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 ofNTT Facilities' maintenance engineers