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‘Fantasy’ Maintenance: The Illusion of Best Practices

‘Fantasy’ Maintenance: The Illusion of Best Practices

The following article was published in Plant Services earlier this year with the title, “Don’t get stuck in reactive mode – The world of fantasy maintenance is calling you”. The alias of the author is Captain Unreliability, so all credit should go to the Captain:-).

To the veterans in the field, you will connect with this article in a heartbeat. You will be laughing all along the way. In the end, I will add a commentary about while this may appear comical, it sadly is reality in many places that we all work (or have worked). But I’ll leave that up to you, to be the judge. In the end, please relate your own experiences and let me know if this is B.S. in your world or not!

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Fabulous Facilitation: Control the Tempo, Control the Ebb and Flow

Fabulous Facilitation: Control the Tempo, Control the Ebb and Flow

We had met at the same place, at the same time, and in the same format every month for the past six months. The team still had eight months to go to complete the master plan. For the past three months, half of the sessions included breakout groups where participants worked together to develop key aspects of the final document. Everything was being performed just like everyone had agreed in the project charter. However, the burnout could be seen in their eyes and heard in their voices…


A seasoned team had designed a week to do Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). We would spend a slow-paced Monday afternoon working through the plant overview and a low-intensity Friday morning reviewing what we had done over the week. Everyone was committed to an intense, action-packed middle three days where we would get most of the heavy lifting done. However, by mid-morning Thursday, it was apparent that interest was fading fast…

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Facilitation Skill # 7 – Managing Conflict

Facilitation Skill # 7 – Managing Conflict

“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress” – Gandhi

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “conflict” as, “an incompatibility between two or more opinions, principles, or interests.”

What is the value of conflict in an FMEA?

Conflicts are bound to arise from time to time. They can be positive and beneficial. An absence of any expressions of disagreement or conflict may indicate a problem in adequacy or quality of facilitation. Facilitators should not be afraid of conflict, but should learn the value of disagreements and how to manage them. Understanding the difference between healthy debates and dysfunctional arguments is critical to good facilitation. [Read more…]

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Metal Corrosion

Metal Corrosion

In the previous article I discussed sources of stressors that can cause degradation of the materials in components and joints. In this article I’ll discuss the basics of metal corrosion – the electrochemical cell, seven common forms of corrosion, and examples of metals engineering and mechanical design approaches to control corrosion.

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Conspiracy Theory Debunked – Maintenance Leads to Reliability

Conspiracy Theory Debunked – Maintenance Leads to Reliability

If you believe that reliable operations will result if you just follow your maintenance program, then you might also believe a few falsehoods about reliability and maintenance. First is the falsehood that maintenance is all you need to achieve reliability. Maintenance is about sustaining the asset’s operating conditions, not just fixing it when it breaks. Indeed, you do need to follow your maintenance program but it is not all there is to do, and it had better be the right program.

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Hindsight from 2020: Strategies for the New Normal

Hindsight from 2020: Strategies for the New Normal

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

These days, you can find a slurry of memes and motivational graphics on social media alluding to the concept that you must always beat out your competition in business. But contrary to popular belief, competing with other businesses is actually quite counterproductive, especially in the post-pandemic “new normal” we face – something we never expected to be facing as we entered this new decade.

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Maximizing Maintenance Work Quality and Equipment Reliability in Shutdowns

Maximizing Maintenance Work Quality and Equipment Reliability in Shutdowns

A presentation by Mike Sondalini at the Shutdowns and Turnarounds 2011 Conference.

The presentation covers:

  • The connection between maintenance work quality and the time to the next breakdown.
  • Using the Taguchi Loss Function to explain why work quality is important.
  • Effectively specifying and measuring maintenance work quality requirements for shutdowns.
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From Maker to Manager, Part 5: Practicing Sales and Negotiation

From Maker to Manager, Part 5: Practicing Sales and Negotiation

One of the most important skill sets you could master to prepare you for business leadership is sales and negotiation. Some of you may be thinking, “Gosh, I’m not going into sales or marketing. I can skip this blog post!”

But I want to assure you, regardless of your field, sales and negotiation are part of it. 

If you’re working in operations and want to expand your department, you need to sell that idea to your executive staff. If you’re a designer with a bright idea for a new line, you’re going to have to sell that idea to the people you work with … to the other managers, engineers and stakeholders in your organization.

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Are Condition Assessments Needed?

Are Condition Assessments Needed?

A well-designed maintenance program should eliminate the need to do condition assessments. These assessments are a form of condition monitoring, so why not include them in your proactive maintenance (PM) program? They are carried out to determine the current condition of an asset, determine if any remedial work is required, make an estimate of how long it will last, and forecast timing for eventually replacing the asset. In civil structures like buildings and bridges, these assessments are often called, “inspections”. When timed regularly they are no different from a condition monitoring task in any PM (proactive maintenance) program. Yet, they will be managed differently. Why that is so, doesn’t really matter, but arguably it just adds another program that must be managed in parallel with your maintenance program.

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Why Can’t Learning Teams (LT) and RCA Teams be Friends?

Why Can’t Learning Teams (LT) and RCA Teams be Friends?

A Little History About How I Came Across Learning Teams.

A little over three years ago I was asked to speak at a conference that was entitled, Human Performance, Root Cause and Trending or HPRCT (great conference BTW and I encourage you to attend). This was a different world for me as I typically attended and spoke at Reliability and Maintenance trade conferences, but I was interested to see what it was all about (plus a good friend of mine was the one who invited me).

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Fabulous Facilitation: Are You Prepared to Work Through Disruption?

Fabulous Facilitation: Are You Prepared to Work Through Disruption?

I knew not to ask the question. I was almost certain I had heard the exchange correctly. I asked anyway, “Jim, I am not sure I understood you. Can you clarify that?”


“I said Ray is a dick,” blurted Jim at a tone that all 30 people in the room clearly understood. “He knows he is. He thinks he is being funny, but he’s not.”


So much for allowing Jim the opportunity to walk it back. Now, as the lead facilitator of a public decision-making group of twenty, I had to get things back on track. There was a deafening silence, only broken by a few smirks. Most of the group looked horrified.

Anticipate Disruption

Disruption is a reality. Disruption will occur. Great facilitators embrace the reality of disruption and are prepared to move through it.

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Using Your CMMS System to Identify Cost-Saving Opportunities

Using Your CMMS System to Identify Cost-Saving Opportunities

Companies are constantly looking for ways to identify and implement cost-saving measures. Computerized maintenance management software is used to record, manage, and communicate day-to-day operations in your maintenance department. It’s possible to use CMMS to save money in a number of ways. The following are areas in which large cost savings can result through the implementation of equipment maintenance software

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The Plant Wellness Way Difference

The Plant Wellness Way Difference

The Plant and Equipment Wellness Way lets organizations make their operating assets world class reliable so they can enjoy operational excellence success. A Plant Wellness Way EAM System- of-Reliability puts the reliability processes, skills, paradigm, and culture into companies that creates world class reliability and operational excellence.

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