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The rise of autonomous operator maintenance and work redesign
My blog entry on the “White Glove Story” got close to the idea of operator maintenance. My study on the coal gasification generating plant was about the ultimate vision of the one employee who has the skills and ability to do whatever is necessary to keep the process operating effectively. What
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
The ‘White Glove Story’ and dirty little TPM secrets
Several years ago, a group called the Maintenance Excellence Roundtable met on the West Coast to present what it had accomplished during the previous year and where it was headed for the coming year. We were privileged to have Robert Williamson in attendance, and he told us a story that stuck with me
How to create a culture by design to retain right-fit talent
In my last blog, I presented strategies for managing layoffs. Hopefully you have not had to downsize, or maybe you’ve completed this difficult process and are ready to move forward. It seems contradictory to speak about retaining right-fit talent when thousands of organizations have had to let some
Can maintenance and operations coexist? A radical process change story
My previous blog described a plant with no supervisors and with self-directed work teams that handled maintenance and operations. Most of us come from traditional plant organizations with an operations group and a maintenance group with their own supervisors and specialized skilled crafts. One of the
How to enable process redesign and CMMS success
A blog from Kris Bagadia on “10 factors to a successful CMMS implementation” triggered a memory of attempting this in my preretirement days, long ago in 1990. I thought maybe my reply to Kris should be expanded, and this is the resulting blog posting. The United States Postal Service had
The supervisor must be more than a boss
My previous blog post began this rambling discussion about supervisors. I brought up the dilemma of what happens when we redesign work so that a portion of a supervisor’s duties are streamlined, thereby freeing up some of the supervisor’s work time. If, in the redesign, the process did not
What’s your value point? What’s your unique contribution?
I was an instructor in a program for the U.S. Postal Service for which classes of 40 executives spent two weeks at our Executive Center learning about all functions of the company and gaining a familiarity with the business of business. The latter subject was taught by the American Management Association
Workforce retention: How do you keep your best employees?
In my first two blog columns for Reliable Plant, we discussed the first two steps in becoming a talent management organization. Now that you have a good idea of how to attract and hire right-fit/best-fit talent, the question becomes, “How do you keep them?” After all, if you are going to
How much would you pay for a dollar?
In my seminars and speeches, I sometimes use audience participation to drive home a point or to interrupt the “I’ve heard it all before” mind-set. It is important to put what follows in the context of problem solving or conflict. An example would be with a contentious team or when discussing
