The Need to Improve the Reliability Narrative

Little Compromises and Future Costs

In a recent Seth Godin blog, Counting beans he talks about the eventual costs of little compromises. The immediate benefit may be celebration worthy, yet

But overlooked are the unknown costs over time, the erosion in brand, the loss in quality, the subtraction from something that took years to add up.

This certainly applies to reliability as well. Deferring maintenance just one more month, addressing one more software bug can be done after shipping, and similar small shifts erode reliability of your system.

What Happens When Deferring Maintenance is Normal

I live in a small mountain community where we own and operate a water treatment system. A few years ago I had the chance to review the maintenance plan for the system and spotted the main transfer pump was old, leaking, out of balance, and basically in need of TLC (or replacement).

The options included a tear down and replacement a bearings and seals, complete replacement, or do nothing. The first option received the most discussion as it was still working and the leak wasn’t that bad. The rationalization went on for some time.

The second option to tear down and replace parts was eventually adopted and accomplished. We noticed the pump and motor had deteriorated significantly beyond the bearing and seals. Yet, the plan was to put it back…