Life As a CRL

I am not sure where the journey started. Was it my first IMC (International Maintenance Conference), or discovering the Certified Reliability Leader Program? What I can say is that IMC opened my eyes to all the possibilities and provided me with an introduction to what a Certified Reliability Leader was.

Going through the certification process and devouring all the reading material, I was exposed to many opportunities that I could leverage to drive improvement at our site. We decided right from the start to throw as many darts in the air as possible--launch programs--see which ones stuck, and measure the results that were achieved.

Some programs clearly did not work for us, such as ultrasonic testing, due to the environment in our facility (blow molding). But others, like vibration analysis in partnership with SKF, helped us detect suspect rotating equipment that allowed us to plan equipment downtime and make timely repairs vs. costly unplanned downtime. We launched a hydraulic hose monitoring program in partnership with Eaton, which provided us with an early warning system should any of the monitored hoses start to deteriorate. We labeled our machines with the lubricants used at each of the points, installed Air Sentry hydraulic fill ports to ensure we were not introducing contaminants into our hydraulic tanks, and worked with Insight Labs to ensure all our machine lubricants are sampled and tested on a regular basis. We put our feet on the ground and no longer accept work orders on newly commissioned equipment. New equipment must now be utilized for the process run as designed.

After I returned from my first IMC, I was inspired to become a CRL, but management wanted to know what I learned at IMC. How would I apply what I had learned and what was the return going to be? I started my presentation on what impressed me, the Mars Rover, from my presentation deck. It was called “Living Beyond the Extended Warranty.” With a mission planned for 90 sols (Martian days), the Mars Exploration Rover’s spirit and opportunity passed their “warranty dates” by thousands of days. So, how have these rovers survived the rocky terrain, the frigid cold, and the wind-blown dust scouring the surface of Mars? I outlined three points:

• Designing in reliability, maintainability, and supportability
• Thinking cradle to grave (How long does it need to operate? How will we maintain it?)
• How do we move to a more reliability-centered organization?

Not one of us would purchase a new car and accept anything less than perfection. Why then would we, maintenance and manufacturing professionals, accept responsibility for equipment that was anything less perfect? Being a Certified Reliability Leader, along with the support of my organization, has allowed me to think differently--to challenge the status quo, to act with a sense of urgency, and to inspire my staff to strive for excellence.