10 Proactive Activities & Measures to Improve Your HSE Program

In past articles I have often referenced Dr. Aubrey Daniels and the use of Behavioral Psychology and Analysis in the workplace. In the late 1980’s I was fortunate enough to attend a 2-week course in Performance Management put on by Dr. Daniels and two of his associates where we learned the importance of measuring behaviors as opposed to results. To say that this course was enlightening would be an understatement as it was in this class I first learned why we need to measure leading indicators as opposed to results. [Read more…]

10 Sure Signs That Safety Isn’t First

In nearly 40 years I’ve seen it all, from those who are proud to be the best to plant sites that are in such a deplorable state, you hope you get through the tour without some type of injury, fire or explosion.

The first thing I learned when I began providing Asset Management and Reliability Centered Maintenance services as a consultant was how lucky I was to have worked my first 19 years for a company who took Employee Health, Safety and Environment seriously. In that time, I don’t remember ever wondering if the people I worked with or the Managers I worked for considered Health, Safety and Environment as the top priority. It was stated almost every day and reinforced with every job we performed through lock-out, tag-out procedures.

[Read more…]

5 Common Questions on the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things)

In continuing this year’s theme regarding common questions on relevant topics, today I have the 5 most common questions people have been asking me about the Industrial Internet of Things. Like every other article or Blog I have posted in the past I encourage you to all to jump into the conversation by asking questions or providing comments to my questions and answers. [Read more…]

Reliability Centered Maintenance – Common Questions

When is the best time to do an RCM analysis on your equipment?

While RCM Blitz™ can be applied at any time in the asset lifecycle, the best time to do an RCM analysis is in the design phase of a capital project. Reliability Centered Design is much more than a thorough RCM analysis on a critical asset, it also uses [Read more…]

How To Create An Environment of Innovation

I found myself seated next to a corporate executive in a recent flight out of Atlanta, while I was attempting to read a book, he was yammering away on his cell phone about quarterly results and the need for a reduction in head count.  Hearing this, my hopes of becoming engrossed in a good book was now over. Now I’m just upset at how some folks seem to make life changing decisions with such little regard or emotion. [Read more…]

Reliability Centered Everything?

I get mad at Stan Nowlan and Howard Heap from time to time. Twenty years ago their work titled Reliability Centered Maintenance became the focus of my life when I first discovered the impact that RCM could have on manufacturing reliability. Since that time, I have authored somewhere around fifty articles on the subject, been a featured speaker at nearly three conferences a year and several years ago I even completed a book on the subject, describing what I see as the most effective way to complete a RCM analysis as well as the impact it can have on equipment and process reliability (Reliability Centered Maintenance using RCM Blitz™). For those who have taken the time to become educated in what a good RCM analysis is all about, they know power of this tool and where it applies. I know from experience, Reliability Centered Maintenance can and will deliver incredible results. [Read more…]

Investing in Skilled Trades Apprentice Programs

Thirty-three years ago, I graduated as a Journeymen Pipefitter from a three-year skilled trades apprentice program and went to work as a Journeymen at Eastman Kodak. At that time in my life I had no idea where this training would take me. I was simply honored to work alongside those who in mentoring me, passed on a set of skills that would last a lifetime. [Read more…]

Discipline

Discipline, look it up in the dictionary and you will find the following definition; the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

People tend to get nervous when the word Discipline pops up at the top of a presentation. Truth is there are several definitions to this word. As an example, Discipline is also a branch of knowledge one studies in higher education. [Read more…]

The Best and Worst Part of My Job

One of the best things about my job is from time to time I get to work with some fantastic young people who have a passion for the Maintenance and Reliability business and have made the decision to pursue a career in this business. I really enjoy being a mentor, guiding the ambitious and offering advice on where to find information, articles and real, workable solutions. [Read more…]

Is Safety Really Important?

Something to think about in a day and age when most companies post their Mission, Vision and Goals on the company web page. Do we really stand behind these statements and demonstrate the behaviors that clearly show we are willing to do what it takes to create a safe workplace? [Read more…]

Common Mistakes in Writing Failure Modes

As we mentor RCM facilitators, we try to help them to develop strong techniques so that as they facilitate the RCM Blitz™ process they are able to work with any RCM team to develop a solid list of failure modes that are actually occurring to your equipment or are likely to occur at some time. One of the ways to become stronger at developing good failure modes is to be able to recognize a poorly written or bad failure mode. Below is a list of what we believe are common traps that result in the listing of poor failure modes. [Read more…]

Getting Value From Your Condition Based Maintenance Program

I’m talking on the phone with a client who has been slowly but deliberately getting their maintenance organization up to speed with items they internally identified as “critical gaps” in need to improve equipment reliability. [Read more…]

10 Things I Can Do Today To Improve Equipment Reliability!

As companies around the globe look to improve equipment reliability I can’t help but think of the Technicians and Craftspeople I meet after a conference presentation. As they step up to introduce themselves to comment on the presentation some will often say “I really liked your presentation but I don’t think our management would ever support a program like this. What you are doing makes a lot of sense but we just don’t have the people and our operations managers don’t understand maintenance and reliability.” [Read more…]

10 Things Your Equipment Operators Can Do Today To Improve Reliability

I have always believed that the equipment that makes your products and the operators who operate it are the most valuable assets you have. From the Janitorial Serves to the CEO, unless you are manufacturing product and putting it out the door, you are overhead – just another additional cost that must be included in the cost of our product. [Read more…]

The 6 Signs of a Failing Plant

About a year ago, I wrote an article about the 6 signs of a reliable plant that got warm reception and a few nice comments. More interesting however was a private message I received from a Reliability Engineer who asked if I had a list of signs that a plant was in chaos and needed a wake up call to turn things around. I responded to the note, drafted a title page and a list of some of the sure signs a plant is in trouble.

This is the resulting article. [Read more…]