or “aligning” are “to arrange in a line” or “to ally oneself or to take sides.” In this context, the term is intended to describe the process needed to develop a thorough understanding of what is required (to achieve a specific level of performance) and what actually exists. From this knowledge, it is possible to form realistic expectations.
More specifically, this book is intended to answer the following questions:
•What is the spectrum of issues involved in determining the reliability of a system?
•Which of those issues are reasonable to “trust” to external controls?
•How do you control the issues that cannot be trusted to fate?
•How do you determine that an issue is out of control?
•Based on the above, what level of reliability performance should you expect?
•Where should you add focus to improve your reliability?
•How do you go about adding that focus?
Reading this book might make you comfortable with your current organization and procedures. More likely, it will make you uncomfortable with some of your procedures and lead you to question others. In the final analysis, just reading the book will do little good. In addition to reading the book, it will be necessary to do a few things:
1.Self reflection to identify your spoken and unspoken expectations for reliability.
2.Assess your current organization and procedures and how reliability-related tasks are actually being done.
3.Identify the areas where there are gaps in your current systems and how they are likely to affect reliability.
4.Compare your expectations to the results your systems are capable of providing.
When that effort is complete, you may be satisfied or you may be dissatisfied. If my original contention is correct (that many people are fairly naïve concerning reliability) and if you are one of the naïve people, it is likely you will find some areas you feel a need to address.
A Fictional Story — What Do You Have a Right to Expect?
Individual commitment to a group effort —
that is what makes a team work, a company work,
a society work, a civilization work.
Vince Lombardi
The setting is the waiting area outside the Plant Manager’s office. Sitting alone in the waiting area is Joe, the plant’s reliability engineer. He has been asked to meet with the plant manager at 3:00 pm and to bring with him the records for the recycle compressor in the P2S unit. It is now 3:20 pm and Joe can hear the voices of several people in the Plant Manager’s office. The voices are muffled so he cannot tell whose voices they are or what is being discussed. Joe has another meeting with his team and an equipment vendor at 4:00 so he was hoping this meeting would be over on time.
The recycle compressor in the P2S plant has had a sordid reliability history. It was the single largest cause of production losses in the P2S plant. Because that plant was in a “sold-out” position, every outage resulted in lost revenue.
At 3:35 pm, the door to the Plant Manager’s office opened; the Plant Manager looked out and invited Joe into his office. Inside, Joe found his boss, the Manager of Maintenance and Reliability, the Operation Manager for the P2S unit, and the Assistant Plant Manager. The Plant Manager dragged a chair from the back of the room into the middle of the group, then returned to his place behind the desk and took his seat.
“Have a seat, Joe. We have been discussing the recycle compressor in the P2S plant,” began the Plant Manager. “As you are aware, the machine has not been meeting our expectations and we need a solution.”
The Operations Manager interjected, “Our operators do their best to keep it running, but it is just a piece of junk.”
“It was designed, purchased, and built to the same corporate standards as the rest of this plant,” pointed out the Manager of Maintenance and Reliability, “and our maintenance department was just audited by corporate and found to be among the best in the company.”
“Let’s give Joe a chance to talk — that is what he was invited here to do,” chimed in the Assistant Plant Manager, doing his best to sound like a viable candidate for the next Plant Manager’s job that opened up. “Joe, you are the reliability expert. You probably know more than the rest of us put together,” he added.
“I am sure the machine was well designed. Corporate engineering purchased the best machine for the job, our operators are working with it as well as it can be operated, and our maintenance personnel are maintaining it as well as it can be maintained,” summarized the Plant Manager, showing his pride and ownership for each of those organizations. “It’s just not performing the way we expect it should operate and we are at a loss to understand why,” he added.
“Well, I don’t think you want to hear this, but your expectations may not be consistent with the facts,” began Joe.
“I don’t follow,” said the Plant Manager. “Are you disagreeing with what the others have said here today?”
“I assembled this file in preparation for this meeting,” began Joe. “There are a variety of records that are inconsistent with what was just said.”
“Joe, there is no reason to get defensive. No one is blaming you for the poor performance,” responded the Assistant Plant Manager.
“I was not trying to be defensive; I was just trying to lay out the history that provides some insight into what our expectations should be. The file paints a rather gloomy picture for this machine.
Of course, if that is not what you want to discuss, it is up to you”, Joe said, looking at the Plant Manager.
The Plant Manager waved Joe on saying, “I think you are right. Let’s hear about what is in the file. My impression is that we have given this machine every chance for success. Prove me wrong.”
Feeling a little like the defendant in a courtroom, Joe started down through a stack of papers in the file, sequentially handing each one to the Plant Manager and explaining what it said or meant.
“First,’ Joe noted, “there is no record of concurrent design for reliability during the initial project development. Although the designers paid attention to the functionality of the system and system integrity, they did not take any formal steps to see that this machine — or any other part of the unit, for that matter — would provide any specific level of reliability or availability.”
The Assistant Plant Manager laughed and said, “You’re telling us that this machine is likely to blow up in our faces?”
