This paper discusses the applied leadership attributes taught in the facilities management program at Arizona State University, highlighting the leadership characteristics and techniques of information measurement theory that enabled the first author to understand and integrate the academic findings for more effective performance in his work environment as a facilities manager. The paper describes the management status quo in the work environment at a semiconductor manufacturing company and the application of leadership principles and performance measurement strategies to implement a predictive maintenance approach that reduced unscheduled corrective maintenance events and increased production availability and profits.
After 15 years as a manager at a semiconductor manufacturing company, I was imbued with the management culture of my environment, which was characterized by micromanagement and the habitual expectation to control and influence others. (Throughout the paper, “I” refers to the second author.) Classes I took in the facilities management master’s program at Arizona State University (ASU) helped me understand the pros and cons of this management style, and courses instructed by Professor Badger and Professor Kashiwagi helped me understand a more effective leadership style. This personal breakthrough and subsequent application and practice of new techniques with the facility management staff at my company brought significant win/win results. This paper explores the status quo of my work environment before my enrollment in the ASU program and examines the benefits gained in my current workplace environment, which now emphasizes leadership principles and measurable performance information from staff and bosses.
Disclaimer: The research for this paper was conducted in the manufacturing facilities of a leading semiconductor manufacturer. The information the authors are able to provide in this paper is constrained by intellectual property restrictions; the company being studied is therefore referred to as “the company” to preserve its anonymity.
Leadership in Facilities Management
The use of leadership principles can significantly improve job performance indicators, information flow, and working relationships. In this paper, management refers to micromanagement and control practices, and leadership is the strategy of aligning people and resources in a manner that maximizes the ability of content experts to use their skills to create and implement workplace solutions.
By aligning the correct resources to actively review trends and categorize equipment performance information, imminent and probable facilities equipment problems become more obvious. And by enabling a more proactive measurement and maintenance approach, fewer surprises are encountered in the workplace, resulting in less emotion (especially negative emotion) that can adversely influence decision making and performance. The facilities manager who strives for organizational preparation and proactive planning and response should spend more time characterizing and accurately understanding the initial conditions of business events, resulting in proportionally less time required to execute a solution for future event occurrences; in this paper the authors examine this hypothesis through a case study in which a facilities management group adopted leadership principles and implemented performance metrics to create a predictive maintenance program that improved equipment availability.
Background
For the past 20 years, I have worked in a very technical semiconductor manufacturing environment in which most business situations were driven by decisions from upper management. Managers consistently gave direction on technical programs even though they admittedly did not have any firsthand knowledge of the systems they tried to manage. For the better part of 20 years, I watched and learned this behavior, eventually being promoted into a management position that was subject to a predominantly blind and emotional culture. This management culture led to a disgruntled group of content experts who were either too intimidated or too resigned to speak up.
Several years ago, I made a career change to the facilities management group. My first impression of this new environment was the vast breadth of responsibility. Facilities systems affect everything from building maintenance to site electricity, chemistry, waste management, water purity, site security, and mechanical systems associated with heating, air conditioning, and humidity control, among other functions. Although I had managed a capable staff of engineers and had earned degrees from some of the world’s finest institutions, I felt the need to attend Arizona State University to learn more about facilities management so that I could better direct the activities of these people. What I didn’t expect to learn is that leadership means that I needed to minimize micromanagement and instead align employees with their passion and empower their brilliant minds to unleash their true capability.
During my master’s program studies, two classes made a significant impact on my personal and professional life: Professor Badger’s Leadership and Project Management course and Professor Kashiwagi’s Information Measurement Theory course. These two courses were most influential because they demonstrated the most power with the most efficient effort. By practicing the learnings in these programs, I gained almost immediate positive results both at home with my family and at work.
The key concept common to these two courses was the power of correct alignment with those around you—that is, the stakeholders and partners with whom you must maintain effective relationships for mutual success in addressing the problems you encounter in life. As shown in Figure 1, these people can be thought of as orbiting your environment or as being “on your molecule”; they are frequently involved in your life situations and surrounding environment (Hayes 2000). By empowering the people in my immediate environment to be responsible for their own decisions rather than relying on my direction, I learned to stop making decisions and micromanaging my staff and my family, which ultimately resulted in higher performance by me and by all those around me.
Fig. 1. Diagram of “Who’s On Your Molecule?” (adapted with permission from Badger 2011).
Dr. Badger and Dr. Kashiwagi discussed this notion as part of information measurement theory, which serves as a means to holistically improve one’s life by minimizing decision making through awareness of the obvious choice. My newfound role was not to make decisions, but to help people see the existing dominant information within the initial conditions of an event and arrive at the correct solution. Dr. Kashiwagi (2002) defined dominant information as irrefutable fact that is easily explained. Often a problem has existing conditions (facts) that simplify the choice to be made in solving an issue. The problem arises when managers, who are almost always blind to all of the facts in each situation, make decisions based on experience or emotion, regardless of the dominant information specific to the issue. This micromanagement results in complexity when the manager sets a different direction than the more obvious and correct response because he or she is blind to the complete picture. When the manager directs work for the content expert, the manager disempowers and removes accountability from the content expert. The key lesson is that the manager should strive to ensure transparency of all dominant information associated with an event. Management should let content experts perform their duties to arrive at the correct response given all factual data up front so they can evaluate the initial conditions of an event without bias (Kashiwagi 2010).
The most challenging aspect of information measurement theory is that it is not obvious to most people. The simplicity of this leadership theory is inherently contrary to our human nature and what many of us have been taught as managers. Managers and others in power positions are taught to control the details of each situation as a gesture of authority and expertise. Information measurement theory teaches us that people cannot influence others without the others’ consent (i.e., willing agreement).
The fatal assumption managers make is that they know more than their subordinates and assume they have the ability to influence people’s decisions over the long term. According to information measurement theory, this notion is false, since people cannot control others. We cannot change people from who they are; the following insights paraphrased from As a Man Thinketh by James Allen (2009) were used in Dr. Kashiwagi’s course to bring this concept into perspective:
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All that one achieves and all that one fails to achieve are the direct result of one’s own thoughts.
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One’s weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are one’s own and not another’s. They are brought about by oneself and not by another, and they can be altered only by oneself, never by another.
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One’s condition is also one’s own, and not another’s. One’s suffering and happiness evolve from within.
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As one thinks, so one is; as one continues to think, so one remains.
By understanding this philosophy and striving to model information measurement theory leadership, I had personal and professional breakthroughs spanning over a year.
Development of Predictive Preventive Maintenance at the Company
The authors believed that an iterative, data-driven asset management technique for technical leadership could improve working relationships, resource alignment, communication, and performance results through clear accountability at the company. They conducted a study to explore whether allowing content experts at the lowest level of an organization to actively participate in analyzing business performance indicators—specifically, measures of facilities equipment availability—would yield a reduced need for manager decision making, clear accountability, and business process improvement.
As a result of the perspective I gained through my studies at ASU, I spoke to technician and engineering team members in the most problematic facilities discipline group. Historically, the subfab group experienced more incidents of disrupting factory operations than any other group. As in any manufacturing industry, interruption to production (ITP) is a problem since the revenue stream is interrupted any time scrap is produced and the production line is stopped. Capital-intensive and competitive industries require intensive efficiency and utilization of resources (Chen 2008); thus, the solution to optimize revenue is eliminating downtime. Optimized production uptime results in lower cost of ownership and increased availability to manufacture product, thereby enabling revenue potential.
Downtime in any facilities system always results in cost to production, whether it necessitates parts and labor to repair the equipment or induces manufacturing constraints due to unavailable equipment; whatever the case, the result equates to loss in potential revenue. Through the use of correct leadership principles and development of equipment performance information, the authors implemented a predictive maintenance approach to increase production availability by reducing unscheduled corrective maintenance incidents. This resource alignment approach had the potential to enable facilities managers to better predict failure causes before the equipment failed and to develop a proactive maintenance plan to minimize equipment downtime. The result would be maximized equipment availability with greater use of resource talents and accountability.
Status Quo Process
The maintenance and facility management methodologies at the company’s Arizona subfab facilities department involved a reactive response in which equipment event data were collected in the incident management tracking (IMT) database and reviewed quarterly by management. During these data review meetings, managers assessed the IMT information provided and gave direction to technician and engineering system owner content experts. The two most obvious process problems with this model are (1) equipment performance information was not reviewed frequently enough and (2) the managers, who were usually less familiar with the equipment, were directing the technical experts.
Maintenance technicians and engineers used the IMT system to report all downtime incidents and generate equipment availability performance metrics. The IMT report has a check box to signify whether or not product was scrapped, and management reviewed only unscheduled events in which product was scrapped. The gap in the status quo data analysis process was that it was neither an expectation nor regular practice for management to review the nonscrap downtime events, called near misses. In 2008, technicians and engineers logged 366 IMT downtime events, 57 of which involved scrap. Because management examined only the scrap IMT events, any trend or signal in the 309 nonscrap IMT events was unavailable for predictive and learning opportunities. At that time, the business unit measured performance on the ability to reduce scrap events; however, the focus of IMT trend review was not fully leveraged to reduce ITPs or improve efficiency and cost savings.
Management considered near misses to be insignificant because they do not interrupt factory operations. In reality, all ITP and near miss events affect production costs and resourcing models, as technicians are required to respond. A paradigm shift to the belief that all downtime events must be captured as pertinent performance information was required for greater performance prediction. Capturing all downtime events by category provides a better understanding of system performance over time and enables identification of trends in repeat failure instances, promoting prediction.
Experimental Process
The authors tested a business process improvement to data acquisition and analysis procedures within the facilities management organization at one manufacturing site during 9 months beginning in early 2009. Although there was no specific methodology followed to obtain permission to conduct this study, the primary author did receive permission from a direct supervisor to proceed. The authors developed an improved data analysis process that provided greater opportunity to identify facilities equipment performance trends that could result in cost savings, efficiency improvements, and bureaucracy reduction across multiple business groups. Furthermore, the change in management approach we proposed aimed to transfer responsibility for assessing equipment failure solutions from management to expert field technicians.
The study can be summarized in the following five steps:
1.
Data collection: Field technicians recorded equipment event data in the IMT database every shift. The technicians were assigned and began using wirelessly connected tablet personal computers (PCs), which enabled them to document findings in real time, access critical documents, and review system trends without leaving the area. With the tablet PCs, the technicians began logging more information than previously entered in the IMT database. For the first time, technicians were asked to be diligent about recording near miss incidents, including all unusual equipment findings, and they responded very well. One example of a typical near miss finding that a technician would now record is a piece of rotating equipment operating in a counterclockwise motion versus the normal clockwise motion, even if there was no detrimental impact.
2.
Incident review: The authors reviewed, normalized (i.e., verified for accuracy with the first person to record the incident), and summarized all incidents for management review within 24 hours of incident occurrence. They tracked all incidents and corresponding follow-up actions, if assigned, to ensure closure with the intent of capturing lessons learned and avoiding repeat incidents.
3.
Data analysis: An “operations” meeting was established, and every morning the technicians, their manager, and at least one engineer met to review IMT data collected from the previous day. The review allowed all stakeholders to collaborate on standardization of the descriptions and vernacular used to document. Every 4 weeks, equipment engineers reviewed and analyzed all ITP and near miss events to identify trends that would enable the creation of preventive maintenance models.
4.
Pass-down meetings: The authors reviewed the engineering trend package with the technicians monthly in a verbal presentation at every shift meeting (both night and day) during that week to ensure that all technicians were aware of the information and had the opportunity to discuss questions and concerns. During these “pass-down” meetings, the authors recognized the technicians as the experts in working with the affected equipment and applauded their feedback as a crucial element in interpreting the performance trends.
5.
Solution models: The technicians used this performance information to determine solution models for equipment incidents and adjusted their work schedules to respond appropriately. This was a large change from technicians’ previous work schedule of waiting to be directed by management on how and when to respond.
Results
The authors analyzed the IMT data using quantitative research methodology (e.g., statistical regression and trend analysis) to compare the ITP incident performance in 2008 with that of 2009. Figure 2 illustrates the total number of service calls per week for all facilities equipment in the 2008 status quo system versus the test experiment run in 2009 to measure near miss and interruption to production events. The result was a significant decrease in the number of equipment failures through alignment of priorities at the proper job level. This information enabled the facility team to more effectively allocate resources, predict failure, and determine the root cause of failures by using all dominant failure information.
Fig. 2. Box plot of incidents reported during 2008 (status quo) versus 2009 (after study).
The IMT database was instrumental in providing the core raw data for analysis and hypothesis testing. The authors were highly confident that all incidents were captured and data integrity was met based on the job expectations and existing daily incident and IMT report compliance reviews. The IMT database was updated in real time (24/7) as a current, well-practiced, and reinforced employee expectation.
After testing in one facility’s department for 9 months during 2009, the site facilities group adopted the experimental process and progressed from 22 interruptions to production in 2008 to 2 interruptions in 2009. Figure 3 summarizes the improvement and also shows that near miss events decreased.
Fig. 3. Interruption to production (ITP) frequency in 2008 (status quo) and 2009 (during and after study).
There were qualitative improvements as well. My manager feedback scores improved significantly as my decision making interference decreased and my staff felt more freedom and ownership, reflected in an “exceeds” rating on my annual review. I was recognized by the general manager of my division for owning and driving a strategic leadership objective with outstanding results. Finally, my personal health and family life improved because I was less stressed, knowing that a balanced leadership system was in place to address project and people management tasks. The only negative finding to date is my lack of patience with senior management, who continued to cling to controlling and emotional decision making despite dominant information on the benefits of leadership versus management behaviors.
Improved Leadership Through More Effective Resource Alignment
The leadership and information measurement theory courses in ASU’s facilities management program brought me to a new leadership perspective that focused on aligning content experts to better accomplish their work without misguided direction from management. This leadership style supports the empowerment of reduced management decision making, which represented a drastic change from the status quo micromanagement style I had previously followed. Figure 4 illustrates the status quo of problem solving and communication in my company. This figure demonstrates a cycle of communication in which management made reactive maintenance decisions even though they did not have all the dominant information and used these decisions to inefficiently direct the actions of expert technicians who were better qualified to evaluate equipment information. Figure 5 demonstrates the leadership model I learned in ASU’s facilities management program. Through the use of resource alignment and minimized decision making, my facilities engineering and technician team was able to more effectively solve issues by responding only to dominant information and using the content expertise of the people closest to the problems.
Fig. 4. Status quo management decision making.
Fig. 5. Leadership change through resource alignment.
By allowing the content experts to document, analyze, and view both interruptions to production and near misses, the primary failure signal for each system in the facility was significantly more obvious. Maintenance technicians were no longer unaware of long-term performance trends and had the performance information they needed to standardize related failure categories. By identifying common causes of equipment failure, technicians were able to develop preventive maintenance actions that effectively reduced the frequency of downtime incidents.
Conclusion
This research demonstrates how more effective performance measurement within a leadership versus management structure can result in improved equipment maintenance processes in a semiconductor facility. The results are not limited to the semiconductor industry, and there is great potential to apply this methodology in a wide range of facility management operations across industries. Performance measurement is a critical component in enabling facility management teams to quickly and clearly identify equipment issues. If management provides more opportunity to engage technician content experts, technicians will be more effective in real-time performance impacts and priority setting while also gaining the ability to address unscheduled downtime failures strategically without the need for management intervention.
By aligning the correct people to the right level of work, overall performance greatly improved at the company as problems were solved by the correct, most technically knowledgeable owners. The collateral and unexpected benefit was that this system brought a sense of inclusion that fostered a win/win work environment. After implementing this leadership technique into our daily program to deal with the multitude of technical challenges, people gave overwhelming positive feedback about feeling empowered and appreciated. More problems were solved, and management was perceived as more effective. Future efforts will be made to pursue implementation of this leadership methodology in other facilities groups associated with my business unit at sites around the world.
References
Allen, J. (2009). As a man thinketh, 4th Ed., Beacon Hill, Winston-Salem, NC.
Kenneth T. Sullivan is assistant professor and codirector of the Performance Based Studies Research Group, Del E. Webb School of Construction, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Doug K. McDonald is a facilities manager in the semiconductor industry and received his M.S. at the Del E. Webb School of Construction, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.
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