Business Fables & Foibles

About this title

Reliabilityweb.com® and the MRO Zone are pleased to announce its offering of Ron Moore’s book Business Fables & Foibles: Lessons for Improved Performance and Culture. The book contains a series of whimsical, satirical short stories, each one based on his experience, that highlights many of the foibles in businesses across the world, particularly in manufacturing companies. It is totally different from any of his previous books, in style and content, and is both serious and amusing. These short, fictitious stories illustrate various principles and key lessons for businesses, while also serving as a good airplane or beach read.

For example, in one story, Otto Kratic, VP of Manufacturing, demonstrates how being singularly focused on one issue can lead to a silo mentality—to the overall detriment of the business. In another story, Penny Pincher, VP of Procurement, illustrates how saving money in procurement practices doesn’t necessarily save money for the company and can actually cost the company far more.

The stories included in this book feature characters whose names illustrate their behavior, providing an amusing way of demonstrating the many lessons that can be learned, but hopefully without suffering through similar situations in your organization.

Acerca del Autor - Ron Moore

Ron Moore lives with his wife, Kathy, in Knoxville, TN, where they are employees of The RM Group, Inc., a manufacturing management consult-ing firm.

They were high school, then college sweethearts, but parted ways. To make a long story short, they came together again some twenty years later and now, between them, they have six children, fifteen grandchildren (sad-ly, one deceased) and two great grandchildren.

Ron has both a BS and MS degree in mechanical engineering, along with an MBA, while Kathy has a BA degree in art. Their very different perspectives, combined with their very similar values, provide balance in their relationship and, ultimately, make for a very kind and loving life together. 

Contents

PREFACE

PART I – OF GENERAL INTEREST
Are People Our Most Important Asset?
CEO Pay: How to Demotivate Employees and Fail
Offshoring: No Panacea
Core Competency, or Not
Jobs: A Consequence of Being Competitive
Disappearing Markets
Constancy of Purpose Is Essential
Management Stability Is Critical to Success
Customer Service Taken Too Far
Reducing Hiring Times: A Misguided Approach
The Huntin’ Dog and the Kennel Dog
An Aging Workforce: A Crisis in Waiting
To Contract or Not to Contract? That Is the Question
Leadership: Rank Is Not the Same as Expertise
Align the Organization Using Performance Measures
What Would Mom Say? A Story of Ethics

PART II – RELIABILITY AND OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Reliability and Safety: We Believe in Safety, Don’t We?
Lowest Installed Cost or Lowest Lifecycle Cost
Buying the Cheapest Isn’t Always the Cheapest
Managing Spare Parts
Install and Start Up with Discipline
Operate With Care
Maintenance: Maintaining or Fixing
Sustenance Capital and Investment Capital: Both Are Investments
Operational Autonomy Without Financial Autonomy: A Formula for Failure

PART III – A FEW POPULAR TOOLS
5S or Is It 4S?
Lean and Mean or Skinny and Ticked
TPM: Totally Painted Machines?
RCM: Reliability-Centered Misery?

PART IV – PARTICULAR ANECDOTES
The Case of the Gloves
The Scarfer Story
The Packaging Line Story
The Mathberg Story
A Tale of Two Plants

PART V – BEING RICH
Being Rich: A Question of Perspective