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Continuous Improvement

The document discusses using Thomas Edison's method of continuous improvement to achieve significant maintenance savings and production goals. It recommends continuously expanding one's own and employees' knowledge to solve problems through education and training rather than relying only on experience.

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Don - BIN95.com
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
25 views2 pages

Continuous Improvement

The document discusses using Thomas Edison's method of continuous improvement to achieve significant maintenance savings and production goals. It recommends continuously expanding one's own and employees' knowledge to solve problems through education and training rather than relying only on experience.

Uploaded by

Don - BIN95.com
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Process Plant and Equipment Up-time

The basic engineering tradesmen and operators need to keep plant reliability up and operating costs down.
From Trade-School.Education – Maintenance & reliability article for students and employees.

The Continuous Improvement Method of Thomas Edison


ABSTRACT There is no schooling available that teaches ‘greatness’ as
The Continuous Improvement Method of Thomas Edison. a subject. That must come from within each of us. And it
There is a good chance you can make astounding changes is done by the continuous improvement of ourselves. It
and achieve incredible performance improvements from will work for anyone, anything and everything in our
your plant and equipment. It can be done with the method world.
used by Thomas Edison to solve his problems and make
his discoveries. Improvements in the order of 20% Personal Continuous Improvement First
maintenance savings with 100% on-time achievement of Now that you know one of the ‘great secrets’ you can put
production plans are possible. The method is that of it to use for yourself. You do not need to go back to
continuous improvement. You start by proving it works school, unless you want to. First it is necessary to decide
for yourself first and then, once you are sure it works you on one thing you want to see happen in your life. Then
introduce it to your people. you decide on one thing that you want to see improved at
Keywords: continuous education, work. Write them down so they become real and you can
point your finger at them. Just a few works to clarify you
mind.
We Miss Our Biggest Opportunity.
Many of us make the biggest mistake of our lives when we Your next step is to learn more about both topics – the one
finish schooling. Whether it is when we finish high for your life and the one for your job. Get books on both
school, college or university, the mistake is thinking we no subjects, go and talk to persons that know more than you
longer need to keep developing our knowledge. Instead of on those topics, get educational videos and view them, go
remaining proactive students we become reactive to seminars on the subjects, get subscriptions to relevant
employees. magazines. Get ideas of what to do to move forward from
where you now are. When you get an idea start to
We mistakenly begin to use the ‘hard knocks’ of life and implement it. Try a little bit of it, do a test and sample the
business as the only way to learn. No longer do we bother effect. Continue with it if it works; modify it if it doesn’t
to use practical, purposeful education and training to fill work. This was what Thomas Edison did. It worked
the gaps in our knowledge. Unintentionally we start to wonderfully well for him, and it will work for us.
hand-over the responsibility for business, mental, spiritual
and interpersonal growth to circumstance. You may realise you need to go back to ‘school’. But now
that you know what you want to do and why you are doing
The ‘school of ‘hard knocks’ is a poor teacher. It is a it, it will make all the difference to your enthusiasm for
slow, expensive and random way of getting an education. study!
By only learning through mistakes you will waste 80% of
your life, time, money and efforts. It cannot be any other
way. Great waste will be the result if one is just waiting
Then Continuous Improvement for Your
about for something to happen and then reacting to it People.
without knowing what is the proper thing to do! When you have proved that the process of continuous
improvement works for you, you can then look at
Do what Thomas Edison did. introducing it to your people. They are most likely in the
same situation that you were in. Just waiting for things to
But this situation does not need to continue. You can do
happen to them. Now you can lead them to a better place.
what every great leader, innovator and inventor does.
They keep learning. They read, study and think about
To start them off, find a way to get them reading more
what they want to see happen in their lives, their
about their jobs and their business. Nothing ‘heavy’! You
businesses and with their discoveries. It is said that Tomas
cannot force them to learn. You can only lead them.
Edison became a great inventor without much schooling.
Offer them opportunities to attend training. Get a
But that is not the real story, it is a huge half-truth, a
knowledgeable person to have a 15-minute ‘tool box talk’
falsehood.
with them on the topic. One-by-one take them with you to
the seminars you attend. Find creative ways to expand
Edison may not have had much formal schooling, but he
their knowledge on the thing you want them to know more
was a prolific reader. He would get hold of every book
about.
and piece of information he could get on the subject he
was working on. He studied the subject endlessly, thought
For example if you have chemical reactors in your
about it and around it, and then came up with an idea to
operation, teach your operators and maintainers the
try. No, he did not finish school - but he kept on getting
chemistry of the reaction, teach them the metallurgy of the
educated. He took it upon himself to continue developing
reactor, teach them about the critical factors that make for
his mind and his knowledge. This is the way of all great
a good reaction, teach them about the machinery that
people.

.
© 2019 Trade-School.Education All Rights Reserved
Because the authors and publisher do not know the context in which the information presented in the Newsletter is to be
used they accept no responsibility for the consequences of using the information contained or implied in any articles
makes the reactor work. Teach them why things work as
they do, why it is important to do things certain ways.

Once they know all about the reactor they will also have
learnt 80% about everything else in the plant. The next lot
of training and education will go much faster.

You want to develop your people’s engineering and


business understanding so that if ‘hard knocks’ hit their
equipment or the business demands become heavy, they
don’t waste time, money and effort doing pointless things,
but will instead focus on the important, high pay-off
actions.

When you see anyone of your people make a standout


performance – encourage it. Give them the opportunity to
learn more about it.

Personal and Team Victory.


As you go about expanding your people’s minds and
knowledge they will ‘discover’ the best ways to run the
plant and their part of the business. With your support and
direction they will find the ideal ways to do their work
with least cost, time and effort. They will be victorious in
the battle for high performance and efficiency.

When your people get to that level of expertise you can


then stand back, take pride in the good work you have
done through them and go onto the next thing you want to
improve.

Mike Sondalini

.
© 2019 Trade-School.Education All Rights Reserved
Because the authors and publisher do not know the context in which the information presented in the Newsletter is to be
used they accept no responsibility for the consequences of using the information contained or implied in any articles

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