A Business Case Evaluation (BCE) is a decision-making tool that assists in making value-based funding decisions. Business cases are developed in the early capital and operating budget planning cycles as a standardized and systematic process to analyze the benefits and costs of various options to solve an identified problem or a cost-saving/revenue-generating idea. A big part of building better business cases is analyzing the system over the long term for monetary and non-monetary aspects. Building better business cases improves reliability and performance by formally documenting “needs” versus “wants.” Business cases serve as a powerful communication tool at all levels of an organization. [Read more…]
on Systems Thinking
A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:
- JD Solomon — Communicating with FINESSE series
- Robert (Bob) J. Latino — The RCA series
The Rising Tide of Young Professionals: Overcoming Intergenerational Communication Gaps in Reliability Engineering
Young professionals (under 40) will make up over half of the workforce by the end of next year. That means communication between young professionals and experienced professionals is essential for workplace success. Younger professionals dominating the workforce means that reliability engineering is undergoing formative changes. These are a few general thoughts on the impacts of the changing workforce and five ways it will impact reliability engineering.
Some General Thoughts on Intergenerational Communication
Here are a few thoughts on intergenerational communication from my recent interview on The YoPro Know Podcast.
On Using Social Media
Companies are generally awkward with social media and how to reach the younger generations. On the one hand, companies know to try. On the other hand, the HR people and some of the technical managers are really bad at it.
Companies should do a gap analysis on reaching young professionals. There are inadvertent things companies do that really cause them to stumble inadvertently. Most companies do too much of a cookie-cutter approach to recruiting and retention.
[Read more…]Determining Your Bad Actors
In this episode we will discuss the two main types of failures and how to go about developing a bad actor equipment list.
Communicating Asset Management: Four Powerful Articles Improve Success
Communicating with FINESSE and JD Solomon Inc. are jointly focusing on asset management in early 2024. The articles include how to facilitate asset management plans, ways that asset management plans fail, how organizational context impacts implementation, and how to communicate asset management to senior management. These powerful articles will improve your asset management success!
5 Tips to Improve Facilitation of Asset Management Plans
Facilitation is a structured session(s) in which the meeting leader (the facilitator) guides the participants through a series of predefined steps to arrive at a result that is created, understood, and accepted by all participants. Not all asset managers are great facilitators.
These are my Top 5 tips for facilitating asset management plans:
5. Get the Right People Involved
4. Don’t Overthink the Gap Analysis Tool
3. Create a Charter
2. Establish Organizational Context
[Read more…]Using your most valuable resource: Your People
This episode speaks to the need to engage our field people to drive defect elimination at your site.
by Ken Latino
[Read more…]Re-Introducing Communicating with FINESSE on Accendo Reliability
We launched Communicating with FINESSE two years ago to help technically trained professionals become better communicators and facilitators. Breaking it away from JD Solomon, Inc. as a not-for-profit organization was a first step in building a broader community to execute the mission. We have done that in many ways, although such endeavors never go as fast as you first imagine. Today, we summarize seven key concepts of Communicating with FINESSE.
#1 Systems Thinking Is the Foundation
The good news for most of us is that communication is indeed a system. Even better, as technical professionals, we are blessed with the reality of what that means. The next time you serve as a trusted advisor, remember that effective communication requires systems thinking.
Why Systems Thinking Produces Effective Communication – Accendo Reliability
[Read more…]Two Books Help Reliability Engineers Communicate and Collaborate
These two books help technical professionals improve their communication and collaboration skills. Employers seek soft skills across the many market sectors to complement the technical skills they assume are present. These two groundbreaking books provide the fuel to propel your career.
Facilitating with FINESSE
The results of our work often depend on the quality of the facilitation. Facilitating with FINESSE addresses ways to improve interactive, peer-to-peer communication when working in teams.
The book provides the techniques to facilitate ten different technical applications from good to great. [Read more…]
What Interests My Boss Fascinates Me
In this episode, we will discuss tips for applying leadership support to promote a reliability culture in your plant.
by Ken Latino
[Read more…]The #1 Thing That Changes Your Life and Propels Your Career
Effective communication is the one thing that makes your life better, more fulfilling, and more rewarding. That is equally true in life and your career. Give the soft skills and communication, in particular, the same emphasis that you give your hard skills. Soft skills are the difference makers.
My Religion is the Most Important
I agree with technical professionals who counter with this observation. We then agree that one of the first things they teach you in any church is how to pray.
My Family is the Most Important
Again, I agree with technical professionals who cite this one. Then we agree that every family has a fair number of poor relationships that could be improved if we all communicated more effectively.
[Read more…]Why Being a Successful Reliability Engineer Requires a Communication Approach
Philosophies are for philosophers, theories are for academics, and approaches are for practitioners. That’s why when I go into an industrial plant, I ask the maintenance supervisor about their maintenance approaches, not their theories on maintenance. And the same can be said with business leaders. When I talk to executives, I don’t ask about their philosophy on running their business. I ask them to describe their approaches to running their business.
FINESSE as a Communication Approach
FINESSE is a cause-and-effect approach for effective communication with high levels of complexity and uncertainty. Said another way, FINESSE is an approach used for big, strategic decisions that take months or years to make. FINESSE facilitates the memory of effective communication: Frame, Illustrate, Noise, Empathy, Structure, Synergy, and Ethics.
[Read more…]Charles Latino Legacy Video
In 1951, Charles Latino graduated from NYU as a Chemical Engineer, and joined Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation as an entry level engineer in Chesterfield, VA. He soon found himself in the Maintenance Department, trying to get the significant number of ‘bugs’ out of the plant equipment and processes. He couldn’t understand why their equipment and processes broke down so much. He often mentioned, “If airplanes were maintained that poorly, nobody would fly them”. It is at that point that Charles decided it was time to make his plant ‘fly’. In the 1950’s, he referred to this effort as ‘increasing uptime’.
[Read more…]So, You Want Better Team Dynamics and Collaboration? Try CATER
The mental model CATER will help you recall the five techniques that improve collaboration and team dynamics. CATER does two big things necessary for all greatly facilitated sessions. The mental model creates comparable knowledge among participants and opens feedback channels for successful collaboration.
CATER
CATER is a mental model that identifies the core components of a system and helps you wrap your head around how the components interact. [Read more…]
Communication and Facilitation Secrets for Reliability Engineers
Things get a little dirty when humans get involved. In any system, human involvement can sometimes cause delays or issues. Here are some effective communication and facilitation secrets for reliability engineers.
Communication
Communication is the exchange of information from one person to another.
Communication requires a sender, a receiver, and a message. Technical professionals (sender) usually believe the decision maker (receiver) cannot understand the message because the decision maker is not as smart as they are. Most of the time, the lack of understanding comes from the noise the sender generates. The burden of effective communication is on the send (technical professional), not the receiver (decision maker).
[Read more…]What is the FINESSE Fishbone Diagram?
FINESSE is a fishbone diagram, a mnemonic, and a mental model. FINESSE stands for Frame, Illustrate, Noise Reduction, Empathy, Structure, Synergy, and Ethics. Systems thinking as applied to effective communication is the cornerstone of FINESSE. We’ll briefly explore these aspects in this article.
FINESSE as a Mnemonic
Acronyms are a subset of mnemonics that use the first letter of each word to create another memorable word. FINESSE is both an acronym and a mnemonic. [Read more…]
Keys to Reliability: Priority, Proaction and Focus
Anyone who knows me may also know about my father, Charles Latino, and his lifelong contribution to the field of reliability. My father was one of the pioneers of reliability in the 1950’s when nobody even knew what reliability really was. He pioneered and championed technologies like vibration analysis, infrared thermography and many others working for a Fortune 100 chemical company. Later he focused his attention on the cultural aspects of reliability and how organizations need to behave to make it all work.
[Read more…]
