Tag Archives: Standardization

A debate on Management of Change

Recently a group of safety yahoos got together to discuss a situation: You have a freezer with racking. The racking needs to be removed for XXXX reason. You hire a contractor to do the job. You evaluate and train the … Continue reading

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The Failure of Lean/Six Sigma

I’ve been asked in a few emails to comment on how to apply Lean/Six Sigma to ammonia refrigeration and PSM programs. Short answer: Don’t. The long answer follows but feel free to skip this once your eyes glaze over! I … Continue reading

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Everything is working just fine – Now is the time to improve!

Ever get down because the operator that is always “fixing” a “broken” refrigeration system is viewed as a hero while the operator who reliably and efficiently operates a system is forgotten about? Read on and see what I think you … Continue reading

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Garden City Ammonia Program PodCast

I recently had a long conversation with Craig Ward of Garden City Ammonia Program. He turned it into an episode for their GCAP Cool Cast. You can listen to the entire conversation here. As always – feedback is welcome.

Posted in Community Involvement, Compliance, General Information, Good Engineering Practices, Operator Training, Standardization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Garden City Ammonia Program PodCast

Stop Fantasizing about your Dream Team and get to work!

I’m continually amazed how often I come across underperforming organizations that don’t try to improve because they feel the caliber of their employees is inadequate to achieve higher performance. It may well be true that your team is suboptimal in … Continue reading

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Ammonia PSM Coordinator? Go Gemba!

“Gemba” is a Japanese term for “where the real work is done.” In manufacturing, one of the best things your Kaizen or Process Improvement team can do is spend some time on the shop floor. There you see the problems … Continue reading

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Benefits of a Trained Professional Ammonia Operator

“Without Standardization, there can be no improvement” That’s one of my favorite phrases from Lean/Six Sigma. Is the person who is in charge of your ammonia system someone who genuinely cares about how your system is running? Are they the … Continue reading

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A gem from the National Transportation Safety Board

I read accident reports from all sorts of sources. A few years ago I read through the entire NTSB online library for fun and I still keep up with the new ones. There were many good insights in the reports … Continue reading

Posted in Incidents, Standardization | Tagged , | 2 Comments