Maintenance Technology September 2017 - 19

VOICE FROM THE FIELD

address failure modes, implement rootGeorge Parada's Top 5 Tips for
cause analysis, and take action to fix these
problems once and forever."
Effective Maintenance and Reliability
Another program was developed to
address gaps in the electrical systems and
1. Assess the skills gap within your teams and once you do,
installation standards that were leading to
take action to close those gaps.
electrical incidents and near misses.
2. Lubrication excellence needs to be foundational
"We have installed an inspection
to any successful maintenance program.
3. Focus on your "bad actors" (equipment) in the plant and make sure the mainteprogram where our Electrical SME visits
nance strategies you are doing are actually addressing the failure modes.
locations and identifies opportunities.
4. Use the CMMS tools available to you and have good governance processes in place
We can then develop specific plans that
to drive the right behaviors to document work that drives effective decision making.
address these items within a certain period
5. Establish key performance indicators that will help your reliability program drive
of time, depending on the criticality of
accountability within your organization.
those findings."
Parada added that programs such as this
drive awareness, accountability, and education and help to identify plans for effective maintenance
While identifying gaps within the skills of his team and
budgets moving forward. "We have definitely seen some
the programs he develops, he continues to focus on the
benefits that provide great awareness for our people," he said.
power of change. Parada said he draws inspiration from a
"We are instilling data-driven decision making to focus on
Charles Darwin quote: "It is not the strongest of the species
the right work. We have seen improvements in several of
that survive or the most intelligent that survive, it is the most
our facilities where they are starting to change behaviors of
adaptable to change."
where they spend their time because they see there is benefit
Success is all about change and being adaptable, Parada
in focusing on driving reliability improvement."
noted. "We are going to be faced with ambiguity at times and
we must be resilient and remain optimistic. Sometimes my
wife tells me I am too much of an optimist because I always
Finding inspiration
look at things from a positive light. But I believe it's pointless
Parada's interest in understanding how machines work and
to worry and let a challenge in our life or work hold us back.
why they work began at an early age.
Perhaps one particular goal didn't fit with a person's skill set.
"When I went to school to study mechanical engineering,
We need to make sure that we are leveraging our people's
I didn't realize I would end up in the maintenance and relistrengths and continue to have development discussions.
ability field," he said. "I wanted to design machines. Even as a
If we take care of our employees they will take care of the
child I had a passion for understanding how things work."
customer." MT
While working as an operations supervisor at Cargill
many years ago, he developed a strong interest in the
maintenance arena.
Michelle Segrest is president of Navigate Content Inc., and has
"I wanted to understand root causes for the failures I was
been a professional journalist for 28 years. She specializes in
experiencing with the equipment," he said. "I consistently
creating content for the industrial processing industries. If you
partnered with maintenance to find permanent solutions
know of a maintenance and/or reliability expert who is making
for these problems. This was a key foot in the door for me to
a difference at their facility and would share their story, please
eventually getting the opportunity to move to maintenance."
email her at michelle@navigatecontent.com.

SEPTEMBER 2017

MAINTENANCETECHNOLOGY.COM | 19

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maintenance Technology September 2017