Where are you on your reliability journey?
Every organization is positioned in a different timeline and traverse through the phases of challenges over a period. Challenges vary from design phase to post-commissioning phase and steady state operational phase and end of life. The focus area and the strategies should be evolving across the organization and re-aligned to tackle the challenges of the reliability.
Which phase of the life cycle is your site in currently and how do you drive the journey? One size doesn’t fit all. Depending on the specific issues, one may tweak the equipment maintenance strategies to strike the balance between the availability and the cost of maintenance.
How to improve your Quadrant score?
Every organization wants to maximize margins through high availability at an optimum cost of maintenance and become a High Reliable Organization (HRO). Based on the state of equipment availability and the cost of maintenance, organizations can be classified into 4 categories typically. Characteristics of the organization culture place them into different quadrants;
- Top-Right 1st Quadrant: with high availability with huge savings through optimum equipment reliability plans with commitment from all stake holder as High Reliable Organization (HRO)
- Top-Left 2nd Quadrant: with frequent and high maintenance to sustain high availability is a typical Maintenance Centric Organization (MCO), with a command-and-control model.
- Bottom-Left 3rd Quadrant: with lack of reliability leadership at site, leading to reactive maintenance on a firefighting mode, classified as “Unreliable Organization” (UO).
- Bottom-Right 4th Quadrant: With an operations guidance and direction, maintenance & reliability team executes the tasks most often with a short-sightedness on the short-term needs.
Reliability in HRO is a is a way of working, culture / behavior that intertwines with an intent to achieve the performance standard of an associated equipment and instruments operated in a defined operating context. Everyone is committed to their area of responsibility with common objectives in mind though collective responsibility.
The journey to become HRO starts as early as project design phase to inculcate the reliability culture right from the project organization to operational to a sustainable business in the long run in the world of uncertainty and complexity. Despite every effort to become HRO, there could be unknown / unknowns that could surface as the operations tries to stabilize the unit, such as feed quality (say well composition, gas composition). Yet, with the HRO philosophy, the issues get identified in early phases of warranty period through Area Reliability Committee (ARC) meetings and tackled the unknown factor as soon as it is known to the team as a late correction.
Traditionally the organizations follow either a command and control model or commitment model. Depending on the organization culture, the outcome could have varied impact on the site reliability. Understanding the current culture will help to re-align and adjust the areas of focus strategically to enhance the reliability culture across the organization.
Are you curious about the current state of your reliability culture and looking to learn more about becoming a High Reliable Organization (HRO)? Join the “Reliability culture Survey” https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G2CD982 and our reliability subject matter experts can help with steps to consider.