Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Troubleshooting by Tony Green


The scenario is along these lines. A complex mechanical electro system is not functioning. As this system is producing revenue creating its designed product there is a lot of money at stake if the system is not brought back to normal operation quickly. Your job is to repair the equipment and return it to operation.
Where do you start? There could be an infinite amount of things that may have caused the problem. You realize that the pressure cooker is about to begin unless progress is made.
Suddenly you remember the seven step troubleshooting procedure you learned while you were in the Navy as a nuke.
You identify and elaborate on the symptoms, identify the list possible faulty components, and narrow down that list to the one that you suspect is causing your problem and finally create a possible retest procedure after performing a root cause analysis.
Yet, the system is still not working. You relax and try a few more things. As this process occurs you ensure that you are thinking positive thoughts as you have initially been stumped yet were eventually successful. After a few additional adjustments to your list of what may be causing the problem you find your culprit and the system is brought back into operation.
After breathing a sigh of relief that the crisis has been averted and receiving kudos from management you reflect on how you got the job done once more.
In the end you used two things: a process of determining the problem and a true belief that you would figure out the solution. Yes, with that you can fix anything…

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