Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1148092
www . machinerylubrication.com | July - August 2019 | 7 within an organization. Sustainability prob- lems have been noted. Others have pointed to exceptional success. Like RCM, Six Sigma is another great tool. It is recognized for DMAIC (defi ne, measure, analyze, improve, control), process design and management, analysis of variance, balanced scorecards, and statistical process control. Yet Moore asserts there is a risk that Six Sigma can "consume considerable resources in applying … people often get so engrossed in the process they forget the goal is to get results." e risk of "paralysis by analysis" is mentioned. Instead, he suggests that it should be "selectively applied to complex problems that require a disciplined methodology." at said, Six Sigma is lauded by many organizations around the world. Moore describes how General Electric has been very successful with Six Sigma because the leader- ship drove the process and demanded results. He also tells how Toyota has been very eff ective without Six Sigma, using simple tools, kaizen, 5-S, TPM and engaging the entire workforce in improvement. Again, the point here is to do the basics really well fi rst (kaizen, TPM, etc.). Root cause analysis (RCA) is yet one more stalwart tool of the reliability fi eld. Its goal is to fi x problems forever, regardless of whether they involve a machine failure, human issue, process problem or others. You likely have heard of the 5 Whys, fault trees, RCA logic charts and those famous fi shbone diagrams. Failure is a great teacher. ICML 55 Elements: Optimum Lubricant Selection (3), Troubleshooting and RCA (8), Metrics (12) Wisdom in Execution To some, the advice emphasized by Moore and summarized above may seem trivial and a little too pedestrian. It reminds me of the title of another one of his books, Making Common Sense Common Practice. Yes, sexy new technolo- gies may possess the cool factor, but sometimes these cutting-edge ideas later lose their luster or die on the vine. Moore suggests the best strategies are those that aff ect the behavior and activities of the most people. Get leadership right, get aptitude and attitude right, and then go on to pursue the rest. ML About the Author Jim Fitch has a wealth of "in the trenches" experience in lubrication, oil analysis, tribology and machinery failure investigations. Over the past two decades, he has presented hundreds of courses on these subjects. Jim has also published more than 200 technical articles, papers and publications. He serves as a U.S. delegate to the ISO tribology and oil analysis working group. Since 2002, he has been the director and a board member of the Interna- tional Council for Machinery Lubrication. He is the CEO and a co-founder of Noria Corpo- ration. Contact Jim at jfi tch@noria.com. ML