by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Mar 15, 2020 | Newsletter Column, Plant Operations, The Bloch Files
Roughly 25 years ago, a respected colleague, Fred Caspari, had just retired from his reliability-management position with LUSC (Large U.S. Company). Two other colleagues and I heard him speak on “Abandoning the World-Class Maintenance Approach at a Major Multinational...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Mar 7, 2020 | The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
There are many ways to make one’s job recession-proof. Being a better-than-average worker is an obvious advantage, assuming your facility’s owners tend to give pink slips to employees in the lower 50% of capability, likeability, productivity, and the usual criteria....
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Mar 2, 2020 | Newsletter Column, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
It has now been roughly 20 years and four months since I met with the reliability team of a Well-Known Petrochemical Company—let’s call it “WKPC”—to discuss ways to improve the organization’s reliability performance. During about four hours of discussion, we...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Feb 21, 2020 | RAM Tools & Methods, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
You may recall hearing about (or could have possibly experienced) this type of situation in your workplace: There are times when we attend presentations by competent technical people, including colleagues, whose relevant requests are eventually ignored by their...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Feb 17, 2020 | Newsletter Column, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
Those who no longer stand up for what is right have plenty of company. Like dead fish, they swim downstream, in accordance with the tide. Their sense of self-preservation takes over, and their consciences become dulled. I’ve seen this in the reliability field,...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Feb 7, 2020 | The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
There is an obvious truism about making progress: “The first step toward getting somewhere is not to stay where you are right now.” For reliability professionals, this means that retaining and defending the existing state of affairs at a plant or corporation...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Feb 3, 2020 | Maintenance Management, Newsletter Column, The Bloch Files
Perhaps you, too, have seen a storeroom packed full of startup spares (usually two wear parts or parts that, in the past, failed due to “random coincidence”). In any event, “random coincidence” is how my car dealer’s service manager explained things...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Jan 24, 2020 | Learning from Mistakes, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
A few years ago. I was asked to summarize the root causes of massive bearing failures on a pump and its steam turbine driver. The resulting fire was quickly extinguished and could be called a “near miss.” The most likely cause had been confusion, or lack of...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Jan 20, 2020 | Newsletter Column, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
Mark Twain has been credited with a quote to the effect that the owner of a book who won’t read it has no advantage over a person who cannot read. We would call such a person an “analphabet,” and he or she surely would not feel flattered by the moniker. Today’s...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Jan 12, 2020 | The Bloch Files, Training & Qualification, Workforce Issues
Experienced manufacturers can be effective tutors: Consider selecting the best qualified from among them and make them your technology providers. Involve those technology providers in presenting well-structured half-day (or longer) seminars at your facility, and find...
