Search Results for: Change Management

Why Your Mind is Your Greatest Asset

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right” Henry Ford.

Henry Ford understood the power of the mind and the power of belief systems. Many of us limit ourselves with what we’ve been told throughout our lives or what we’ve been conditioned by society. Understanding your beliefs and the story behind those beliefs is the first step to changing them so your beliefs work for you.

Two of my go-to limiting beliefs are self-worth related and have caused me a lot of grief. [Read more…]

by Carl S. Carlson Leave a Comment

Using Design FMEAs to improve Design Verification Plans

“I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” Benjamin Franklin

Properly done, Design FMEAs should improve product designs and test plans. This article describes how DFMEAs can be used to improve testing and analysis, which are embodied in the Design Verification Plan (DVP).

[Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

194-The Importance of Installation with Chris Greene

The Importance of Installation

“How we install the equipment, will dictate how it will operate.”

In this episode, James interviews Chris Greene. Chris helps us to understand how the correct installation of equipment will set the stage for optimal operational quality and longevity.

In this episode we covered:

The correct operation of a machine involves installing it correctly.
The industry as a whole has used the installation as a place to cut costs.
Proper installation makes a big difference in quality, costs, and life-span.
Benefits of documentation.
Use manufacturer standards.

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by Arthur Hart Leave a Comment

Reliability Actions to be Taken in the Early Stages of an R&D Project

While working at HP as a failure analysis engineer, I was asked to join a new R&D project that needed a reliability engineer. My background was in Physics with little experience in reliability other than knowing that failures occur because reliability goals were not met. At HP, reliability engineers were integrated on each HP project by rotating many disciplines of engineering from various parts of the organization. [Read more…]

by Bryan Christiansen Leave a Comment

Emerging Trends In Maintenance Space And Their Relevance For Reliability Professionals

As we enter 2020, it’s evident that many of the changes that are sweeping through maintenance management will continue. The major push behind these changes includes the need for improved resource allocation, optimization of capacity, and increased safety performance/compliance.

With that in mind, this is an ideal time to review some of the biggest topics and trends in maintenance that are shaping maintenance practices and consider their relevance for reliability professionals.

[Read more…]

by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

Maintenance Assessments. Do you Need Them?

Conventional consulting approaches begin with assessments to determine your current state of affairs, judge what’s good and bad about it, give it a score, provide a long list of recommendations and then build an improvement strategy based on the outcome.

Strategy development is normally carried out by a select leadership team and then the change is rolled out to lower levels in the organization. This approach has served well for a long time and it is at the outset of almost any major consulting engagement. It is useful when comparing sites among each other, but is there some sort of award for being best? Usually not. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

193-Empowering RES with Automation

Empowering RES with Automation

Industry 4.0 is here to stay. Organizations are now getting their feet wet in Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning as a way of increasing their output. However, aa good number of these companies have their projects stuck at the pilot stage, either due to inadequate management support, or simply communicating value to other departments. AJ Alexander walks us through the understanding of why this is a good time to start pilots and stimulate their growth.

Important highlights include:

Understanding the type and stage of data for Machine Learning
The advantages of successful ML deployments
Why organizations are slow to adapt
Hw can you go about increasing the chances of transitioning from pilot to project

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by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Rushing to Wait – Failing to Plan

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

Just Do It!; “He who hesitates is lost”; and “Strike while the iron is hot” are all expressions used with impunity when a project is about to start as we are encouraged to ‘get on with it’ as nothing can go wrong, go wrong?, wrong!

After all, ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step‘ and projects have to start sooner or later. But what happens when project planning is incomplete and project participants are caught up in that unfortunate project dilemma of ‘wild enthusiasm’ as they carry on with a sense of urgency while conveniently disregarding risk. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

192-DIKDAR with Paul Daoust

DIKDAR with Paul Daoust

In maintenance and reliability industry, soft skills are just as important as the hard skills. When you are faced with uncertain and complex situations, it becomes difficult to make good decisions. That’s why it comes in handy if you are good at critical thinking and can perform better under pressure as compared to your peers. Some organizations have competitive environment and they have limited resources to deploy for different programs. In these cases, they need to identify and put certain activities in place that would help their employees make the best use of those scarce resources.

Key highlights of the episode are:

What DIDAR?
Why are soft skills just as important as the hard skills?
What constitutes smart decision-making?

… and much more!

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by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

How to Tackle Maintenance Budgeting

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is an application that allows for effective management of all types of maintenance activities. This includes maintenance budgeting for expenses such as labor, parts and miscellaneous costs for completion of work orders, replacement of equipment at the end of its useful life, as well as tracking of special projects and purchasing.

Budget Forecasting

Operating a maintenance department cost efficiently without having a plan that outlines the working budget is difficult. Often decisions are based on guesswork or emergencies with no real data to show when, where or how maintenance was performed in the past and what is needed in the future.

[Read more…]

by Dev Raheja 1 Comment

Designing for Safety: Human Errors

Human Errors may be Unpreventable but, Preventing Harm is an Option

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water” – said Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize recipient for literature. Not preventing harm is an example of this quote.

The quotation is an inspirational reminder that people achieve nothing unless they take purposeful action that has measurable results. Taking action on potential human errors, so that harm to system users is totally prevented, is a very productive goal because its impact is highly significant.

This article mostly discusses safety in hospitals because everyone is familiar with safety issues in healthcare. The principles equally apply to any process such as design, manufacturing, construction, and aerospace (Boeing 737 Max is an example). [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Reading is Fundamental, But Comprehension Is Important Too

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

The art of debate has devolved. No longer is it used as a tool of discovery, understanding, reconciliation, and progress. Today, it is a tool used to beat one another into submission –with the wholesale surrender of the beliefs and values held by one party over the other being the goal. [Read more…]

by James Reyes-Picknell Leave a Comment

I Want it Now and I Want it Cheap

When it comes to information, entertainment, finding your way around and communications these days, we more or less literally have it all at our fingertips and available to us just about anywhere. We can even order and pay for coffee to pick up on our way from the commuter train to the office – no line ups for delays. We can book hotels, airlines and rental cars at the touch of our fingers with apps that show us the cheapest options. [Read more…]

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Not Understanding Risk Will Cause Your Projects to Fail

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

Risk is an event or activity that can go wrong and cause an impact to the project. Risks can have a negative or positive impact to the project. Risks that have a positive impact are called opportunities. If they a negative impact to the project, they are called risks.

Risks and opportunities can be generated by anyone on the project but typically are identified and analyzed at the IPT (Integrated ProductTeam) level. A goal on a project is to try and balance risks and opportunities to mitigate the chance of cost or schedule growth. [Read more…]

by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

CMMS User Training Maximizes Efficiency

After you’ve purchased computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), your work is done. Implementation will be a breeze, all users will quickly learn the system and your organization will begin reaping benefits immediately. Although this scenario is possible, it’s very unlikely. Companies that carve out ample time for CMMS training typically experience the most success with their software.

[Read more…]