New Year???s Resolution, Revelation or Resignation ??? Your Choice

Every New Year’s Eve, something special happens when the clock strikes midnight. We come up with a plan to eat better, exercise more and take time to smell the flowers along the way — a resolution. We imagine the different and wonderful life we’ll live if we just stick to it — a revelation. Then one day rolls into another and we go about our work as usual — a resignation.

When you return to work after the holidays, ask your process automation installed base what it wants to do with the new year. Get a cup of coffee, sit in front of the HMI and just listen while your GUI pours out its CPU to you. OK, that’s not going to happen, and if you sit there too long talking to the interface you’ll question your own sanity. However, there is a way to let the process automation installed base talk to you.

Do an assessment and analyze the data. The data will “talk” to you if you let it — that understanding is part of my DNA, as a Six Sigma MBB. You have to have the information to do the analysis. To get the information, you need to do the assessment. To do the assessment, you need a plan, and plans begin with resolving yourself to action.

So how about it? Will you resolve to sit down and listen to your process, or do you want to wait until there’s a real problem that could result in the loss of real dollars? Enjoy your cup of coffee, and have a happy new year.