Stuart Comments: Many fleet leaders like to use a white board to manage the shop. They use it to control all activities: post a "to-do" list, as a PM scheduling board, a place to display special order parts, post notes, list the trucks in service and trucks that are out of service, add special notes and comments for and from employees and host maintenance data (last oil changes, last air filter). You name it; almost everything goes on the white Board.
I have seen them in the shop, the office, the hallway, the bathroom, in front of the urinal, the hopper door or the wall next to the hopper. I have seen them where you can stand on the ground to update the data, or have to stand on a stepladder or use a regular ladder to write on them. The craziest location I have seen is on a pallet on a forklift. (OSHA certainly would like that). In all cases other than the simple notes, the PM information was always out-of-date, or the notes made no sense, the graphics were confusing, and the lists were not current.
My point is, for PM updates, scheduling and maintenance tracking data, white boards are a waste of effort. As for the notes, there may be some value if updated regularly. I would suggest if you use a white board, consider the real value and updated it daily. If one of your employee uses it for managing, make sure it stays up-to-date. The owner may figure out it is not up to date and won’t like what he sees. It’s far more useful to use a spreadsheet or software, which also should be kept current.
E-mail comments or questions to Darry at [email protected]. For more information, visit www.darrystuart.com.
