Old School Team Building!

I’m facilitating an RCM Analysis this week in a second-floor conference room that overlooks a company courtyard complete with manicured landscaping, picnic tables, park benches and walking path complete with distance markers. While this park like setting has been mostly empty the first few days this week today there is a group of 30 people milling around. Some small groups of 2 or 3 are clustered together talking and most everyone is checking out their smart phone for various unknown reasons. I can’t help but wonder what is going on so I ask the team I’m working with why so many people are in the courtyard. (This is not the best move as a facilitator because I now have 4 people looking out the window instead of focused on our task at hand.) “Oh, I think this the new teamwork training that started this month. None of us have been yet, so far just the engineers and supervisors are doing it. I’m not sure how its working but from what I hear they have all enjoyed it. When they go outside they are doing trust falls off the picnic table benches. I guess they started doing them from the table top but there was some question about the need for fall protection so they moved it down.” And what might I ask does a trust fall have to do with teamwork? We are no longer talking about failure modes. This is of course unless someone is allowed to fall all the way to the ground. I’m sure that would undoubtedly be looked upon as a failure. “Trust is a big part of team work. If you don’t trust the people you work with you’re not likely to work well as a team.” Interesting concept. I always thought reaching out to catch something or someone that’s falling was human nature. You don’t want the object to break or get hurt so you reach out to prevent the fall. But listen, we need to get back to work. I could talk for a couple of hours about team building exercises I have participated in. Most were a lot of fun but accomplished very little in terms of team building. I agree by the way, that trust has a whole lot to do with team building but trust takes time. While things like this are a good start, you don’t build a whole lot of trust in a 4-hour workshop. The remainder of the day goes off without a hitch and later I find myself in a hotel room thinking about teamwork. In my first 10 years as a Journeyman I had the pleasure of working with the best team of people one could ever imagine. I can also tell you we didn’t become a team by going to a training session and catching each other. We never sat in a conference room and built Lego models, went to climb rock walls or played a business version of a board game. I guess you could say we learned teamwork in a way that has fallen out of fashion. You could say we were lucky. We worked for a company who at the time cared about its employees so much that it provided benefits above and beyond what most would ever think about doing today. The goal was to provide they employees a work-life that made you want to stay. A place where a large percentage of its workforce stayed working there for that company their entire careers. We were paid well, and had a benefits package that was the best for companies of similar size but those things had nothing to do with teamwork. The company understood that if you wanted your employees to work in a mature team environment, you had to build a culture that embraced team work. Getting people to work as a team takes time. Understanding this, old school team building took place at work and outside of work and the examples seem endless. Imagine a company that invests in athletic fields, soccer, baseball, tennis courts. An onsite gym, basketball courts, volley ball, a fitness center, and a bowling alley that was open 24 hours a day. A movie theater, stage, shooting and archery range. Add to this a list of employee clubs that was as long as your arm and most of these activities were free. Hire your employees in fresh out of school and urge them to get involved and soon you have employees who work together playing on a softball team and working out at the fitness center at lunch or after work. People who have common interests have something to talk about and the next thing you know you have a group of friends. Trust, it’s not only a big part of teamwork, it’s a huge part of friendship. And it doesn’t stop here. We had work parties, multiple each year to celebrate production records, the completion of a major shutdown and Christmas parties. Not so unusual you might say? Every one of these events included family, bring your spouse, the kids, Mom & Dad if you want and even your brother who might be visiting from out of town. The more the merrier! I should add these events weren’t held at the company cafeteria, we went to parks, party houses, the local AAA baseball field and amusement parks. Some were catered, some we barbequed and brought a dish to pass and everyone had a blast. We played games that involved the parents and kids complete with prizes for the winners. I can hear the corporate accountant adding up cost of all this but before we get to that I’d like to say again; it didn’t stop here. When you include family at these events what happens naturally? Your spouse and children meet the spouses and children of the people you not only work with but have become friend with. You go home and hear things like “I’m so glad I got to meet all these guys you have been talking about! Mark, Bob and Kevin are a riot, we should have them over this summer and hang out by the pool.” The relationships now extend beyond work, friendships grow stronger and you now have a group of people working together who have a stake in one another’s lives. The level of trust that comes with these relationships is like family. Relationships in my experience have lasted a lifetime. So, what does it cost to build a team the old school way? I think the better question is what is it costing to try and force fit team work instead of providing a means to let it occur naturally? What does it cost to continuously recruit, hire and train employees who will stay an average of 7 years and move on because making them feel valued has fallen out of style? What does it cost when your best equipment operator or engineer decides to leave because they can make a dollar an hour more at the plant across town? It’s a hell of a lot easier to leave when that person has watched a dozen before him do the same thing. It’s not like their leaving any friends behind when our companies have become a revolving door. Old school works! I still to this day communicate and meet with the people I worked with on that team on a regular basis. We did after all build a team that created bonds that have lasted decades.  As for the modern day methods of team building, still waiting on something else to come along. In the meantime, if this laptop happens to start to fall off my desk here at the hotel. You can all trust in the fact that I will reach out to save it! As usual, I would love to hear back from anyone who might have a great story about a team they have worked with or are working with. How did you build your team? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! May this season bring you, your family and friends an abundance of joy!

RCM Success - Difficult Decisions

There is nothing I enjoy more than getting a new customer started with a successful Reliability Centered Maintenance effort. The work and instruction that goes with setting a solid foundation that one can build on over time to improve reliability, reduce costs, and reduce the likelihood of health, safety and environmental incidents and accidents is well worth the reward as we see RCM drive a change in business culture.

What some companies fail to recognize however is setting this solid foundation requires a fair amount of expert level leadership, a proven plan or methodology and unrelenting trust in the people and methodology you have selected to help your company create this effort.
In my fifteen years of providing RCM Blitz™ to customers around the world the one thing our most successful customers all have in common is the ability to recognize that when it comes to providing RCM facilitation services as well as training, mentoring and certifying RCM facilitators, it is our people who have the expertise in RCM and it is their people who are the experts in business we are working in.

Building a world-class RCM effort requires a partnership between the company hiring the service and the company providing the service and the process will only work if the two companies work together to achieve a common goal. At GPAllied we understand that each customer we work with has a unique culture and for each company we work with to create a successful RCM effort we take the time up-front to work with their people to build solid foundation based on proven RCM principals. Good RCM is all about discipline, from defining how you intend to identify assets for analysis, to implementing and managing your new maintenance strategy.
Building a reputation of success not only comes with customers who have proven and sustained RCM efforts, your reputation also comes from what you refuse to do. While the consulting business can sometimes look easy, the toughest decisions we have to make are those where we elect to walk away from a potential customer based on their unwillingness to work as a true partner. At times there is nothing more difficult than stating the facts and refusing to move forward based on your own guiding principles.

Some of our most successful and long standing customers I'm sure can relate to times they have requested to begin a new RCM analysis only to hear me ask the question “How much of the last RCM we just completed has been implemented?” If the answer is less than 80% I will refuse to schedule the next event. Others have scoffed when I call a week prior to their planned analysis and remind them that if the information requested in the RCM contract is not available when I arrive, the analysis will not start.

But, for the growing number of companies who now understand what solid RCM foundation looks like and what a world-class RCM effort brings to their business, they celebrate the values, principals and discipline that are delivered with success.

If you’re looking for short cuts, you’re knocking on the wrong door. If you’re looking for a methodology that delivers proven results, give us a call!

A State of Confusion

I'm beginning to have a love/hate relationship with the internet. The technology that allowed me to launch my business and build a brand name for RCM Blitz™ has in recent years become a place where there is so much information it has become difficult for people to find good information.

Add to this the bombardment of information and misinformation that comes from social media sites like linkedin, AMP and facebook and we now have a problem of making sure that the people who want information in regard to Reliability Centered Maintenance or Reliability Tools get good information.

As an example, just today I was reading through a discussion some folks were having in regard to a post in AMP titled; definition of Proactive Maintenance. As it turns out, it is quite clear that as an industry the field of maintenance and reliability has no standard definitions to terms we pass around like candy on Halloween. Looking at the ten or twelve people who made an attempt to define proactive maintenance it would seem that there are at least 6 different definitions. And, when I say different, we are talking really different.

Joe M. believes that Proactive Maintenance is work we do before something fails.

Steve P. thinks proactive maintenance is PdM.

Leslie M. says Proactive maintenance is using reliability tools like RCM and TPM to identify failures and eliminate them through precision maintenance or redesign.

Jared D. in firm in his stance that proactive maintenance includes everything listed so far.

Doug P. - the wise guy says I don't like the word proactive, it’s over used so he would prefer we just say he believes in a complete maintenance strategy based on failure modes. Big Help!

If the dialog wasn't confusing enough contribution number 14 comes in and states; "I have no idea why anyone would build a maintenance strategy around failure modes, after all a failure mode is a symptom or how we observe failure".

My blood pressure is rising because what Mr. 14 has described is a failure effect.

Where in the world would someone come up with such a definition for the word failure mode?

The answer to this question as simple, just Google search the term Failure Mode and look at the results!

Wikkipedia defines failure mode as "•Failure causes are defects in design, process, quality, or part application, which are the underlying cause of the failure or which initiate a process which leads to failure"

R.Black from Sqablogs.com uses this definition "•A particular way, in terms of symptoms, behaviors, or internal state changes, in which a failure manifests itself. For example, a heat dissipation problem in a CPU might cause a laptop case to melt or warp, or memory mismanagement might cause a core dump."

Bingo!

Hello??? Is anyone listening??? Where the heck did these definitions come from?

Let me make this clear, if you ever want the definition to a term that as used as part of RCM, please consult the original RCM document authored by F. Stanley Nowlan and Howard S. Heap.

Nowlan and Heap's definition of failure mode, "The specific manner of failure; the circumstances or sequence of events that lead to functional failure."

Does that sound like a failure effect to you?

Of course NOT!

Does the definition make sense?

Yes, and this might be because Stan Nowlan and Howard Heap knew a little about RCM before they began writing about it. When it comes the the world wide web, the only experience needed is you need to be able to open a site like wikkipedia and enter a definition. And, when it comes to a term that is seldom used and industry specific, you can pretty much define it anyway you want. No experience necessary!

When it comes to RCM I know from experience how important it is to get things right the first time; so, tonight I find myself once again paging through the web wondering how to calm the state of confusion!

RCM Blitz.com -----> Gearing up for Growth

I have to say I am excited about the future of RCM Blitz, we have just launched our new and improved RCM Blitz website www.rcmblitz.com where our customers and those still learning about RCM Blitz can click in and learn about what is new with our RCM Blitz and also communicate with our practitioners in regard to their ongoing RCM effort.

So what is new and exciting?

Let's start with the RCM Blitz Blog. In the past I have been blogging here at the RCM Blitz blogspot page, in the very near future the two sites will be linked, my library of blogs will available at the site and down eventually the blog will be located full time on the RCM Blitz site. One of the great things about the RCM Blitz blog is it allows me to communicate with our customers and practitioners in regard to process improvements, the wins we are having with our customers on a regular basis and most important it is a great venue to learn about good Reliability Centered Maintenance practices.

How about Public Training events?

In the past we have provided public RCM Blitz training events on a as needed basis. The new site will allow our company and our customers to plan and schedule RCM Blitz public training events around the world months in advance. Finding a RCM Blitz public event will no longer involve searching on-line for locations or contacts, simply click on the public events link at the bottom of the home page and the information you need to locate and register will be available on-line.

Learn about our Facilitators

Training a good RCM Facilitator takes time, training a RCM Blitz facilitator takes time, leadership, patience, discipline and experience. Look through and read about the experience of GPAllied's RCM facilitators and you will find a crew of people with years of actual hands on experience in, maintenance, engineering, management, reliability, safety, quality, lean manufacturing and leadership. A group of people who challenge one another on a regular basis, a group trained to expect and accept nothing but the best when it comes to RCM facilitations. Each person in this group has had extensive training and mentoring in the RCM Blitz process and each has achieved and sustained certification as RCM Blitz Facilitators.

Case Studies

At the time of launch we are showing just one case study on the site as we are waiting on signatures from several others to share the stories of success. I look forward to sharing our success stories on a regular basis!

So today I am asking you all if you would, take some time and look at the new and improved RCMBlitz.com!

The Two Faces of RCM - Getting Things Started With RCM Blitz

I had a conference call this morning with some potential clients in regard to rolling out a RCM Blitz™ effort. The sad thing about Reliability Centered Maintenance is the reputation the tool has acquired over the last 40 years has one of two faces.

The sad, tragic and more popular face is that if the Resource Consuming Monster. The reputation that RCM is too detailed, that it takes too long, and that by the time you finish your analysis there are no recourses and there is no money left for implementation. According to a survey conducted on ReliabilityWeb.com nearly 70% of all RCM implementations fail, with statistics like this, it is a wonder the tool still exists.

The second face of RCM is one of success. This is the Reliability Centered Maintenance that F. Stanley Nowlan and Howard S. Heap introduced the world to in 1978. The RCM process that improves equipment and process reliability while reducing health, safety and environmental incidents and accidents.

This is also the face of Reliability Centered Maintenance we introduce our customers to when they commit to training RCM Blitz™ facilitators or invite one of our facilitators in to perform a RCM analysis. Our customers know the real face of RCM because we take the time to share experience in what it takes to be successful in Reliability Centered Maintenance.

The First Key Step to Successful RCM

1) We start with a plan. While most companies begin by selling their training or services, we know every successful RCM effort starts with a plan because every one of our customers is different. Just look at the following different scenarios;

- Company A needs a quick win to get some buy-in from upper management.

- Company B believes they would like to train their own internal RCM facilitators.

- Company C has support to start a RCM effort and they believe they would like to have our facilitators lead each analysis.

- Company D has had three major incidents on a critical piece of equipment in the last year and they would like to perform a RCM on that asset as soon as possible.

- Company E has tried to make RCM a part of their culture in the past, they now have a new manager who again wants to use RCM to develop their maintenance strategies.

- Company F would like to get started with a RCM program but they only have support from the maintenance side of the business. The operations manager has stated that he will not supply people from his part of the business for the analysis.

- Company G has made contact and their new reliability manager attended a conference and wants them to learn about RCM. They have no idea what reliability centered maintenance is and why he thinks they need it.

While the 7 scenarios listed above might be a bit confusing, for the RCM leaders at GPAllied this is a normal part of the RCM Blitz cycle.

Determine Customer Needs - Work with the customer to determine their needs and continue to work with the customer to develop a plan for success that fits their present work culture. This plan will include full disclosure in regard to the people, time and resources required to ensure a successful effort. A plan that details from day 1 how we will select assets for analysis, how we estimate the time it takes to complete each analysis, individuals, priorities and due dates for implementation and most important, a plan that clearly shows how we plan to measure and prove return on investment.

If you RCM effort doesn't start with a plan, you can plan on it being included in the 70% of RCM efforts that fail!

To learn about RCM Blitz™ and the key steps for RCM success contact Doug Plucknette at plucknetted@alliedreliability.com or call 585-329-7040

Please Bring Back the Apprentice!

While Donald Trump has given the word apprentice some a new meaning over the past several years, this is not the apprentice I am looking for.
I happen to be referring to the skilled trades apprentice programs that have seem to have disappeared over the last ten years. As I work with teams of operators and skilled trades people performing RCM analyses at companies around the world at some point in time as we are discussing the failure modes and effects I might ask the question; how does your company ensure that the skilled trades people working on your assets are actually qualified to work on the equipment?

This question is often met with a look of confusion.

I will then ask, how do we know if a person who calls themselves an electrician is actually qualified to work on a 3 phase, explosion proof electrical circuit? Or, that the next guy who calls himself a mechanic can actually align the motor and gearbox shafts to an alignment specification of +/- .002”?

Having made the question clear, the response I most often hear is “we don’t have a process, we rely on one person teaching the next but if you’re asking about a formal apprentice program, we lost that years ago and it has never come back.”

Interesting, and maybe this is just one of my own personal hang-ups but I have a hard time with someone who calls themselves a Electrician because they helped a friend hook up their cable TV, or the next guy who calls himself a welder because he made two pieces of metal stick together and fixed the loud noise coming from the tail pipe of his K-car.

While apprentice programs seem to be dying all around the United States, the level of talented and certified skilled trades people is shrinking at an alarming rate. More disturbing is the lack of understanding at the executive level regarding the importance of this issue. The reliability of your manufacturing assets is dependent on the ability of your skilled trades people to perform maintenance tasks to a level of precision that exceeds that of a surgeon! (See Examples Below) Yet for some unknown reason we want to believe that all of our tradespeople are created equal because they each have a high school diploma?

Formal Apprentice programs are what build the foundation and understanding regarding the importance of precision maintenance. The reliability and total life cycle of your assets along with the safety of your facility is highly dependent on the ability of your tradespeople and their knowledge of precision maintenance and safe work practices.

The examples below came from internet searches of “Measuring Surgical Precision” and Precision Alignment Standards. Note the that precision of a surgeon performing hip replacement is 4mm and the precision required for rotating shaft alignment is +/- .002” or .0762mm

Clinical Implications

Precision surgical guides with 4-mm occlusogingival height may
provide adequate accuracy for implant placement. Reducing the occlusogingival height of the guide may ease the use of precision-guided
surgery without compromising the accuracy of implant placement. http://bionics.soe.ucsc.edu/publications/JP_22.pdf

Specifying Shaft Alignment Written by Victor Wowk, P.E. Machine Dynamics, Inc. Monday, 01 May 2000 20:02

After shim changes are made, the above test shall be repeated at all feet until less than 0.002 inch rise is measured at each foot. If shim changes cannot adjust the rise, then the base will need to be ground or machined. See Section D, "Bases and Foundations."

http://www.mt-online.com/component/content/article/138-may2000/388-specifying-shaft-alignment-.html?directory=90

Having now been exposed to the truth that your tradespeople need to work to a higher level of precision than a surgeon, can we please bring back the apprentice programs?

The safety and relability of your equipment and your facility depend on this critical training!

Things I learned by 50!

Old is relative.

I can remember thinking my dad was old when he turned 50. While I might look old to my kids I don’t feel old. When I look in the mirror each morning I still see the person I saw yesterday and he doesn’t look any older than he did the day before.

Home is the best place on earth.

I have been lucky enough to travel the world for the last 12 years, I’ve seen several beautiful places, enjoyed the history, beer, wine and cheese of Europe, the stunning peace and tranquility of the beaches in Indonesia, the poverty and despair of Third World and the home town values and hospitality of nearly every state in our most beautiful country. After all this time and all of these miles the trip I look most forward to is the one that takes me home.

Pain is temporary, pride is forever.

While this was the motto of my favorite football team it has also become one that means a lot to me. In my 50 years I have learned that the accomplishments I am most proud of took some work and some pain. Some time away from the people I love the most and the emotional ups and downs that come with walking out on what most people saw as security to prove my experience and what I had to offer the world was not only useful but unique and necessary. If there were a mathematical equation for success, pain would likely be a denominator.

Happiness is a state of mind.

The one thing I have learned that helped me the most in life was that I have the ability to wake each morning and make the decision that I am going to have a good day. I am going to be positive and I am going to look for the best things in every situation I encounter. Learning is always a positive thing, even when we learn things the hard way. Several years ago we watched a close friend die from an invasive brain tumor, in the hours before this death, we talked, listened to john Lennon tunes, laughed and smiled. When T. Statt died he was happy. If he could be happy in the hours before his death, I know I can be happy in life.

Dogs make me laugh.

I don’t know what it is about dogs, some are really smart, some never learn to sit or come when called, but most every dog I meet can make me laugh. They can be smart, stupid, big, small, hairy or semi-bald like Rayba; I’m a sucker when it comes to dogs. Like I said, they make me laugh.

If you want to fall in love again, just go to a wedding.

Leslie and I have been married 28 years, for as long as I can remember we have always been in love. But If I want to feel that overwhelming emotion that comes the day you get married and the day you welcome your children into the world I only need to go to a wedding. Weddings make me cry, they bring back the emotion I remember feeling when I looked into her eyes and Monsignor Shannon started saying the vows.

Nothing on earth is more important and nothing on earth gives me more pride or satisfaction than my extended family.

I have been fortunate in life to have a lot of friends, I have several very close friends from school and childhood, and I have friends from work and friends I have made working with customers all over the world. While I love my friends, I rely on my family. I am the person I am today because of my family. My mom and dad, brothers, sister, in-laws, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins, we all share a bond, being a Plucknette is special, especially in a town called Spencerport, NY. Not only is Spencerport someplace special, it’s where my family is from.

My family makes me complete.

My wife and my children and the life we have made for each other are what make me feel complete. I am both happy and successful, more important I am loved. My family gives me love. On the best and the worst days I have always been proud of my family and our home. When I was 25 I remember wondering how it was that my father could be so smart, 25 years later I know the secret. Being a husband and a father makes you smart, there is no school, no book or course, smart comes from just being there. Picking them up when they fall, drying the tears when they cry, the joy and laughter that comes with learning and love. The worry of big steps like the first day of school, acceptance of friends, the teen years and their first loves. The pain that hits you deep when they turn their back on your love and advice, the heartache and pride of sending them off to college and most important the joy, love and pride of being a witness to the miracle. This is the day the light comes on, the day we first understand that while mom and dad may have made some mistakes along the way but WOW, they are pretty smart people! Loving your children makes you smart. When I wake up and I am home I am so thankful, when I wake up and I am not, I count the days and look forward to walking through the front door.

My favorite day is Sunday, we all have breakfast together and Leslie and I get to enjoy our children being together. Life is good, but love, well love is great!


In 25 years I learned what John Lennon and Paul McCartney told us all years ago. All you need is love, Love is all you need!