Cover Your A$$ets. John L. Ross
References
Index
I met John Ross a few years ago at a training session for planning and scheduling, and have continued to stay in touch with him. John is an out-of-the-box thinker who uses humor to get his point across. He has a unique, fun, and energizing writing style that draws the reader in. When I read his work, I find it difficult to put the book down—a rare thing when dealing with any technical subject. This engaging style helps John to clearly communicate winning techniques to deliver a zero loss reliability environment.
When reading his books, it feels like John is sitting across from you, in your office, having a spirited discussion. You will get the feeling of having your own consultant on call, adjusting the advice depending on your own personal situations. More importantly, when you are done with the book, you will have a strong strategy to follow and implement. I highly recommend you read this work.
Ron Rieger
Global Mars Manufacturing Excellence Leader
July, 2019
I want to start by acknowledging and thanking those of you who bought my first book, The Reliability Excellence Workbook: From Ideas to Action, and making it such a huge success. I have received much praise for that body of work and many clients that I work with have purchased copies. That means a lot to me personally, so I thank you. I am humbled that so many would honor me by purchasing and reading my initial work. Many of these folks I still work with and I continue to enjoy the discussions the book has generated.
I also want to extend my appreciation to my many colleagues in the consulting business who have purchased the book and have positively remarked on my work. I have enjoyed hearing other points of view that might be different from my own. I’ve been very consistent when I say that “if you have a way to do it, and I have a way to do it, we now have two ways to do it.” Please keep all the comments and well wishes coming.
In the context of that first book, I would like to give special thanks and recognition to the educational division of the Marshall Institute. The Director of Training Services, Tom Furnival, and the Instructional Designer, Angie Faucette, immediately saw value in my work and commissioned that a Reliability Strategy Workshop be developed and made part of Marshall’s 2019 (and beyond) training calendar. This is an exceptional hands-on and transformative course where you, the learner, actually leave the workshop with a working reliability strategy to implement at your facility. I am proud of my work and more proud to be associated with Marshall Institute.
This acknowledgment section would not be complete if I did not thank the numerous skilled and support personnel that I’ve had the pleasure to work with over my three (plus) decades in maintenance and reliability. To say that I’ve worked with some superstars would be an understatement. I mentioned to a friend recently that one way to identify successful leaders is to see if their people get promoted. I can proudly proclaim that many people that have worked for me in the past have gone on to achieve higher levels of success. I would like to think that I played a small part in their success, but to be honest, these folks were exceptional before I even met them. I was just blessed to be associated with them. I’ve learned a lot from the people around me. I learned by listening. I’ve been known to say, “I learn more when I’m not talking.” To them I can only say thank you. Much of what I will convey in this book is based on our interactions and our conversations. I am better for listening to my many knowledgeable friends and colleagues.
Judy Bass and the outstanding group at Industrial Press should be highlighted for believing in me as an author, and me as a professional in this space. Judy and her associates, Janice Gold and Patricia Wallenburg, are experts and more importantly, friends. Thanks as well to my personal editor, Mary Jo Richards, for her constant reminders of proper English and punctuation.
As a parent, I am always mindful that the young people my kids ‘hang with’ are the first level of folks to influence them and apply peer pressure. Many of you reading this acknowledgment section can attest to the fact that you are concerned if your child is running with the wrong crowd. My kids are in their 20s and they ran and are now running with a good crowd. My kids are simply great. I’m proud of Bailey and Austin, and I appreciate their support in my work and in my life.
I’m mentioning this as a lead-in to thanking my own first level of influence, my own close friends and family. My personal ‘inner group’ is positive, uplifting, caring, and genuine. I am thankful to count a group of childhood friends as part of my personal extended family. I also count their parents as close friends of mine as well. I think their lifelong friendship to me has given me a great sense of confidence, enough to write a book or two.
My family is simply awesome. I wrote about them in my first book, but I will expand on that to just mention how much I respect and love my sister and brother and their families. We didn’t grow up on the rich side of town, but our parents always made it known that we could be anything we wanted to be. This was a great environment to grow up in. As a result, both of my siblings are greatly supportive of me and my ambitions. I return that sentiment every chance I get. Thank you, Regina and Mike.
There are many people who are responsible for much of the text and content of the book you are about to read. Believe it or not, some of them I’ve never met. These are the authors, content creators, thinkers, and doers in an asset management environment who have gone before me to lay the tracks for me and others to follow. It is my intention to respectfully cite and reference their previous work and either agree, add to, or promote another thought altogether. I think we are missing the value of debate in our industry. We have replaced the honest and robust dialogue of respectful dissention with arguments, passive aggressiveness, and mandates for absolute compliance.
The people I will quote and the works I will cite have kept the debate alive. Their work inspires me. I may not know them, but I thank them and you should too.
It was my great fortune to be born into a loving family and the luck of the draw to have such professional associations for my own professional growth. Coupling that with a gentle push over the finish line has contributed to what I hope you will find to be a ready resource to help you Cover Your A$$ets.
I Just Don’t Think You’re Smart Enough—An Introduction
“We keep saying we have no other course, what we should say is we’re not bright enough to see any other course.” —Dan Carlin quoting David Lilienthal, Atomic Energy Commissioner, The Destroyer of Worlds podcast
I’m troubled. It’s more like I’m concerned, really. Honestly, I already feel better for telling you this up front, although I do realize that this is an odd way to start a book. You need to know that I am writing this under duress. No, I’m not in any physical pain or jeopardy. No one is forcing me to write this book. It’s just that I wonder if we are capable of doing what we are being asked to do. After all, we haven’t done it yet and that troubles me. Could it be that we just aren’t smart enough?
I told a friend recently that I had started this book in my head eleven times. “Eleven,” she said. “That seems like an odd number.” “It is,” I responded. I wanted to tell her that eleven was also a prime number, but I didn’t want to seem pretentious (it’s an engineering thing).
The perplexing issue with the process of writing this book was getting my opening salvo just right. I wanted to create the perfect thesis, or argument that would bring the reader in. I wanted that one hook that would result in half of the readers proclaiming, “Oh, hell yeah!” and leave the other half asking, “What the hell?”
The thesis statement is key to piquing the