leadership for reliability

Do you believe in safety? There is always a unanimous and resounding "Yes!" when this question is asked, particularly from executives. If you, particularly you executives, believe in safety, then you must believe in reliability and, more importantly, have the appropriate policies, systems, practices and measures to support reliability. You must walk the talk about safety.

One of the top priorities of any military organization is keeping soldiers fit for deployment upon demand. This usually involves exercises to maintain and increase job skill, physical abilities, overall health and mental capabilities.

Author's Note: While I'm solely responsible for this article, I am also entirely indebted to a process hazard analysis and loss control engineer (PHA/LCE) at a major refinery. In his contributed material, he is not disclosing anything of a proprietary nature. Still, it's a sign of the times that he has to remain anonymous. Perhaps it's because his expressions contain a measure of mild irony as he invades the comfort zone of equipment reliability engineers (REs). He quite obviously takes issue with their custom of limiting their work to mere analysis and recommendations. The REs, he notes, then consider their job done and let managers make decisions, some right and some wrong.