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Rushing to Wait – Failing to Plan

Rushing to Wait – Failing to Plan

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

Just Do It!; “He who hesitates is lost”; and “Strike while the iron is hot” are all expressions used with impunity when a project is about to start as we are encouraged to ‘get on with it’ as nothing can go wrong, go wrong?, wrong!

After all, ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step‘ and projects have to start sooner or later.  But what happens when project planning is incomplete and project participants are caught up in that unfortunate project dilemma of ‘wild enthusiasm’ as they carry on with a sense of urgency while conveniently disregarding risk. [Read more…]

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How to Tackle Maintenance Budgeting

How to Tackle Maintenance Budgeting

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is an application that allows for effective management of all types of maintenance activities. This includes maintenance budgeting for expenses such as labor, parts and miscellaneous costs for completion of work orders, replacement of equipment at the end of its useful life, as well as tracking of special projects and purchasing.

Budget Forecasting

Operating a maintenance department cost efficiently without having a plan that outlines the working budget is difficult. Often decisions are based on guesswork or emergencies with no real data to show when, where or how maintenance was performed in the past and what is needed in the future.

[Read more…]

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What Are You Focused on in 2020?

What Are You Focused on in 2020?

As we’re kicking off 2020, I’m looking forward so I can deliver great content to you.  I have been sharing a lot of personal content lately about my journey and I hope that it’s fueled something inside you to change your life for the better.

I’ll keep it brief this week but I would appreciate it if you filled out the survey here.  It’s 5 easy questions about what you desire from me in 2020 and should take you less than 5 minutes.  Thank you in advance for answering and for following my content!

Reliability Never Sleeps,

Rob

Fill Out Survey

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Designing for Safety: Human Errors

Designing for Safety: Human Errors

Human Errors may be Unpreventable but, Preventing Harm is an Option

 

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water” – said Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize recipient for literature. Not preventing harm is an example of this quote.

The quotation is an inspirational reminder that people achieve nothing unless they take purposeful action that has measurable results. Taking action on potential human errors, so that harm to system users is totally prevented, is a very productive goal because its impact is highly significant.

This article mostly discusses safety in hospitals because everyone is familiar with safety issues in healthcare. The principles equally apply to any process such as design, manufacturing, construction, and aerospace (Boeing 737 Max is an example). [Read more…]

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No Surprises – Asset Management Made Easy

No Surprises – Asset Management Made Easy

Good physical asset management is about making sure our physical assets do what we want them to do at optimum operating cost and tolerable levels of risk to safety, our environment and to your business.

Managing physical assets to achieve that in an industrial setting involves much more than simply buying and running a piece of equipment. [Read more…]

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Why a CMMS May Fail

Why a CMMS May Fail

CMMS: Computerized Maintenance Management System

Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is an integral part of today’s industrial & commercial maintenance operations. During the last many years there have been a lot of advances made on improving CMMS & many products are now available in the market. Evolution of CMMS functionalities have now made it a vital component of Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems employed by many medium & large organizations around the globe. EAM as a whole is not the scope of this article; rather the focus is only on the CMMS. [Read more…]

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Reading is Fundamental, But Comprehension Is Important Too

Reading is Fundamental, But Comprehension Is Important Too

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

The art of debate has devolved.  No longer is it used as a tool of discovery, understanding, reconciliation, and progress.  Today, it is a tool used to beat one another into submission –with the wholesale surrender of the beliefs and values held by one party over the other being the goal. [Read more…]

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Is a Professional Certification Worth It?

Is a Professional Certification Worth It?

The way we learn, prove our worth, and the nature of work are all changing. Professional societies are struggling to adjust to these changes. Universities and employers likewise are experimenting and exploring new ways to operate.

Over the past few months, I’ve received about a dozen inquiries on how to prepare for the ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) exam in order to obtain the ASQ CRE certification. Many also asked if I had a course available. Thus, I decided to run a live course (learn more at the live course page – note: if you see this after the course start date we’ll have a sign up for those interested in future classes). [Read more…]

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Can You See the Forest for the Trees?

Can You See the Forest for the Trees?

Last week, I was really struggling with anxiety and feeling like I haven’t made any progress in my personal development.  I felt like I had taken 1 step forward and many steps back to return to a place where I was paralyzed in my own mind.  My coach, Susan Hobson from Elite High Performance Coaching recommended that I put together a 2019 highlight reel of all of the things I had done that were meaningful in my development. [Read more…]

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3 Ways to Improve Your Reliability Thinking

3 Ways to Improve Your Reliability Thinking

I often joke that being a reliability engineer makes it difficult to get on an airplane. Yet air travel is by far the safest method of transportation. Maybe I just think about failure too much.

When a project manager views the day’s tasks, she sees timelines, connections, dependencies. When a marketing manager views a product idea, she sees benefits, sales channels, and profits. When a reliability engineer views a prototype, she sees the many ways it can fail.

Underlying how we view the world includes our assumptions, reasoning, and experience. We understand the world around us via the set of filters we use. We form conclusions and make decisions much the same way. Quickly and mostly automatically. [Read more…]

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Where Were You 6 months Ago

Where Were You 6 months Ago

When organizations bring me in, some times the team will say “where were you 6 months ago.” In several of those cases, I was already talking to them prior to the point of major project pain. If you ask, but do not need my support – I will tell you. But if you don’t ask, then you risk major project delays just to avoid a brief conversation. This video will discuss those unfortunate client situations. [Read more…]

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I Want it Now and I Want it Cheap

I Want it Now and I Want it Cheap

When it comes to information, entertainment, finding your way around and communications these days, we more or less literally have it all at our fingertips and available to us just about anywhere. We can even order and pay for coffee to pick up on our way from the commuter train to the office – no line ups for delays. We can book hotels, airlines and rental cars at the touch of our fingers with apps that show us the cheapest options. [Read more…]