Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Confidence

Here is this week's installment of ReliabilityWeb.com's e-book, Things to Think About and Do in 2011. Can't wait for next week's topic? Thumb through the entire e-book for free at ReliabilityWeb.com, Happy Reading!

Confidence—

There is one thing that I am confident about. When it comes to safety and reliability, there are only two types of companies:
  1. Those that get safety and reliability. 
  2.  Those that don’t.
The safe and reliable companies know why they are safe and reliable. They ask difficult questions every day, and they are not afraid to deal with the answers. They use tools like RCM, Root Case Analysis, FMEA, and Process Hazard Analysis to uncover the address failures before they occur. They have only one set of rules and everyone follows those same rules. Companies who get safety and reliability believe in educating their people about the best methods and tools, and they understand the value of sustained performance. They understand that safety and reliability aren’t things that happen once in a while; they either exist all the time, or they don’t at all.

Unsafe and unreliable companies, as well as the managers who elect to stay with them, make excuses, attend funerals and pretend the incident that took a life was an unlikely and unexpected event. They believe that the well-being of their employees depends on luck, that their business is somehow different from everyone else’s, and that it’s acceptable when people are hurt or injured, because “our industry is different; you have to be tough to work here.” Unsafe and unreliable companies talk more about the past than they do the future; they take pleasure in placing blame and look for excuses instead of solutions.

Going into 2011, I am confident in one thing: the companies who get what it takes to be safe & reliable will continue to use the methods that made them that way. Of the companies that don’t, several of those will continue to look for excuses as to why they are no longer competitive or in business!

—Doug Plicknette

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