by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Jan 6, 2020 | Newsletter Column, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
Are you at a point in your work life where you are mentoring others? Whether you answer yes or no, you’ve probably had one or more mentors who have helped you along your own professional-development journey. I had some excellent mentors when I entered the work...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Dec 20, 2019 | RAM Tools & Methods, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
It was a regular routine. In the few decades from 1960 until 2000, during my daily drives in to work, I would make it a point to spend time deciding what to tackle once I arrived. Then, on my drives home, I would mull over what I had (or had not) accomplished on a...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Dec 14, 2019 | RAM Tools & Methods, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
This article is the final installment of a two-part discussion on networking and adult education that I began in my Dec. 2019, 2019, newsletter column for The RAM Review. It provides closure to the cliff-hanger at the end of Part I: how a single networking contact...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Dec 9, 2019 | Newsletter Column, RAM Tools & Methods, The Bloch Files
Although I have written about the following conversation before, there’s another angle to it, and a very quantifiable one at that. I believe this angle is worth highlighting. It was exactly 20 years ago, in 1999, when I had a very productive discussion with the...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Nov 30, 2019 | RAM Tools & Methods, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
To recap, in a recent article, “Workforce Appreciation and Achieving Plant Goals” (Nov. 23, 2019), I discussed how, in early 2000, the Canadian consulting company Systems Approach Strategies (SAS) developed a training course that brought W. Edwards Deming’s “14...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Nov 23, 2019 | RAM Tools & Methods, Safety Matters, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
While a plant’s efforts in areas related to reliability, availability, and maintenance (RAM) indicate appreciation for equipment assets, who or what beyond the HR department makes it a point to show similar “appreciation” for the site’s human assets? To put it in...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Nov 15, 2019 | RAM Tools & Methods, The Bloch Files, The RAM Library Collection
The following excerpt is taken from material I prepared for the first of 14 chapters of my upcoming book, “Fluid Machines: Improving the Life of Pumps, Gas Compressors and Turbines,” (ISBN 978-3-11-067413-2). Its German publisher, De Gruyter, Berlin...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Nov 11, 2019 | Newsletter Column, RAM Tools & Methods, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
If you’ve ever wondered how good Reliability Managers groomed their successors in the 1960s and 1970s, read on. I have written and spoken about this topic many times over the years. The following information is taken from a one-day teaching and networking session...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Oct 31, 2019 | RAM Tools & Methods, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
Quite some time ago, I had a very candid discussion with the Reliability Manager of a prominent multi-national oil company. One of his concerns involved what he considered a rather puzzling fact: Many companies that experienced repeat failures of rotating equipment...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Oct 25, 2019 | RAM Tools & Methods, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
You probably have long suspected this: Some companies can be their own worst enemies. I offer the following examples, from my perspective as book author/technical writer, of how some companies earn a bad name, while others earn a good one (and good things that come...
