CHAPTER 9: REACTIVE MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES
Run-To-Failure Maintenance Approach
Preventive Maintenance Approach
Predictive Maintenance Approach
Effective Maintenance Management
CHAPTER 10: PROACTIVE RELIABILITY STRATEGIES
Proactive Reliability Approach
Getting To The Root of The Problem
Proactive vs. Preventive/Predictive
A Balanced Approach
CHAPTER 11: CONCLUSION
Reason For Failure
Hiring The Right Leader
How Do We Turn The Tide?
P-F Curve
Recommended Reading
References
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work would not have been possible without the support of the maintenance and reliability professionals I have had the pleasure to work alongside over the past thirty-five years, particularly Bill Cole and Larry Wiskirchen. I am especially indebted to Steve Holmes, Duane Aldueso, and Robert Hansen who have shaped my career and who worked actively to provide me encouragement to pursue my goals.
I am grateful to all of those with whom I have had the pleasure to work with during this project. Each of the members of my publishing team has provided me extensive personal and professional guidance and taught me a great deal about turning my life’s practices into a volume. I would especially like to thank Judy Bass, the Editorial Director, Janice Gold, my copy editor, and Janet Romano-Murray, my cover and text designer. As my publishing team, you will be forever linked to my family. I would also like to thank my brother and sister, Lester and Tracy, and my sons, Joshua and Troy, for reviewing my work to ensure I am making sense and adding value to the body of work.
Nobody has been more important to me in the pursuit of this project than the members of my family. I would like to thank my parents; whose love and guidance are with me in whatever I pursue. They are the ultimate role models. Most importantly, I wish to thank my loving and supportive wife, Lisa, and my four wonderful children, Joshua, Stephanie, Troy, and Natalee, who provide unending inspiration.
Why do I believe I have the answer to the question of how to make reliability a competitive advantage? I would like to give you a little background on me to put into context why I feel I can talk on this subject. I am a fourth-generation reliability person. My great-grandfather, grandfather, and father all worked for the Phelps Dodge Corporation. I have lived firsthand the effects of leadership in our industry. While some folks network with a few folks to share experience and knowledge, I lived it daily. Not only was my father a maintenance manager, but his brothers, as well as my mother’s brothers. My brother, cousins, nephews, and sister-in-law are all skilled tradespeople. My son is a fifth-generation reliability guy along with his cousins, so my network is extensive and spans many industries. While writing this book, I asked my son to read the draft and comment. As he and I sat discussing his review, he stated that most of what he read he has heard discussed at every family get together. I do not have to go to a seminar to network; all I must do is show up to dinner. This was confirmed by my son during our discussion, and it has been the same for him.
MY EDUCATION
From an education standpoint, after I graduated from Morenci High School I attended the University of Arizona and studied electrical engineering. Upon my father’s death, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy to continue my studies in electrical engineering and surprisingly, leadership. The Navy fueled my desire to understand how leadership affects everything else. The one thing the Navy taught me was that with advancement to positions of increasing leadership, there needs to be significant development. Now let’s fast forward to all my other promotions outside the Navy. There was little, and by that I mean no, leadership development. I was promoted because I was good at the position I was in and it was assumed that I would figure it out as I went along. Without development, there is a lot of risk to the success of leaders and their effects on their teams. As I worked to better understand the aspects of leadership, I pursued my bachelor’s degree because it is the latest requirement and belief that a reliability leader needs a degree. I attained my MBA so I could better understand the financial aspect of my job. It is no longer enough to know the right thing to do because companies today focus solely on the bottom line and not return on investment. To be successful as a reliability leader, I had to be able to talk in the language of today’s leaders: finance and budgets. Because the C-suite leaders are no longer people who have risen through the ranks, many corporate leaders lack real-world experience and an understanding of how to run the plant. They are lawyers and accountants focused on short-term objectives and not the long-term success of the company. To gain their buy-in I had to learn to speak their language. Finally, I completed my doctorate to enhance my ability to lead. With the ever-increasing pressure to “do the wrong thing,” leaders need to be able to motivate their teams despite poor corporate leadership. In order to deliver the results I desired with respect to reliability, I had to understand how to change the organization’s culture. The ability to know what to do is complemented by knowing how to change the culture that opposes it.
MY CERTIFICATIONS AND LICENSES
In addition to my education, I have obtained several certifications and licenses to further enhance my ability to deliver reliability to any organization I work within. I obtained my certified maintenance and reliability professional (CMRP) in order to communicate my 35 years of maintenance and reliability experience. This lets others know that besides my experience, I do carry the only ANSI certification in reliability, giving credibility to my experience. I also hold a project management professional’s (PMP) license. Moving an organization from run-to-failure maintenance to proactive reliability is a series of projects and I wanted to ensure I could be effective at leading and managing these projects. Delivering reliability relies on delivering projects on time and within budget. Each successful project builds on the confidence necessary to make these cultural changes. The next certification I pursued was the International Council on Machinery Lubrication’s machinery lubrication technician level one certification. With lubrication being 70% of the root cause of unreliability, it made sense to acquire a certification focusing in this area. As you can see, every degree, certification, or license was achieved to make me a better reliability professional.
WORK HISTORY
After leaving the Navy, I worked my way up the ranks, first at Phelps Dodge Tyrone then P&H Mining, followed by Northrop Grumman, ASARCO, Nyrstar, Empire Southwest, Kraft Foods, and Continental Building Products. I have been a laborer, apprentice, journeyman, front line supervisor, planner, superintendent, manager, and corporate officer, and the most important part of each one of these positions is leadership.
That is why I have written this book. It is my hope that we can turn the tide of organizations looking for shortcuts and immediate gratification, which has eroded the competitive advantage once held in the U.S.: Qualified Reliability Professionals.
I have had the privilege of working with Nathan at 3 different companies. All were in mining and wanted to have a reliability based maintenance program. Nathan is a back to basic type of leader. He knows that to build a good program you start at the bottom and build a good base. That starts with employees. He says you need people that have the skills