Rome was not built in a day. Transformational change takes time. You’ve heard the expression, “once begun, you’re halfway done.”

But what are the milestones along the way? In other words, what are the stages or levels of transformation on the pathway to excellence? How can they be described in the most basic terms? That’s the subject of my column today.

The seven levels are in sequential order. Some organizations may elect to skip or leapfrog over two or more levels. Others may realize the virtue of getting a few small wins first before moving on to higher levels. There could be danger or pitfalls in moving too fast.

Slow and steady wins the race. Moving rapidly through the levels may be more achievable if you are counseled by an experienced person or team who has step-staged through these levels before.

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Try this simple experiment. With notepad in hand, go out into your plant and walk around a sampling of your most critical machines. These are the ones that have high probability of failure and/or the greatest consequences of failure. They are also known as show-stoppers and, as such, generally merit a disproportionate allocation of reliability and maintenance resources.

Next, on your notepad make a list of all the lubrication-related enhancements that have been implemented on these same machines since they were commissioned. Take special note of those that have been applied in the past five years. Solicit any amount of help (from old-timers, for instance) you need to flesh out your list.

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One of the best examples of courage is the man who asks to hear what he doesn’t want to hear. While it’s human nature to fear or dread bad news, the wisest among us will frequently ask for it. Why? Because winners change what losers want to leave the same.

Change starts by asking or investigating what’s wrong. This quest begins the assessment stage of programmatic transformations in reliability. Assessments are also referred to as audits, surveys, benchmarking and gap analysis. It can’t stop there. The next step is equally difficult and perhaps moves you out of your comfort zone. You must accept or acknowledge what is wrong. Many people instinctively want to play defense. You’ve seen how they respond during a substance-abuse intervention. Denial may even lead to lashing out at others to shift focus. Tunnel vision and denial impair real progress.

The post The Power of Truthful Assessments in Jumpstarting a Reliability Transformation appeared first on Tesibis.

People resist change not because they love the status quo but because they fear the uncertainty of what lies ahead. Yet, without change we are destined to repeat the past. After all, machines that are operated and repaired the same way will tend to wear out and fail the same way. And, for most organizations, what’s needed is not the tweaking of existing practices but rather throwing them out and starting over. Like people, organizations struggle through the transition period (denial-anger-bargaining-depression-acceptance). We all have vivid memories of change–even small things like the seatbelt law can cramp our style.

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