1. Measures of quality for your role.
As the Mechanical Reliability Engineer for Nufarm I am directly
responsible for driving the quality of the several plants up daily by
assessing the different components and searching for better, more reliable
parts or processes. Now I am assessing the safety valves on every plant
with the goal of determining if they are fit for purpose, reliable, the
maintenance regime and cost or repair vs replacement. This isn’t a 5minute task and requires a lot of walking the plants to determine where
they are fitted and their suitability.
2. How does your output measure against the three key demands: delivery,
cost and quality?
I believe I am meeting all 3 by delivering the right part for the task (safety)
with a full assessment of cost to the company in do we replace or renew
with the same or a better safety valve more compatible with the chemicals
they encounter daily and therefore the quality of the valves will prove to be
better as the cost will drop and the reliability will increase.
3. In terms of organisational culture, comment on the following and identify
three to five aspects that could be improved:
a. The overall organisational culture. – seems to be safety first
which I expect on a top tier COMAH site. However, there is an
office with around a 100 people in various roles and it is close to
impossible to remember who is in each role, so I must search
the department to find who I need some days. We have a lot of
contractors on site daily and it is hard to get them to comply
some days as they are not directly affected by their actions and
omissions, so I must give safety talks occasionally in passing
them.
b. Culture within your department or work area. -within my direct
work area, the department is well organised with small teams
responsible for their part in the Quality of the final product and
company reputation. One example of a slight conflict would be I
had all the pumps to assess, and the Rotation engineer
responsible for them didn’t like me asking questions and looking
at them closely, which I overcame by explaining I’m not here to
judge your role just see how we can work together to improve
the reliability. So, I fitted vibration analysis to most of his pumps
and started condition monitoring them which is showing good
results already for us both and the company.
c. Your personal view of culture. – culture is hard to change but
with perseverance and commitment from all involved we can all
benefit from the company performing better and achieving our
goals. The Culture will not change overnight but we need to
commit to the Mission statement and work at a management
level to drive change from the top down for everyone’s benefit.