Five Why "Nots": 5 Reasons Why Reliability Engineers Should Use More Than 5 Whys for Root Cause Analysis

Tuesday, 05 September 2017 by Shon Isenhour

First of all let's talk about what Five Whys is before we mention what it is not. It is a problem solving tool used in many facilities and is commonly associated with Lean, Six Sigma and Kaizen implementations. The technique was originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda and was used within the Toyota Motor Corporation during the evolution of its manufacturing methodologies. The method is quite...

Transitional Root Cause Analysis

Monday, 28 August 2017 by Shon Isenhour

When I discuss RCA I use a method called Transitional Root Cause Analysis or TRCA for short.

It is made up of 10 tools that can be explained and understood in a very short period of time.

In the next few minutes I will demonstrate both the simplicity and rules for use for 3 of the 10 and explain why we consider them transitional in nature.

In this blog we will use what I categorize as the tree...

Why do people do training? 7 reasons we have been told.

Wednesday, 23 August 2017 by Shon Isenhour

Why do people do training? What a great question to explore your teams motives as well as your own. Here are 7 reasons we have heard recently. Let's look at each one and what it says about the organization and what you might do to improve your training ROI.

Don’t Start Up In a Bad Way: Five Ways to Limit the Creation of a Reactive Culture in New Facility Startup.

Thursday, 17 August 2017 by Shon Isenhour

New facilities by nature can be reactive. Reactive behavior when it comes to reliability and maintenance is expensive. Our goal should be to be proactive in identifying risk and mitigating or eliminating it before we have to react. When you bring a new plant online there are many things that can drive the culture to be reactive. I have listed a few below:

  • Poor start up planning and procedures
  • ...

The Changing Face of Training: Education through Application

Wednesday, 16 August 2017 by Shon Isenhour
Whether it is quality, safety, leadership, asset management, or reliability training the expectations are changing. The days of training for training sake are quickly passing us by. As companies focus more on getting results and a return on investment from their training classes the industry leaders are not just using traditional face to face lecture based classes. To super-charge their education...

10 Quotes That Could Mean Your Maintenance Program is Not Quite Best Practice

Tuesday, 15 August 2017 by Shon Isenhour

The following are quotes I have heard over the years that might not speak well of your maintenance and reliability efforts or the culture that has been created. The question is have you heard any of these in your facility? What did you do?"I don't need a vibration analyzer, I use a screw driver and my ear."

Seven Reasons Why Your RCA is Not Getting Results

Thursday, 10 August 2017 by Shon Isenhour

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) can be a very powerful tool for eliminating defects and increasing efficiency and profits. I have noticed seven common pitfalls that prevent practitioners from getting maximum value from their RCA efforts. Below is a brief look at each of them.

1) Not digging deep enough into the problem.

This manifest itself as either getting stuck on the physical causes which leads to...

The Hunger for Reliability

Tuesday, 08 August 2017 by Shon Isenhour

So summer is here in the US and when I think of summer I think of food from the grill, cold drinks and fun on the water around the Charleston area where I live. Just this last week I was out on the boat doing a little fishing after work. As I drifted down the river enjoying the water and the cold beverages, I begin to smell the third component of summer… grilled food. Since I had the first two I...

"Somebody's Fault Tree" The Ultimate Guide to Playing the RCA Blame Game

Friday, 04 August 2017 by Shon Isenhour

Nine "Ps" for Profitable Plant Reliability Improvement Efforts

Wednesday, 02 August 2017 by Shon Isenhour

So if you could sum up the common areas of focus during reliability improvement efforts what would they be? 

The thought behind this blog post was if someone ask us what we are doing or what all is involved in a reliability improvement effort, how can we give them the scope in a concise, and memorable way. This could be used early on in the discovery or kick off phase to outline without...