Publications

Hop's books have become the primary resource for successful plant operations in many industries throughout the United States and abroad. The Industrial Operator's Handbook, 2nd Edition, TechStar's flagship publication, is a standard reference for industries from nuclear power plants to oil refineries. Hop's Maintenance and the Safety Envelope, a companion book to The Industrial Operator's Handbook, helps the technical workforce achieve greater productivity through reduced maintenance errors.

Failed leadership is frequently at the heart of industrial accidents. Leaders who don’t instill the disciplines of systematic operations and maintenance within their industrial teams increase the likelihood an accident.

To address the importance of leading well, TechStar has written and developed the text and accompanying seminar, Trustworthy Leaders. Both book and seminar examine the characteristics and skills that underlie effective leadership and have helped numerous facilities to clarify leadership roles and enhance their management teams. These books are a must read for anyone in industry, relief foreman to CEO.

The Industrial Operator's Handbook

The 20th century saw commercial and industrial disasters ranging from the sinking of Titanic sinking in 1912 to Challenger explosion and Chernobyl in 1986. In 1989 the Exxon-Valdez grounded in Prince William Sound, spilling 256,000 barrels of oil, and in the same year a high-density polyethylene plant exploded, killing 23.

Accidents seem unavoidable. But did you know that more than five people had ample opportunity to prevent the Exxon-Valdez oil spill? Each could have taken a different, simple action, any one of which would have been sufficient to break the chain of events to make that accident impossible.

The Industrial Operator's Handbook demonstrates through real-life case studies how most accidents, whether Chernobyl, a commuter plane crash, or a utility crew electrocution accident, all share strikingly similar causal components. And almost never is only one factor sufficient to cause disaster.

Trustworthy Leaders

Trustworthy Leaders analyzes examples of leadership situations to determine effective and ineffective leadership techniques. Fundamental leadership principles, traits and skills are presented with real-world applications. The three-day course includes TechStar's Temperament Questionnaire© and personality analysis.

Maintenance and the Safety Envelope

Since first publication of The Industrial Operator's Handbook in 1995, we have been overwhelmed by the response of industry to the concepts presented in that work. Thousands of readers have consulted that text for application in their industries and thousands more (operators, maintenance technicians, laboratory analysts, engineers, and managers at all levels) have participated in the seminars we have presented.

Human Performance Trilogy

The Human Performance Trilogy is a useful supplement in your quest to reduce the accidents and close calls that are the result of human error. The Human Performance Trilogy consists of Operator's Handbook, 2nd Edition, Maintenance and the Safety Envelope, and Trustworthy Leaders.