Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices. Ramesh Gulati
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reliability culture can be defined when all stakeholders—not just the operator and maintainer, but everyone involved in all the steps, from the concept of the asset, to design, procure, build/fabricate,install, operate, maintain/sustain, improve, and dispose of—ensure that the asset performs when required and cost-effectively. All do their job correctly and work together as a team to ensure the right actions are performed during the asset’s entire life cycle.
Leadership is one of the most prominent aspects of the organizational context. Organizations face challenges defining and assessing the performance of their leaders and managers. It can take a significant amount of resource investment to make decisions about what and how to measure. However, measures of leadership effectiveness are difficult to quantify.
To measure the impact (effectiveness) of leadership, we need to understand to what extent it influences and drives performance. Leadership is basically the capacity of someone to bring about change.
An accepted model for measuring leadership comes from James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge: How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations. Kouzes and Posner devised the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI). The LPI measurement model uses a series of questions to assess leadership effectiveness. People under designated leaders are observers, evaluating leaders on a series of qualities, such as:
• Discusses future trends regarding how they can change their work
• Provides positive feedback on accomplishments
• Follows through on promises
• Treats others with respect
• Solicits feedback and opinions from others
Observers are also required to assess their leadership based on several behaviors, such as:
• Sets a good personal example
• Actively listens to other viewpoints
• Supports others in their decisions
• Willing to take certain risks and experiment
Another framework for performance analysis was created by John Campbell, a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota. He conducted a comprehensive review of several decades of performance research and practices. His findings appeared in The Oxford Handbook of Leadership under the title “Leadership, the Old, the New, and the Timeless: A Commentary.” Campbell identified 14 factors that can be used to assess leadership and management across the organization.
Leadership Factors
1. Guides and directs work methods and roles
2. Trains and coaches others
3. Provides recognition and support
4. Delegates authority and responsibility
5. Serves as a role model
6. Encourages goal achievement
Management Factors:
1. Makes decisions and solves problems
2. Sets goals, plans, organizes and budget
3. Coordinates the work
4. Monitors unit/groups effectiveness
5. Manages to staff
6. Represents the organization externally
7. Ensures compliance and commitment to rules
8. Performs administrative tasks
Another model to measure leadership effectiveness is advocated by Robert Mann, author of The Measure of a Leader. He originally developed this leadership appraisal tool to help the Ontario school system to train principals. His method can help any leader identify weaknesses and strengths. Mann’s research expected to identify the personality trait of good leaders. It turns out that leaders’ personalities vary widely. However, there are some specific behaviors that will make a leader effective. He believes anyone can learn these behaviors or attributes to be a good leader. They are:
1. Have a mission and inspire others to join.
2. Create a strong organization.
3. Have strong interpersonal skills.
4. Be a good motivator.
Leadership effectiveness can be assessed by developing a questionnaire based on these attributes.
Corporate success depends on the vision articulated by organizational leaders and managers. For a vision to impact the employees of an organization, it has to be conveyed in a dramatic and enduring way. The most effective visions are those that inspire, usually asking employees for the best, the most, or the greatest. A vision explains where the organization wants to be and is an important element of creating a reliability culture.
Culture refers to an organization’s values, beliefs, and behaviors. In general, culture is concerned with the beliefs and values of people based on their interpretation of experiences and how they behave, both individually and in groups. Cultural statements become operationalized when leaders articulate and publish the values of their organization,which provide patterns for how employees should behave. Organizations with strong reliability cultures achieve higher results because employees sustain focus on both what to do and how to do it.
When we visualize, we are able to materialize—we convert our vision into goals and then into reality. Leadership enables this process by providing direction and resources to make this happen. In fact, leadership plays a key role in creating a sustainable reliability culture.
Leadership is an important factor whether we are running a small store or business, a large organization, or a country. It comes with its own set of responsibilities and challenges, as each one of us has a distinct style. Leadership is the act of inspiring a person, group, or organization to perform and engage in achieving a common goal. A considerable amount of literature is available that discusses styles of leadership models, including:
• Authoritarian
• Participative
• Delegative
• Transformational
• Situational
• Transactional
• Charismatic
• Coaching
• Tribal
• Strategic
• Servant
No matter what your job responsibilities entail, you would be expected to show your leadership skills at some point in the workplace. Exhibiting leadership is an extension of your personality that speaks about your credibility as a working professional. The leader is someone who has the ability to take the team members in the right direction by leading them to success.
Creating a sustainable reliability culture is a long journey that requires sound change management practices. Many organizations get impatient and stop supporting reliability change or implementing best practices in the organization; they fail to understand it takes many years to create a sustainable reliability culture.
To sustain a reliability culture, the reliability/maintenance leaders in an organization must continue to provide the right tools, training,and education to both the operators and maintainers together as a team. They need to ensure that the workforce is always current on:
• Knowledge—of best practices
• Teamwork—to assure communication and understanding
• Focus—on the right goals for business success