environment usually means adjusting to “doing more (or at least the same) with less.” As maintenance budgets are squeezed, quality and reliability standards should not be compromised. However, the manager must be driven by the corporate goals. To endeavor to achieve corporate goals or initiatives with a tight budget requires constant planning, not only on the divisional level but lower levels as well.
For the maintenance manager, the work plan for the year may be a series of small individual projects or a combination of a few large projects scheduled around smaller, more flexible projects. Whatever the work plan, the achievement of the plan is dependent upon the maintenance manager's ability to manage the cumulative work plan. Namely:
- Scoping out the work required for each project
- Estimating material and labor costs
- Identifying all support requirements (such as equipment, permits and support costs).
The manager may be expected to perform all scheduling of maintenance work within very tight work windows so as not to interfere with operations or production activities.
Maintenance projects undertaken, regardless of size, need to be documented as thoroughly as the reporting system will allow. In those organizations still relying on manual reporting, you must make the most of what you have and supplement it where you can. (Many organizations do not have the benefit of a local area network of personal computers.)
Methods and procedures for each type of job need to be analyzed by maintenance managers in order to ensure economization without going beyond the point of diminishing returns. Maintenance repairs which require high levels of support from other units or outside agencies may cause the manager to rethink the action plan to reduce overall and future unit costs.
A large number of maintenance organizations do not have the opportunity or ability to fill many supervisory and management positions with college graduates trained in the fundamental principles of organization and construction management. Many depend upon traditional lines of promotion, from within the labor ranks. College-trained managers often are found only in the highest-level positions in the organization. In addition, maintenance units, whether organized by function or division, can be spread thin due to geographical considerations.
Project management as a way of thinking is a function of your most critical resource: your maintenance managers and supervisors. Encouraging the use of project management techniques is not good enough. Experienced, “up-from-the-ranks” managers need assistance on two fronts: training and example
LEARNING THROUGH TRAINING
Training, if not available within the organization, can be obtained through outside management sources (including the Project Management Institute, American Management Association and colleges and universities). Providing a basic understanding of the tools and principles of project management helps even the most stubborn individual open his eyes and ears, and eventually his mind, to the concept.
To the successful maintenance manager, Project Management is a way of thinking.
But, classroom training doesn't work for everyone. Non-technical supervisors gain a great deal by exposure to new methods at work. People learn from people. Taking a cadre of successful project-oriented managers or supervisors and interspersing them among the group can provide the most immediate results.
LEARNING BY EXAMPLE
Organizations which have production/operations and maintenance divisions can benefit from mobility assignments and job rotation. Planting the seeds with a nucleus of employees who apply project management skills, wherever they are assigned, make it work.
Maintenance is as important as production and construction to an established company. Building for the future begins with maintaining your past and current investments. Maintenance managers who apply project management philosophy and techniques are better prepared to deal with the expected as well as the unexpected.
PM IN PRACTICE
In the case of the New York City Transit Authority's Union Square derailment (see page 8), maintenance personnel reacted to the worst wreck in 60 years the only way they knew; as a project requiring management from inception to completion. This came down to the following:
The Project : Clearing of the wreckage, rebuilding of damaged equipment and infrastructure and restoration of transit service.
The Scope: Removal of five damaged and derailed transit cars, replacement of 22 support columns, 30 feet of concrete invert, 300 feet of third - rail, two switch machines and all associated hardware along with the repair of numerous signal code and line cables.
The Action Plan: Development of a 120-hour critical task CPM (Critical Project Method) including all Transit Authority disciplines required to restore services (these included Track, Car Equipment, Infrastructure, Electrical, Rapid Transit Operations, Customer Services, Stations, Engineering and Police) along with outside agencies (New York City Fire Department and Department of transportation as well as the National Transportation Safety Board and the New York Public Transportation Safety Bureau).
Control: Monitoring of the CPM on a six-hour basis to adjust to new information and keep all parties informed of progress, additional tasks and conflicts. Assignment of liaisons or assistant project managers from each agency or discipline to coordinate activities.
Closeout: Establishment of the procedure to clean, inspect and test all repairs and systems prior to restoration of full service.
By using these principles of project management, along with hard work and dedication of many Transit Authority employees, the wreck was removed and service was restored by the goal of the rush hour on the morning after Labor Day.
To the successful maintenance manager, Project Management is a way of thinking.