A colleague described a very unusual situation in his project. A facility was undergoing an upgrade on the inlet of the facility. Nothing unusual about that, but what was unusual was as a result of the upgrade, 100% of the feed would flow through the new upgrade. And … while that statement by itself is… Read more »
Posts By: John
Will a Company Compromise on “Extra” Safety – Supplement
Just as a point of clarification, I recently mentioned that one airline did not stock life rafts on their aircraft. I just got off a flight with that airline, and the flight crew informed me that their new aircraft are CURRENTLY not fitted with life rafts, but WILL be fitted in the next 12 months…. Read more »
Will a Company Compromise on “Extra” Safety?
The aviation industry here in Australia has been in the headlines recently, for all the wrong reasons. One airline was forced to ground its fleet because of safety violations. The other airlines were quick to say something like “we will never compromise on safety”. Then there was a volcano in Chile that erupted, sending ash… Read more »
Your Maintenance Budget and YOUR Skill Shortage
One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is visiting sites. I get to see many, and the differences between the processes, the way local problems are solved, etc are interesting and sometimes a source of inspiration. But whenever I look at a facility, I make one conclusion based purely on visual information …… Read more »
The Carbon Contributions of our Politicians
I recently saw a map of the Nord Stream Project pipeline, linking Russia and Germany. It runs under the Baltic Sea, following very close to the seabed boundaries between Russia and Finland and Estonia and Finland before entering Swedish water. It then enters German waters near the German-Polish subsea boundary. Why is this being done?… Read more »
The “Forgotten” Member of the Triple Bottom Line
Recently I was delivering a guest lecture at one of the Australian universities, and I had to stop my lecture because I had lost the audience. I was able to get them back, but only by abandoning my prepared talk and instead speaking “off the top of my head”. The reason I had lost my… Read more »
Some of the Hidden Costs of Carbon Management
I recently read a news article out of the USA regarding electric cars. It seems the US government receives revenue from transportation fuel taxes, which is used cross-country highway maintenance. This government revenue stream would be lost if all cars became electric cars. Naturally, a road “does not know” if the cars are fossil fuel… Read more »
Portable Experience – Taking Skills Across Industries
I am continually fascinated by how inconsistently people and organisations treat technical skills that should be “portable” across industries. By “portable” I mean skills that can be used immediately in a variety of industries. Let us consider two extreme examples … facility layout and photocopy machines. A person that has spent a career doing layout… Read more »
A Question of Qualifications
An elite athlete retired from his sport (a team sport). This elite athlete is recognised as not one of the greatest ever, but in the next tier below the greatest ever. He was an integral member of the “unofficial world championship team” as his sport had no official world championship. His retirement had an immediate… Read more »
Near Misses and Process Safety
Recently I was involved in a rather serious two-car automobile accident. His car was a write-off, and my car was very close to being a write-off. There was also collateral damage – a street light and a residential brick wall were damaged. The good news is that there were no injuries. At all. The paramedics… Read more »