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by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Electronic Field Data Collection: The Bridge to the Connected Plant
Reading Time: 4 minutes
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has created immense excitement and promise for industrial facilities. Having connected assets that continuously monitor their own health and feed that information back in a way that is timely and actionable will drive business outcomes and help organizations achieve loftier goals. The challenge today is that many of our assets are not yet “connected”
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Solving Chronic Failure (Video From The Vault)
Reading Time: < 1 minute
When is an RCA Typically Done? What about the Chronic Failures? Learn in this “Video From The Vault” how PROACT RCA works on Chronic Failures for a PROACTive Reliability Environment!
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Solving Human-Caused Failure Problems
Reading Time: 8 minutes
At the root of most mechanical and system failures lurks a human cause. Insights into what to look for when solving human-caused failures are essential. Human error is generally described as behavior that goes beyond the norm. A proper definition in the context of this article is, “an action planned but not carried out according to the plan”. To find
by Bob Latino
Updated: November 17, 2023RCA Tools VS Methodologies
Reading Time: 4 minutes
If we have heard it once, we have heard it a million times – “let’s do an RCA on that failure”. The problem here is that phrase will mean something different to everyone who says it. What is an RCA? That is a question even the notable experts cannot agree on. With all of this RCA “chaos”, how do we make any progress? The
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Problems Are Good!
Reading Time: 6 minutes
The best organizations in the world are not the ones with all the systems and procedures, all the acronyms, or even the most up to date technical solutions; instead they are the ones that are best at identifying and solving problems. Want more success? Want a better maintenance effort? Then get better at finding and solving problems.
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022PROACT: A Consultant’s Review
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Root Cause Analysis has always been dear to my heart. The procedure involved in finding the root causes and addressing them have intrigued me greatly as it involves using all your data gathering and cognitive skills. In the past, it was a bit difficult to properly perform RCAs since it usually meant jumping around different types of software…
by Bob Latino
Updated: November 17, 2023Can you be Proactive in a Reactive Environment?
Reading Time: 4 minutes
If you are like most people who work in a manufacturing or process plant, you have a plan for your day when you arrive in the morning. As soon as you walk through the gate, you are hit with the equipment failures from the night before. You immediately spring into action to help find parts, drawings, millwrights, fitters and anything
by Bob Latino
Updated: October 22, 2024How Can vs Why: What’s the Difference?
Reading Time: 9 minutes
When facilitating a Root Cause Analysis (RCA), the proper questioning process will make or break the effectiveness of the entire analysis. When we hear of the 5-Why’s as a valid RCA approach, is simply asking ‘Why?’ 5x good enough….or IS IT JUST OK?
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022Root Cause Analysis (RCA) vs. Shallow Cause Analysis (SCA): What’s the Difference? (Revised 2021)
Reading Time: 17 minutes
Does procedural and/or regulatory compliance with RCA guidelines ensure Operational Reliability? Does it ensure improved Safety? Operational Reliability involves the aggregation of Equipment, Process and Human Reliability methods and techniques. What is the difference between troubleshooting, problem solving and ‘RCA’? Are the outcomes different when we use The 5-Whys, The Fishbone or a Logic Tree/Causal Factor Type Tree? Can deficiencies
by Joel Levitt
Updated: April 29, 2024Are We Crazy About Mistakes?
Reading Time: 3 minutes
First, a question: What is the difference between a child hitting a pitch and the ball breaking a neighbor’s window and the child throwing the ball at the window and breaking it? One was a mistake and the other was a conscience act. In maintenance the first act, a mistake is a learning experience and requires little or no action
by Bob Latino
Updated: January 5, 2022EasyRCA: A Consultant’s Review
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Recently, most of our concerns stem around getting stuff done faster but wanting the same quality result. For instance, when loading a web page, we expect it to be loaded in one second and use the next five seconds to browse the content and find what we’re looking for. Let’s take a step back and think about loading a webpage
by Bob Latino
Updated: December 9, 2024Defect Elimination 101
Reading Time: 8 minutes
In recent years, “Defect Elimination” has become a hot topic in the reliability world. But what exactly does defect elimination mean? How does it differ from other maintenance practices? Is it more than just a new way to describe planned and predictive maintenance? This article will seek to answer these questions in a very practical manner.