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When I chat with maintenance employees at industrial plants, I hear it all the time.

"Maintenance gets a bad rap."

"The suits have no clue what we do."

"We're known only for the time we 'cost' people."

"Nobody knows about the good things we do."

In response to that, let me introduce Mark Parrish.

Mark works for Reynolds Metals as the maintenance manager for its 517,000-square-foot aluminum foil products plant in Richmond, Va.

Because of his ideas and non-traditional thinking, it would be hard to find a person in the 725-employee facility, or an executive in the entire corporation, who doesn't know about the successes and contributions of the 125-person maintenance staff.

Mark's philosophy?  Do your best Louie Armstrong.

"You have to blow your own horn.  If you don't do it, nobody else is going to," says Parrish.  "The maintenance department might know its preventive or predictive programs are the best things since sliced bread, but who outside knows it?   The bean counter that sees the expense reports and budgets?  The plant manager?  Probably not.  They only hear about you when there's a problem.

"If they don't know your successes, they'll come after you when things get tight.   'Let's get rid of that lubrication program.  Get rid of that predictive maintenance.  In fact, maintenance has got too many people.'  You had better tell them."

To accomplish that, Mark has become a salesman, promoter and marketing man for his department.

Five years ago, he created PDM News, a monthly newsletter that
chronicles the department's predictive maintenance efforts.

The newsletter is posted on every bulletin board in the plant, sent to managers in every sector of the plant, and delivered to executives in and outside the facility.

If a maintenance mechanic or technician tackled a big problem or
uncovered a potentially catastrophic situation, the story is told in detail.  It lists the tools used for the job and the parts that were repaired or replaced.  It calculates downtime saved and actual and potential cost savings realized by the work.

"It's not boasting or bragging," says Parrish.  "We just want to tell people that this is a good thing we have going on here."

The newsletter also promotes cross-functional communication, provides information on maintenance issues and lists a chart breaking down the month's predictive maintenance work orders.

The marketing effort extends beyond PDM News.  Two years ago, Parrish helped construct a display case outside the maintenance offices.  It houses warped and failing parts found during routine checkups and lists downtime and costs saved by finding and fixing the problem.

It also includes a tote board of hard-dollar savings created by the department (more than $2 million since 1994) and awards won by the department and its employees.

"The whole idea is to share this information," he says.  "Customers come through this hallway, guests come through.  This is a way for outsiders to see what we do."

To learn more about Mark Parrish and the Reynolds Metals maintenance team, see "Silver mettle."

This article appeared in the February/March 1999 issue of MRO Today magazine.   Copyright, 1999.

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