Maintenance Productivity Advancement by Measuring and Improving HoTT (Hands on Tool Time)

Abstract Whilst cost competitiveness becoming a core value, most organizations are stretched toward further means to having more efficient and productive operations. Measuring the time spent by workers while doing the actual work is key to advance productivity. It helps to reveal waste and find better ways of working with direct impact on efficiency and OPEX. Additional value is generated through improved HSSE, better morale, less errors, and quicker return to service. The time spent by personnel doing the daily maintenance activities called HoTT (Hands on tool time). It is also called wrench time or TOT (time on tools). Three main methods could be used to measure HoTT, Activity Survey, DILO (Day in Life Of) and Self-Reporting. Activity survey is a statistical survey on various maintenance activities. Data points are recorded by observers deployed to random activities. Wrench time accuracy will depend on number of the observations made. The larger the sample size, the more reliable the data would be. The fact that activity survey gives better representation of the studied population, it is considered the most accurate method for HoTT measurement. Furthermore, DILO day in life of offers a simpler approach by focusing on one maintenance activity. The drawback is less accurate HoTT measurement as less samples will be obtained. Self-reporting is another less commonly used method. It is about asking the worker to report his own HoTT. In Oil and Gas, best in class facilities are at 60% - 65% HoTT and industry average is around 30% - 40%. Experts emphasize that boosting HoTT to best practice typically increases productivity by 57 percent. For example, a plant might go from fulfilling 500 work orders per month to 785 work orders per month without adding any new technicians to staff. It is essential to establish a process to measure wrench time, identify waste, generate improvement ideas, and have tracking means to make sure productivity advancement is achieved. In mature organizations where productivity improvement ideas are being realized and sustained, the calculated HoTT would be improving over time. This paper will discuss different methods to measure HoTT, outline a real case study analysis and showcase the benefits of having a well-established HoTT process in any organization.