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Primer On Pipeline Integrity Management

Primer On Pipeline Integrity Management

A few weeks ago I met with Cesar de Leon who is a pipeline safety expert (http://www.pipelinesafetyconsultant.com) – he worked at the DOT Office of Pipeline Safety for over 23 years and currently resides in Boerne, Texas. Cesar was telling me about legal and technical issues arising in the field of natural gas pipelines from existing regulations… I will discuss these issues in greater details in latter posts. Before getting into current issues, I would like you to read the following guest post from Cesar that provides a brief overview of pipeline integrity management plan.

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Railway Maintenance and Depreciation

Railway Maintenance and Depreciation

How did railroads handle depreciation, repair, and fixed asset life-cycles in the mid 19th Century?

They were experienced in design, construction, project management and business.

They planned for maintenance and for repair.

They knew about wear mechanisms from aggressive operation and thought it was management’s role to contain this.

They shared data and used it. They gathered data from handwritten records, making spreadsheets, graphs, and KPIs by hand. 

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Does Your Dog Have More Empathy Than You Do?

Does Your Dog Have More Empathy Than You Do?

The comment is a common one.


“It does not surprise me that they do not want to save $60,000,” quipped the second-in-command of the electrical department. “They are more concerned with being popular and helping their friends.”


“By ‘they,’ I assume you mean the Board and me as the interim Town Manager?” I asked.“Well, not really you, but them – yes,” came a frustrated response.


I decided to move to a more productive line of discussion.

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Could a ‘No’ as any other Word be a Positive?

Could a ‘No’ as any other Word be a Positive?

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

What’s in a word?

The right word at the right time can make all the difference between a successful negotiation with an amicable agreement and collaborative banter, or a bitter and twisted tête-à-tête with an entrenched stand-off, raised hackles and, at best, fog-horn diplomacy.  But what is the ‘right word’; unfortunately, it depends on the time and place and people’s personality but one thing is almost certain, if it begins with “n” it is oftentimes not considered to be right and many consider it to be downright wrong.

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Reliability Estimation With Life Limits but Without Life Data

Reliability Estimation With Life Limits but Without Life Data

Would you like age-specific field reliability of your products and their service parts? Age-specific field reliability is useful for reliability prediction, diagnoses, forecasting, warranty reserves, spares stock levels, warranty extensions, and recalls. Nonparametric estimation of age-specific field reliability is easy, if you track parts or products by name and serial number for life data. What if there are life limits? What if there’s no life data?

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Communicating with FINESSE: How to Avoid Putting a Stench in Someone’s Ear

Communicating with FINESSE: How to Avoid Putting a Stench in Someone’s Ear

“So, what did you think about the most recent five-year management assessment?” asked the Agency Director.

I knew it was a loaded question. If the executive team had agreed with the assessment, the chief operating officer would not have asked me to review it before the report was presented to the Board of Directors.

“I had some issues with the report,” I responded. “Out of the gate, they lost me and will probably lose your Board with that multi-colored, busy graph.”

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Unique Challenges When Facilitating FMEAs

Unique Challenges When Facilitating FMEAs

“Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.” Stephen Covey

If you’ve been reading the FMEA facilitation series, by now you understand the primary facilitation skills. Studying and applying these skills will help you achieve excellent results in FMEA applications. [Read more…]

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Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing

An Overview of how it can help a business

A presenation by Mike Sondalini

Food, Fibre & Timber Industry Lean Manufacturing Overview

Three universal problems in business…

  1. Wasted effort and wasted resources
  2. Using wrong business processes for the purpose
  3. Wide and out-of-control process variation

Lean Manufacturing provides tools and solutions to address them

https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/x5y3qARiRkvxW1

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Bruce Turner – Future of Internal Audit – Howard Wiener Interviewer

Bruce Turner – Future of Internal Audit – Howard Wiener Interviewer

Interview by Howard Wiener of Bruce Turner (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Bruce is an active company director and audit committee chair. He is a well-respected transformational leader with deep and broad professional governance, risk, compliance and audit experience. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2015 in recognition of his significant service to public administration through governance and risk management practices, and to the profession of internal auditing.

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