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Book reviews: A safe journey to change

PACE magazine is giving two lucky readers the chance to win one of two instructive books about how to get ahead in the automation, control and process engineering industry.

Simply read the following reviews and answer the question at the bottom of the page to be in the running.

EFFECTIVE MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

Vee Narayan

ISBN 9780831131784

Industrial Press

$65

Effective Maintenance Management is designed to help maintenance organisations change and improve reliability. Designed as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for professionals in the maintenance industry, Vee Narayan’s text provides a clear explanation of the value and benefits of maintenance.

Written in a language and style that practicing engineers and managers can easily understand and apply, the text examines the role of maintenance in minimising the risk of safety or environmental incidents, adverse publicity, and loss of profitability.

In addition to discussing risk reduction tools, it explains their applicability to specific situations, thereby enabling the reader to select the tool that best fits their requirements. Intended to bridge the gap between designers/maintainers and reliability engineers, this guide is designed to help businesses utilise their assets more effectively, safely, and profitably.

Readers can expect to learn more about the reasons for maintenance and the value added by performing it; how to determine what tasks are required and when they need to be done to achieve optimum performance; and a range of risk reduction models with maintenance suggestions.

In addition, Effective Maintenance Management examines risks faced during the life cycle of a process plant, discusses how to manage risks faced during a high cost, high downtime maintenance activity (namely plant shutdowns), and provides an in-depth look at qualitative and quantitative risks.

The text also includes a handy list of acronyms and a glossary of terms.

THE JOURNEY TO IMPROVED BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

Steve Thomas

ISBN 9780831133634

Industrial Press

$31.50

Take Todd Bradley — a mythical maintenance manager for an equally made-up United States manufacturing company — who works for a company that doesn’t understand that the way it is managing its business is leading it to ruin. Then learn what Bradley does to overcome the problem.

The Journey to Improved Business Performance follows Bradley on his journey to take matters into his own hands, and if this isn’t enough, his enraged manager reacts by transferring Bradley to another plant where conditions are even worse.

Then, the company further jeopardises itself by introducing a new product that compromises its position in the market. It’s not that they can’t manufacture the product; they just can’t do it very well. Their problems are poor equipment reliability and equally poor work processes. How Bradley and his co-workers address the issues, how Bradley learns about how to successfully manage the change process from his mysterious email mentor, and the company’s ultimate fate are all revealed in The Journey.

This text is a unique and valuable learning tool that provides readers with the essential concepts for successfully managing change within a company. While the story line happens to involve plant maintenance, the concepts apply for different types of work, products and services too.

The author is a working change-management professional with over 35 years experience in the petroleum industry. He holds degrees in both systems engineering and organisational dynamics and has published three other books on the subject of change management.

Question: What did author Steve Thomas study at university? Please send your answers to sarah.falson@reedbusiness.com.au no later than Wednesday 10th December 2008. Winners will be contacted by email.

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