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machinerylubrication.com 2025 Annual 45
especially those involving serious downtime
and/or incurred costs, everyone tries to
become invisible and ensure they aren't at
fault. erefore, any report you generate will
be examined closely. ose implicated, either
directly or indirectly, will do their best to
discount the conclusions.
e best way to counter this is to do it first.
Evaluate your conclusions from every contrary
viewpoint, including the facts, observations,
and conclusions that could distract from your
conclusions. If you cannot prove your conclu-
sions wrong, then the probability that they
are correct is high.
LESSON 10:
Find A Cost-Effective Solution
While teaching a vibration analysis course, a
young engineer asked an interesting question
that caught me off guard. He asked, "If you
can't tell them how to fix the problem, have
you done your job?" He had a valid point.
Sometimes we focus on finding the root cause
and lose sight of this essential step.
Here , bi a s onc e a g a i n enter s t he
troubleshooting process. Depending on your
background, the viable solutions may range
from simple to overly complex. If you are a
maintenance technician, your solution may
not be technically correct or aesthetically
pleasing, but it might at least solve the
symptoms of the problem. If you are an
engineer, your solution may be almost perfect
from a technical perspective, but it's also likely
to be expensive. Somewhere in the middle is
often the most cost-effective solution.
Another item to address is ensuring that
the solution doesn't create other problems.
Solutions must be eva luated following
management of change processes that ensure
any change in form, fit, or function will not
create additional problems.
LESSON 11:
Verify the Solution
e troubleshooting effort is not over until
the recommended corrective action(s) have
been proven and have not introduced other
issues that degrade reliability, performance,
or the useful life of the asset, process, or
system. is involves a tracking methodology
that accurately quantifies key parameters that
measure both the corrective actions and the
overall performance of the extended system
to which the asset belongs.
is paper was created as supplemental content
for R. Keith Mobley's speaking session at the
2023 Reliable Plant Conference.
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The troubleshooting
effort is not over until
the recommended
corrective action(s)
have been proven and
have not introduced
other issues that
degrade reliability,
performance, or the
useful life of the asset,
process, or system.
"
"