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What our plants have failed to learn in 25 years
Twenty-five years ago, I left the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine program. As I gained experience in civilian industry, I began to appreciate the Navy’s aplomb for reliable engineering, exceptional training and consistent operations. Their penchant for comprehensive preventive maintenance programs
The 10-second measure of maintenance effectiveness
Two decades ago, I worked in the Florida citrus industry. Near the end of each growing season, the fruit became softer. This promoted increased damage during handling, especially in the bins where the fruit was temporarily stored during testing. This, of course, wasted money, as juice literally went
Plant maintenance: Is it just like the tale of Sisyphus?
I stumbled across some music trivia lately, that the old rock band Chicago finally had its album “Stone of Sisyphus” released last year. One of the more famous “lost” albums, it was originally recorded in the early 1990s but had languished for years, available only in illegal
Keep maintenance simple: Use senses and sensibility
What good is it to have advanced maintenance techniques if they have no real benefit over simple basic maintenance? Now I am not saying go and throw away all of your fancy toys. What I am saying is that you don’t have to have advanced tools for every maintenance task. I have seen many maintenance
If at first you succeed … try, try again
Training Within Industry (TWI) is a micro version of “creative destruction”, a term used by some economists to describe a free-market capitalistic economy. Creative destruction means that new businesses, services or products enter and create the new markets, while destroying existing ones
The use of equipment checklists - an emotion-packed discussion
Over the years, I have spent (as have many others) much time in discussion/debate/argument in plants over the use of checklists for equipment changeovers and startups. I have explained, reasoned, rationalized, cajoled, appealed, beseeched, entreated, implored, pleaded, urged and even cried real tears
Start the lean journey by planning the trip
When I have occasion to speak with people about lean (which is only every chance I get), I am often asked - where should we start? While this sounds like a very simple question, it actually requires a lot of thought. However, the simple answer is that you must first decide where you want to go before
Rigor (to the point of mortis)?
I really enjoy the writings of Malcolm Gladwell. Both of his books - “Blink” and “The Tipping Point” - have been best-sellers over the last five years. If you are not familiar with them, these could be described as very readable tomes on social psychology. Gladwell identifies
Has anyone applied lean to government institutions … ever?
I recently had cause to visit a state government office to conduct some business. So, prior to my visit, I decided to do some legwork beforehand to see what I was in for, and to ensure that I was prepared for the visit. The Web site was simple enough and I had no problems discovering what I was looking
Here’s my key to getting improvement buy-in. What’s yours?
OK, so now you have put up these fancy (or so you think fancy) check sheets and charts for standard work, expecting the improvements to happen. Things go good for the first couple of days or weeks – if you are lucky. Everyone is abuzz with this focus of action. But then, it begins to degrade. What
