Condition Monitoring, Troubleshooting and Reliability in Rotating Machinery

20Soft Skills and Habits that All Machinery Professionals Need to Develop

By Robert X. Perez

When you ask people that work around machinery, “How do you improve reliability?”, they ‘ll often tell you need to buy better bearings, better seals, or better monitors or with some other hardware based improvement. Most reliability folks believe design improvements are the primary means of improving reliability. However, I believe that some non-technical skills and habits can also have a dramatic effect on the reliability bottom line. After over 30 years of machinery experience in operating plants, I have learned to appreciate the importance of employing effective communication and assessment techniques when interfacing with mechanics and operators in order to solve complex machinery problems.

Some of these techniques fall into the general category referred to as soft skills. Wikipedia defines soft skills as “a combination of interpersonal people skills, social skills, communication skills, character traits, attitudes, career attributes and emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) among others that enable people to effectively navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals with complementing hard skills.” In this article, I will cover the following basic soft skills in addition to some good habits that all machinery personnel should strive to continuously develop:

Soft Skills:

1. Asking probing questions
2. Listening more carefully
3. Observing (see