The operations or production departments must take enough ownership of their equipment that they are willing to support the maintenance department's efforts. Operational involvement, which varies from company to company, includes some of the following activities:

• Inspecting equipment prior to start up
• Filling out work requests for maintenance
• Completing work orders for maintenance
• Recording breakdown or malfunction data for equipment
• Performing some basic equipment service, such as lubrication
• Executing maintenance activities (supported by central maintenance)

The extent which operations is involved in maintenance activities may depend on the complexity of the equipment, the skills of the operators, or even union agreements. The goal should be to free up some maintenance resources to concentrate on more advanced maintenance techniques (like predictive maintenance).

Tip by Terry Wireman from Benchmarking Best Practices in Maintenance Management 2nd Edition