Continuously Identify Problems w/ Peter Horsburgh

Extraordinary Reliability Engineers always have some habits that differentiate them from the rest. One of these habits is that they identify the problem and really make sure that they understand it before they continue working towards its solution. A successful reliability engineer doesn t just rely on the failure data, he actually analysis the problem, understands it, takes feedback from different people, and then deploy resources to fix that problem. When you really know what s going on with your assets, only then you can hope to come up with a good solution that will stop that problem to occur repeatedly.

In this episode, we covered:

  • What are the 5 Habits of an Extraordinary Reliability Engineer?
  • What is Habit #1?
  • Why Habit #1 is so important?
  • How to incorporate Habit #1 into your day to day activities?
  • And much more!

The goal is to adopt a proactive solution rather than doing unplanned maintenance in the end. When you have the asset data and you properly analyze it, you can plan a maintenance routine so that there aren t surprises in the end. It not only saves time, but it also reduces maintenance cost and increases uptime. When identifying the problems, it is very important to have the team on board as the members of the team would decide which problems should be prioritized to solve towards an improved process. They should be presented facts and figures instead of estimates so that they can make an informed decision about it.

This information can be obtained using the trends that you have regarding the progress on improvement plans. You can use RCA or any other analysis to know the root cause of a problem and then present it to the team including the management so that they would allow you to solve the problem, providing you with everything that you need. In some cases, there isn t always enough or any concrete data to make a decision. In those situations, the team should sit together and use the best information that is available to them at the time.

The information doesn t just have to be based on a hunch, engineers can use manuals, reports, or any other written material that would help them build a business process, present it to the management, and do what needs to be done before the problem increases. The organizations use different reporting tools to write down the details of a solution. It can be excel sheets or any other efficient tool like Power BI to make the process more detailed. The organizations don t always have to go after the bigger problems first. The test cases should be decided with the suggestions from every team member so that everyone can pitch in towards the solution as well.

When there is cross-sectional personnel in a team, everyone has some value and anyone can be more valuable than the other towards a particular solution. The idea is to ask as many questions as you can so that everyone would be able to freely express their opinions. Once the team has identified a set of problems, the team must discuss amongst themselves to find the best solution possible towards improvement. The Reliability Engineer has to facilitate this process and then come up with an action plan.

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