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How to Address a Problem?

Overview

It can be hard to see the forest for the trees sometimes, especially when under time pressure.

To get a clearer picture of what may be affecting you, we suggest that you start with a risk-based rational analysis of your particular situation.

Are large values at stake, whether human, environmental, or economic?
Is the problem site easily physically accessible?
Is time of the essence?
Do you have more than one shot at solving your problem?
Are you lacking resources or knowledge?

Answering the above questions will help you understand your budget, time constraints and the consequences of potential failure. This will guide you to what kind of help you need.

Help you can get is:

Resource: A person that may require your guidance or training to accomplish a task. A resource is typically an employee that you hire for a longer period of time and with proper training becomes a value-add for your company.
Consultant:A person that is self-motivated and can typically work on the problem at hand with minimal effort from you.
Specialist: A person with a specific knowledge or skillset. A specialist may require guidance if the problem is multi-disciplinary.
Advisor: A senior colleague with more than 10 years of experience in solving different types of problems in her/his field. There is a difference between having 10 years of experience and having 1 year of experience 10 times, i.e. solving different problems versus solving the same problem over and over again. An advisor should be able to help you locate consultants and specialists and assist you in successfully understanding and solving problems.

Expect there to be differences in the help you can hire.

For vibration, pulsation, noise, and stress there are resources that:

Focus on the benefits of the workforce.
Focus on the benefits of equipment.
Focus on the benefits of company structure.
Know how to work with one or a few specific products.
Understand things in general, but do not have direct knowledge about a particular problem or product.
Know how to maintain products.
Know how to develop products.
Know how to verify products.

The different skillsets are your hammer, screwdrivers and pliers: with a variety of skillsets at your disposal, your toolkit will be complete.

A hammer may be very useful in some situations, but it makes a poor screwdriver and vice versa.

If you are restricted to a single tool, you must decide on what compromises to make and ask yourself if- or how- they may affect the job to be done.

To better understand different kinds of help, we recommend that you brush up on your own skillsets by looking at this material. Link

Brainfood

Listed below are some ideas to serve as food for thought in looking for the resource you need. These serve only as rough guidelines, but may suggest new ways of looking at your potential workforce.

If you know what the problem is and just need someone do the job for you, we suggest that you look for people with freshly minted university degrees.

If you want to retain a resource for a very long time, consider training someone within your organisation.

If you are lacking knowledge but have time, seek advice from a consultant, specialist or advisor. When doing this, make sure you keep the following in mind:

Ask more than a single source to make sure the advice is consistent between sources.
If your industry field has system-level providers, try to contact project managers or company specialists to identify suitable help.
Take a look at our suggested reading list to improve your buyer competence for the field of sound, pulsation, and vibration.
If the above suggestions fail, seek advisor guidance.

If you only have a single shot at nailing the problem, it is useful to seek advisor-level input, making sure it comes from more than a single source, especially if large values are at stake.

When large values are at stake and time is of the essence, try to find the most competent advice that you can in the time available.

Core values to look for are the ability to work independently and that the person you bring to site is aptly tooled.
A consultant or specialist can be augmented by an advisor that operates as background support.

In some situations, physical access may be limited or require special training that simply takes too long to complete. In this situation, we suggest that you consider:

Specialist companies. An internet search can help you locate such companies. Even if you do not know what professional buzzwords to use, you definitely know your kind of machinery or process. Search for papers addressing your type of problems, machinery and processes or your industry/environment type.
Active use of knowledge dissemination. The crucial factor here is to get some data at all, i.e. apply Speed before Splendour.
Use your own staff to make actual measurements using equipment that is set up by someone more specialised. The data can later be analysed by someone else.

If the you still do not have the answers that you seek,
we suggest that you consider a Qring speciality: Technobabble, i.e. an open minded discussion on your problem.

To contact us for a Technobabble, send us an email or give us a call and we will see if we can offer some insights or guidance.