The Antidote for “Implementation Failure” in the World of Asset Management

TRC-2018 Learning Zone 37:34
by Nancy Regan, The Force

There’s a lot of focus today (and rightfully so) on developing a “Reliability Culture.” More and more technological advancements promising significant benefits are emerging. But articles written by leading practitioners continue to abound detailing that up to 70% of organizations fail to effectively implement the results of reliability improvement methods. Many reasons for failure are offered. But, if you ask me, there’s one “root cause.” Anyone who has anything to do with Asset Management, at any level of responsibility should know the answer to about a half dozen questions without hesitation. I’m giving you one minute to answer three of them. No pondering. No Googling. Go!

In complex equipment, roughly what percentage of Failure Modes occur randomly?
What governs how often a Condition Based Maintenance task is performed?
Is it possible to manage random failure? If yes, how?

If you couldn’t answer all of these questions without hesitation, don’t feel badly. You’re not alone. The answers were quite literally given to us nearly 50 years ago through a tough lesson learned by the commercial airline industry. But for many, the answers remain buried.And therein lies the “root cause” for chronic implementation failure. I’m convinced that if every team member, from artisans to executives, had this foundational knowledge, implementation efforts would become a whole lot easier and a lot more successful. Why? Because the basic principles of equipment failure and maintenance pervade just about every asset management solution out there. Need better buy-in? More management support? Start with the fundamentals and don’t leave anyone out. When people know better, they do better. This presentation details how implementation of asset management strategies can be vastly improved by establishing a bedrock of fundamental knowledge across a team before any reliability improvement process is ever initiated. And it will provide the steps on how to do it.