Integrity: Without It Reliability Does Not Work

It is an honor to lead the team that creates each issue of Uptime magazine. There is a great deal of research, effort, recruiting, planning, writing, proofing, editing, more editing, graphic design, artistic layout, deadlines, digitizing and the final setting of ink to paper that goes into each issue.

The team creates much of its result through integrity - keeping its' word and honoring its' word by cleaning up any mess when it cannot keep its' word.    In a world of deadlines and creativity - giving your word with responsibility is a BIG factor for success.

I have been fortunate to be part of this extraordinary Uptime team and they continue to teach me by creating a powerful change in the world through their inspired work.  The team also creates result by working with a laser-like focus on the mission and vision

You may be surprised to learn that the mission we work to has nothing to do with magazines or web sites or conferences. Our mission is to make the people we serve safer and more successful.

Everyone on the Uptime team understands the mission and everyone works toward its fulfillment. The mission establishes our focus and our goals. It aims to answer the “what about me” and the “why” of our company and the work we do. The mission is aimed at being inclusive for everyone the organization touches in one way or another, even our competitors.

Our vision is to deliver ideas that make a difference in the areas of maintenance reliability and asset management.

This vision is an open invitation for all the people on our team, our contributors, our readers, our partners, our sponsors, our contractors and our suppliers to create ideas and events that correlate and support its framework.

Speaking our vision out loud creates a possibility to transform. From the moment it is spoken, the “real world” becomes “possibility” and barriers to the realization of the vision dissolve. When you speak the vision that ideas can make a difference in maintenance reliability and asset management – they do!

Our vision articulates the possibilities for us and we hope it will for you as well. It does not intend to aim at a point in the future or the past. It is available now.  Our vision includes you. In fact we invite you to “borrow” our vision.

It is also an honor to serve the audience that reads Uptime magazine and attend Reliabilityweb.com conferences, especially when they share stories of how they have used what they learn to make improvements.   That is one of our highest purposes.

If you already have a great mission statement or a great vision, will you please share it with me?  I would love to learn and be inspired by you! 

You are invited to read this issue of Uptime cover to cover to e let us know if we lived up to our mission and if you share our vision as well.

Warmest regards,

Terrence O'Hanlon, CMRP

CEO/Publisher

Linkedin.com/in/reliabilityweb 

You Say You Want A Revolution

by Terrence O'Hanlon, Publisher and CEO Reliabilityweb.com and Uptime Magazine

On the song Revolution that appeared on the White Album many Beatles experts think John Lennon wrote “We all want to change the world” and “We’d all love to see the plan” to express his doubts about the methods being employed by some of the 60s protest movements who wanted to use him as a sponsor or spokesperson.

I like to consider myself a Beatles expert of sorts and I think that John may have been trying to tell the maintenance reliability community something as well. For example:

You say you want a revolution well you know

We all want to change the world

Of course we all think that if the world around would only change – life and work would be so wonderful.    We all imagine what the default future looks like if nothing changes and sometime s the language we use to describe that future actually plays an important role in serving that same future to us..  What John wanted us to know is that each one of us can write a new future by changing the responses we have to world around us – and in that way – change the world.

You say you got a real solution, well you know

We'd all love to see the plan

I think what John is saying is that many of us think we know the solution to the challenges we face but very few of us have a plan and those that do have a plan often fail to invite the stakeholders to help write that plan.   You will not be able to move away from the default future until you invite everyone involved to co-author the future with you. 

          

You ask me for a contribution, well you know

We're all doing what we can...

In his infinite wisdom John Lennon is telling us not to wait for someone else to contribute.  If you begin with your own contribution, you will find it is much easier to get others to contribute.

You say you'll change the constitution, well you know

We all want to change your head

One way to look at John’s message here is to consider changing the language we use to describe how situations occur to us.  The words we choose to describe things often create the future reality for us.  Try to describe a challenge in a new way that includes possibility for change or improvement.  Try it again.

 

You tell me it's the institution, well you know

You better free your mind instead

John is letting us know that it is easy to blame “them”, “management” or “the company” for the way things are.  There are many things in this world that you cannot change however you have a choice about how your respond to things and what words your use to describe them.

John also seemed to know that if you read every article in every issue of Uptime Magazine:

Don't you know it's gonna be   Alright

Don't you know it's gonna be   Alright

Don't you know it's gonna be   Alright

Who is driving your reliability program?

A friend of mine sent me “the first funny video of 2013” so I decided to post it here and use it as a metaphor for getting you to think about this question:  Who (or what) is driving your reliability performance?

Post your comments here please

25 Twitter Accounts That Will Make Your Maintenance More Reliable

by Terrence O'Hanlon, Publisher and CEO Reliabilityweb.com and Uptime Magazine

How could 140 character messages have any value?  If you are reading my writing, you probably do not belong to Gen X, Gen Y or even a Gen Z.  Tweeter me this and twitter me that – it all seems like nonsense right?

If you do not understand the value of some of the new media networks, have some patience and try this quick 5-minute, 10-step Twitter Tutorial.

If you do not immediately agree that this is a GREAT way to get focused information in a quick easy-to-read format, then you never have to visit Twitter ever again.

Step 1)  Visit Twitter at http://www.twitter.com

Step 2) Create a FREE Twitter account by entering your name, email and a unique password

Step 3) Check your email and click the confirm link so Twitter knows you are a real Human Being

Step 4)  Log into your new Twitter account.

Step 5) Skip your profile set up.  We are not going to bother setting up your profile for now – because you may never visit Twitter again unless you find GREAT value quickly so let's get straight to it.  You can always set up your profile; add your location and a profile picture later.  Skip all that for now.

Step 6) Click the Home link on the top of the page to ensure you are on the home page

Step 7) Copy and Paste each on the following Twitter accounts into the search box at the top of the home page and click the search icon

Step 8) A small twitter icon that matches that @ Twitter account name will appear in the upper left under the word People

Step 9) Click the small icon under People and a small screen will pop up with the past few tweets and a Blue “Follow” button. Click it.

Step 10) Once you have “followed” these top maintenance reliability Tweeters (people who post Tweets) – you will have your own personalized “flow” of quick, easy maintenance reliability resources.

You can also download free Twitter apps for your smartphone/iPhone and iPad/Tablet for mobile access.

If you are on a path to learn new things and discover new ideas related to maintenance reliability, I guarantee you have just struck pure gold.

In addition, you Wife/Husband, your Kids and your Co-Workers will all be amazed you have joined the 21^st century and adopted the latest technology!

You never have to post a Tweet of your own and you will quickly discover other Tweeters that you will want to follow.  You can un-follow anyone at anytime by clicking on their icon and then clicking on the Un-Follow button.  They will never even know you stopped following them!

@reliability

@MaintenanceTips

@UptimeMagazine

@CMMSCity

@RickySmithCMRP

@MaintenancePro

@maintenanceconf

@fms95032

@ShonIsenhour

@JeffShiver

@HeroicChange

@MaintNews

@DPlucky

@HearMore

@tammipickett

@bofiliosj

@ModPumpMag

@Ivara

@IVCTechnologies

@Marshall_Inst

@ReliabilityWork

@ecmweb

@PumpsSystemsMag

@LudecaInc

@UE_Systems

Additions by request (starting with #26):

@thesnellgroup

@MaintOnLine

@oilanalyst

@PumpingTweets

@bjarniisl

@VibrAlign

Let me know what you think and what other Twitter accounts I should add to this list.

Welcome to the 21^st century. 

Is It OK To Be Excited About Maintenance?

by Terrence O'Hanlon, Publisher and CEO Reliabilityweb.com and Uptime Magazine

When John Schultz first co-founded Allied Reliability, he used to say “It’s OK to get excited about maintenance!”

Of course “excitement” already existed in the maintenance community.  When a critical machine fails, you can bet that there will be a great deal of “excitement” around that event.  We think John was referring to a completely different kind of excitement. 

He was excited because evolving condition monitoring technologies coupled with effective strategies for pinpointing their application were creating high-performance reliability results.  Companies no longer had to be surprised by failures.  They could detect potential failures much earlier and plan interventions that would prevent a major disruptive and unplanned failure.

The team that creates each issue of Uptime® Magazine and Reliabilityweb.com also get excited about maintenance.  We are committed to making the world a much more productive, safer and yes; a more exciting place for maintenance leaders who can learn new things that will produce career making returns (ROI) for those who make the difficult journey to high-performance reliability.

This is one of the ideas that drive IMC or the International Maintenance 

Conference.

This event, now in its 27^th year not only delivers stellar educational opportunities; it does so in a positive and exciting format that builds networks, confidence, knowledge and team.

Take a few minutes and check out some of the images of IMC-2011 26^th International Maintenance Conference and decide if you want join us for IMC-2012 being held December 4-7 at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point in Bonita Springs Florida on the Gulf of Mexico.

We hope we see you there.

Reliability Transformation: New Thinking About Reliability

by Terrence O'Hanlon, Publisher and CEO Reliabilityweb.com and Uptime Magazine

Warning:  Your brain is not naturally wired to think reliability

If you are a maintenance reliability leader you can probably recall a time in the not so distant past when you were not aware of proactive reliability strategies.  Maybe strategy is not even the right word.   There was a time when you thought about maintenance reliability the way that the vast majority of people who actually think about maintenance do:

1. Something is new and operates close to perfect
2. Occasionally someone from the maintenance department shows up to lubricate, tighten things and possibly replace some fluid or filters
3. The thing ages and requires replacement or major repair or rebuilding
4. There is not much that can be done to create a longer operating life of the thing

Then you met someone who changed your mind or you started reading books, articles and blogs or you attended conferences where you learned a new way of thinking about maintenance.  You learned about the concepts of failure, consequences, condition monitoring, and reliability-centered maintenance.  You re-wired your brain to think VERY differently about reliability and what you might be able to do to improve it.

Let’s call this a “Reliability Transformation”

Read reliability leadership articles here

Watch reliability leadership video tutorials here

Of course there are people you work with that have not experienced a reliability transformation yet but that does not mean they cannot do so – especially with your assistance.

Don't change beliefs – transform the believer ~ Werner Erhard

You can consider using some of the following Reliability Transformation tips:

• Learn more than one way to present the concept of reliability.
• Practice communicating the concept of reliability on friends, strangers, supportive and hostile listeners.
• Check in with the listener often. Are they following? Let them ask questions.
• Allow “white space” around the idea of reliability. Start at a very high level view.  Don’t overwhelm them with details
• Try to close with actions – even if small. 

OK now I need to make a broad generalization about many of the maintenance reliability leaders I know.  They tend to talk in great detail and use examples that are too micro when they should be macro.  They also fail to tie these conversations to business results.  Feel free to file a dispute in the comments section below.

Can you refine and distill your conversation to support the concept of Reliability for your managers and other company leaders as well as floor level people who will be affected?

• What are the BARE BONES parts of your concept about reliability and some of the changes that would be required?
• How few words can you use, and still get meaning across? (Example: we will double production on line 1).
• What part of the concept is most confusing? Can you change it?
• Would a picture help?
• How much can be explained later without hurting the conversation now?
• What’s your next sentence, after this new, distilled one?

Are you willing to take responsibility for the way things are now and still create possibilities for a reliability transformation in your organization?

Let me know if you already have or will do so.  You can contact me through Google+ here