Maintworld 1/2019

LEADERSHIP
Who leads the reliability
(and performance)
improvement initiative
in your facility? Who
determines which
improvement projects
should be implemented?
Who executes the
projects? Who performs
the root cause analysis?
If the answer is “me”, or
“my reliability team”, then
we may have found the
person who is holding
back the success of your
programme!
JASON TRANTER,
CMRP,
Mobius Institute
The classic “iceberg of ignorance”
-graphic illustrates the level of
knowledge and awareness that is
common in most plants.
(www.torbenrick.eu)
Do you have all the answers?
MAYBE YOU SHOULD LOOK
FOR HELP FROM WITHIN
NOW, JUST POSSIBLY, you may be upset
with me right now. Keep reading and I
hope to change your opinion. But before
I do, I would like to ask you a few more
questions.
Who in your plant knows the most
about the problems that occur: the slowdowns,
minor-stoppages, equipment
failures, the waste, the inefficiencies, the
source of poor quality, the frustrations
due to maintenance work not being executed
correctly, and so on? Is it you? Is
it senior leadership? Is it anyone in management
or engineering?
What about the maintenance technicians
and operators? Aren’t they the
people who face these issues every day?
Don’t they see it all first hand? And
I wonder how many times they have
thought of solutions to those problems,
but no one has listened to them – and no
one has asked their opinion.
There is a classic graphic known as the
“iceberg of ignorance” that illustrates the
level of knowledge and awareness that is
common in most plants. Where are you
on this graphic?
So, if you agree that the people working
closest to the equipment know the
most about those problems, what would
you think about getting them involved
in the solution? Now, what just went
through your mind? “How would they
know how to solve the problems?” “I
could not trust them to make improvements.”
“Some of those guys thrive on fix-
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