By Winston Ledet
The data used to develop the original Dynamic Benchmarking Model was collected in duPont's "Best of the Best" Benchmarking Study administered by A. T. Kearny in the mid to late 80's. The purpose of the survey was to discover the characteristics of the very best maintenance organizations. A total of 140 sites were surveyed from a broad spectrum of industries. About half the sites surveyed were non-duPont sites.
Conventional analysis of the flood of data did not result in any useful insights into how to elevate the performance of organizations.
Winston Ledet initiated and led a team of 3 duPonters and 1 consultant to analyze the data using system dynamics modeling. System dynamics is the basis for our Dynamic Benchmarking Model, the Stable Domains for maintenance and Defect Elimination. The model was developed for the first time by this DuPont team as part of their effort in the early 1990's. These frameworks have become the prevailing paradigms of most maintenance experts. However, in 1991, these same frameworks seemed strange by most and "heretical" by some.
The uniqueness of this assessment is that it is based on understanding that came about after rigorous study of manufacturing over 20 years. The first system dynamics model was completed in 1989. A system dynamics model is basically a cause and effect approach put to mathematics, which is then verified against actual real world experience. This results in a model that is structurally equivalent to the area of study. It provides the researchers a "practice field" to determine the key leverage points in the system. The original system dynamics model was updated to include more organizational capability and readiness structure in 2002. The model was further updated in 2008 to include socio-technical network building. The basis for these upgrades was the experience gathered after working with over 168 companies at multiple sites around the world and over 30,000 participants in the Manufacturing Game workshops.
The qualitative aspect of the model evaluates the readiness of the organization to reach the precision domain where the best benchmarked sites operate. The quantitative aspect evaluates the cost of unreliability and the profit of precision reliability.
Reliabilityweb.com facilitated the a comparative survey which evaluates the readiness of your organization to reach the precision operating domain. Attend this session to learn how well you compare to sites that have reached the precision domain and a comparison to the average of all plants that respond to this survey.
The session is highly interactive and the results of the study will also be published and made available to all Solutions 2.0 participants
