NTT facilities´ quality management of maintenance system

Failures in telecommunications systems seriously compromise the ability of a company to continue business. We, NTT Facilities have a responsibility to maintain a continuous power supply to NTT telecommunications systems. A high level of reliability, i.e., only one five-minute shutdown in a twenty-year period, is required. To prevent the power supply to telecommunications systems shutting down, we have to install reliable systems and provide appropriate maintenance. The quality of the maintenance depends on the skills of the engineers. However, the generation shift means that maintaining engineers skill at a high level is increasingly difficult. For example, if an engineer training program is held for in year, it will have limited value some years later because of the engineers who attended will have retired. Therefore we have to establish a continuous system of improving skills and implement the plan, do, check, and act (PDCA) cycles periodically. We describe how the implementing quality management in our maintenance systems improves the skills of NTT Facilities´ maintenance engineers.