Getting beyond the pilot...

Imagine the scene if you will.

You have fought hard to get the project started. You have taken your US$150,000, done a comprehensive criticvality analysis, performed RCM analyses ont he top three asset systems and prepared the report back presentations.

Now it's time to take it back to Mr Very Important VP. The guy who backed this in the first place, the guy who has it within his power to stump up the rest of the caqsh you need to continue this rollout.

"Mr Very Important VP, you will be happy to know that your critical asset, the one that was working well, is going to continue working well."

And what do you think his response will be?

If you are lucky you will get a pat ont he head and sent on your way. He will probably not even remember your name. Why?

The problem is that most projects start with critical assets. Criticality is a cult that has encircled the world and does not help you to start reliability initiatives!! In fact, it works against you!

Whats the problem with critical assets? They're critical ! Get it ! That means they are normallyworking well. Everyone knows they're critical, and if anything ever goes wrong with them it's all hands on deck to get them moving again!

Now picture a different scenario:

"Mr very Important VP, we analyzed these asset systems and found that over the past three years they had cost us about US$5,000,000 in lost production opportunities.

We have carried out the analysis and we think that we can recover about $4,000,000 over the next three years in potential revenues"

Now what is he going to say? At the very least he will invite you back to tell him more when you are more certain. That means you have just been granted one of the scarcest resources your company has. The time of it's executive leadership.

Critical assets don't launch projects, bad actors launch projects.

I might agree with what you are thinking. I might agree that the critical assets are the ones we need to hit. I might also agree that critical assets are really what reliability is all about.

I might... but I'm not paying for your project. And the odds are good that your VP is not a reliability person!

You want their support, then speak their language.

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