洞察力 2024年7月22日

Critical infrastructure, complacency creep and how to avoid it

关键资产和基础设施的弹性真的会导致自满吗?

“是的，”Mitie公司负责国家空中交通管制的战略客户总监艾伦·拉塞尔说.

After starting out as an engineering apprentice, Alan在资产维护和保持基本澳博官方网站顺利运行方面拥有近30年的专业知识.

在他的职业生涯中, 艾伦什么都见过——从在eBay上购买稀有的备件，到在做事的过程中沾沾自喜的倾向.

For the fourth instalment in the Mitie Perspectives series, 艾伦反思了“自满蔓延”以及如何在你的组织中防范它.

There have been a few ‘pinch yourself’ moments in my career.

其中一次是当我进入英国最繁忙的交通枢纽之一下面的一个空水库时. 这是一个巨大的，大教堂般的空间，隐藏在地下，通常是人眼看不到的.

我和组员一起检查它的结构是否完好，是否能正常运行. 我们系上安全带，带着应急氧气罐，做出了积极的评估. It was surreal emerging back into the world, 知道水库会再次被填满，然后再隐藏20年左右.

That check was incredibly important; today, it’s the norm for things to work. 如果人们在交通枢纽打开水龙头，他们希望水能从里面出来. Just as they’ll expect public WiFi to connect and transport to be on time. With advances in 科技nology, user expectation has increased exponentially.

Over the years, I’ve noticed habits and behaviours 工程界内部 that jeopardise the seamless services we’ve all come to expect. And it’s often due to the resilience that keeps things ticking over smoothly.

我希望以下四点考虑能给你一些启发，并有助于保持创新, uninterrupted infrastructure and services at your organisation.

Normalising risk is risky business

弹性意味着创建备份以确保关键系统和基础设施继续运行. Single points of failure aren’t an option. For example, if one problem was enough to bring down 移动电话数据中心, thousands of people would be massively inconvenienced. 这就是为什么有这么多的系统来防止基础设施的破坏.

Despite this, I’ve noticed the normalisation of risk becoming more prevalent. 我认为原因在于，你知道自己的产能大于需求，这是一种“安慰毯”. If one of four boilers breaks down in the summer, 他们的回答可能是:‘好吧, 我们要到冬天才用. 我们可以推迟维修.’ There’s a lack of urgency in such a response. 从风险的角度来看，如果您知道操作系统或资产受损，风险就会增加. Heightened risk leads to a higher probability of operational impact. So, don’t fall into the trap of thinking there’s no risk with risk. You may well live to regret it.

文化 and the rulebook go hand-in-hand

Rules and regulations are important for maintaining 关键基础设施. However, making sure they are kept is the ultimate responsibility of people. So, when mitigating complacency, you are heavily reliant on colleagues. Connecting individuals with the organisation’s purpose, and educating about being part of something bigger, is an effective strategy to keep performance where it should be.

有一个关于克里斯托弗·雷恩爵士参观圣保罗大教堂建筑工地的故事. 在一次访问中，他问了三个泥瓦匠他们在做什么，得到了三个不同的回答.

“我在砌砖.”

“我在建一堵墙.”

“I’m helping to build a magnificent cathedral.”

The third bricklayer was absolutely correct. 他明白，他是团队的一员，正在建设如今世界上最具标志性的建筑之一.

To mitigate complacency, you must bring people along and get their buy-in. 这不仅仅是遵守规则和修理一个泵或一个配电板. 同事们必须意识到他们正在创造安全、可靠的资产和系统. 这给最终用户带来了舒适和信心，当他们需要的时候，事情就会起作用.

To safeguard against complacency in 关键基础设施, everyone must understand the output and what is being achieved. 让人们觉得自己每天都是第三个砌砖工，你就在创造正确的文化.

eBay的零件可能会让你付出高昂的代价

It can be complicated to replace old assets in 关键基础设施. 总有一天，这些资产不再需要维修，需要安装新设备.

Admitting this is the case isn’t always easy. 我听说过在eBay上为过时的基础设施购买零件的例子, 只是为了让事情继续下去. 人们会竭尽全力推迟重大变革带来的痛苦，我理解其中的原因. 比起让设备停止使用并面对随之而来的不便和成本，付出这样的努力来保持设备的正常运行通常要容易得多.

这是一种自满. It’s people thinking: “We’ll get another year out of that,” or, “We won’t replace that boiler until spring.” Then an issue crops up and it doesn’t happen, which means there is more chance of a breakdown in service later on. Short-termism is also a false economy. The cost of a forced replacement, rather than a scheduled one that’s been budgeted for, can easily become the more expensive option. So, there’s a business case for updating obsolete assets too.

重要的是要保持创新，不要自满或依赖老化的资产. Replace what needs to be replaced. Short-term pain for long-term gain.

Fail to prepare…Prepare to fail

If you’re tempted to buy a spare part on eBay, ask how you arrived at the situation in the first place. 如果有一个有效的资产置换计划，你就不会面临这样的“下游”情况。. 预见性维护 is one way Mitie helps customers mitigate against systems failures. 这意味着资产将被全天候监控，性能澳博国际官网将被标记，以显示哪些资产有“崩溃”的风险。. This allows for timely replacement or repairs.

How you manage operational and asset risk on a day-to-day, month-to-month and year-to-year basis must be given sufficient focus. Firstly, always have a plan B and C in your back pocket. Plan A is the perfect day – the type you’re aiming for, when it’s boring and predictable and everything’s working as it should. Plan B is when something fails but it’s not a critical event. Plan C is required at Armageddon stage. If something goes badly wrong, you must have a plan to bring it back.

其次，测试你的计划. This is no time for complacence. 我曾见过很多将备用发电机写入业务连续性计划的情况. 然后出现了电源故障，发现发电机不合适. 你必须定期回顾这些计划，并确保它们在意外发生时有效. 其他都是自满.