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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
Great leaders speak with a resounding VOICE!
You have probably heard the saying, “People don’t leave jobs, they leave leaders.” So, what does it take to be a leader (person in charge [PIC], supervisor, manager, executive) for whom people love to work? What are the things that they do, the skills and behaviors that they demonstrate,
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
When speaking at conferences, you learn as much as you teach
My career in predictive maintenance (PdM) has evolved since my formative years in 1995 and my first exposure to it via simple Excel charts tracking resistance to ground readings on our runout table motors. This was actually the topic of my first-ever presentation at a conference. It was the Society for
Developing the professional maintenance manager
In today’s environment of “lean”, TPM, reliability excellence, RCM, integrated maintenance/operations teams, new technologies and constant pressure to make maintenance more effective and elevate it to a prominent value-added position, the maintenance manager must become a business unit
A new you … and a new view on organizational performance
As we begin a new year in our organizations, we are committing resources to answer the new challenges in order to bring success to the bottom line. One of the key challenges across many of our situations is employee well-being and health. In order to meet our challenges, we need to ensure our workforces
Is your plant organization ship shape? Probably not.
You are in the engine room of the USS Lincoln. Your job as an oiler is to perform the cleaning and lubrication routes for the steam turbines. You are watching a control panel that monitors all of the ship’s mechanical functions. You have trust that the folks up on the bridge are in agreement about
Help employees get the most out of their career, their life
“Rex, your maintenance leadership mentoring program caused four employees to leave the company!” That was the response when I gave an update on the successes of a program that was celebrating its ninth anniversary with the success stories of graduates and mentors. There are two important
