By Jeff Dudley, Solomon Associates
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”—Abraham Lincoln
“As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.” —Leonardo da Vinci
Who could have guessed that the words of these two historical giants might one day apply to the world of reliability? Incongruous as it may seem, Lincoln and da Vinci have a lot to teach us about reliability. These two quotations reflect the internal battle being waged in many of today’s most dynamic, forward-thinking organizations. It involves the two paths that can be followed regarding how to operate a facility. One leads to a reliability culture with long-term growth, the other leads to a cost-control culture with short-term profits. You can only choose one.
Most organizations see themselves as exemplary in the area of reliability. But there is usually room for improvement. Too many settle for wasted resources and less than optimal individual and group performance, sometimes because the organization has never defined “reliability.” What’s your definition? If it involves how assets operate and how well they run, you may be incrementally improving your reliability. But there is much more to capture. If we expand the definition to mean “constantly and consistently meets commitments,” this forces you to focus on your organization rather than your assets. It involves people, not things. Look closer at reliability and you’ll see that it’s about people and cultural behaviors, not just about how our assets operate. Your goal should be to develop a culture where the entire organization becomes reliable. Every single person must create it.
Why shouldn’t your focus be exclusively on cost control? Because cost control tends to blind people. Some cultures have already developed a mindset that views reliability as a cost, not an investment. If cost control is what’s needed, reliability will have to take a back seat. Experience says this thinking is not only flawed, but false. Organizations that perform most reliably are not the ones with low maintenance costs. In fact, many organizations with low maintenance costs have unwittingly positioned themselves to be less reliable than they should be.
A culture of reliability is impossible to create if maintenance cost controls are continuously implemented to improve short-term profits. As our quotes suggest, the two cannot exist together, and constant cost control eliminates reliability.
Why is reliability important? In my book LeadeReliability, I attempt to answer that question. Simply stated, reliability is not what is done but how it’s done. The activities performed in an organization are what is done. But it’s how they’re done that is the measure of success. Every activity and behavior can be done reliably or unreliably. Choosing the latter will cost more and take more time, but if you are performing in a reliability culture you will deliver consistently in three important areas:
- Increased customer loyalty
- Improved employee satisfaction
- Long-term maximum profitability
The time it takes to achieve a reliability culture depends on your starting point. The important thing is that you start, and keep moving steadily toward your goal. Making the decision to become reliable is a brave choice. It takes strong resolve to stay the course, especially early in the journey. The enticement to take profits (sacrificing long-term reliability) rather than make profits (which will sustain long-term reliability) is often so strong that the wrong path is chosen.
So when you’re tempted to go down the primrose path of cost control, remember the words of Abraham Lincoln and Leonardo da Vinci—and take the profitable path toward reliability. MT