Executive Course

When your executive management is attempting to implement very successful and productive scientific method of management such as Six Sigma, The Deming Method, TQM, or any of the Lean methods...

Or you are implementing an enterprise system such as SAP, Ross, etc. are you hearing any of these phrases?

"There is a corporate culture problem in that department that resists change!"
"You can't teach old dogs new tricks."
or "That department won't get with the program even though it works so well everywhere else."

My research and discoveries concerning the budgeting and management of dynamic and nonlinear systems will prove there is a real and valid reason for certain departments to resist a scientific method of management.

If you are an executive or manager responsible for implementing a scientific method of management into your organizational process but are encountering difficulties in certain areas then this seminar is for you. This seminar addresses the point in a process where the scientific method of management seems to lose effectiveness. I call this point the Linear/Nonlinear Boundary and it is where management encounters difficulty pressing a scientific method to the end of the process. At this boundary upper management begins to hear phrases listed above.

These phrases are dead giveaways that a process has become nonlinear, not measurable, and impossible to predict future performance. These workers and managers on the nonlinear process resist because they know the scientific method will not work in their application.

This seminar will prove that there are many operational areas that cannot be measured
and will never be controlled by a scientific method of management.
In fact, the budgeting techniques taught in our business schools and MBA programs
will actually create operational failures, excessive maintenance costs, and
unsafe working conditions when applied to nonlinear challenges.

It is not because the scientific methods are flawed, it is simply because there is always a point where any process will cease to be linear, become nonlinear, and therefore unpredictable. All scientific methods to control linear processes such as refineries, high-speed manufacturing, banking, etc. depend on some combination of a few steps such as Define, MEASURE, Analyze, and Improve to Control. These methods work so well in their linear applications that management has good reason to believe that the scientific solution could be pushed to the end of the process if they have more and more, and better and better data points measuring the process.

Because of my research and experience with dynamic and nonlinear processes,
I no longer believe this to be true and teach why!
In a dynamic and nonlinear process you will never be able to predict the future no matter how many data points you have. Therefore, attempting to budget will trigger the "Inverse-Square Rule for Deferred Maintenance" and all attempted savings will be wiped out with an exponential expense.

By applying Dr. Lorenz's research with nonlinear systems, I show that once a business process becomes nonlinear it becomes impossible to accurately measure the problem and therefore impossible to control the process. However, just because a process cannot be controlled does not mean that it cannot be managed to a significantly lower cost.

Just because the manager of a nonlinear system cannot predict what their operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses will be for the next year:

Does not mean they are a bad manager. It simply means that the problem cannot be measured.
Does not mean that they cannot produce the lowest cost per unit of production possible.

This seminar offers information that will allow upper management to recognize the Linear/Nonlinear Boundary in their process and offer a better tool to budget and manage operations, maintenance, and safety in this arena. I have discovered a quick test to identify the Linear/Nonlinear Boundary:

"The Linear/Nonlinear Boundary begins at the point where an
architect, engineer, or accountant is no longer responsible for
directly observing the process." ~ David Geaslin

I offer an alternate method to manage that which is not measurable and cannot be controlled. It is simple and elegant and does not require a change in organizational structure or accounting systems. The only thing you have to change is your mind concerning managing nonlinear systems.

I am a Consultant, not an Insultant. Engineers, process engineers, accountants, MBA and other professionals tend to have great difficulty with this philosophy if they think I am asking them to replace the business and process controls they have so carefully constructed. This philosophy does not conflict with, but actually compliments, other management philosophies such as Six Sigma, The Deming Method, TQM, etc. and accounting control systems such as SAP, Ross, MainSaver, etc.

My new philosophy simply appends to Six Sigma, etc. at the point
where they become not measurable, nonlinear, and unpredictable.

This seminar is targeted to the CEO, CFO, COO, General Manager, Management and the Process Managers by offering a better understanding of the root-causes and cost-drivers of operations and maintenance spending and apply this knowledge to better the management, budgeting, and support of the end user and customer. The entire focus is to allow the organization's leadership to reallocate needed resources at the proper time to create the lowest O & M cost per unit of production possible.

We explain and prove:

(1) Why maintenance budgets fail to perform past the Linear/Nonlinear Boundary.

(2) What trigger initiates these budget failures.

(3) Offer a SELF-FINANCING solution to the lowest O & M cost per unit of production possible.

(4) And how to create a "Corporate Memory" for Operations, Maintenance, and Safety that allows lessons-learned to be retained across multiple fiscal periods, turnover in technical personnel, and leadership changes to assure continued optimum O&M planning and funding.

This solution puts the executive into the leadership loop and lets them apply their management experience to the nonlinear challenges associated with operating their factories, refineries, facilities, equipment, and vehicles. Please see the Client List below to see the many organizations that have invested in this new management philosophy.

Seminar Content

1st Hour	*WHY NONLINEAR O&M BUDGETS FAIL* *Geaslin's "Inverse-Square Rule for Deferred Maintenance"* If a part is known t be failing, but left in service until the next level of failure, the resultant expense will be the SQUARE of the primary failure part. A study of this rule demonstrates that the true risk/reward ratio for deferring maintenance is not 2:1 or 5:1 but over 30:1. Understanding the true cost of deferring maintenance and how the "Inverse-Square Rule" takes over a maintenance effort and wrecks operational plans and creates safety issues.
2nd Hour	*WHAT TRIGGERS THE O&M BUDGET FAILURE* We examine nonlinear, dynamic systems and prove why it is not possible to predict future performance in nonlinear systems. We then apply this knowledge to the budgeting techniques used today. The existing MBA budgeting techniques, that work so well in every other aspect of business, are actually creating budget failures and causing operational, maintenance, and safety problems when applied to nonlinear systems. Understanding which O&M functions are nonlinear explains most budget failures and lights the path to a better technique for O&M funding.
3rd Hour	*SELF-FINANCING PLAN FOR MAINTENANCE IMPROVEMENT* When you attempt to force O&M spending into specific lumps of time (Budgeting) that does not meet the minimum needs of the process, it triggers the "Inverse-Square Rule for Deferred Maintenance" and the budget will fail exponentially. Our new philosophy for managing O&M is a simple redirection of certain organizational resources at a specific time to create enough financial leverage to create a positive cash flow and recoup enough maintenance man/hours to create a recovery and improvement that is self-financing.
4th Hour	CREATING A "CORPORATE MEMORY" FOR O&M - How to remember "lessons learned" across multiple fiscal periods, turnover in technical personnel, and changes in leadership.
Lunch	*Provided*
Afternoon	*OPTIONAL WORKSHOP OR DISCUSSION GROUPS*

Executive Solutions to Nonlinear Operations, Maintenance & Safety Challenges

Executive Solutions to Nonlinear Operations,
Maintenance & Safety Challenges