Ancient wisdom
When trouble is solved before it forms, who calls it clever? When there is victory without battle, who talks of bravery? (Du Mu, late Tang Dynasty, commenting on Sun Tzu’s Art of War)
While reading an article the other day, written by a so-called China expert for an international magazine, I realized that quoting Sun Tzu goes a long way toward establishing your credibility, especially to a Western audience. As I researched ancient quotes, I was amazed once again to see how prevalent the concept of preventive action was in traditional Chinese wisdom, the same concept that proves so problematic in today’s industrial environment! One of our international clients, newly arrived in China, told me recently of his shock to find out that their machines, once opened, bore little resemblance to the “as-built” drawings he had been given… making his maintenance job “impossible” until everything was re-drawn properly (good luck with that). This inadequacy of as-built drawings, our manager will learn, is the rule rather than the exception with local contractors. What would the honorable Sun Tzu think of that?
I have come to think that this lack of foresight is a product of the times, rather than something more fundamental: times of fast growth at any cost. Times are quickly changing. So quickly in fact that we are happily skipping what may have been considered essential steps, such as implementing basic time-based preventive maintenance programs, jumping directly to Sci-Fi tech (that’s the impression I get when looking at our own bluebee® and Mtv solutions for mobile workers, which are already used by customers in remote parts of China!) and innovative fail-safe or high-maintainability designs.
I see our work at Siveco as addressing the need for a maintenance strategy, i.e. a conscious choice of tactics (from the old run-to-failure to advanced remote monitoring) based on scientific criteria (cost benefit analysis). We use technological tools to create the necessary structure and discipline, to give concrete substance to what most of our interlocutors would otherwise perceive a very abstract concept: “strategy”. We are not consultants, though we sometimes call ourselves that way for want of a better word: we are engineers (I personally prefer this term, which many find underwhelming) working alongside our customers’ technical teams (the only real experts of their process and facilities) in maintenance improvement projects. The valuable knowledge and insight we gain from our many projects we can, in turn, be shared with others. Many of our clients are leaders in their field, often among the largest investors in the cities they operate in, with enormous industrial know-how, albeit underutilized from a maintenance improvement point-of-view. What we can learn from each other seems unlimited. Thanks for working with us!
This issue of the newsletter was distributed at the 5th Annual Process Industry Engineering & Maintenance Congress held in Shanghai on September 14-15, where I presented a paper on my pet subject: “Leveraging technological tools to deliver sustainable maintenance improvement in China”. The printed version differs markedly from this online version, as we chose to re-print several previously published items (joint case studies with Areva 01dB-Metravib and ABB in the process industry): it is available in pdf format (download).
Both online and printed versions include a piece on the implementation of SAP PM (reliability section) and a case study of the CMMS audits we performed for chemical producer Arkema. The online version also features local partner East Dream, the COSWIN Work Permits functionality (Tips & Tricks) and our latest news.
This newsletter aims at sharing ideas between our customers: I hope you enjoy reading it and gain some useful insight from new projects, as well as inspiration from ancient wisdom!
Bruno Lhopiteau
General Manager
Siveco China
