The Battle of Reliability: Fundamentals Win the Day

What is reliability, and how, on Earth, do we get more of it?
The Battle for Reliability is a graphic novel teaching the critical need for all industries to focus on maintenance fundamentals to avoid unscheduled shutdowns from breakdowns. The battle for reliability shows that everyday failures are still killing productivity even with the current focus on hi-tech sensors and software.

This easy-to-read, full-color graphic novel shows how creativity can solve repetitive reliability problems. In the end, ideas for projects generated from the rank and file can inexpensively and quickly improve reliability. Goal: To raise awareness of essential maintenance and its impact on reliability. Focus on small, focused actions.

What do others say about this book?

Duane Ayres, Manager of Water Operations at City of Brantford, Canada
Joel, I like how this was done. I like that although it's simple, it gets the point across. Fault analysis, team building, and brainstorming, continuous improvement are all there. And every department is involved. That is huge. Everyone has a stake in it and realizes its worth. Even the bean counter. Ha ha. Great job.

Michelle Henley, The Manufacturing Game, Texas
Congratulations on another great graphic novel Joel! It brings a fresh perspective to the issues we've been dealing with for decades.
With the current community interest in all things new and shiny, I like how you've incorporated new technologies into a story that focuses on the reliability basics of the TLC strategy. I particularly liked the line, "The big thing is that sensors only detect things that happened. Since it happened, it is already too late. We need to stop it from happening in the first place."
I liked the simple projects that the three teams came up with. They are all things that most sites could benefit from or at least relate to

Joel Levitt has been an author, management trainer, and consultant for over 35 years. He has been writing books to train maintenance professionals for 25 years and has 19 books in print. His books are part of the SMRP Body of Knowledge. He has trained real people in companies in 39 countries in 600+ sessions. 98% of participants rated the training very good or excellent. He has been a speaker at the National meetings of AFE, IMC, SMRP, NAWGA, ISA, and others.

This work is part of a series: Elements of Great Maintenance Management
The Battle for Reliability is the second graphic novel in Levitt's series on Elements of Great Maintenance Management.

The challenge we face is transferring basic knowledge to the next generation. Without this valuable knowledge transfer, our mission-critical systems will not do their jobs and will be challenging to maintain.

The problem is that traditional teaching modes don't work anymore. Today's kids read less and use Google or YouTube (and all the social media sites) for everything they need to know. The second problem is that they will learn the complicated stuff, but they miss the fundamentals (which are boring and there is no screen!) of maintenance and reliability.

We will cover fundaments of maintenance. Topics will be covered in an entertaining way to train the whole team. We will use compelling stories, humor, and interesting characters to keep people's interest and convey the basics.

For all of Mr. Levitt's books: http: //amazon.com/author/joellevitt