Articles
Voices: Human Capital
Is your plant performance based on truth or tradition?
Tradition is defined in the Encarta Dictionary as a long-established action or pattern of behavior in a community or group of people, often one that has been handed down from generation to generation. Note that in this definition there is no determination that the...
Understanding the Five Whats of plant performance improvement
By Tom Moriarty As a leader, one of your roles is to be a navigator for your organization’s future performance. This came to mind after receiving a phone call from an engineer at a manufacturing plant who wanted to know how to get his organization structured to enable...
I Know what I am doing – Whose responsibility are latent root causes?
By Tom Moriarty In the second half of 2012, a catastrophic environmental event occurred at a facility. No human lives were lost; however, there were multiple deaths of an endangered species. The organization had spent tens of millions of dollars in engineering,...
Bottom up for top Down: Develop your sphere of influence to initiate change
By Tom Moriarty Can major change happen from the bottom of an organization, or does it have to come from upper management? I can say from personal experience that the quickest way to initiate change with greatest chance at success is when senior leaders get it and...
Complacency can lead to problems: Cutting corners is human nature, and that’s bad for safety
By Tom Moriarty As I write this column, I am on a flight from my home airport into Atlanta. Even with a fairly high number of frequent flyer miles, I couldn’t score an upgrade. So, the next best thing is an exit row seat. There’s a bit more legroom than what’s...
What Shape IS Your Mug? – Create the container in the shape of your desired culture
One of our clients was discussing having us help them with putting a reliability strategic plan in place. They are building a new plant and wanted to ensure it would be off to a great start. We discussed the need to develop their governing principles, objectives,...
Stop reactive work management practices
by Tom Moriarty While I was talking with a maintenance manager, a maintenance shop supervisor walked by mumbling something about “stupid software.” Apparently the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) did not meet the guy’s expectations. What was wrong...
Stupid Software: Stop blaming inanimate tools and commit to effective work management practices
While I was talking with a maintenance manager, a maintenance shop supervisor walked by mumbling something about “stupid software.” Apparently the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) did not meet the guy’s expectations. What was wrong with it? Did the...
A wake-up call for North American industry
Written By Tom Moariaty During the recent 2011 Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) Annual Conference in Greensboro, N.C., a piece of information was presented that should reverberate throughout North American industry. Al Poling of HSB...
Expand margins with Organizational Reliability©
Written By Tom Moriarty What is 1 percent of production worth to your plant? In most mid-sized or larger plants, production improvements of 1 percent are in the millions of dollars in profit. Increasing the volume of profitable products with approximately the same...
Voices: Human Capital
Human Capital is a monthly column for plant managers, department managers, supervisors and aspiring leaders. This column provides a blend of leadership and organizational development concepts with practical applications and insight.