You Think You Have a Crappy Job?

My 5 year old daughter was watching TV the other day, and went nuts over the new Barbie doll from Mattel. My wife and I laughed our heads off when we saw that it is actually a Barbie doll with a matching dog named Tanner. Tanner "eats" these little brown treats that are included, and when you push down on the tail, he drops the same treats (now called "a mess") on the ground from his rear end.

Now, it may not sound like this is a maintenance post, but I think it is appropriate for us to remember that some poor guy has to fix the turd molding machine for this product!

Can you imagine getting an emergency work order titled "My turd machine has crapped out. Please send a turd machine technician to fix it. This is an emergency, because my crap is the lifeblood of this facility." Maybe our jobs aren't so bad after all...

P.S. - It seems kinda funny to me that we can't get our daughter to clean up after her REAL dog, but she asks for a fake one, and gladly cleans up after it. I always thought it would be nice to get a dog that doesn't poop. Go figure! They invented a system that poops without the DOG!

Weblog Kickoff

It has been just over 5 years since NoBreakDowns.com's parent company, 20/20 Foresight was founded. Back in 2001, our goal was to help maintenance professionals achieve freedom from the pain of unplanned equipment failures. We still live by that goal, and we have helped hundreds of people (not "clients", people) achieve great results.

In the coming months, we will be releasing a series of great new applications and products that address the needs of maintenance professionals in a new way. We have built a system that allows maintenance professionals to fix what is wrong with their processes without the headaches and costs of a major initiative, without the hassle of begging for money and staff, all while staying in control (no need to hand over the reins to a stranger). In addition, our program includes long-term support that cannot be achieved with traditional consulting. Stay tuned for details in the upcoming days.

It was clear to us that the old way of fixing broken maintenance programs was not working (i.e. $1500/day consultants camped out at your site for months). We see that people are desperate to find a way to refine their maintenance program, and most of them know WHAT to do. So, why isn't it getting done?

The answer is that consultants, as Suppliers of the Tools, have generally been answering the wrong question for you. You are asking us to tell you HOW to do it, and also to supply you with the necessary tools to do it efficiently. In response, consultants as a group have replied with answers that are focused on WHAT to do.

Let me illustrate...

Maintenance Manager: "Please Mr. Fancy Pants Consultant, tell me how I can establish a work planning system if I have no money and no extra staff with which to do it. We have no one to spare, and we are dealing with a lot of equipment failures. Can you help?"

Mr. Fancy Pants Consultant: "Sure, I can help! You should start planning your work immediately. That will be $200 please."

If that doesn't make you mad as can be, I don't know what would! It is time to take command of this situation, and we are here to help you do it.