Who Said Youth is Wasted on the Young?

It was George Bernard Shaw and I think he was trying to express that young people have everything going for them physically; their minds should sharp and clear but because of their youth and inexperience they lack the patience and experience to make sound decisions. After a week of teaching the youth of Schlumberger at the Training Center in Sugar Land, Texas I have a different view than Mr. Shaw.

I think Old George would think differently if he had spent a week instructing young engineers from around the world on the process and benefits of Reliability Centered Maintenance. If I have said it once in the last 15 years I have said it one hundred times, Reliability Centered Maintenance at first glance doesn't seem like a difficult process but try once to facilitate an analysis and you will soon be lost in the subtle complexities of how to word a proper failure mode and the importance of good failure effect statements.

Looking at ten faces all under the age of 30 on a Monday morning I was staring into the bright young face of inexperience and impatience and wondering if they had the pluck required to conquer such a course.

Over the next several days I tested their patience and pushed the limits of what someone with 30 years experience would expect from someone with two and by Friday noon I was pleased to report that the youth of today are not what old George Bernard Shaw believed them to be. If anything is wasted today it's the time we don't spend as experienced professionals asking those with less what they think or believe caused a failure.

If youth is wasted on the young, could it be true that experience is wasted on the old? Experience after all can sometimes make us believe that we have tried everything we need to in order to improve. The youth my friends are willing to try those same things over again with more focus and precision.

If you have forgotten to include youth in your RCM effort, there is no time better than today!