Rob's Reliability Project

As we’re kicking off 2020, I’m looking forward so I can deliver great content to you.  I have been sharing a lot of personal content lately about my journey and I hope that it’s fueled something inside you to change your life for the better.

I’ll keep it brief this week but I would appreciate it if you filled out the survey here.  It’s 5 easy questions about what you desire from me in 2020 and should take you less than 5 minutes.  Thank you in advance for answering and for following my content!

Reliability Never Sleeps,

Rob

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Last week, I was really struggling with anxiety and feeling like I haven’t made any progress in my personal development.  I felt like I had taken 1 step forward and many steps back to return to a place where I was paralyzed in my own mind.  My coach, Susan Hobson from Elite High Performance Coaching recommended that I put together a 2019 highlight reel of all of the things I had done that were meaningful in my development. [Read more…]

This morning, I was swimming and I was thinking about a question that I get asked frequently.  The question goes like this:

Rob, my facility is very reactive, how do I start my reliability program?

Having a water polo background is something I rely on when I embark on new projects.  I didn’t become a better swimmer by reading, watching YouTube videos or planning to become the best swimmer.  I got better at swimming by swimming.  I don’t discount the value of a coach, teammates or a plan (I had a coach and a team) but at the end of the day, you need to start. [Read more…]

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Have you worked in a company that says they want to be world class in reliability but won’t make investments in training their people or their reliability initiatives?

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As I’m writing this, it’s December of 2019 and you should be putting the final touches on your reliability plan for 2020 before the holidays.

What should you include in your reliability plan? [Read more…]

I’ve had a nagging feeling that I needed to write about this topic for a while and I haven’t for fear of judgment.  In honor of a mental health campaign in Edmonton titled 11 of Us after the statistic that 11 Edmontonians that attempt or die by suicide each day) and my core values of honesty, impact and service, here it is, my struggle with mental health.

June 4^th, 2010 – This day should have been the biggest moment in my life up to that point.  I walked across the stage and graduated from MIT.  Coincidentally, it was also my 22^nd birthday.  I remember feeling void, questioning what’s next for me.  Up until recently, those feelings never left. [Read more…]

In last week’s blog, I discussed 3 advantages to using AI in reliability.  This week, I’ll give you 3 mistakes that people can make. [Read more…]

Last week, I appeared on the “Ask the Experts” panel webinar with my friends at UpKeep – you can listen to the recording here.  The first question to the panel was about the advantages and disadvantages of using AI for predictive maintenance. [Read more…]

Regular preventive maintenance (PM) makes up a large portion of many maintenance programs and, sometimes, we don’t get the results we want out of all that maintenance.  Reliability professionals should evaluate their PMs to ensure effectiveness both from a reliability & cost perspective. [Read more…]

Over the last month, I’ve hired a coach to help me improve so I can improve and, more importantly, be happier.  In one of my latest sessions, my coach said the goal for every day is “progression not perfection”.  The concept being that perfection is unattainable and if we judge ourselves on perfection, we’re always going to be unhappy. [Read more…]

“You get pseudo-order when you seek order; you only get a measure of order and control when you embrace randomness.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Are you embracing randomness?  There’s a misconception that once you determine a failure mode is random that your reliability work is over.  That’s not the case, you’re just starting. [Read more…]

Guest post by Suzane Greeman, ASQ-CMQ/OE, CAMA, CAMP, CMRP

It is certainly is refreshing to see that asset management education is on the uptake. Three points come to mind as I thought about asset management education for asset-dependent companies: [Read more…]

I have recently been diving into work orders and using Weibull analysis to determine optimal replacement times.  During one of the analyses, we discovered a significant infant mortality problem where the equipment was failing under 1 year of operation.  I’m not stopping there.

A common misconception with infant mortality is that there’s nothing we can do.  I’ve heard people say that we can’t plan for infant mortality or we can’t reduce these types of failures without switching manufacturers.

That’s not the case [Read more…]

The golden rule for lubricant storage is keeping the lubricant “clean, cool and dry”.  Let’s discuss 3 ways to improve your lubricant storage.

What are some best practices for lubricant storage at your plant?
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