in a small petroleum refinery in the early stages of our careers. This company had a “can-do” attitude and dynamic culture. We could make occasional mistakes without fear of reprisal. Innovative ideas and creativity thrived at every level. Mahen and I took full advantage of this wonderful social laboratory. But, as the saying goes, all good things eventually come to an end. When this happened, we left the company within a week of each other and went our separate ways.
A few years later both of us happened to rejoin the parent company of this refinery in Europe. Some years later, both of us began working in their corporate headquarters. That was when we met Jim Wardhaugh, the third author of this book. Jim is an electrical engineer who worked in the power generation and distribution industry before coming to the oil and gas industry. The three of us got along brilliantly, and were members of the maintenance and reliability advisory team in the parent company.
The parent company had global operations in the upstream and downstream oil and gas business. It had responsibility for day-to-day management for many operating companies distributed around the world. Corporate headquarters provided technical support and governance. The parent company wholly owned or had a significant stake in the operating companies. In most cases, it was responsible for the design of the facilities in the operating company, as well as for commissioning and initial operations. The support included providing the operating companies with skilled staff and technical advice.
During the first few years of any new venture, key positions were held by staff assigned from the parent company. They were responsible for operating the facilities safely and efficiently. They also trained local employees to take over these positions within the first few years. Most of the assigned staff stayed in any one location for three-to-five years. Mahen, Jim, and I were among this group of gypsies working in different parts of the world. Later, during our tenure in the corporate headquarters, we traveled widely in a consulting role.
All three of us have worked in other industries, e.g., engineering, pharmaceuticals, textile machinery, chemicals, power distribution and manufacturing. Some of the events described in this book are from these industries. Together, the three of us have more than 100 years of experience in this field—which explains the title of the book.
1.2 Impetus for this Book
Books dealing with maintenance subjects seem to focus on answering these questions: What should be done? How should it be done? And sometimes, when or why should it be done? Books on reliability seem to focus on mathematical aspects; the average maintenance manager or supervisor finds it hard to relate their content to the reality they face in their work.
We decided we would write about learning experiences from our working lives. We describe the hand we were dealt and how our team handled the situation in those circumstances. In hindsight, we found some underlying truths or principles in these experiences which we believe may be applicable in other situations. Based on these descriptions, readers can decide whether they should consider a different approach from the ones they currently follow.
1.3 The Shewhart Cycle
Edward Demingi describes Shewhart’s continuous improvement cycle with the Plan-Do-Check-Act sequence. We use an adaptation of this, with the Plan, Schedule, Execute, and Analyze phases, shown in Figure 1.1. We have grouped our chapters under these four headings. Although some of the chapters could be placed under two or more headings, we chose the heading that seemed appropriate from our perspective. To these four, we added two more headings: Leadership and People. The subjects covered in the various chapters fall under one of these six headings. We hope that the grouping helps readers to find what they are looking for easily.
1.4 Chapter Contents
In each chapter, we describe an event or situation that one of us experienced personally. We have tried to relate the events factually, at least as far as we could remember them. In order to protect the identities of those involved, we have not revealed the names of the locations or of the individuals. The key issues are 1) how the people involved handled the event and 2) the results or outcome of their effort. We have summarized our own learning from each situation. We also included underlying principles we feel are relevant: these are stated at the end of each chapter.
Figure 1.1 Continuous Improvement Cycle
At the time of the events described in the book, we did not know many of the relevant underlying theories or philosophies. We picked up most of the concepts subsequently, sometimes many years later. Had we known them at the time, we may have found the solutions with less effort. For the benefit of readers who may need them, we have described the relevant theory or methodology in appendices.
1.5 Locations
We have, between the three of us, worked in about 20 locations. In a consulting role, we have advised at least 30 locations around the world. Each site had its own way of doing things. So that readers can appreciate the different pressures the locations faced, we have provided an overview in Chapter 2. Because there may be more than one chapter about a given location, some of the common information is described in this chapter. Hopefully, this will avoid needless repetition, but it does mean that before reading a chapter, readers may have to go back to Chapter 2 to get the overview.
Where relevant, we have given some information about the cultural and social climate that prevailed in that location. So that the events described are placed in context, we have provided additional background material at the beginning of each chapter.
1.6 Glossary, Acronyms and Abbreviations
Please refer to these if certain words or acronyms are not clear.
1.7 Acknowledgements
I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Latino in Chicago at the Maintenance and Reliability Technology Summit in 2005. Charles is a well-known reliability and maintenance guru, and I was thrilled to listen to his brilliant lecture. I knew his son Bob Latino through a web site forum in which we both participate, and from his excellent book Root Cause Analysisii. Hearing Charles’ talk spawned the idea for this book. I consider it a great honor that he has written the foreword.
A former fellow student and friend from my University days, Satish Shirke, agreed to do the illustrations for the book. Satish lives in California, but we managed the trans-Atlantic communications quite well. He did a great job, but because of his workload, he could not continue. I was in a spot, desperately seeking a good illustrator to replace Satish. When Steven van Els, based in Suriname in South America, offered to help, I was delighted. I ‘met’ Steven on the reliability.com web site and have a great deal of respect for his knowledge and experience. Steven has done an absolutely superb job, converting our crude sketches and charts into excellent figures or tables. He also added value by creating drawings to illustrate the text at his own initiative. As a real world practicing maintenance manager, his comments on the chapters were invaluable. My friend Narmada Guruswamy helped design the cover pages separating the six main parts of the book.
The International Labour Office in Geneva gave us permission to use two tables and three charts from an excellent reference book entitled Introduction to Work Studyiii published by them. Mr. Peter Morgon of Lithgow & Associates and MPI Publications, publishers of Fitz’s Atlasiv, very kindly agreed to our reproducing graphical coating breakdown standards from their book.
Earlier I have had the pleasure of working
