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human capital management

Building Steam

A Story of Hard Work, Dedication, and, Ultimately, Transformation

by  Judith Charlton and Steve Lipscombe

Sembcorp UK, one of the leading suppliers of utilities to UK industry, is transforming its operations.  Steam and power operations are vital to the success of Sembcorp UK and its customers in the petrochemical, power and biofuels sectors.  Just five years ago the business was struggling to manage an aging power station and all its associated problems with limited resources.  The challenges seemed insurmountable.

Breaking Through Glass Ceilings

Thoughts on Implementing Organizational Change

by R. Keith Mobley, MBB, CMRP

Have you ever been involved in an attempt to improve the performance of your department or one function, such as maintenance or quality, in your plant or corporation?  Ever wonder why the attempt did not work at all or failed to reach its full potential?  If you have, the reason was probably a list of deficiencies or omissions, or perhaps it was because cosmic forces  preordained that improvement is not possible.  Sound familiar?

Human Error in Maintenance and Reliability and What to Do About It

This paper describes the cost and consequences of human error in maintenance and reliability (M & R) in a variety of venues such as utilities, manufacturing and government. Key elements will focus on:

IRISS, Inc., Announces Promotion of Arby Dickert to Position of America’s Sales Manager

IRISS Inc. announces that Arby Dickert has been promoted to America’s Sales Manager.  “Arby joined IRISS in January, 2010 and he was hired for a strategic sales position due in part to his expertise in the Condition Monitoring and Reliability Maintenance Industry which made him a very desirable candidate for the sales position we had open at the time.  In a very short time, Arby has proven that “hit the ground running” is what some people say they will do, but which he actually did.  It is Arby’s passion and aptitude for learning the Infrared market as well as his previous experience managing a mature and successful sales team, that perfectly position him for this promotion to America’s Sales Manager,” said Martin Robinson, CEO and founder of IRISS, Inc.

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Change Management for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals

When we think about creating a reliability focused organization we tend to initially think about what needs to be changed. This process invariably leads one to determine that there are components of the current process that do not exist and hence have to be created, or if they do exist they may not be functioning to the level we would desire. For example in order to create a reliability focused organization a work planning and execution component would be required.

Changing Your Organization for the Better Part 5: What Gets Measured Gets Done

Whatever gets measured by an organization receives the majority of its attention. Simply by virtue of obtaining and displaying data, you and your organization are focusing, at least on a minimal level, on those areas that you are measuring. If these measures are not tracking as expected, corrective actions usually follow close at hand. In reality, therefore, whatever you and your organization decide to measure sets up a sub-process that ensures more attention is given to these areas vs. those things which are not measured.

Leadership for Reliability

Changing Your Organization for the Better Part 4: The Roadmap of Change

In Part 1 we discussed the concept of organizational change, the three linked elements necessary for success and details about dissatisfaction. In Part 2 we addressed ourselves to organizational vision. In Part 3 we discussed the Goal Achievement Model in detail and clearly showed how it links the vision, goals, initiatives and activities in a very focused manner. However there still is one other part to the puzzle. This is what is referred to as the Roadmap of Change. The Roadmap is the tool to align change efforts within the organization, to eliminate conflicting goals, and to keep the change process on track. It is the final part of a process that begins with establishing the vision, developing higher level details with the Goal Achievement Model, and maintaining focus and clarity with the Roadmap. A successful change effort can not succeed without all three of these pieces being properly put into place and correctly used.

Initiative Overload?

In Dupont there were so many initiatives, Butch Hoffman, a maintenance foreman, said to Winston Ledet, "Winston, you are not the only person who shows up here, and you have eight initiatives you want me to implement in maintenance. Can't you guys create some way of showing us how to apply all of these initiatives in our work?"

Creating a Culture Change – A Pathway to Improved Reliability

One of the major areas of focus in industry today is that of improving equipment reliability. Why? To insure that production is always available to meet the demand of the marketplace. One of the worst nightmares of any company and those who manage it is to have a demand for product but not be able to supply it because of equipment failure. Certainly this scenario will reduce company profitability and could ultimately put a company out of business.

The Continuous Improvement Method of Thomas Edison

There is a good chance you can make astounding changes and achieve incredible performance improvements from your plant and equipment. It can be done with the method used by Thomas Edison to solve his problems and make his discoveries.

Improvements in the order of 20% maintenance savings with 100% on-time achievement of production plans are possible.

The method is that of continuous improvement. You start by proving it works for yourself first and then, once you are sure it works, you introduce it to your people.

Getting What You Need From Management: Laying the Groundwork

Imagine you are a corporate sponsor trying to decide between two professional pool players. You watch each of them as they make a shot. The first one steps up, shoots, and sinks the eight ball in the left corner pocket. After sinking the eight ball, the player smiles, and proclaims

"Exactly where I was aiming"

Telling it like it is: Why Doesn’t Management Give You What You Need?

Everyone has limited resources, not enough time or money to do everything that you feel is necessary. Your resources are limited because your company's resources are limited. The appalling reality is yYour company has given you what it perceived your activities are worth.

Marketing Maintenance

The toolbox of a maintenance manager has to have a wide variety of tools. The tools range from people skills to technical skills. Two of the skills that are often overlooked and underdeveloped are the sales and marketing skills. Maintenance managers not only have to sell projects to the senior management, but they also have to sell projects to the personnel working for them. The marketing skills enable the manager to identify the needs of the senior management, departments, and other personnel, and analyze them to identify necessity and opportunities. First, the current maintenance requirements have to be identified. Next, the marketing and sales begin internally for the department. Finally, the external sales and marketing are conducted within the corporation but external to the department. As with any process the sales and marketing should be fluid and adapt to the situation.

Shoestring Supervisors

Have you ever watched a child who has to stop everything every few feet to tie their shoes? You start to wonder why they do not double knot the laces to prevent them from coming untied. The same thing can be seen in "Corporate America". The same thing happens with everyday operations at various levels in any organization. I would like to concentrate on supervisors though due to the direct input they have to quality, productivity, and training. The three areas that I would like to discuss are the past (overcoming), present (reaction), and future (planning). In addition, recommendations will be made on how to improve this process.

Management Won’t Support What We Are Doing!

5 Tips for getting your breakthrough initiatives off the drawing board!

Among the most common issues companies have to deal with is getting the attention of their board, or senior management, when they are trying to generate interest in their latest initiatives for improving asset management. "The boss won't support what we're doing" syndrome has caused me a lot of heartache, and is even more frustrating for the people I work with. My new book, The Maintenance Scorecard, speaks about this issue in the first chapter.

Leadership for Reliability

Changing Your Organization for the Better: Part 3: The Goal Achievement Model

In Part 1 we discussed the concept of organizational change, the three linked elements necessary for success and details about dissatisfaction. In Part 2 we addressed ourselves to organizational vision. Part 3 addressed the third element - next steps. The process of identifying and accomplishing the next steps uses the Goal Achievement Model.

Leadership for Reliability

Changing Your Organization for the Better: Part 2: The Vision of the Future

Part 2: The Vision of the Future or How Do We Know Where We Are Going So We Will Know When We Have Arrived

In Part 1, we discussed the concept of organizational change, and introduced the eight key elements of the change equation.  The overriding component however is the concept of vision.  It is fine to have a general level of dissatisfaction with the current or “as-is” state, but it is not enough.  You need a vision of what the new or “to-be” state will look like so that the organization will know what they are trying to achieve and what it will look like when they do.

Safety and Reactive Maintenance

Reactive maintenance is here defined as all maintenance work that was scheduled less than 20 hours before it was executed.

Is Your Company Running Scared?

Fight or Flight Might Not Be Your Best Strategy


by Chris Colson and Timothy R. Weilbaker


Any time a market (or an entire economy) declines, there are certain behaviors that we can expect to observe in companies.  The specific actions we witness should come as no surprise to even the casual observer, especially since the actions taken by companies during tough financial periods are also observable in individual human behavior during times of great fear.  And what other emotion would be more fitting than fear when corporate revenue experiences a sustained decline?

Leadership for Reliability

Reaching For The Top

Creating a New Partner with Reliability Centered Operations

by Paul R. Casto, CMRP

To optimize both maintenance risk and cost, the interrelationships between reliability, maintenance and operations must be considered and leveraged to capitalize on the strengths of each.  Reliability Centered Operations (RCO) is an approach that optimizes these relationships through the application of a maintenance strategy built from failure analysis that will yield more expansive and cost-effective risk reduction tasks.

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