2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of giving more responsibility for machine maintenance to the operator?

Frito-Lay, the multi-billion-dollar subsidiary of food and beverage giant PepsiCo, maintains 36 plants in the U.S. and Canada.
These facilities produce dozen of snacks, including the wellknown Lay’s, Fritos, Cheetos, Doritos, Ruffles, and Tostitos brands, each of which sells over $1 billion per year.
Frito-Lay plants produce in the high-volume, low-variety process model common to commercial baked goods, steel, glass, and beer industries. In this environment, preventive maintenance of equipment takes a major role by avoiding costly downtime. Tom Rao, vice president for Florida operations, estimates that each 1% of downtime has a negative annual profit impact of $200,000. He is proud of the 112 , unscheduled downtime his plant is able to reach—well below the 2% that is considered the “world-class” benchmark. This excellent performance is possible because the maintenance department takes an active role in setting the parameters for preventive maintenance.
This is done with weekly input to the production schedule.
Maintenance policy impacts energy use as well. The Florida plant’s technical manager, Jim Wentzel, states, “By reducing production interruptions, we create an opportunity to bring energy and utility use under control. Equipment maintenance and a solid production schedule are keys to utility efficiency. With every production interruption, there is substantial waste.”