Corporate Reliability and Performance Improvement

From daunting to done

Improving reliability and increasing performance offers tremendous advantages to your organization. Unfortunately, starting an initiative can be daunting. If you have spent any time researching the subject you will know you must address a wide variety of issues related to maintenance, operations, the design and procurement process, and engineering. Most importantly, you must also address the “culture” of the organization – if the workforce does not share your passion for improvement, your achievements will be limited.

Even if you have an existing program, avoiding stagnation and achieving the next level of performance presents a challenge that most organizations do not overcome.

We offer two ways for you to approach these challenges: educate everyone so that the team has the motivation and skills to perform their tasks successfully, and a strategy, known as the Asset Reliability Transformation process, that will guide you through the process so you may avoid the traps that ensnare so many initiatives.

Asset Reliability Transformation® [ART]

Do you have a strategy for improving reliability? Do you know what to do first? Do you know what to do second? Do you have goals and targets established? Do you know how to prioritize your activities? Do you have a plan that avoids the common traps that cause most programs to fail? Do you know how to measure the progress of your program? Do you know which technologies to employ? Do you know how to gain the support of senior management and the general workforce?

We could just keep asking questions, but sadly, in our experience of over 35 years, we find that most organizations cannot answer any of those questions. You need to have an answer for every one of those questions and the 25 questions we did not ask.

In fact, most organizations learn about the common technical elements that must be implemented (CM, RCM, PMO, VA, RCA, etc.) and then set about implementing them. And that is why many programs fail.

The Asset Reliability Transformation process is designed to guide you through the process, from what you should do on day one, through what you should continue to do every single day. If you already have a program, you can use the ART process to assess your strengths and “weaknesses” so that you can re-energize and refocus your program.

There is more information about the ART process here. We cannot stress strongly enough the importance of following our ART process or developing a process of your own that is just as thorough. Without any exaggeration, the majority of reliability improvement programs fail, and there is no doubt that if you follow the ART process, your initiative will not fail.

Everything described below in the “educate everyone” section is required whether you follow the ART process or not. However, if you do follow the ART process, there is training available that will help you successfully complete the process. The ART training is described here.

And just in case you need a hand with the implementation, we have established a growing network of independent ART Implementation Specialists. You can learn about them here, but their goal is to help you be successful, not to take over the program.

Educate Everyone

Education motivates and generates competence and confidence. Many of the roles that make up the reliability improvement team are technically challenging and require deep knowledge in order to be successful. Whether it is vibration analysis, mastering planning and scheduling, developing an asset strategy, effectively performing root cause analysis, establishing the business case for the initiative, or a dozen other subject areas, knowledge enables a person to be successful.

What about certification?

Certification also performs an important role. Certification can provide motivation to complete the training necessary to meet certification requirements – and that training provides life-long benefits. Certification enables an organization to be sure that their team is capable of performing their roles to the highest standard. Certification provides a person with recognition of what they have achieved; they should be proud of those achievements.

What about cross-training?

But it is not enough to simply educate those who require detailed knowledge and qualifications. It takes a team to be successful with reliability. But if each team member only understands their individual role, it makes it almost impossible to understand, and therefore support, the other team members. For example, condition monitoring specialists should understand planning and scheduling, and the planners should understand the condition monitoring process. There are dozens of examples like this.

What about people outside the reliability group?

In addition, if people do not understand the business case for reliability improvement, or if they don’t understand how they individually benefit by working in a reliable plant, or if they don’t understand why equipment fails to perform at the desired level of performance, or if they have no idea why special tests are performed on equipment, and if they don’t know how they can contribute, then once again, the reliability improvement process will die a slow death.

What is the answer?

The answer is to educate everyone. Some people need just a little bit of knowledge about a lot of subjects. Other people need more detailed knowledge about a small number of subjects. And some people require expert-level knowledge so they have the skills and competence to perform their roles.

Without cross-training, the program will be flying blind because the left hand won’t know what the right hand is doing.

Uniformity of knowledge

If you work in an organization with multiple plant sites, you need every site to develop its reliability improvement process in parallel. Everyone should speak the same reliability language. Everyone should be certified to the same level. Everyone should share the same philosophy and follow the same plan for success. Everyone should share what they have learned.

You can’t do that unless people are being trained in the same way.

Mobius Institute™ is the only worldwide organization that provides standardized, high-quality training, and accredited certification. We have a growing number of partnerships, but at this writing, there are 120 partners in 60 countries. Some of our training is available in 15 languages.

We can help you educate everyone across all your sites.

How do we educate everyone?

Mobius Institute, and its worldwide partners, offer a number of mechanisms to provide that education and certification.

Public courses

For people who need detailed knowledge and certification, there are public courses held around the world. Before the course commences you can begin learning online in our “learning-zone”. Our courses are second to none, utilizing modern simulations and animations and training techniques that ensure that everyone understands the topics not just (temporarily) remembers the topics.

We describe our training techniques here, there is a list of public courses here, and you can check the schedule of courses here.

On-site courses

If you have more than a few people to train, the most economical option is to invite the instructor to teach the class at your site. And with the savings, you can educate more people.

When it comes to topics in reliability improvement such as the ARP-A “Reliability Advocate” course, there are significant advantages in teaching as many people as possible, and teaching them on-site so you can discuss your unique situation during the course.

But even with the introductory condition monitoring courses, the more people who understand the technology the better. While some of the attendees will go on and use the technology, there is value in demystifying the technology for others involved in the maintenance, engineering, and reliability groups.

The other important advantage of on-site training is that the instructor can somewhat customize the delivery of the training to emphasize how the technologies and practices would apply directly to your organization. For the best results, allow the instructor to spend at least a few hours meeting with you prior to the course so they may learn more about the challenges you face.

Please view our list of partners to find an organization that can come to your site and provide the training and certification.

Distance learning

Distance learning courses enable an organization to train its staff without the cost of travel and without taking people away from the plant for extended periods of time. Distance learning courses fully comply with ISO standards, and the certification exam can also be taken online. The training is made up of a series of videos that may be watched more than once.

If you would like to learn more about the distance learning courses, please click here.

Corporate-wide awareness and skills training via e-learning

Live instructor-led training is very effective, but unless you plan to have multiple sessions throughout the year, on all the relevant topics, then, unfortunately, the benefit of that training will soon be lost. It is a great way to start, but you need the means to reinforce the content of the training; for new staff, for people who change their roles, and just to refresh everyone’s memories and maintain a focus on what’s important.

We offer a very affordable e-learning system that delivers video-based training via the Internet on a wide range of topics at different levels of detail. The system, known as Asset Reliability Knowledge-center [ARK], is primarily focused on generating awareness and buy-in for the reliability improvement program, however, all the distance learning courses can also be made part of the system. In that way, you gain all the benefits of a learning management system and the convenience of being able to learn at a time that suits the individual being trained.

We have a lot more information about ARK here.

On-going education

While people should continue to grow their skills and knowledge of fired the training courses that lead to certification, and while you can utilize the ARK learning management system, there are additional opportunities for your workforce to continue their education:

• We are establishing communities all over the world so people can meet and share their knowledge.
• We have two websites, reliabilityconnect.com and cbmconnect.com, that are filled with videos, articles, tips, and more, where your workforce can continue learning and sharing without charge.
• We offer training conferences around the world where, once again, people can learn, network, and share their knowledge in a live setting.

We are serious in the belief that to be successful everyone must continue to learn, grow, and reinforce their knowledge. We hope the options presented here will help your reliability team and the broader workforce achieve their goals – and the organization’s goals.