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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
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
A walk in the machine park or quality inspections?
Detailed inspections require the right type of person with the right mind-set, attitude and training. Most mills/mines/plants have some type of inspection program but, unfortunately, the inspections are often ineffective. There may be many reasons why inspections often aren’t effective. But, one
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
TPM without supervisors (it is possible!)
This is my third posting on maintenance supervisors (all supervisors). I started with a dilemma created by the redesign of a plant maintenance supervisors’ work. A reduction in the administrative activities should have been replaced with what I thought of as floor or face time. My second posting
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
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
One plant’s solution to the Sweet 16 dilemma. What’s yours?
My prior article posed the proposition that, to some employees, the typical organizational chart more closely resembles the bracketed final 16 college basketball teams when rotated 90 degrees with the perceived behavior of management
How reliable is your training?
Ever since I started working, everywhere I worked had training. As we all know, training is the backbone of preparation to perform our assigned duties in any position we hold. I cannot think of a single job in the world that does not require some kind of training to at least improve performance of the
