Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Initiative Overload - Which Way Do I Go?
Have you ever worked in an environment where it seemed like each department had multiple improvement projects being pushed all at once?
Is there an over arching methodology that would allow all improvement initiatives to be placed under one umbrella so it would be easier for everyone who worked in the company to understand the methods and goals?
Do the people pushing these separate agenda's understand the effect on the plant floor?
Thursday, June 3, 2010
If someone is terrorizing your neighborhood...
sometimes it’s alright to grab a stick and take a swing.
This is part of a post from the person behind the @BPGlobalPR account at that is driving an un-named oil company crazy. His name is Leroy Stick (not his real name - and you can imagine the reason why he does not use his real name)
You can read his post here
He explains his name as follows:
When I was growing up, there was a dog that lived on my block named Leroy. Leroy was a big dog with a disdain for leashes and a thirst for blood. He made a habit of running around our block attacking anything he saw, biting my dad and my dogs basically whenever he had the chance. He chased me a few times, but I always escaped because I was/am an amazing tree climber.
Anyhoos, after Leroy’s second or third attack on my dogs, it became clear that the police and Leroy’s owner weren’t going to do anything to stop him, so my dad took matters into his own hands and came up with a brilliant invention: the Leroy stick.
The Leroy stick was, you guessed it, a stick. My dad carried an axe handle and I carried a plunger handle. My dad told me two things about carrying the Leroy stick. First, if Leroy came near me or the dogs, I should hit him. Second, if I hit Leroy with my stick, I would not get in trouble. Was it legal? Probably not. Was it right? It sure felt like it. We set the example and soon a lot of our neighbors started carrying Leroy sticks as well. Soon enough, Leroy and his owner saw everyone carrying sticks and Leroy didn’t run free anymore.
The point of this story is that if someone is terrorizing your neighborhood, sometimes it’s alright to grab a stick and take a swing. Social media, and in this particular case Twitter, has given average people like me the ability to use and invent all sorts of brand new sticks.
He started @BPGlobalPR, because the oil spill had been going on for almost a month and all BP had to offer were BS PR statements. No solutions, no urgency, no sincerity, no nothing.
He started off just making jokes at their expense with a few friends, but now it has turned into something of a movement.
Why has this caught on? I think it’s because people can smell the BS and sometimes laughing at it feels better than getting angry or depressed over it. At the very least, it’s a welcome break from that routine. The reason @BPGlobalPR continues to grow is because BP continues to spew their BS.
If you have a Twitter account follow http://twitter.com/BPGlobalPR
This is part of a post from the person behind the @BPGlobalPR account at that is driving an un-named oil company crazy. His name is Leroy Stick (not his real name - and you can imagine the reason why he does not use his real name)
You can read his post here
He explains his name as follows:
When I was growing up, there was a dog that lived on my block named Leroy. Leroy was a big dog with a disdain for leashes and a thirst for blood. He made a habit of running around our block attacking anything he saw, biting my dad and my dogs basically whenever he had the chance. He chased me a few times, but I always escaped because I was/am an amazing tree climber.
Anyhoos, after Leroy’s second or third attack on my dogs, it became clear that the police and Leroy’s owner weren’t going to do anything to stop him, so my dad took matters into his own hands and came up with a brilliant invention: the Leroy stick.
The Leroy stick was, you guessed it, a stick. My dad carried an axe handle and I carried a plunger handle. My dad told me two things about carrying the Leroy stick. First, if Leroy came near me or the dogs, I should hit him. Second, if I hit Leroy with my stick, I would not get in trouble. Was it legal? Probably not. Was it right? It sure felt like it. We set the example and soon a lot of our neighbors started carrying Leroy sticks as well. Soon enough, Leroy and his owner saw everyone carrying sticks and Leroy didn’t run free anymore.
The point of this story is that if someone is terrorizing your neighborhood, sometimes it’s alright to grab a stick and take a swing. Social media, and in this particular case Twitter, has given average people like me the ability to use and invent all sorts of brand new sticks.
He started @BPGlobalPR, because the oil spill had been going on for almost a month and all BP had to offer were BS PR statements. No solutions, no urgency, no sincerity, no nothing.
He started off just making jokes at their expense with a few friends, but now it has turned into something of a movement.
Why has this caught on? I think it’s because people can smell the BS and sometimes laughing at it feels better than getting angry or depressed over it. At the very least, it’s a welcome break from that routine. The reason @BPGlobalPR continues to grow is because BP continues to spew their BS.
If you have a Twitter account follow http://twitter.com/BPGlobalPR
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Do You Have To Worry About New Oil Cleanliness?
Of all the daily concerns for maintenance professional the one thing they can count on is getting clean oil delivered from their vendor right?
NO WAY!
Before I get blasted with emails from upstanding and righteous lube distributors - please know that these wonderful sales people really want to deliver the cleanest oil possible however that have almost no control over the transfers and other storage situations on the way to the final destination.
My advice - Filter 100% of your oil at the point of use.
Read more in this great article by our friend Paul Dufrense - who is always ready to teach and share his outstanding knowledge of lubrication and other matters of reliability
NO WAY!
Before I get blasted with emails from upstanding and righteous lube distributors - please know that these wonderful sales people really want to deliver the cleanest oil possible however that have almost no control over the transfers and other storage situations on the way to the final destination.
My advice - Filter 100% of your oil at the point of use.
Read more in this great article by our friend Paul Dufrense - who is always ready to teach and share his outstanding knowledge of lubrication and other matters of reliability
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Hard Work, Dedication and Eventually Reliability Transformation
I am reading the new Uptime Magazine cover article featuring SembCorp UK about their journey toward improved Reliability. It is a great story.
You can read it here is you wish
What strikes me most about this story is that technical approaches were not the leading techniques used to create results - human approaches led the way.
The great news is that this story illustrates that you do not need to purchase new EAM software, or invest in Vibration Analysis system - at least to begin your journey - you can make HUGE strides by changing the context of your program, adding leadership direction and focusing on defect elimination.
Once you start reducing system defects that reduce overall results, and get people seeing and more importantly - eliminating these defects - you can turn your Maintenance Mountain into a Maintenance Molehill - making things like Reliability Centered Maintenance analysis, Predictive Maintenance and other valuable techniques and technologies much less challenging to implement.
In all the plants I have been to it never fails that the people who are the closest to the problem - always have solutions - if they are empowered to implement them.
At Reliabilityweb.com we call this Human Asset Management and we recommend you spend as much if not more time learning about what makes people tick as you do technical solutions. Our research shows "technical solutions" implemented without human asset management fail to sustain any meaningful improvement at least 80% of the time.
You can read it here is you wish
What strikes me most about this story is that technical approaches were not the leading techniques used to create results - human approaches led the way.
The great news is that this story illustrates that you do not need to purchase new EAM software, or invest in Vibration Analysis system - at least to begin your journey - you can make HUGE strides by changing the context of your program, adding leadership direction and focusing on defect elimination.
Once you start reducing system defects that reduce overall results, and get people seeing and more importantly - eliminating these defects - you can turn your Maintenance Mountain into a Maintenance Molehill - making things like Reliability Centered Maintenance analysis, Predictive Maintenance and other valuable techniques and technologies much less challenging to implement.
In all the plants I have been to it never fails that the people who are the closest to the problem - always have solutions - if they are empowered to implement them.
At Reliabilityweb.com we call this Human Asset Management and we recommend you spend as much if not more time learning about what makes people tick as you do technical solutions. Our research shows "technical solutions" implemented without human asset management fail to sustain any meaningful improvement at least 80% of the time.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Is Reliability Equal To Safety?
My point is that if Reliability was treated EXACTLY like safety - where there is a clear policy, clear management support, clear performance metrics, clear regulation (do not get me started on enforcement here), a clear decision tree, and of course a clear path to litigation when a violation occurs - perhaps the evolution could take place faster than the 30 years we have had modern reliability techniques and methods.
What I am saying is that CEOs and Company Boards did not achieve safety out of the goodness of their hearts or from some sense of conscience. they did so out of fear of litigation. To be frank - the CEO and Company Boards are by charter - driven to maximize profit - and I am sure that early on they viewed safety compliance as a cost and a hindrance to that charter. After enough law suits the risk simply became too big to bear and like magic - safety became a standard operating context. CEOs understand TOO MUCH RISK. It became cheaper to have safety than to have violations.
If you ever had something to thank a lawyer about - that is it! (No lawyer jokes in reply please!)
I have visited and learned from hundreds of people who had made various reliability improvement journeys - and the one thing that EVERY SINGLE ONE of the have in common - is management as a barrier. It is either a barrier to achieving the performance that is possible or they are a barrier for sustaining the performance long term. The funny thing to me is that the assets we are all trying to make perform better and produce more - BELONG to the shareholders that the CEO and Board represent! They are not our assets - in fact from a shallow view - the less reliable the equipment - the more job security we have!
Shareholders currently have NO WAY to determine the devaluation of company assets based on operating and maintenance performance. They are blind as bats. It seems counterintuitive with so much investment money at stake.
Things that defeat reliability improvements are not mechanical or electrical. They are usually internal and include barriers and obstacles, competing forces, non value added work, lack of focus, lack of skills, lack of knowledge, general chaos and lack of communication. These can all be overcome - but need ongoing leadership at all levels - including the Corporate suite to succeed and sustain.
So that is why I asked added the legal to my original question.
As to the moral and ethical - the Do The Right Thing - element. I have heard it said that you can count on the CEO to do the right thing - once they have exhausted all other choices!
I am hoping that as a community - we can get them to that point sooner rather than later.
I do not expect much participation in this discussion because it is dangerous to people who are actively employed to speak up. That is fine because people speak to me off the record all the time.
I do not speak for the entire community because we are no monolithic in view or need - but I do speak for many.
Terrence O'Hanlon, CMRP
Publisher
Reliabilityweb.com
Uptime® Magazine
http://www.reliabilityweb.com
http://www.uptimemagazine.com
Networking Links
Join the Association for Maintenance Professionals
http://www.maintenance.org
What I am saying is that CEOs and Company Boards did not achieve safety out of the goodness of their hearts or from some sense of conscience. they did so out of fear of litigation. To be frank - the CEO and Company Boards are by charter - driven to maximize profit - and I am sure that early on they viewed safety compliance as a cost and a hindrance to that charter. After enough law suits the risk simply became too big to bear and like magic - safety became a standard operating context. CEOs understand TOO MUCH RISK. It became cheaper to have safety than to have violations.
If you ever had something to thank a lawyer about - that is it! (No lawyer jokes in reply please!)
I have visited and learned from hundreds of people who had made various reliability improvement journeys - and the one thing that EVERY SINGLE ONE of the have in common - is management as a barrier. It is either a barrier to achieving the performance that is possible or they are a barrier for sustaining the performance long term. The funny thing to me is that the assets we are all trying to make perform better and produce more - BELONG to the shareholders that the CEO and Board represent! They are not our assets - in fact from a shallow view - the less reliable the equipment - the more job security we have!
Shareholders currently have NO WAY to determine the devaluation of company assets based on operating and maintenance performance. They are blind as bats. It seems counterintuitive with so much investment money at stake.
Things that defeat reliability improvements are not mechanical or electrical. They are usually internal and include barriers and obstacles, competing forces, non value added work, lack of focus, lack of skills, lack of knowledge, general chaos and lack of communication. These can all be overcome - but need ongoing leadership at all levels - including the Corporate suite to succeed and sustain.
So that is why I asked added the legal to my original question.
As to the moral and ethical - the Do The Right Thing - element. I have heard it said that you can count on the CEO to do the right thing - once they have exhausted all other choices!
I am hoping that as a community - we can get them to that point sooner rather than later.
I do not expect much participation in this discussion because it is dangerous to people who are actively employed to speak up. That is fine because people speak to me off the record all the time.
I do not speak for the entire community because we are no monolithic in view or need - but I do speak for many.
Terrence O'Hanlon, CMRP
Publisher
Reliabilityweb.com
Uptime® Magazine
http://www.reliabilityweb.com
http://www.uptimemagazine.com
Networking Links
Join the Association for Maintenance Professionals
http://www.maintenance.org
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Reliability as a Legal, Ethical and Moral Imperative
Does anyone agree that in addition to being smart business that Reliability should rise to the level of safety and environment in today's organizations?
Can and should Reliability be held as a Legal/Regulatory, Ethical and Moral responsibility by the companies that operate in the USA/North America?
Read more...
Can and should Reliability be held as a Legal/Regulatory, Ethical and Moral responsibility by the companies that operate in the USA/North America?
Read more...
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