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Be Prepared: Have a Plan

Without a Plan, You’ll Never Get Where You Are Trying To Go

Image going for a vacation, but you don’t have a destination in mind, directions to the destination, or any funds allocated for the trip.  What kind of vacation will you have?  Chances are it won’t be a good one.

The importance of a plan cannot be understated.  Without a plan in any aspect of life, business or reliability, achieving goals are difficult, if not impossible.   Oftentimes organizations implement tactical activities, without a strategic plan.  This ad-hoc approach often results in certain aspects of a maintenance & reliability program implemented, but the results do not materialize.

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What is Maintenance Workflow?

What is Maintenance Workflow?

Maintenance workflow is the step-by-step process that gets initiated by some trigger event to the point where the action is closed out. For example, in a typical maintenance operation, a trigger event could be a report of faulty equipment. The step-by-step workflow process would include the generation of a maintenance order, the planning of the task, the execution of the repair and the reporting at the end of the job. Every organization has a workflow process whether it is officially documented or not; there is always a standard way to get things done. When this process is not well-defined, it can lead to frustrations on the part of employees trying to get their jobs done as well as major inefficiencies that are costly to the organization over time. In comes maintenance management software…

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Why Do You Let Your Budgets Hold You Back?

Why Do You Let Your Budgets Hold You Back?

The “no brainer” opportunity

Let’s say that you run your own business. You have an opportunity to invest some money and get a payback that is more than your total investment within the first year (payback is more than 100% in the first year). Moreover, that payback will continue for many years. Would you invest?

Most entrepreneurs running their own businesses would say yes. After all, the proposition is a “no brainer”. There aren’t a lot of investments with such huge paybacks. Yet many managers in most larger companies won’t go for it. Why? [Read more…]

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Your Risk Assessment’s a Thermometer, Not a Crystal Ball!

Your Risk Assessment’s a Thermometer, Not a Crystal Ball!

Guest Post by Andrew Sheves (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

If you’re cooking, you need a way to tell how hot the oven is.  You won’t be able to tell the difference between 275F and 325F just by sticking your hand inside – both are going to feel hot to you – but this is the difference between a perfect, crunchy yet chewy meringue and something that’s dry and explodes into a pile of dust. So we use a thermometer to give us the information we need.

Similarly, we need a way to be able to differentiate between risks, to separate those that are ‘hotter’ and might burn us and the others that are simply ‘warm’.  Unfortunately, we can’t buy a risk thermometer so we conduct a risk assessment to help us make that differentiation. [Read more…]

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Tips for Better Online Learning

Tips for Better Online Learning

One of the key ideas behind the ASQ CRE certification is the need to learn enough to pass the exam. Then you are expected to continue to learn to maintain your certification. It is the key idea of ongoing professional development that central to the CRE program, and many other certification programs.

Over this past year of COVID-induced restrictions, the ability to attend local chapter meetings or conferences has changed. While many events are now done online, it’s another Zoom meeting after a day full of such online meetings.

A recent article by Anant Agarwal, the founder and CEO of edX titled, “What I’ve Learned About Learning – 5 Hacks for Success” caught my attention. Anant provides a few tips to improve your online learning – and I would say any learning. A little research on how to best learn online also found “Tips for Successful Online Learning” that helped inform this short summary. [Read more…]

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What is the Philosophy of Process Control?

What is the Philosophy of Process Control?

Ask people involved with the design and manufacture of a product the following question:  “What is Quality?”  Many if not most of the responses will be some form of the following:  “Quality is ensuring that our products meet the customer (or engineering) specifications.  Unfortunately, this leads to a “conformance to specifications” or a “Product Control” approach to quality. [Read more…]

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The Culture of Design for Reliability

The Culture of Design for Reliability

The way we think and act concerning creating a reliable product or system defines the reliability culture of an origination. I trust your organization doesn’t complete the design then ask the reliability folks to ‘add the reliability element’ or ‘test to prove it’s reliable enough’.

Another ineffective approach is to perform many reliability-related tasks, like a design FMEA, HALT, ALT, derating, margin and environmental testing, life testing, demonstration testing, etc More is not better. If the focus is just doing the list of tasks, with little information acted upon, then this approach is little more than a waste of resources.

So, what is it that makes a wonderful design for reliability program? It’s not expecting the reliability team to do it on their own, nor is it checking off a long list of tasks. It is the focus across the organization, inside and outside the design and development team, that each decision made has an impact on reliability performance. As such, the work of the DfR program is to enable each decision to be well informed concerning the potential impact to reliability involved with the pending decision. [Read more…]

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Do you ‘want’ something … or just ‘like the idea of it?’

Do you ‘want’ something … or just ‘like the idea of it?’

Let’s say that someone has decided they want to get better at something. Perhaps they want to lose weight. Perhaps they want to learn a language. Perhaps they want to learn to play the guitar.

The next thing they might do is find an expert who can help them. A personal trainer. A linguist. A music teacher. They then go and find their expert. But … in the very first meeting, they tell their expert:

‘Just so you know, I am NOT going to (1) stop eating hamburgers, (2) do homework or (3) practice playing.’ [Read more…]

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Proactive RCA: How to Break the Chains of Restraining Paradigms About RCA

Proactive RCA: How to Break the Chains of Restraining Paradigms About RCA

Traditionally RCA is only utilized after an event has occurred, so how can one call it proactive? This perception is explored through trying to understand the current paradigms that exist about RCA, what it is and when it is used. Do we really have to wait for an undesirable outcome to occur in order to use RCA? [Read more…]

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Using Governance & Accountability To Improve

How to Drive Performance Improvements in your Organization

Oftentimes, plans and strategies are developed and implemented.  Many times the implementation is handed off and the team left on their own to implement.  And many of the times, the implementation fails or the results are not delivered.

Why is this?  It is because there is a lack of governance and accountability.  These are more than just words.  They are a system, process and a sense of ownership throughout the organization to ensure that the plan is implemented and any roadblocks are dealt with. [Read more…]

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The Link Between RCM Facilitation and Effective Maintenance

The Link Between RCM Facilitation and Effective Maintenance

These are challenging economic times and opportunities abound with many of our customers to add new business value. They are turning to us and asking: “You’ve brought great value to our Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM-R) program through knowledge capture, personnel education, laying the foundation for a ‘living’ maintenance program and so on. However, what additional value can you provide us beyond what you have already done?”  One answer: “Focus on writing high-value, asset maintenance tasks. i.e. Tactical PM Program Implementations”. [Read more…]

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In COVID Time, Is Your Tuchis Hanging Out?

In COVID Time, Is Your Tuchis Hanging Out?

Guest Post by Howard M. Weiner (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”
– Warren Buffett

The current pandemic has wreaked profound dislocation on businesses throughout the world and upended societal norms as we know them.  It may have been an unpredictable, ‘black swan’ event that will not recur anytime soon, though that’s open to discussion, but it’s worth evaluating your risk management practices to see whether you could have done better.  

My guess is that, with the exception of a small fraction of companies, risk management is not done particularly well and better (or at least, less-worse) outcomes could have been achieved. [Read more…]

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Sharpening the Axe

Sharpening the Axe

Abraham Lincoln taught the value of adequate preparation when he said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” By nature and training, quality inspectors are focused on verifying the correctness of a product. A traditional inspector at the Lincoln Timber Company might have dutifully marked in her audit log the date and time, the type and size of tree, followed by the comment, “Cut down.”

But Honest Abe would have advised her to take a closer look at the tools and process used to complete the job. [Read more…]