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Not Understanding Risk Will Cause Your Projects to Fail

Not Understanding Risk Will Cause Your Projects to Fail

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

Risk is an event or activity that can go wrong and cause an impact to the project. Risks can have a negative or positive impact to the project. Risks that have a positive impact are called opportunities. If they a negative impact to the project, they are called risks.

Risks and opportunities can be generated by anyone on the project but typically are identified and analyzed at the IPT (Integrated ProductTeam) level.  A goal on a project is to try and balance risks and opportunities to mitigate the chance of cost or schedule growth. [Read more…]

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6 Maintenance Challenges CMMS Helps Resolve

6 Maintenance Challenges CMMS Helps Resolve

As a provider of CMMS software and services for over 30 years, we hear common challenges affecting maintenance managers, technicians, teams and overall bottom lines for companies. Luckily, computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) was developed to help overcome these challenges. Read on to learn more about specific maintenance challenges and how features available within CMMS help resolve each one.

Common Maintenance Challenge # 1:

Need a better way to reduce unplanned downtime and have the ability to plan and schedule preventive maintenance (PM) more effectively.

[Read more…]

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How Should I Start?

How Should I Start?

This morning, I was swimming and I was thinking about a question that I get asked frequently.  The question goes like this:

Rob, my facility is very reactive, how do I start my reliability program?

Having a water polo background is something I rely on when I embark on new projects.  I didn’t become a better swimmer by reading, watching YouTube videos or planning to become the best swimmer.  I got better at swimming by swimming.  I don’t discount the value of a coach, teammates or a plan (I had a coach and a team) but at the end of the day, you need to start. [Read more…]

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Data Analysis and Questions to Answer

Data Analysis and Questions to Answer

One of my standing searches revealed an article that has shows a nice example of reliability data analysis. The author analyzed the time-to-violent-death of Roman emperors. The article is interesting in a historical sense plus illustrates a few key points for any life data analysis.

The article, “Statistical reliability analysis for the most dangerous occupation: Roman Emperor” by Joseph Homer Saleh takes a look at the 69 Roman emperors and 62% of them that suffered a violent death. The idea of the study was to determine if there is some pattern to the deaths and if the analysis would reveal any insights for those studying the era of the Roman emperors. [Read more…]

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Business Cases for Asset Management – Part 2

Business Cases for Asset Management – Part 2

This is the second blog in a two-part series that explain how to present Capital Asset Management and Maintenance Improvement programs to the various decision groups who speak different “languages”. Your finance people speak in terms of revenue, costs, return on investments. They see things as figures and financial statements. Somehow they need to translate your operational or functional benefits into dollars in order to truly support your ideas. [Read more…]

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Practical Path of Mitigating Global Warming Risk

Practical Path of Mitigating Global Warming Risk

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

The 2020 democratic presidential candidates are backing the New Green Deal, which calls for the elimination of fossil fuels within 10-40 years (depending on which candidate you are talking to). If America is serious about this goal, then nuclear fusion power is the only practical way to begin to achieve it. [Read more…]

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Twas the Night Before Christmas a Visit from the CEO

Twas the Night Before Christmas a Visit from the CEO
(Inspired by the Poem by Clement Clarke Moore)

Twas the night before Christmas
When all through the facility
Not an engineer was stirring
Not even in reliability

The KPIs were hung by the lunchroom with care
In hopes that the plant manager soon would be there
When out on the plant floor there rose such a clatter
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter

Away to the plant I flew like a flash
Put my PPE on and slammed my door with a crash
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear
But a man and eight junior engineers

With a white hard hat, suit and a shiny high vis vest
I knew in a moment it was the CEO, I guess
He spoke not a word but went straight to his desk
And walked right past the broken equipment that needs money to invest

And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the stairs he rose
But I heard him exclaim, ere he climbed out of sight
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night

[Read more…]

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That’s Not My Job: Denial, Reality, or Change Catalyst?

That’s Not My Job: Denial, Reality, or Change Catalyst?

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

“That’s not my job” …an inevitable response when a ‘somebody’ is asked to do something that requires their effort and which they believe they don’t have to do, don’t won’t do, or can’t do.  This familiar cry is often said with such impunity that the requester may well feel that they are in the wrong…but who is wrong and who has been wronged?
Both parties are taken aback; the requester may wilt away and take the request somewhere else with umbrage and annoyance, or challenge the rebuttal.  The requested, feeling threatened, reacts defensively be it right or wrong.  Conflict results but the sad fact is that the disputed work in question is delayed. ‘ [Read more…]

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CMMS User Training Maximizes Efficiency

CMMS User Training Maximizes Efficiency

After you’ve purchased computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), your work is done. Implementation will be a breeze, all users will quickly learn the system and your organization will begin reaping benefits immediately. Although this scenario is possible, it’s very unlikely. Companies that carve out ample time for CMMS training typically experience the most success with their software.

[Read more…]

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How Asset Management Impacts Your Happiness

How Asset Management Impacts Your Happiness

Have you worked in a company that says they want to be world class in reliability but won’t make investments in training their people or their reliability initiatives?

Have you seen companies who say safety is a value, but you see people pressured to work in an unsafe manner?

These are examples of misalignment and violates a concept in asset management.  In asset management, aligning decisions with the company’s purpose & objectives is how to get the most value out of your assets.

What does this have to do with my happiness?

I do agree that working for a company that says one thing but acts another way is frustrating and can impact your happiness (mostly through disengagement), but that’s not I want to talk about.

[Read more…]

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The Conscious Asset Framework – 4

The Conscious Asset Framework – 4

Putting the Framework to work – steps 3 and 4

By James Reyes-Picknell & Uri Wittenberg

3. Planning

It is vital to get Planning right, so it will take some time to execute. This is where some of the philosophies, concepts and tools, conveyed during the Awareness portion in concert with past knowledge and experiences, will help assemble the overall implementation project plan with all its pieces. It should consider cross-functional daily interaction between all areas in the organization vital to the successful operation of all business essentials. [Read more…]