I am a passionate believer in RCM. Over the years I have come to the conclusion that it is a fundamental part of any maintenance, asset-management or risk-management program. But still I see companies struggle with the concepts, the implementation and how to embed the process as a permanent solution.

This is not an issue about RCM, it’s an issue about change!

This is a list of tips I use regularly to help companies to place RCM at the heart of their asset management function.

1. Its not a project, its a program.

Ever noticed how methodologies like RBI and SIS are easier to make permanent? Wondering why? Because they are linked firmly to peoples roles and to regular activities and processes within the company. In short they are vertical while RCM is horizontal, it belongs to everyone and no-one.

When these methods are implemented it is for a specific discipline, and they use it as the way we do things now. When RCM is implemented it is for everybody and nobody owns it. If RCM is going to become part of the way we do business here then it needs to be threaded through roles and activities throughout the enterprise.

Tie it to purchasing, design engineering, insert it in contracts for new assets, incorporate it in the talent growth strategies and the succession planning, make sure the managers attend courses, (number one) and their managers, institute triggers to initiate and reevaluate strategies in the system. RCM is not a project to be implemented, its a program to be lived.

3. Don’t change the process - change the implementation approach.

The classic error. Streamliners for decades have been cutting away (sometimes dangerously) at the RCM process in order to get it in quicker, with less resources etcetera. The result is a watering down of the process, minimizing its results, and dramatically sidelining its value in the enterprise.

There is nothing more frightening and infuriating to watch than a company who has failed at implementing RCM, suddenly decide to water down the methodology rather than look at the flaws in implementation.

You want it done quickly, change the implementation process - not the analytical process! Easy.

4. Get metrics.

When I first wrote the RCM Scorecard in my book “The Maintenance Scorecard” the reaction was incredible. People had been looking for a long time for some way to measure the effectiveness of RCM. Unfortunately, when I see “RCM Scorecards” today they are invariably lists of direct-performance only indicators, or indicators that are just dead wrong!

Focus on what RCM achieves, this will drive overall improvement very rapidly in my experience. This means casting the net wider than just direct performance metrics, and making sure that all your metrics support modern asset management thinking.

5. Support the “changers”.

The people spearheading this change are exposed. They will be targeted by everyone who fared well under the “old way” of doing things and they will meet the full force of organizational resistance.

Your role; Protect and Serve. Show off their achievements, promote them three levels at once, make it clear that they are taking the company to a new level of profitability, and help them to publish their successes.

6. Have a follow up plan.

Okay, so that was good. What’s your next trick? Give the program legs by showing what the next level is. Whole-of-L ife costing, Net Present Value models, Asset Data improvements, Human Error etcetera; all examples of next steps after RCM initial implementation.

The beauty of this method is that it is a structure, not just an approach. And many things fit into this structure.

7. Internalize it.

The number one reason for lack of success at embedding RCM - What happens when the consultants leave? Can you continue to do it, grow people who will take it over, and continue the process as a living program? (To quote Moubray)

Develop trainers, develop material (Don’t steal it, develop it!) and tie it into ongoing administration activities.

Training for reliability, and in particular for RCM, needs to be a permanent obsession - not an activity to be carried out!

The #1 cause of RCM failures is when the local “champion” leaves. Wonderful, so now that you know this take action to avoid it. Get a few heroes to head up the program, make sure it is covered by a corporate policy stating the succession planning objectives along with every other area to make sure it is a program not a project.

8. Track Progress

Train your facilitators to become masterful presenters. Get them to present the results after every single analysis. make sure they focus on teh Value Quadrant of benefits in asset management and make sure that all fo the results are communicated as quickly and forcefully to senior executives.

Report on it regularly, then go and see the people who receive the reports and present it to them. Tell the stories of heoic analytical work and of the phenomenal results that were achieved.

People are doing a lot of work to get this in place. Your role as the manager is to make sure they get recognized. Do not assume that approval of funds is equal to management support.

It isn’t - its just an approval to spend cash. I was working recently in a company int he middle east where after each training session the course would be visited by one of the companies Executive VP’s or Presidents. Now thats support…

9. Have a facilitation plan

Hope isn’t a strategy. Plan out the resources, make sure you have enough facilitators and team members trained to make sure that you do not overly tax the workforce. Exhaustion leads to failure nothing surer.

Schedule the meetings, plan out the resources, make sure that you have the coverage of all relevant assets and systems that you want to cover and have a plan and time-line to get them done as well as to get the recommendations implemented.

Get the meetings authorized and if you need to temporarily back fill certain positions then do it! If you can organize to spend the additional funds to have some dedicated resources to completing the RCM analyses throughout the  chosen assets, then do it! Nothing works better than motivate, capable and trained people to et the job done.

Your asset base deserves it, and if you haven’t heard by now - RCM will achieve the results to warrant it!

No effort to implement RCM lasts forever, the initial workload is large, but the benefits are great. Your goal is to get through the initial bow wave and into running mode as quickly as possible in order to “bank the benefits”.

10. Do not just target “critical” assets 

This is vital! Criticality is a curse. If you walk into theCEO’s office and say to her “you know that critical asset that was working well?” “You will be happy to know that it is going to continue working well”

“Uh right, thanks. Don’t leave the door open on your way out”

Now, if you change that to “We took this asset that was causing us $2 million in downtime over the past three years and we believe we will have increased the potential producing capability by at least that much over the next three years!”

Now thats another story… A momentum builder and a way to make sure that you project gets the focus that it deserves.

This is RCM after all…

The problem with critical assets is that…they’re critical right? Most everybody knows that they are critical. And as a result they get lots of attention, funds, resources, and basically whatever they require. Critical assets generally work well. So not a great choice for building momentum.

Every single time I go to one of the many conferences around the place, I hear some exalted speaker telling everybody something that is dead wrong!

This has really grated me for a long time so I thought I would release it here in a series called “Change Begins in the Mind”

For decades we have all seen the statements out there.  Asset care, asset preservation, asset health, equipment maitnenance even. All of these terms and all of the thinking that they foster, is based around a focus on what assets are, and on the prevention of failure.

Three decades of RCM have taught industry that this is not correct.

Think about the classic example of vibration monitoring on a forced draft fan. When we detect a level of vibration that tells us there is the potential of a bearing failure, what do we do? How can we save that asset?

No way right? It is far too late for that. The subsurface crack within the races or balls has broken the surface causing the vibration that we can detect. The failure process has started, there is nothing in the world that is going to stop it.

So why do we do the vibration monitoring? Easy - to prevent, minimize and mitigate the consequences of failure, not the failure itself.

We do maintenance to preserve the function, not to the assets. Wedo maitnenance based on what it is that an asset or system does, not what it is.

This is why asset health is misleading, and why process health is a much better approach. But isnt this all semantics? Not at all.

By focusing on what an asset system does our maintenance becomes focussed on what we need / want it to do. If we maintain it based on what it is we get the situation of generic maintenance regimes, standardized maintenance schedules regardless of service all leading to… yup - over maintenance, one of the chief causes of asset failure! (not to mention uneconomic maintenance practices)

We don’t preserve assets, we manage failures. Small changes in thinking lead to large changes in our asset performance realities.

The workforce is fluid right now. We all know that. You can’t count on companies to be loyal to you anymore. Heck most of us have been affected in one way or another by lay offs, downsizing and all the other reasons why loyalty from a company is something for the 50’s and 60’s.

And let me tell you a secret. It’s a big secret and one that employers and companies all over the world will not tell you.

Employers value people with strong experience.

That’s right. Let’s say I am running against you for a role. It’s a high performance role and the company needs someone who can hit the ground running and who needs to generate several million in savings in a very short time.

You are a twenty year veteran with your company. You have worked in the same plat for most of that time. You are loyal, hard working, and you have a real depth of experience on your plant.

I, on the other hand, have worked in 30 countries during the past twenty years. I have worked on these sorts of plants and many others. (As well as many industries) In the process I have met and worked with some of the best in the business. Because I am always working on improvement I have worked out how to squeeze millions of dollars in savings/benefits out of even the best run organizations, and I have a network of contacts that will support my application from all over the globe.

This is without mentioning the different cultures, challenges, difficulties and other character building experiences…

Who deserves it more? You right, no doubt about that.

Who is likely to get it? Me.

Why? Because I have generated a level of experience through working around that you could never get sitting in one place. Companies want value, they want people who can implement, and they want people who can bring something…“else.”

So if you are wise you always have one eye on what the next job could be.

Now, the reason why I write this is because the standard approach to getting new work is to send out a CV. WRONG!

Don’t send a CV unless it has been specifically requested. E.g. don’t respond to job ads that ask you to send a CV. In the standard CV we focus on what? What you can do right?

But have a look at the comparisons above. What you can do is not the important issue, what you can achieve or the value that you provide…now that’s a desirable quality!

So instead of a CV emailed in, just like everybody else, all over the world, every day. Why don’t you try to stand out from the crowd? Find out who the person is - the one who will pull the trigger - and send them a personalized letter.

Email is okay, snail mail is better, both together is a fantastic idea. Print it on good paper, with a professional letter head, a good envelope, and write something personal.

Why do you want this job?

Whats the value you can add to this organization?

What experiences prove that?

Try to copy in some of the references that you have written about you on the internet. If you are on a site such as LinkedIn them give them a copy of the URL so they can go there and check out your recommendations themselves.

The world today works on relationships, communication and community, particularly because there is so much “noise” in the world today. Everyone is online, sending emails and writing blogs like this one. You can have your own channel if you want to discuss anything you want to.

So you have to stand out…more than every before you must gain peoples attention.

Shocking insight huh? Assets generate money and earn income by themselves. Your skills do not. They are offered to employers, clients, consultancies and others in order to earn you money. In this way they are enablers.

Good skill levels will enable you to get a better role, to move upward in your own company, or even to start delivering services as a freelancer or consulting professional. In fact your investment in enablers such as skills, knowledge and experiences is probably the most important investment you will make in your life.

Without it you are destined to stay where you are or to move horizontally or slightly vertically. (Only!)

But which enablers should I go for? Ah ha! That’s a much harder question.

Before asking that you need to ask; what do I want to do with my career?

Where are you working now? Are you a mechanical journeyman or electrical technician? Then maybe you should consider developing some skills in reliability first?

Are you already a trained and experienced RCM facilitator? Then what’s next for you? Should you do more RCM? That’s okay, it will work. It will enable you to move up the RCM hierarchy and get recognized by more and more people as an expert in the area. It’s what I did for example, and it went okay for me so far.

But how do you take RCM as a base and then move your career to the next level?

What about Weibull Analysis? Any ideas about that? Nope? Okay then – find out! Look for online training, courses or seminars in your area, public courses, whatever you need to do to take it to the next level.

However, DO NOT wait for your company to pay for you! It’s your career – work it out!

Your company will train you on whatever adds value to them, not to you. (And so they should do, that’s business) You have to be on the lookout for what will develop you.

What about presentation skills? Public speaking? Negotiating? Planning and Scheduling? Tribology? Vibration management? The list goes on and on…

When looking for the next enablers for You Inc. you need to be thinking about what will take you to the next level, and not necessarily for the same employer!

Getting them is a different story of course. What if you can’t afford the training course? Or if they never run courses like this in your city? Or… and so on.

There are a myriad of ways to get better. Find the best and work with them, throw yourself into projects where you have no clue what to do. You will learn pretty fast then let me guarantee you. Get a mentor, get into online forums and learning. READ A BOOK! Whatever… learn how to do it.

Some companies still hide behind qualifications. If they don’t get a good CV with all the right certificates then they look no further. But not all companies… many will recognize the depth of experience you have earned and recognize this accordingly.

I have to admit I am skeptical about any talk of a downturn. Sure I see the news, and the figures, and I am sure that there are some people who are feeling the pinch on their housing loans … and that some financial institutions are hurting under the weight of poor lending practices. But honestly, everywhere I look I see companies that cannot find the talented maintenance and reliability people that they need.

I also publish a job board called The Brilliant Career.com. And let me tell you, there is no lack of opportunities out in the big wide world for maintenance and reliability professionals!

Here are some examples of roles that were posted there recently:

Maintenance Planner / Scheduler

• Teach, coach and direct maintenance organizations in Best Practices of Planning and Scheduling of maintenance to ensure continuous and efficient operation.
• This position reports to their assigned managing principle and functions under general management direction and policies.
• The position requires highly developed human relations skills required to direct and motivate people and to communicate effectively with all levels of plant personnel regarding planning and scheduling best practices.

Reliability Subject Matter Expert

Reliability Consulting Group is seeking a Reliability Engineering SME to provide technical and strategic expertise in terms of life cycle asset management implementation and the associated practices, to ensure maximum possible equipment reliability at minimum life cycle cost. This will be accomplished by process mapping and improvements in equipment reliability, availability, and maintainability that optimizes asset life cycle costs perform basic product design, testing and/or analysis work for a defined portion of a project.

Reliability Technician

Provide technical and strategic expertise in terms of life cycle asset management implementation and the associated practices, to ensure maximum possible equipment reliability at minimum life cycle cost. This will be accomplished by process mapping and improvements in equipment reliability, availability, and maintainability that optimizes asset life
cycle costs.

Have a look for yourself and see what you think. The board is absolutely brimming with opportunities for you to expand your career, grow your network, and to drive closer to your professional goals. (Whatever they may be)

If you are interested on posting ont he board just send me a note and I will be happy to give you a code that will allow you to do so for nothing.

If you are a career-minded maintenance professional, then consider joining our networking group Reliability Hub on LinkedIn. See you there!

If you are going to actually master the Art of Presenting, then in my view the most important rule to understand is the Rule of Presence. (#1) If you are going to have a room enthralled, and if they are going to remember what you tell them, then you need to have a bit of a “wow” factor.

For those of you who are (ahem) cosmetically challenged like myself, then you will be pleased to know that creating a strong presence does not depend on your looks! Its an aura you generate. Check out some of the worlds really good presenters and it becomes obvious. Alan Weiss, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Tom Peters.

Lets face it, none of these guys are famous for their looks. (Sorry guys!) But the moment they take the stage, (or screen), you immediately know they are there, and you feel drawn to hear what they are going to say.

Presence is somewhat in the eye of the beholder, and no two performers are the same. For example, I once saw Gerry Adams, the infamous leader of Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland, at a presentation in Manchester in the UK.

As we waited in the room for him to appear suddenly there was a shot of electricity that went through the room. This guy was like an incoming hurricane. He struck the room with a sudden fury that to this day has me amazed.

Another guy I saw speak was Andrew Forrest, an Australian entrepreneur and probably the nations richest person right now. He also hit the room like a hurricane, fierce with facts, perfectly timed phrases and tweaks at the emotions.

Then there’s Bill Clinton. A guy I saw speak in Northern Ireland in a stadium. Slow, smooth, and utterly convincing. Some magic is inbuilt I suppose.

So how can the humble consultant even think to parallel great speakers like that? I have found that it is down to a few techniques.

1. Establish your Authority

Okay, so these guys had a lot of inbuilt authority. People know them and they are there to listen to their point of view. You often won’t have that advantage.

But from the moment they took the stage something magic occurred. The room, which was our before they got there, suddenly became theirs! Claiming the room for yourself is not easy, but a few pointers can help.

• Start on time – no matter what! Don’t wait for anybody. Start exactly when you were paid to start and finish when you were paid to finish. The client expects it, and they should get it. Interrupting the flow for one or two late comers does not help you to claim the room as yours. It also makes it very obvious when they arrive late, and you welcome them into your room!

• Establish your right to be there talking to them! They have been sent to your seminar/course/conference or whatever. Make sure they realize that you are the person with the authority to speak to them about whatever the subject is. Who have you done this with, what are your claims to fame, what have you written, who have you helped? And so on… make it clear. You have something very important to impart to them, and they only have this time right now to listen and learn it.

• Your theme is important! Make sure that they all get this very clearly. What you are hear to tell them is of earth shattering importance. I have a line I tell my students in one of my courses, and I sincerely believe it. I tell them that they are the thin line between industry and disaster. Tends to get their attention; then of course I go on to prove that point to them.

• Set the rules. If you are there for a sales call, then forget it. The rules are their rules. But if you are delivering a one day seminar, a three day course, or a multi week workshop, then you need to make it very clear what acceptable behavior is, and what it is not. Most people in my experience will be okay with this, some won’t, but all will get the point that this is your room.

And whatever you do – DO NOT USE ICEBREAKERS! I hate these things, they tend to run a serious learning event into a juvenile get together. Particularly when speakers force me to interact personally with strangers around me. That really stinks.

The only safe icebreaker I ever use these days is to get everyone to tell me a bit about themselves, their work and their expectations. Then that generates a bit of conversation.

2. Set the expectations

• This didn’t begin today. You have been in touch with these people for a while now. Via the marketing materials, pre-event information, questionnaires, feedback sheet sand so forth. So you have had the chance to set their expectations of what to receive during this event. Stick to it.

• Make it clear what you won’t tell them. The subject is going to be bigger than what you can cover today, this week, or during this two week workshop. Make it clear what you won’t be telling them during the event.

This has the added value of setting you up as the expert who knows more than what they are going to learn. (You are going to have to prove that of course) and also makes sure that half the work of presence is already done. They should at least know what they are going to get, and they are trusting you to deliver it to them. (Woe betide you if you blow it however)

3. Make Connections

How do you treat a room full of people? Every one is different, everyone is an individual… pretty obvious isn’t it! You treat everyone as an individual person.

This means you need to be hyper sensitive to whats going on in the room.

The person who is not participating may be the brightest guy in the room but years of being held down has made her bite her tongue.

The most boisterous character in the room may actually be in fear of his job for some reason. Or worse, you may be challenging positions that are long held and hard won in their company. Meet peoples gaze, give them non verbal cues and validation, indicate to them with the back of your wrists. (Don’t point! Ever!) Be careful with generalizations and always speak directly to people, not with a sweeping gaze.

Also, remember who you are talking to. If they are middle management, be deferential but be strong in your statements. If they are senior management then it is likely that they didn’t get there without earning their stripes in the front lines. (Sometimes they do, but not often I find)

• People issues

• Recruitment issues

• Dealing with internal politics (Getting stuff done!)

• Messaging and internal marketing

• Creating momentum

Always pitch your presentation at the level you are talking to. Middle managers love tactical talks, and love issues that they can relate to directly as causes of sleepless nights for them. Higher levels love to get into the link between day-to-day and more strategic goals. Some of their “words” tend to revolve around:

• Net present value

• Talent development and retention

• Knowledge retention and usefulness

• Profitability and productivity

• Implementation and benefits realization

Lastly, if you really want to build a rapport with your delegates then relax. Easier said than done, but it gets easier with time. Remember that 99.9% of the time they want you to succeed!

• Don’t hide behind the flip charts, stand out in the open, use sweeping and inclusive gestures.

• Be conversational, talk with them not at them, and most importantly…

• Be confident. You are the expert after all. Aren’t you?

In summary…

I have found that these are the techniques required for rule #1, the Rule of Presence. You need to sweep into the room and when you do they need to realize that you have something important that they need to hear.

1. Establish your authority and credibility (It’s your room not theirs)

2. Set the expectations

3. Make connections

The RCM Standard, SAE JA1011, emphasizes the need for facilitators and analysis teams to list all of the functions of the asset or asset system. This refers specifically to all primary and secondary functions.

Secondary functions (or passive functions) are all other functions that users require of their assets not included in the primary function.

One of the categories given as a guide for defining secondary functions is that of Efficiency / Economy. It has been the experience of the author that trainee Analysts sometimes overlook this category as they struggle to understand it.

The Miriam-Webster online dictionary defines Efficient as being “productive without waste”, and Economical as “operating with little waste or at a saving”.

Efficiency generally describes the amount of effort it takes to produce “work” as compared to the effort it should optimally take, defining unnecessary additional effort as waste.

In the context of physical asset management, this specifically refers to the ability of the asset to perform its required functions with a minimum of waste in terms of energy, motion, capital, or consumable usage (i.e. Spare Parts, Oil or Chemicals).

As such, this function category can often have a significant impact on the direct costs of performing maintenance, and of operating machinery.

Perhaps the most pressing area of action on inefficiency is that of energy usage.

In 2006, the government of the United Kingdom published The Stern Review[i]. Authored by economist Sir Nicholas Stern it provided the first critical analysis of the future impacts of global warming in purely economic terms.

The 700-page review painted a frightening future, with predictions of shrinkage of the global economy by around 20%, and the creation of up to 200 million refugees due to flood and drought.

However, it also noted that there was still time to avert the potential disaster if there was an urgent global response to it.

In particular, the review highlighted the need for urgent action to address the emission of greenhouse gases, as a means of averting some of the worst aspects of global warming.

Figure 1 - The Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Global Warming

Figure 1 shows some potential results of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and correlates these with the potential rise on temperature. As a result we can clearly see that if we continue along the present path then we are risking a possible temperature change of >5 degrees C, with disastrous results.

In the face of such forecasts, people often feel powerless to do anything about it. The problem is so big and we are merely maintainers in a plant somewhere.

However, the truth of the matter is that we have an almost unique capability to influence this issue directly. Principally through optimizing energy usage, thus driving down our contribution to CO₂ emissions.

Pumps present a particularly interesting challenge. For example, they are the single largest user of electricity in Industry in the European Union, consuming 160 TWhpa of electricity, accounting for 79 Mton CO₂.[ii]

Globally they account for around 20% of the worlds energy demand and approximately 20-25% of the energy demand from most industrial plants. [iii]

A pump’s efficiency can degrade as much as 10% to 25% before replacement, according to a study of industrial facilities commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and efficiencies of 50% to 60% or lower are quite common. [iv]

Even at the lower levels, this represents a dramatic potential for CO₂ reductions, as well as direct cost savings in most cases.

However, these inefficiencies are not readily apparent so maintainers often overlook opportunities to save energy by repairing or replacing components and optimizing systems.

[i] The Stern Review can be found at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk

[ii] Page 4, Study on improving the Energy Efficiency of Pumps, European Commission, February 2001

[iii] Page 3, Pump Life Cycle Costs: A Guide to LCC Analysis for Pumping Systems, a collaboration between the Hydraulic Institute, Europump, and the US Department of Energy’s Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT).

[iv] Pumping Systems Tip Sheet #4, September 2005, DOE, USA

Criticality is one of the most misapplied and misunderstood methodologies in a reliability practitioners arsenal today.

Personally I am absolutely astounded by the continual use of criticality approaches to select assets for an improvement process. Don’t misunderstand me, I like the idea, and I believe it has a lot of very powerful uses in reliability. Just not as an asset selection process - and particularly not for RCM or any other form of maintenance strategy approach.

It goes like this… The newly trained RCM faciltiator takes the initiative to push forward the program by spending time developing a criticality ranking of his asset systems and then selecting the most critical (hence the most important) to begin the work of RCM.

He works diligently, with some of his colleagues, and maybe he takes two weeks to get it done. (Total of 10 4 hour meetings)  Then what…?

Whats wrong with this picture?

In my experience critical assets (or systems) are generally known in the first place. Secondly, they are generally the first to receive resources, cash, time and whatever else they need to make sure they are running okay. Last, they are often pretty reliable anyway!!!

So, the hard working facilitator goes to his manager and says “Here boss, you will be happy to know that this critical asset, which was running reliably, is going to keep on running reliably!”

And his boss says what? “Thanks, now get out”

I have other concerns about criticality at a system level, most of which have convinced me that it is not even possible let alone practical, but the whole issue of momentum, management support and getting projects started really tops them all.

The Political Element

Like everything else at work there is a political element to this. We (RCM Practitioners) realize that a post RCM analysed asset will bemore reliable than a pre-analysis asset. Period.But our bosses often do not…

So what are they interested in? 1. revenue increases, 2. Cost reductions, 3. Risk mitigation and 4. Knowledge increases; generally in that order.

The moral of the story? Don’t waste time trying to build support by choosing the reliable important assets, start with the unreliable poor performing assets. Go for the ones that have benefits already built in to their current levels of performance. It is far easier (from my experience) to build support for something when you walk in the door with $1 million of forecast revenue increases than with a “more reliable important asset”.

Wait.. I hear you cry “But thats reactive, we’re supposed to be proactive!” Yup, I agree. But we are where we are, and before we can start working on tomorrows problems (proactivity) we need to fix the headaches of today.

I recently found a post on the job site The Brilliant Career.com. It is looking for a Reliability Engineering Subject Matter Expert to work with a company from Southern Carolina. Heres their summary description.

Reliability Consulting Group is seeking a Reliability Engineering SME to provide technical and strategic expertise in terms of life cycle asset management implementation and the associated practices, to ensure maximum possible equipment reliability at minimum life cycle cost. This will be accomplished by process mapping and improvements in equipment reliability, availability, and maintainability that optimizes asset life cycle costs perform basic product design, testing and/or analysis work for a defined portion of a project.

I love consulting and I have worked as a consultant now for most of my professional career. I particularly enjoy consulting in the field of reliability engineering. (Which I also love)

get your job site
at simplyhired.com

I get to travel all over the world, meet like-minded people, and talk to them about something that both of us have a lot of interest in.

So a pretty good beginning…

As a consultant, once you get the hang of it, you get to meet with companies when they have problems, and when you leave them they are better off. Sometime incredibly better off.

If you are considering consulting as a career choice I would recommend it totally, check out the posts on this site if it takes your interest.

For those of you who haven’t noticed; the internet is fast becoming a very powerful tool for maintenance and reliability professionals to establish professional networks that span the entire globe.

Since about the late 80’s I think we all got the picture that job security was a thing of the past. At least I did anyway. And since that time we are seeing the relationship between people and work change dramatically. One change is in the area of loyalty.

“Old” loyalty was between the worker (you / me) and the company. This vertical, or suck up, type of loyalty was pretty focussed around the theme that if you did a great job, for many years, then your company would look after you.

Today, career last longer than most of the companies people work for. I started my career working for Robe River, a large mining company. At the end of the last century they were bought by Rio Tinto. I also worked for them for a while. They are real giants in the resource game, second largest in the world at the time. One of the titans that would last forever… well.. maybe not.

As I write Rio Tinto is trying to fend off an aggressive buy out by competitor BHP Billiton.

And so it goes… Yahoo was a great name.. once, Microsoft just decided not to buy them. I have seen many public sector workers suddenly shift to the private sector, and many private sector workers suddenly shift to a contracting company.

I’m sure (positive) your experiences have been identical, and if not then very similar. Companies don’t last forever, careers last a lot longer.

What we (I at least) see replacing this vertical loyalty is a form of horizontal loyalty. That is - loyalty to ones team mates, to a project, to a product, a managerial discipline or to a specialty area. This is the stuff that professional networks are made of.

Large groups of professionals interacting through out the world to mutual benefit. No sales lines, no pitches, no “articles” that are strangely slanted to support the consultant who wrote it, and no one trying to push anything down your throat.

The leading one of these, IMHO, is LinkedIn.com. LinkedIn has around (I think) 20 million members globally. Something like (not sure here) 30 CEO’s join LinkedIn every hour (or day, I can’t recall exactly).

I personally have used this site to conduct professional interviews, to offer my services when asked, to find resources for projects I know of or am working on, and to perform research among my peers. I recommend it to you strongly, I think every maintenance professional should have access to his peer groups.

We have formed a group here called the Reliability Hub, its free, non-commercial, and set up purely for you - the maintenance professionals in the field. I hope it is useful for you.

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