"A Long Habit of not Thinking a Thing Wrong" --- Common Sense and Latent Root Causes of Industrial Failures

Over the course of years of basic trouble-shooting and failure analysis of equipment in an industrial environment, one thing has become clear to the presenter. In the words of 1770’s American patriot Thomas Paine, “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it the superficial appearance of being right." Common sense: If something is continually failing, something is not right. Through the use of several industrial failure examples, the presenter will discuss personal experiences in determining the physical, human and latent (i.e. organizational) causes of failures. But of greater value, experiences will be shared with how the physical, human and latent causes were resolved. The equipment examples will include: generator cooling pumps; coal pulverizers; bearing failures; lubrication problems; maintenance practices; etc.. The industrial examples to be shared, all have one significant root cause in common that every trouble-shooter and failure analyst should keep in mind.