Ask a Plant Manager: Expert advice from Joe Kuhn
Joe Kuhn, CMRP, former plant manager, engineer, and global reliability consultant, is now president of Lean Driven Reliability LLC. He is the author of the book “Zero to Hero: How to Jumpstart Your Reliability Journey Given Today’s Business Challenges,” and is the creator of the Joe Kuhn YouTube Channel, which offers content on starting your reliability journey and achieving financial independence.
Joe also stars in Ask a Plant Manager, a monthly installment within the Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast series. Each episode, Anna Townshend, managing editor of Plant Services, introduces a commonplace scenario facing the industry, and Joe offers his expert advice, as well as actions to get you and your program back on track.
Below are a few of Joe Kuhn's most influential podcast episodes and videos.
Reliability: It's not about the tools. Beware of shiny objects with promises of grandeur.
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“Mastering the tools alone does not, will not, and cannot create a reliability culture. And that's the error that 99% of people make. They deploy tools.” |
Will good planning lead to improved reliability results? Let's look at an example - CastCo.
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“If you do a great job at planning and scheduling and you do a poor job of PMs, you're planning junk. Your PMs aren't based on failure mode. There's too many resources assigned to them. The frequency's wrong. The steps are wrong. It does no good.” |
Make better reliability, maintenance and engineering decisions by adding observation to your data
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“Observation will change your actions, folks. That's the message here. Observation on the shop floor changes your actions. It will change how you lead and change the decisions that you make.” |
As a plant manager, should I drive KPIs? The shocking TRUTH in most cases is NO! (MIND BLOWN)
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“With a superficial introduction to reliability concepts, it's very easy for the leader to come back from a conference or from reading a book or from a seminar or an email, it's very easy for them to say ‘Hey. All I got to do is increase planned work at my sites and great things will result.’ It's very easy to come to that conclusion. It's easy to calculate, it's a measure of my plant's efficiency, and it prevents unplanned work.” |
Why do good plant managers make bad reliability decisions?
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“It looks like a system of tools and skills, but it's really a culture. Every tool, every practice, every skill that you have is targeting waste elimination. That's the culture you're trying to create. ” |
Is your reliability program doomed to fail? Unfortunately YES.
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“We need a solution that delivers month over month results. It’s just a reality of today. It’s just like World War I. Are you fighting last year’s reliability battle?” |
Why is my plant struggling with reliability and maintenance best practices? Simple answer.
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“One-hundred percent of leaders have a false vie of reality of what their R&M culture is.” |
Reliability and maintenance professionals – Change your culture with this free tool.
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“Chalk circle observation changes everything. It changes everything. KPIs hide information by use of averages.” |
Skills to see waste in your factory
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“Shift change is another location for significant waste, and this is may be one maintenance crew day shift to afternoon shift. What’s that connection look like? Does information flow freely? Do they know exactly what to do? Are they redoing work? Hours can be saved there on shift change.” |
A case study of dramatic change in a plant's reliability – Must see. This can change your career.
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“One-hundred percent reactive maintenance is actually the most common organization that I work with and it surprised me, working or Alcoa for 32 years that so many place are 100 percent reactive, so if it breaks, they fix it.” |
Are your reliability and maintenance plans doomed to fail? YES. Unless 2 things occur.
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“Everyone must understand that every single reliability tools is to address waste.” |
About the Author
Joe Kuhn
CMRP
Joe Kuhn, CMRP, former plant manager, engineer, and global reliability consultant, is now president of Lean Driven Reliability LLC. He is the author of the book “Zero to Hero: How to Jumpstart Your Reliability Journey Given Today’s Business Challenges” and the creator of the Joe Kuhn YouTube Channel, which offers content on creating a reliability culture as well as financial independence to help you retire early. Contact Joe Kuhn at [email protected].
Anna Townshend
managing editor
Anna Townshend has been a journalist and editor for almost 20 years. She joined Control Design and Plant Services as managing editor in June 2020. Previously, for more than 10 years, she was the editor of Marina Dock Age and International Dredging Review. In addition to writing and editing thousands of articles in her career, she has been an active speaker on industry panels and presentations, as well as host for the Tool Belt and Control Intelligence podcasts. Email her at [email protected].