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Advanced Engineering Culture

by Katie Switzer 2 Comments

Why Parents Make the Best Reliability Engineers

Why Parents Make the Best Reliability Engineers

I am a parent of two young children. As a result of my experiences as a mom, I feel that parents make great Reliability Engineers because there are so many shared skill sets. Please enjoy this lighthearted comparison to start your week out with a little humor.

First, I have to point out the development of a brand new Reliability Engineer requires the same skills of lubrication and vibration that the conception of a child requires. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Advanced Engineering Culture, Articles, on Leadership & Career Tagged With: asset-management, Babies Bedtime, Changes Management, engineering, Little Humor, Maintenance Record, Manage Time, Prioritization Skills, Pump, reliability, reliability engineering, Skill Sets, Troubleshooting

by Katie Switzer Leave a Comment

The Role of Reliability: The Conscience of the Plant

The Role of Reliability: The Conscience of the Plant

If a manufacturing plant was a human brain: Maintenance would be the repairing blood flow, Operations would be the electricity sparking between synapses, and Reliability would be the conscience. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Advanced Engineering Culture, Articles, on Leadership & Career Tagged With: Availability, bearing, Blood Flow, conscience, Downtime, engineering, Human Brain, Key Performance Indicator, KPI, Lead Time, Lose Money, maintenance, Maintenance Kpi, Morning Meeting, reliability engineering, Reliability KPI, Repair And Operations, Risk, spare parts, Synapse, Vibration Data, Waste Minimisation

by Katie Switzer 2 Comments

Eight Ways to Keep Reliability Engineers From Leaving

Eight Ways to Keep Reliability Engineers From Leaving

A topic that often comes up lately is high turnover, especially the perception that this is common and desirable among millennials. Born in the mid eighties, I am right on the cusp between millennial and Generation X, and I am one of the aforementioned employees with a high turnover history. A specialized Reliability Engineer with nearly ten years of work experience, I have rarely stayed with a company much over two years. I never intended to be a person who moved between companies so regularly, it just kind of happened.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Advanced Engineering Culture, Articles, on Leadership & Career Tagged With: Benefit Cost, Business, Economy, Employee Costs, employee retention, Employees During, Employment, engineer, Estimating Cost, Exit Interview, Human Resource Management, Industrial And Organizational Psychology, New Employee, raise, reliability engineer, reliability engineering, Salary, Skilled Employees, Train Cost, training, Turnover, Work–life Balance, workplace

by Katie Switzer Leave a Comment

Defeat Your Lizard Brain and Banish Procrastination Forever

Defeat Your Lizard Brain and Banish Procrastination Forever

Do you sometimes (or often) suffer guilt or frustration due to procrastination? If so, you are not alone. It’s a common perception that procrastination is an inherent personality flaw, the result of laziness or other slothfulness. People get frustrated by procrastinators and label them as lazy, untrustworthy, and unreliable.

However, in recent decades scientists have learned a lot about how our brains work that gives insight into procrastination and why it happens. It turns out that when your advanced human brain sets out to accomplish a task, but can’t see a clear path to completion, the doubting antiquated lizard brain takes over. Your lizard brain, a leftover instinct-driven antique from the days of the caveman, decides the apparently unsolvable is overwhelming, and creates a bad attitude toward the task. It’s fight or flight, and procrastination is the flight response to the stress created by the task. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Advanced Engineering Culture, Articles Tagged With: Anxiety, Behavior, Fear, Hormones, Human Behavior, Human Brain, Instant Gratification, Laziness, Motivation, Prioritizing Tasks, Procrastination, Project Goals, Roadblock, Time Management

by Katie Switzer Leave a Comment

Finding Joy in the Workplace

Finding Joy in the Workplace

This time of year, people talk a lot about joy and family. But what about finding joy in the workplace? Most people in the Reliability profession spend at least 40 hours each week at work (probably much more). That’s almost 25% of our total time, and more than 35% of waking hours if you average 8 hrs of sleep per night. Who wants to spend a third of their life without joy?

If your workplace is getting you down or just plain blah, here are some ways to make a change. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Advanced Engineering Culture, Articles Tagged With: Bring Joy, culture, Emotions, engineering culture, Happiness, Happy Memories, Hormones, joy, Laughter, Reliability Culture, Stress Hormones, workplace

by Katie Switzer 1 Comment

Why Does Everybody Hate Me? Improve Your Pumpside Manner in Three Easy Steps

Why Does Everybody Hate Me? Improve Your Pumpside Manner in Three Easy Steps

You know the type. That person who demands the center of attention at all times and hardly pauses for a breath. The person everybody on site avoids or talks about when they aren’t around. Usually, younger people suffer the most from Knowing Everything All The Time (KEATT). Sometimes, though, it persists long after it should and people never recover.

For me, this lasted about two years after graduating. I’m not sure precisely what caused the change, but a moment came when I realized I didn’t know jack. By that time the damage had been done; many knowledgeable people didn’t like or trust me, I was frustrated and it was difficult to learn because nobody wanted to teach me. Thankfully, I did and you can recover from the disorder of Knowing Everything All The Time (KEATT).

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Advanced Engineering Culture, Articles Tagged With: Be Self Aware, Listen More, pumpside manner, Self Awareness, Smartest Person

by Katie Switzer Leave a Comment

Advanced Engineering Culture Introduction Post

Advanced Engineering Culture Introduction Post

Good day, friends and colleagues. I am excited to join Accendo Reliability to bring you a weekly column titled, “Advanced Engineering Culture.” The goal of this column is to bring awareness and solutions to common challenges technical people face in the workplace. New articles will post every Monday.

My name is Katie Switzer, and I am a Senior Reliability Engineer at a chemical manufacturing plant in West Virginia. I hold a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University, and I have been an ISO Category III Vibration Analyst since 2009. Industries I have experience in include aerospace, nuclear power, corn milling and chemical manufacturing. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Advanced Engineering Culture, Articles Tagged With: Bring Awareness, interpersonal skills, organizational skills, Problem Solving, Self Improvement, soft skills

Articles by Katie Switzer
in the Advanced Engineering Culture series

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