Was it really Human Error…?

Was it really Human Error?

I love yogurt and eat it every day ๐Ÿฅ„. My favorite is Oikos Lemon Meringue ๐Ÿ‹. I buy it every week.

But one day, I was unpacking my grocery bags and found that I had bought banana flavored (yuck! ๐Ÿฅบ) instead of Lemon Meringue.

 

Is it Human Error_

In the context of RCM, this “failure” has ๐—ข๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—พ๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€. Not only did I lose money when I gave the banana yogurt away, but I had to spend my time going back to the store to buy the right kind.

Was this all my fault? ย Was it purely ๐™ƒ๐™ช๐™ข๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™€๐™ง๐™ง๐™ค๐™ง? Or does Oikos bear some responsibility?

There’s no denying that the packaging is very similar. It (obviously) was very easy to make this mistake.

Ok, you may be thinking, “this really isn’t a big deal.” And I agree. It isn’t.

But it could be a serious disaster if something like this happens with our equipment.

What if a valve is vaguely labeled?

What if a crucial step in an Operating Procedure is inadvertently left out?

What if a maintainer is not feeling well, is overtired, or distracted (like I was that day)?

Disasters happen every day in our world for causes that could have easily been avoided. Just turn on the news.

What can we do about it?

๐—ง๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ผ ๐—ธ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ.

The untapped gold ๐Ÿฅ‡ in an organization is the people who operate and maintain the equipment every day. ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—ธ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜ƒ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ธ.ย ๐—ช๐—ฒ ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ธ.

๐˜‰๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ต ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ’๐˜ต.

And that’s just one of the reasons why ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—–๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ (๐—ฅ๐—–๐— )ย is so strong.

When done correctly with the right people, failures that are just waiting to happen can proactively be identified – ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ. (Or at the very least, the Consequences of failure can be minimized.)

๐—ฅ๐—–๐—  ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ด๐—ต.ย  But when an organization commits to applying it correctly, the results can be overwhelmingly positive. ๐—ข๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ. I’ve seen it first-hand.

What do ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ชย think? ๐˜—๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ฆ ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ด.

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Nancy Regan

I started RCMTrainingOnline.com to help organizations gain an understanding of maintenance and reliability basics. After all, the basics pervade just about every asset management solution out there ~ and theyโ€™re embedded in Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM).

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