A Reluctance to Innovate?

We are commenting on repairs, so this is a plant that is already in production. Down time will cost anything from a few hundred to many thousands of £/$ per hour. Replacement with the existing part/system is proven technology without risk. Replacement with innovative technology carries the risk that the plant will remain out of commission longer, and the new system may not work as well as the old one. There could be retraining costs involved, or engineering stock holding issues if this is one of many on the same plant.

As a consultant engineer I am all for innovation, but it has to happen in the correct context. When the plant is stopped and costing the company money, that is the wrong time to ask management to consider an unproven solution unless, the new option carries zero risk and is more cost effective, or it will prevent the same problem recurring, or it will get the plant running substantially sooner.

If you identify a possible improvement as a result of a breakdown. Get the plant running first and then propose changes to the management. It will improve the chances of you proposal being accepted.

100% agreed - plant operational availability is all that counts as that leads to maximum annual production.

The question was obviously written by someone who has never been involved in a plant operations or maintenance program.

The plant people can not afford to be blind but making even a small change can lead to a disaster.

The reason managers and those in charge are reluctant to innovate, is that those people rarely have the expertise to know if the proposed solution is in fact better. You have to have a team in place that has confidence in the person proposing the change and that persons ability to implement the new idea seamlessly. We have had many innovations put in place at times of breakdown simply because it's when we receive the best return on investment. Although this is not our standard operating procedure it shouldn't be overlooked as a method of improvement.

If inventors are credited for their work without legal problems they will definitely come forward with new ideas. The present patent laws are outdated as they accept first to file not first to invent. When a genius invent something they should allow him to patent his idea(valued in billions) without allowing a design engineer to prepare to drawings etc(vlaued very less) and get patent simply because he has design experience. For instance Leonardo Da Vinci made sketches of many devices including the helicopter but someone who designed and built got honoured. We should change this world.