Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Success

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Success

Success is something we all strive for but seldom take the time to fully understand. Few think about why things go right because they are so busy dealing with all of the equipment, policy and processes that are going wrong.

Many of the solutions to our failures lie in our successes. The study of success, or positive deviance, as it is called, has been used to solve malnutrition and famine in foreign countries, political turmoil during wars, and even pump failures in manufacturing plants.

The Root Cause of Success (RCS) is simply a process that includes using your existing root cause tools to better understand why your processes and equipment work reliably.

For example, if you have a bank of seven pumps within your facility and five of the seven have never dialed, then ask yourself why. What is different about these successful pumps? When you look into the success factors for the five reliable pumps, you may discover any or all of the following: proper alignment, correct initial assembly, proper mounting, correct up and downstream piping, etc.

These findings can then be leveraged across the remaining, less reliable pumps, increasing their productivity and your plant up-time.

If your plant has created a culture where is where it is OK to use failure investigations to blame or punish folks within the facility, then applying RCS may help get your program back on track. Using this method, you can focus on the positive, solve problems, reward good behavior, and change the culture.

For 2011, consider your success. Take the time to use your root cause tools to analyze your good fortune. What have been your enablers? Leverage them and enjoy your 2011. 

—Shon Isenhour