How to schedule maintenance during an operating shift - When is 8 hours equal to 5
I am looking for a fight. Maybe, an open discussion of why anyone should schedule an individual 8-hour shift, 8 hours of work orders, and...
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Aug 273 min
Applying lessons learned from the service industry into manufacturing
These are my Top 10 lessons learned from the service industry that are applicable to manufacturing.
Jun 233 min
Error proofing - How referencing a Tom Hanks movie has taught me about error proofing in MRO
Error proofing data, especially when it is manually inputted, needs to be incorporated in manufacturing to improve cost and efficiencies.
May 273 min
An MRO for the unrefurbished: How to build a spares strategy in manufacturing that includes unrefurbished parts
Many publications exist on spare strategies that enable the cliche that states to have the right part, in the right condition, and at the...
Apr 163 min
Applying my first lesson from Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge failure
The FBI has recently opened a criminal investigation on the container ship that brought down Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in...
Mar 233 min
A 9 3/4 mindset going into your shutdown
Imagine your production line is winding down after a productive month, and now it is time to allocate time for your monthly repair turn...
Mar 103 min
How did the stop sign get there?
There are some days when I am just in a lousy rut. Some days, I find myself looking at an assignment, an action item, or a blank screen...
Jan 143 min
Ideas are not rare.
Imagine you are in a small house in the Beacon Hill neighborhood in Boston. Starring out the window, you see rows of red-brick houses,...
Dec 29, 20232 min
Zugzwang moments within performance goals
Performance goals Performance goal season is wrapping up. With a few days remaining, you summarize your annual performance to each goal...
Dec 10, 20233 min
Canceling a PM can impact your metrics differently.
Within practically all computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), there are mechanisms to do preventive maintenance (PMs). These...
May 28, 20234 min
Mildew on roses makes no wine.
I try to make time daily to walk up and down production lines. I learned early on to use all of my senses during these walks to indicate...
May 14, 20234 min
Your outage's duration shouldn't be divisible by eight all of the time.
Could you walk into a manufacturing facility and get an accurate read on the maturity to plan and execute planned outages with a single...
May 7, 20233 min
Follow-up investigations with binary classifications
Generally, there are three steps for an organization to be effective at problem-solving, but many groups may implement just two. The...
Apr 16, 20236 min
Which asset management metrics should you start with?
You just left college life and joined your first maintenance and reliability team. With eyes as wide as saucers on day one, you quickly...
Apr 9, 20235 min
What is compliance when doing PMs?
Too frequently, I have seen departments measure the effectiveness of their asset management by pontificating their PM Compliance....
Jan 1, 20234 min
Complacency after commissioning shut this production unit down.
I have not been writing for about two weeks. What has been a mission over the last year to create a personal therapeutic habit has...
Dec 26, 20225 min
Where is it? I don't see it.
I have been rethinking what an asset is in a variety of contexts. Historically, I have rigidly treated the definition of an asset as...
Oct 2, 20224 min
Stop gerrymandering the asset hierarchy
Malcolm Gladwell in Season 3, Episode 7 of Revisionist History, talked about his 12 Rules For Life. I was so moved by this podcast, that...
Sep 4, 20224 min
Layers of protection, and still mismatch errors.
A statistic I came across the other day indicates that 6.3 billion prescriptions were dispensed in the United States in 2020. Combine...
Apr 16, 20224 min
Tina Fey could be your consultant for your feasibility analysis.
Tina Fey has been referenced as using an activity that gets you in the mindset of creativity and invigorated imagination for improv. It...
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