OUR STORY
The very, very beginning
The story of how SJC Solutions came to be, really starts off with the life and career of Steve Coates, President & Consultant. As a kid, Steve was a compulsive inventor of mechanical devices - go karts, super-powered bikes, backyard ice rink-flooding contraptions and tobogganing equipment his mom would cringe hearing about. The word 'can't' was just not part of little
Steve's vocabulary.
After completing his degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto, Steve continued to develop process improvements within the oil and gas industry. Most of these improvements worked, some did not, but having no formal training in Failure Analysis, Murphy's Law was thought to be the reason. It wasn't until joining the automotive industry that Steve realized the failures you don't find will eventually find you.
Exposure to Structured Risk Analysis
About 15 years into his career, Steve entered the automotive part manufacturing industry, which was governed by a strict system of quality control. This system was based on a Structured Risk Analysis method, meant to identify all potential failures and their root causes. The output was a set of controls to prevent the occurrence of faulty parts making their way to customers.
After too many faulty part experiences, it became obvious that the risk analysis was not effective, primarily due to the engineers not understanding how to structure the analysis to find all the potential failures and their root causes. To change this situation, Steve created a new paradigm for looking at success and therefore identifying failure. This 'success is the absence of failure' paradigm extends to any endeavor because success is the goal for everyone, in every field.
Sharing the expertise
Steve's risk analysis paradigm was used in his workplace to educate several engineering departments and leadership on setting targets, making plans and analyzing them thoroughly. In order to spread the knowledge in an academic setting, Steve developed a graduate course for the University of Toronto, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, called Failure Analysis.
In this weekly course, Steve and his graduate students explore real-life professional scenarios, as well as formal theory on the topic. Giving back to the school from which he graduated decades before has instilled Steve's faith in preparing the next generation of professionals using structured risk analysis to provide clients with high quality solutions.
Our 'why?'
Our structured risk analysis is based on several realizations about why the word 'failure' is avoided and therefore not recognized. In order to eliminate the 'F-word' for clients, it must be identified and thoroughly solved for - that's why SJC Solutions exists.
At SJC Solutions, our mission is to pinpoint what's not working, where and why, and create effective, durable solutions to meet or exceed your organization's targets.