human capital management

By Jeff Shiver, CMRP

Have you ever wondered "What in the world are they thinking?" when the managers of your company make decisions or changes? After spending years in various management roles, and providing services to help other companies improve, I have seen many management decisions that impact plant performance and long-term profitability by repeatedly undermining site reliability. At some point, we as managers may become participants in disabling site reliability. So, how is it that executive management down to front-line supervisors disable reliability? We will examine in this article the different ways we impair site reliability with the goal to help your organization avoid the same pitfalls.

...and seeing it through to fruition

Excerpted from 100 Years in Maintenance and Reliability Practical Lessons from Three Lifetimes at Process Plants by V. Narayan, James W. Wardhaugh & Mahen C. Das

Courtesy of Industrial Press

Location: Automobile Parts Manufacturer

Background
On my first day at work in this company, I met my boss, the General Manager of Production (GM). My position had been vacant for a year, during which time the head of the production planning department had been managing it. During this interim period, a number of issues had arisen, which the GM listed for my action. When he finished, I requested a three-week vacation, and he nearly fell off his chair!

I explained that I would come to work, but wished to be free of executive responsibility in order to evaluate the current situation for myself. This review would help me identify the expectations of all the stakeholders, including the people on the shop floor—but I did not share this thought with him. The review would give me a first-hand impression of the current status. From these inputs, I would produce a master plan. Each item in the master plan would be a separate project, with its goals, cost, time, and resource estimates. When he heard this explanation, he accepted my request. He still negotiated the review time period downward to two weeks.

From time to time I do seminars and workshops for executives, general managers, vice presidents, and even presidents and CEO's, mostly from manufacturing companies. When doing these seminars, I like to play a word association game with them. That is, I say a word, and they respond with the first word that comes to mind. For example, I might say "black", and the typical executive will respond with "white". I might say "woman", and most will respond with "man". After this little bit of training; I'll look at one of the executives abruptly and say "Maintenance". The most common response to the word maintenance from these executives is "Cost". The second most common response is "Breakdowns, or Downtime".

Originally presented at Reliability 2.0

The Optimization Trap
by Phillip Slater
Inventory Process Optimization Specialist
Initiate Action Pty Ltd

Whether it is maintenance strategy, planning, manning, PMs or inventory, for all good managers an optimal outcome is always the goal. Yet, it has been proven time and time again that optimization does not always deliver the results that are expected. I call this phenomenon The Optimization Trap. Surprisingly, most people that are caught by the optimization trap don’t even realize it.

This paper explains the Optimization Trap, what it is, how to tell whether you are in danger of falling into the trap, and, if you have already, what you can do about.

Originally presented at Reliability 2.0

Co-author: Bill Hall

Abstract

Big changes are happening in today’s workforce. These changes have nothing to do with downsizing, global competition, or stress; it is the problem of a distinct generation gap. Young people entering the workforce are of diversified background and have much different attitudes about work. They want a life‐work balance. They want to be led, not managed — and certainly not micro‐managed. The new mode is flexibility and informality. A large proportion of our managers of the veteran era have been trained in relatively autocratic and directive methods that don't sit well with today's employees. Are we preparing our workforce to meet tomorrow’s need?

Why do so many Reliability / RCM programs fail or don't get implemented? What are the key obstacles we need to overcome for a successful implementation? Are our people trained – aware of best practices? Do we have the right people available to implement the best practices? This paper will attempt to answer some of these questions.

Originally presented at Reliability 2.0

by David A. Army, CMRP, SAMI and Gwendolyn Army, LCPC

The Perspective

Many times, business professionals have been involved in changes to processes or systems where they have relied on seat of the pants knowledge to determine whether or not they were successful. More often than not, the initiative flounders once their attention has been turned to the new “flavor of the month” and its back to business as usual.