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

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Excellence

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Excellence

What is excellence? To many maintenance reliability professionals, excellence is completing more than 85 percent of work planned, compliance with over 90 percent of the schedule and completing at least 95 percent of the PM. But ask yourself if that definition is shared in the ivory towers of your organization? If not, what is the boss’s definition of excellence? If you want to be considered a valued contributor with job security, shouldn’t you know?

We can argue about the definition of value. However, in the corner offices of corporate management, value has only one meaning: dollars! If it can’t be monetized or show up on a profit and loss statement, it doesn’t have value. Returning to the original question, do planned work, schedule compliance and PM completion have monetary value? They probably do, but try to convince a financial executive, who is under extreme profit pressure from a board of directors and shareholders. The vision isn’t there.

In order to thrive, we must reorient out thinking to conform to that of corporate chieftains. They certainly aren’t going to reorient their thinking to us. What does that mean? First, we must be recognized as fulfilling a vital role by producing demonstrable business values within operational excellence. If you don’t know what operational excellence is, you’d better find out, because your masters of industry are probably thinking about implementation! Second, we must shift our sights to results that can be shown to have real monetary value instead of measures that may generate all the excitement of the flu in the stratosphere of your company:

1. Focusing on declining lifetime cost and failure rates—rather than on PdM, PM and work effectiveness
2. Achieving optimal system availability—rather than equipment MTBF
3. Showing the percentage of RCA recommendations that succeeded in preventing subsequent events—rather than analyses completed

Let’s measure and publicize the results of objectives that create business value, not activities that got you there!

—John Mitchell

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Leakage

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Leakage

As a football fan, I have found it interesting to note that some defense-minded coaches have used the term “leakage” to describe situations where a team’s opposition had been able to gain more yard than expected based on the team’s less-than-perfect defensive scheme. In other words, Leakage describes an instance where, although a total breakdown did not occur, the system did not function as “tightly” as planned. There are many analogous situations in work and personal life where leakage occurs.

For instance, We intend for a repair to be completed today, but it slips into tomorrow. Is the leakage a catastrophe? No. It is, however, a sign that your systems are not as well controlled as you had hoped. 

 

Another example is repeat failures. The repeat failure would not have occurred if the failure-causing defect had been removed, or if another failure-causing defect had not been introduced during the repair. Again, this may not be a catastrophe, but it is a leak in your system.

Still another example is when you find that although a repair restores functionality, it does not restore the reliability of a device. All too often, when technicians focus on getting things back into operation as quickly as possible without paying enough attention to restoring the inherent reliability. This practice allows defects to leak from the past into the future. This causes the future failure rate to increase. 

Returning to the football analogy, when a defensive coach recognizes that his team has a porous defense, he knows the problem is one of two things: either the defensive scheme is not putting the players in the right place at the right time, or the players are not performing. The first is a systemic problem and the second is an individual performance problem. 

Good managers recognize leakage when it occurs and take decisive action. They are not afraid to blame their own systemic problems or to deal with poor performers. Individuals who manage leakage seldom have to worry about managing catastrophes.

—Daniel T. Daley

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Priceless

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Priceless

Qualified vibration analysts are priceless. Determining that a bearing has a defect on the inner race takes skill and experience. A timely warning about the defect so that action can be taken to avoid a catastrophic failure reduces downtime, eliminates the secondary damage and mitigates the safety risk. But that is not the end of the job; it is just the beginning. Performing acceptance testing so that only healthy machines are installed in your plant is essential. Detecting and correcting unbalance, misalignment, and resonance extends the life of the machine; you’ll see fewer bearing defects. And when you do detect a fault, determining why the fault occurred, and working to ensure that “root cause” is not repeated in the future; that’s where the real pay-off comes. Detecting bearing faults is important, but there is so much more you can contribute to plant reliability, safety, and profitability.

—Jason Tranter

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Sustained

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Sustained

One of the objectives of setting goals is to improve performance for a given process, area or event. Each time I perform an RCM [Reliability Centered Maintenance] Blitz™ analysis, I set a goal with the RCM team before moving on to the next analysis. Having facilitated hundreds of RCM analyses, I have a good idea of what it takes to implement the tasks and I also understand the implications of not achieving this first goal.

After achieving this first goal of implementing the RCM tasks, while we might take a moment to celebrate, we must realize that our work is not complete. Analyzing the failure modes and implementing the mitigating tasks is only two-thirds of the equation when it comes to having a successful RCM effort. A successful effort can only be achieved by now completing the implemented PL and PdM tasks as scheduled on a routine basis. The results of your effort can only be recognized by having the leadership, structure and discipline required to plan, schedule and complete this new strategy.

The objective of performing Reliability Centered Maintenance is to improve the reliability of your assets, and while achieving the goal of implementing you RCM analysis is a good start, it doesn’t make your equiptment or your company reliable.

Reliability, afterall, can only be achieved by demonstrating a sustained level of performance over a scheduled period of time. 

An RCM effort, therefore, can only be deemed successful when the implemented strategy delivers an improved and sustained level of reliability.

—Doug Plucknette

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Influence

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Influence

I’ve noticed lately how much I impact my own day. I’ve recently moved and with that came much packing, unpacking, home improvements and decoration. Fabulous, darling! However, if I don’t look at what I’m doing or think one step ahead, then something falls off the table, I buy the wrong size, forget something at the store, something doesn’t fit however hard I try to squish it, and the cupboard needs un- and re-packing (if it hasn’t been squished for good). Far from fabulous, darling! If simply having a trouble-free, ‘no rework’ day requires constant concentration and discipline, what does excellence require? Constant concentration and discipline, plus the belief that you can make improvements.

I’ve come to believe that excellence is not a state, but a journey. The picture of excellence changes over time, but the journey to get there remains the same and it always energizes. It’s continual improvement.

A company that survives must to things well and strive to do it better tomorrow. It takes continual improvements from people in every department and all levels to achieve this. In 2011, I’ll be thinking about how to notice and congratulate others when they have done something that energizes them, however small, for “continual” tends to happen in small steps and people are better at improving things when they feel positive. I’ll be working at a level that’s tangible to me (small and basic!), but hopefully this will help those with whom I come into contact today improve something else tomorrow, and maybe I can positively impact someone else’s day as much as I influence my own.

—Claudia Faye

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: People

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People

People, people who need people…are likely to call on maintenance! In the year ahead, I think we all need to take a step back and realize that behind those pesky work orders, complaints and all the other demands on out time, there are people. Just like you and I, they walk, they talk, they breathe, they think and, as we often find out, they have needs. I think if we resolve to try and understand what they mean, which is not necessarily the same as what they day, we can help them better. The desire to help them better doesn’t come from some altruistic motivation— it’s simply self-preservation! When I’m asked by tradespeople what exactly my job is, I quickly answer, “to make your life easier.” My reasoning is that if I can make their lives easier, then they’ll be more successful. If they’re more successful, then I'm less troubled. 

One of the things that I’ve noticed about maintenance people is that they don’t always say what’s really troubling them. They may complain about a dirty job site, for example, when what they’re really ticked off about is a change in the work schedule. The only way to find out what is actually bothering them is to listen, then ask questions, the listen to the answers and ask more questions.

The other thing to remember is that we’re all different. What works as motivation for one may be a complete turn-off for another. Get to know the people you work with. Find out what they are interested in and what makes them tick, then let them know that you know with an appropriate question of comment.

Until they invent machines that PM and repair themselves, the most important part of maintenance will be people. In the words of Stephen Stills, “love the one you’re with”.

—Cliff Williams

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Train

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Train

Train yourselves up! There are wonderful resources available for proactive learning, knowledge, inspiration and direction for the reliability and maintenance-minded. Let us discipline ourselves and our groups by focusing on continuous improvement for 2011.

Speaking of discipline, our great nation’s military training is a hallmark and would class activity. In preparation to defend our country from any attack, by any means, from anywhere, they train, educate and train some more. The same is true in our businesses; we have to stay educated, aggressive, vigilant and ready to adjust. Continuous improvement provides this protection and shareholder value. 

Train, Baby, Train!

—Joe Swan

On a side note, enrollment for fall MaintiMizer™ training courses is going on now! MaintiMizer™ Client Server Training runs September 12-15. MaintiMizer™ Web Edition Training runs September 19-22. Register Today at www.ashcomtech.com/services/education. We hope to see you in class!

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Data

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Data

How much valuable information are you losing because of inconsistencies in the information that was entered into your data management system? We have all heard the saying, “garbage in, garbage out,” but what does it actually mean?

                FALK 1040-EZ

                FALK 1040EZ

                FALK  1040EZ

To the human eye, the above examples shows three gearboxes that are the same make and model, but to a computer that is processing data for the generation of failure models, maintenance expenses tracking, and spare parts stock lists, there are three different make and models of gearboxes. 

The differences in the descriptions are subtle—an extra space or a dash—but these extra characters create different gearbox units. The same applies to a mere typographical error.

Now, imagine that you have 500 gearboxes in your plant. All of them are a Falk 1040EZ. And ALL of them have slightly different entry for their make, model or description. How much time is wasted scrubbing the data before a failure model can be created? Running a simple failure model might take an hour or two, but the data preparation can add weeks to that time line. Are you tracking maintenance costs collectively by make and model? You could be seeing costs spread over multiple categories that should be grouped into one, and this gives an artificially low result for problem component types. This can increase the space required for parts storage through unnecessary duplication of parts, based on the components categories. 

Data entry is often overlooked as a menial task. However, good data entry is the backbone of a reliable maintenance program. To increase the consistency of data entry, knowledge and understanding of the information being entered is needed, as well as the know-how to research and make corrections when discrepancies are found.

—Stacy Heston

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Needs

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Needs

Maslow’s Silver Hammer? When you’re used to using a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Asset owners are too often told that new technology, upgrades or training will address failures and improve reliability. A decision process follows, then procurement, implementation, and much later, measurable success.

Machinery continues to fail for various reasons. Often the most basic conditions, actions or omissions cause or accelerate these underlying failures. We live with the underlying failure-friendly conditions for many reasons, including:

• They’ve been around so long we develop a natural tolerance and don’t see them anymore.
• People believe they’re taken care of by operating procedures. The maintenance management systems, craft procedures or technicians’ skills.
•  Time is spent on other concerns which have higher profiles.
• Fortunately, fixes are typically simple and rarely require a large budget. They can be implemented by technicians and supervisors. For example, I’ve seen failure rates drop significantly after:
• Producing (and following) checklists for key activities. AN example would be a systematic approach when returning major machines to service after overhaul.
• Identifying daily ‘quick codes’ on machine operation envelopes. For instance, gas turbines should be checked regularly to be sure they are not over-firing.
• Applying disciplined duty and standby operation procedures.
•  Updating condition monitoring and verification procedures.
• Identifying and removing conditions that cause or accelerate failures works. In 2011, when it comes to failure friendly conditions, stop doing what comes naturally and do what works.

—Frank Sutcliffe

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Reliability

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Reliability

Reliability is a conscious effort of an organization as a whole; the reliability engineer only facilitates this effort.

Understanding this concept is the key to success: the best system, processes or reliability personnel will not succeed if the organization resists the efforts. If you are managing an industrial facility, you will be approached by multiple vendors with solutions. All solutions have the potential to succeed, and all solutions have the potential to fail. Organizations that hire a person to handle reliability and expect that person to ensure reliability risk failure. 

To elaborate on this, let’s consider reliability-centered maintenance, or RCM. We conduct a very good analysis and hand off the effective and efficient work. How can this fail? There are several ways:

1.       You can plan and schedule the wrong work to the best of your ability, and it is still the wrong work.

2.       You can identify the correct work but fail to plan it, schedule it well, and the result is still ineffective.

3.       You can identify the correct work, plan it perfectly, but fail to schedule the resources, and it will be ineffective.

4.       You can identify, plan, schedule and execute the work perfectly, but fail to execute it properly, and you will be neither effective nor efficient.

5.       You can identify, plan, schedule and execute the work perfectly, but fail to follow it up, and you will be somewhat effective and efficient, but you will not transition into continuous improvement.

It takes the entire organization to deliver reliability; to enable this requires understanding of what reliability is. The organization must be conscious of what reliability delivers and how it impacts all business units and goals. Teach a critical mass within your organization how to effectively and efficiently manage their assets, and they will demand reliability. If they are demanding reliability, it is effortless to facilitate it.

—John Smith

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Symbiosis

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Symbiosis—

The dictionary defines symbiosis as “a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Now there’s something to think about for 2011. Is that what we have been striving for these past few years? I sometimes wonder whether we are really prepared to give up our silos of power for the common good. I understand that we all talk about symbiosis as an ideal and sagely nod in agreement at conferences, but what do we actively do to make it happen? Who are we trying to mutually benefit?

Something to think about for me this year is how to make sure that the asset management work and reliability engineering that we work on as a department actually builds bridges that will stand the test of time and that will still be there when the floodwaters of recession have subsided. These bridges should carry a path to achieving the organization’s mission statement. One part of the problem, which I have heard again and again is, “We had a great leader/Reliability Engineer/Department and then XYZ left and it all fell apart”. I think most of us have experienced something akin to that in the past. However, projecting future failure from  our experiences of the past may not always prove accurate. If one considers that approximately 89% of all failure modes are random by nature, might we assume the same is true of our personal losses?

If we treat our people in the same way we sometimes treat our other assets, with neglect or abuse, is it not likely that they will fail or leave? If individuals are relatively fragile, then high-performing teams are even more delicate, easily damaged and likely to fall like dominoes. Once one or two people on such a team become disenfranchised somehow and leave, the rest follow soon after and you suffer team collapse. You are then  back to square one and bemoaning your experience at next year’s conference. 

The challenge for the year is to balance high-value teams and high-value delivery across maintenance, reliability and operations departments. Make it bigger than the individual. 

—Derek Burley

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Confidence

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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

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: Regulating Maintenance

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 Regulating Maintenance—

Should maintenance be regulated? It is interesting that many comparisons have been made between maintenance and quality processes in business. Some past comments heard about quality include:

•  No one ever did anything about quality, until they figured out what the cost of non-quality was.
• No one paid attention to quality until senior management paid attention to quality.
• Quality first-unless it interferes with production!

It is interesting that the more companies realized how much quality processes impacted their business, the more attention they paid to it. Eventually, through the efforts of the European Quality Community, the ISO-9000 series of standards were established. As time went on, achieving ISO-9000 certification became necessary for a company to do business in the world marketplace.

Now that we have the maintenance function within a company we hear comments like:

• No one ever did anything about maintenance, until they figured out what the cost of equipment downtime was.
• No one paid attention to maintenance until senior management paid attention to maintenance.
• Sure we maintain our equipment-unless it interferes with production!

While they don’t clearly understand it, more business executives are beginning to realize that maintenance does impact their bottom line, whether they perform it or not. The European Asset Management Community is involved again. This time it is an initiative called BSI PAS 55:2008. It stands for the British Standards Institution’s Publicly Available Specification for the optimized management of physical assets. This standard is beginning to work its way through the same path that the ISO-9000 standards did as adopting them became a requirement for companies to do business in certain markets. There is now, as of January 2011, a work draft for an ISO standard ISO/PC 251.

Are we headed down the same path with maintenance as we did quality? Will we finally have a “Maintenance Standard”? Only time will tell—but hopefully we will develop one. We really need it.

—Terry Wireman

 

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: TPM

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TPM—

...My thing to think about and do in 2011 is to take a piece of equipment—something that is both meaningful, due to being a capacity constraint, causing significant downtime, or both, and manageable, being small enough for your team of five to nine people to complete in three to four days, and perform the first three steps of autonomous maintenance:

• Restore—bring the equipment back into its original condition by cleaning, inspecting and correction all deterioration.

• Improve—make modifications to the equipment to eliminate sources of contamination and causes of deterioration, and to improve accessibility for both operation and maintenance.

• Maintain—prepare an operator maintenance standard and visualize the checkpoints on the equipment itself. Review the current PMs in relation to this new standard.

Not only is autonomous maintenance an improvement process, it is a learning process—for you to learn about how far your equipment has deteriorated, and for your operators to learn about how your equipment performs its functions.

Performing an autonomous maintenance pilot with your team members from your engineering, maintenance and operations departments will give you new insights into the status of your equipment and maintenance operations. 

—Malcolm Jones

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: SEIZE

I recently came across an e-book, Things to Think About and Do in 2011, published by ReliabilityWeb.com with some really good advise for the maintenance world. While it is available for free at ReliabilityWeb.com, I thought I'd repost the sentiments in a weekly series here at the Ashcom Advisor. I hope you find them interesting, intriguing, and inspirational, Happy Reading!


"S.E.I.Z.E."

My personal goals for the upcoming year involve more training and education. No matter what age or stage in your professional career, I don’t think there’s a time when you can sit back and say “Well that’s it, I’ve arrived, and I know all I need to know.” So I’, kick-starting myself. There is no aspect of both my personal or professional life that is more important that learning.


My new personal watchword for the year is S.E.I.Z.E.
My co-workers and customers deserve the best from me. I want results and yes, I deserve them also.

Search for training opportunities. Don’t be picky at first. Brainstorm or make lists by subject or availability.

Evaluate training opportunities. Is it appropriate? Does it further company or individual goals? Can it do both?

Initiate preliminary research, study, or find other ways to familiarize yourself with the scope and benefits of the training opportunities available. Ask yourself how it will advance your goals and your company’s goals to pursue these opportunities.

Zone in on the right training for you. If you’ve done your homework right, it will benefit you and your company.

Encourage yourself. You can do it. You have the abilities. Encourage your company to expand the training agenda. Address financial considerations or other concerns that hinder the consideration or development of training. TAKE THE LEAD ON YOUR OWN TRAINING. Don’t assume others will do it for you.

—Steve Mislan

Things to Think About and Do in 2011: "ENGAGE"

I recently came across an e-book, Things to Think About and Do in 2011, published by ReliabilityWeb.com with some really good advise for the maintenance world. While it is available for free at ReliabilityWeb.com, I thought I'd repost the sentiments in a weekly series here at the Ashcom Advisor. I hope you find them interesting, intriguing, and inspirational, Happy Reading!

ENGAGE—
"Engage your staff with an open and objective mind to improve their morale and reliability. Be prepared to hear the unheard of an to hold ideas until they are ready to be acted upon. Provide feeback to staff so they know the status of their ides. Not all ideas can be taken, but too often we allow suggestions to go into a black hole, never to be formally responded to. Consider configuring an internal portal of social network of sorts to all staff the freedom too both make suggestions and to track the status of their input.

Engage other professionals online, at conferences or at their place of employment. Keen maintenance and reliability professionals will often make themselves available to you if you are equally keen. Borrow bright ideas that have worked for them for an issue you are trying to resolve, and adapt it to your circumstances.

Engage your colleagues, particularly in those in other departments or disciplines. it is said that some of the greatest innovations come when two distinct disciplines come together. Make it happen.
Engage your leaders to discover their visions for the way things can and should be. Bring fearless enthusiasm to the table, backed with well-researched ideas, as well as financial and soft benefits. Be open to their comments and critiques. Preserve.

Engage yourself. Go beyond your usual mindset, and learn something new, complimentary to what you want to accomplish in 2011. Life lessons transcend singular disciplines and provide a portable form of wisdom."

—Abayomi Carmichael