Socrates Says

Critical Thinking Skills

April 25, 2023/in Guest Bloggers, Jim Dettore/by Caroline Slee-Poulos

Critical Thinking Skills

Guest writer Jim Dettore brings the importance of critical thinking skills into the work we all do in our industry with today’s blog.

Heavy construction equipment plays a crucial role in various industries, including construction, mining, and agriculture. However, like any other mechanical device, these machines are susceptible to failure, leading to equipment downtime, costly repairs, and even safety hazards. Therefore, it’s essential to conduct root cause failure analysis to identify the underlying causes of equipment failure and take corrective action to prevent similar incidents in the future. This is where critical thinking skills come in.

Critical thinking skills are essential for analyzing complex problems and making informed decisions based on available evidence. The root cause failure analysis of heavy construction equipment failures requires a systematic and analytical approach to identify the contributing factors and develop effective solutions. Often, it can be summed up as the forensic analysis of metal destruction. In this blog, we will discuss some critical thinking skills that can help in conducting root cause failure analysis of heavy construction equipment failures.

Data collection: Collecting relevant data is the first step in conducting root cause failure analysis. Critical thinking skills involve the ability to identify relevant data sources, gather information from various sources, and evaluate the quality and reliability of the data.
Problem analysis: Once the data is collected, the next step is to analyze the problem systematically. This involves breaking down the problem into smaller parts, identifying the contributing factors, and determining the relationships between them. Critical thinking skills help in identifying patterns and trends, as well as evaluating the significance of the factors contributing to the equipment failure.
Hypothesis testing: After identifying the contributing factors, critical thinking skills help in developing hypotheses to explain the problem. This involves creating a plausible explanation of how the equipment failure occurred and evaluating it against available evidence. Hypothesis testing requires the ability to assess the validity of the evidence and determine whether the hypothesis is consistent with the available data.
Decision making: Once the hypotheses are evaluated, critical thinking skills help in making informed decisions based on available evidence. This involves evaluating the pros and cons of different solutions, considering the potential risks and benefits, and selecting the most appropriate course of action.
Continuous improvement: Critical thinking skills also involve a willingness to learn from past failures and improve continuously. This involves conducting regular equipment maintenance, monitoring performance, and analyzing failures to identify ways to prevent similar incidents in the future.

In conclusion, critical thinking skills are essential for conducting root cause failure analysis of heavy construction equipment failures. They help in identifying relevant data sources, analyzing problems systematically, developing hypotheses, making informed decisions, and continuously improving equipment performance. By applying critical thinking skills, heavy construction equipment operators and maintenance personnel can prevent equipment failures, reduce downtime, and improve safety, productivity, and profitability.

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TESTIMONIALS

Metrics For Your Website

Today's guest blog is from Mets Kramer, sharing knowledge about the metrics you need for your website, and understanding your digital traffic to better engage your audience.

You use metrics for every other part of your business, so it’s time to learn more about them for your digital marketing, specifically your website. This is a continuation of my previous blog on Engagement Digital Marketing.

Growing up and working in the equipment business, we are all familiar with metrics. My first experience with them was the measurement of invoice days, or rather days between last labour and invoice date. As service supervisor, I learned it was a good indication of one aspect of our operational efficiency. Later, I would learn invoice days was one of several metrics which would provide a complete picture of the efficiency of the operation. For example, I found receivables days was a complement to invoice days, and if we invoiced too fast, with poor quality, receivables lingered.

Your digital marketing work is no different from your other business operations. Metrics, or measurements, help you understand what is happening with you digital marketing efforts. What each of us need to do, is understand what the metrics mean, how they relate, and how you can affect them. It is also important to pick a set of metrics that drive to something valuable for your business, not just target numbers that seem good.

In this blog I would like to look at a few common metrics for your dealership website. They are Visitors, Bounce Rate, Average time per page/session and Conversions.

Visitors are great! Of course, we want traffic to our websites, if no one visits, does it really exist? But what does it mean? Think of Visitor traffic as the top of your funnel (or crusher if you prefer). It tells us how many people have visited the website and had a look at the pages they landed on. Visitors can enter the site through the main page, or directly to specific pages using links on other sites. Either way, it is the starting measurement. Having high traffic levels sounds great, and is certainly better than very low, but the other metrics will tell us more about what happened when those visitors viewed the site.

Bounce rate: this is a very common metric used by internet people, partially because it sounds fun. Bounce rate measures the number of people who landed on your site and then left without looking at any other pages. This means bounce rate, on its own, is not a great measure of success, or of a good website. A very high bounce rate is generally an indication that people have low engagement with your site, and so warrants investigation. However, if you are bringing people directly to your site, targeting specific pages, a high bounce rate needs to be viewed alongside a metric such as Average time on page to understand what it means.   For now, consider bounce rate a measure of “are people clicking to other pages on my site before they leave”

So that’s the first two, we have people coming to the site, and we know if they are clicking around or not.

The next measure is average time per page or per session. How long are people spending on each page, and how long is each session. For Bounce rate, a high rate is often considered bad, but if you are driving traffic directly to a page, like this blog, and the visitors are spending enough time on the page to read it, average time on page can be a measure of success, even if they bounce after reading.   Remember our Digital Marketing strategy is a strategy of engagement, so more time spent on your site means higher engagement, even if they only visit one page. For other visitors, look at how long they spend on the site or pages, it should match the content on the page to determine what a good metric target is.

Finally, Conversion Rate. In the end, for equipment dealers, your websites should be more than just information sites. Our sites should be designed for action. This is often called a “call to action” when reading about website performance. Just like we talk about a complete set of metrics for other business areas, Conversion Rate is important final goal for measuring website engagement. Conversion Rate can be determined using a contact form, a button to call your dealership or generating a lead in your CRM. Typically, an average conversion rate is 2%, but as with all these metrics, it depends on numerous other factors of your site. It is important to see your engagement digital marketing efforts in relation to conversion rate, a tangible result.

Collecting these measurements can be done with numerous tools.   The most obvious is Google Analytics, but there are WordPress plugins that do the same, and other content systems have their own dashboards as well. The important thing is to get them set up and use them.

Obviously, this topic is extensive, and I can not provide a comprehensive explanation in one blog. I hope each of you understands a little more about what website metrics mean, how they relate and how they can guide your digital marketing efforts. If your dealership has a website, and you are investing money in your digital marketing, it is important to understand the value you are getting for your investment.

All these metrics apply to all forms of traffic, including referrals, organic and paid. In my next blog I will look at these topics from the perspective of paid traffic.

If you would like to learn more, or want to get some help with these topics, please contact me and I would be happy to explain or put your in touch with some trusted people that can help you execute.

For more information on our classes and assessments, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

January 26, 2021

I am sharing a series of quotes for Friday Filosophy #2015-16.

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.

Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but not power to escape the necessity of choice.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.

If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.

Happiness is the state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.

The ladder of success is best climbed on the rungs of opportunity.

So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked, what is the root of all money?

There are two sides to every issues: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.

It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody decided not to see.

Rights are not a matter of numbers – and there can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob.

The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.

That is the power of a THINKER. Those are some quotes from Ayn Rand – the woman who so many disparage because she speaks so clearly and so truthfully that it scares those who are oppressors. They are oppressors in the name of protecting others, when in fact they are trying to control all.

On a personal note, I support freedom for everyone who wants to do, to act and explore. But I do not support anyone who tries to limit me by limiting my options and choices.

Please read and enjoy the quotes, and think about them if you will. Thanks.

The time is now.

April 18, 2015

Critical Thinking Skills

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