Increasingly, scholars view reliability—the ability to plan for and withstand disaster—as a social construction. However, there is a tendency to evoke this concept only in the face of catastrophes, such as the British Petroleum oil spill or the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. This book frames reliability as a fundamental issue in the study of organizations—one that can also improve day-to-day operations. Bringing together a diverse cast of contributors, it considers how we can account for the ability of some organizations to maintain high reliability and what we can learn from them. The chapters distinguish reliability from related lines of inquiry; take stock of relevant research from different disciplinary perspectives; highlight implications for practice; and identify directions, questions, and priorities for future research. The first of its kind in over twenty years, this volume delivers a dynamic base of shared knowledge and an integrative research agenda at a time when organizational reliability has never been so important.

The quest for reliability is long overdue! In the case of many operations, realization of sustained reliability is still a work in progress. Very few organizations have completed the journey to world-class reliability. The vast majority still operate within a reactive culture, allowing response to repetitive failures to consume an excessive proportion of already limited maintenance resources, and leaving too few for performance of any proactive activities. In today's competitive international environment, enterprise survival is a battle of the fittest. To survive, organizations must achieve "world-class" stature, characterized by wellness, readiness, and application required for a company to successfully compete globally. That's why Maintenance and Operational Reliability is so important. This work is organized by the foundation and 5 Pillars of Maintenance/Reliability Excellence, plus 24 Building Blocks, as depicted throughout the book. This pillar graphic shows the functions, management techniques, systems, information sources and performance management vital to the maintenance and reliability process, and also serves as an important visual aid for the education of the entire organization. So, how is the ultimate, but challenging reliability goal to be achieved? Are you prepared to manage, support, process, and interpret the magnitude of information in real time, critical to making the right business decisions to achieve a competitive advantage? The authors, two veteran maintenance and reliability experts, have collected all the essentials leading to reliability here, in one practical resource, connecting and sequencing the integral pieces for world-class reliability. Features Guides readers through the journey from classic reactive repair upon failure to reliable, proactive maintenance, engineered to preclude failure and, ultimately, to sustain reliability. Clarifies roles and responsibilities of involved functions while explaining control tools to be deployed by each position. Provides the overriding business justification required to gain senior management commitment.

Building a High-Reliability Organization: A Toolkit for Success Gary Sculli, RN, MSN, ATP Douglas E. Paull, MD, FACS, FCCP, CHSE Building a High-Reliability Organization: A Toolkit for Success is a practical guide to becoming a high-reliability organization (HRO). HROs practice the highest standards of patient quality and prevent never events before they occur. In this first-of-its-kind book, written for real-world healthcare professionals on the front lines of patient safety, authors Gary L. Sculli, RN, MSN, ATP, and Douglas E. Paull, MD, FACS, FCCP, CHSE, take the concept of an HRO and break down what it means at the point of care. Through step-by-step instructions and a practical, straightforward approach, they demonstrate how your organization can ensure safe patient care, every day, for every patient. After reading this book, you will: Possess a clear understanding of what constitutes high-reliability healthcare Be able to promote evidence-based, reliable methods to improve safety, including team training, fatigue management systems, and investment in patient safety infrastructure and technology Understand which elements and behaviors must be included in an overall plan to achieve high reliability at the front lines of care Become a transformational leader in your healthcare organization Be able to apply the principles of a fair and just culture to promote the reporting, discussion, and disclosure of adverse events Table of Contents: Preface and Precepts Chapter 1: Situational Awareness Is Fundamental to High Reliability Chapter 2: Situational Awareness Countermeasures Chapter 3: Everyone on the Same Sheet of Music Chapter 4: Yes--You Need to Use the Checklist! Chapter 5: Preoccupation With Failure--It's an Attitude Chapter 6: Recognizing That the Expert Is Not Always the Person in Charge Chapter 7: Lab Coats and Scrubs, Meet Suits and Ties--Sensitivity to Frontline Operations Chapter 8: Just Response to Human Error: A Necessary Component of High-Reliability Organizations Chapter 9: Standardize Communication and Processes to Create Equivalent Actors Chapter 10: Ensuring Technical and Non-Technical Competence

High Reliability Management is the first book to provide an in-depth and timely look at the people who manage for high reliability--professionals who run critical systems in electricity, water, and transportation. The book tells of the extraordinary challenges that these "reliability professionals" face in ensuring that society's basic systems operate continuously and safely, even in the wake of errors in policy and technical design.

This book explores the identified research gap and new field of study of organizational reliability. It develops a definition and theoretical internal structure of the notion of organizational reliability as well as a theoretical background describing the structure of its three pillars, and it showcases a set of organizational solutions dedicated for the enhancement of organizational reliability. The book explores the idea that there are new capabilities needed in every organization: reliability capabilities aiming at enhancing and sustaining the reliability of entire organizations and reliability of management, information technology and human resources. The reliability capabilities are understood as the abilities to anticipate and explore potential and occurring hazards, prevent and resolve disruptions, and learn from the problems in order to maintain a proper organizational performance in both normal and abnormal situations. Based on these three pillars, the book concerns the issue of various organizational solutions in order to indicate a set of them, which supports obtaining and maintaining organizational reliability. The book is recommended reading for researchers, academics and students in the fields of management, and entrepreneurs trying to boost the reliability of their organizations.

The overwhelming majority of a software system’s lifespan is spent in use, not in design or implementation. So, why does conventional wisdom insist that software engineers focus primarily on the design and development of large-scale computing systems? In this collection of essays and articles, key members of Google’s Site Reliability Team explain how and why their commitment to the entire lifecycle has enabled the company to successfully build, deploy, monitor, and maintain some of the largest software systems in the world. You’ll learn the principles and practices that enable Google engineers to make systems more scalable, reliable, and efficient—lessons directly applicable to your organization. This book is divided into four sections: Introduction—Learn what site reliability engineering is and why it differs from conventional IT industry practices Principles—Examine the patterns, behaviors, and areas of concern that influence the work of a site reliability engineer (SRE) Practices—Understand the theory and practice of an SRE’s day-to-day work: building and operating large distributed computing systems Management—Explore Google's best practices for training, communication, and meetings that your organization can use