Address by Mr Noel Treacy T.D. Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce, at the Presentation of the National Awards for Maintenance Excellence, at Enterprise Ireland Offices, Glasnevin on Wednesday, 24th November 1999 at 8.45pm

Firstly, can I thank you sincerely for inviting me here tonight to present the awards for maintenance excellence. These awards are now in their twelfth year. From the outset, the Irish Maintenance Society, MEETA set very high standards for these Awards recognising that they could be used as a vehicle for raising the level of expertise in maintenance here in Ireland. As a result of this recognition a number of objectives were agreed for these Awards.

These objectives include:

• To increase the awareness of maintenance as a competitive edge in cost, quality, service and equipment performance.
• To identify industry leaders, along with potential or future leaders, and highlight "best" practices in maintenance management.
• To share successful maintenance strategies and the benefits derived from their implementation.
• To understand the need for managing changes and stages of development to achieve maintenance excellence.
• To enable operations excellence.

Awards like this help companies establish priorities and competitive performance goals because the application is based on standards of maintenance excellence. Completing the application form alone facilitates an internal audit of the strengths and opportunities for improvement in maintenance and equipment reliability.

It increases awareness of a company's maintenance process and reflects favourably on their commitment to utilise maintenance as a competitive advantage for their business.

A sense of company teamwork can be built and the value of interfunctional support, co-ordination and co-operation is emphasised.

Long gone are the days when maintenance was viewed as a short term reactive process. The "if it ain't broke don't fix it" philosophy prevailed. Senior management often viewed it alongside R&D and training as a luxury or discretionary item in the overall budget which when times were hard, and profitability took a downturn, the maintenance budget was always one of the first to be trimmed.

I am pleased to see that many companies have moved away from this attitude. However there are still some companies who are still plodding along not knowing when the next break in production will occur while their competitors, both here at home and overseas, are figuring out how to improve on their production line maintenance schedules and so plan to avoid costly breakdowns which add to unit cost, frustrate delivery schedules, disappoint customers and ultimately lead to loss of business and possibly overall business failure.

The formula for maintenance excellence is no secret. The first of the key elements is the obvious emphasis on leadership provided by senior management. Top management support must set the foundation. This leadership is demonstrated by having a positive mission and detailing the contribution expected from the maintenance department. Management must then give the mission real meaning by giving it the necessary management commitment and by allocating the appropriate resources of required personnel and equipment. Timely investment in effective systems such as proper planning and scheduling of preventive maintenance contributes to profitability.

Each company should have a "champion" to direct maintenance activities towards achieving world class maintenance status. This person, with the full and productive support of management, will be expected to co-ordinate, sponsor and nurture the process. He or she must have the challenge and desire to measure, to improve and then excel their maintenance performance.

A third area of focus must be emphasis, commitment and investment in training. Every company striving for world class maintenance operations must recognise that qualified craftsmen are essential to effective maintenance performance. This training should include safety, team-work, employee involvement, product quality awareness, planning and scheduling as well as classic training in technical maintenance practices. These are some of the challenges that face today's maintenance manager.

When we think of maintenance we generally think of manufacturing companies but I believe all profit orientated companies must initiate an aggressive maintenance or asset management programme. I am so glad to see that these Awards also commend those in the services sector.

Each application was evaluated by a panel of experts and the successful companies have emerged winners of the coveted Awards recognising world class capacity assurance for operational excellence.

It is important that we recognise companies in which good maintenance is understood to be an essential factor in business success. All of the participants for these Awards clearly understand this. Maintenance in their companies has management support at the highest levels. It is integrated with production operations to ensure mutual understanding, support and commitment. These maintenance organisations are key players in ensuring the capacity and productivity of their companies and in turn are ensuring Ireland maintains its competitive edge.

Another important observation is that these companies have accomplished similar goals through diverse organisations and methods. While the winners are clearly world class operations, their paths to excellence are quite different. But they do share the common traits of commitment to continuous improvement and a never-ending search for what works best in their companies. Their managers are aware of the value that maintenance excellence provides and the role that it plays in operational success.

I would like to thank:

• Enterprise Ireland and The Irish Maintenance Society, MEETA, in particular, for the hard work and effort put into organising these Awards.
• The sponsors, PMI Software Ltd for their continuing support over the years.
• The adjudicating panel who had the unenviable task of choosing the winners and of course.
• All entrants for these prestigous Awards.

It is now my happy duty to congratulate all of the winners and present the Awards.