Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

Learn how to eliminate unnecessary reactivity and manage the remainder

Assets Anonymous is a 12-step podcast series designed to help you get grounded in reliability basics and create a culture of continuous improvement with your team. This series will feature interviews with George Williams and Joe Anderson of ReliabilityX. ReliabilityX aims to bridge the gap between operations and maintenance through holistic reliability focused on plant performance. The first episode in the series focuses on understanding reactivity.

Changing plant culture: It’s all about the people

David Frye, CMRP, CRL, is principal at Legacy TPM Partners, and has more than 45 years of experience with reliability, starting with U.S. Navy weapon systems and then working for 21½ years at Kodak. He then became corporate director for reliability and maintenance excellence at Kaiser Aluminum, and then spent 10 more years at Kimberly-Clark, helping to lead global reliability. Plant Services Editor in Chief Thomas Wilk spoke with David in a wide-ranging podcast interview soon after connecting at the RPM Symposium in Kalamazoo, MI.

How plants can thrive in the sustainable moment

Larry West is a sales engineer for Perceptive Controls who recently gave a compelling presentation at the 2021 RPM Symposium in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Larry's presentation, "Controls ans SCADA – How they support energy savings and sustainability," explored how a well-developed control and SCADA system can identify and solve unnecessary energy usage without affecting output. Plant Services Editor in Chief Thomas Wilk spoke with Larry, who shared some insights from his presentation, including common situations where energy can be saved in process and machine operations.

Kick-start your plant’s digital programs in 2022

Sam Hoff is the president and CEO of Patti Engineering, a Certified member of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA). Under Sam’s leadership, Patti Engineering has become a leader in applications of Industry 4.0 and digital twining to improve manufacturing through AI and data science. Plant Service spoke with Sam early last year about how maintenance teams can get their digital programs off the ground, and Sam checked in recently with Editor in Chief Thomas Wilk about what teams can do to kick-start these programs in 2022.

Learn why plants are re-thinking their on-site maintenance teams

Brad Budde leads the Digital Customer Experience Program for Emerson Automation Solutions, working on digitizing workflows both internally and with customers. Recently Plant Services Editor in Chief Thomas Wilk spoke with Brad about how digital technologies are helping organizations build new partnerships and re-think the way traditional on-site maintenance teams are staffed.

Reveal and control compressed air costs with system monitoring

In this final episode of The Hidden Costs of Compressed Air series, Matt McCorkle and Neil Mehltretter discuss how system monitoring can help facilities identify and control some of the hidden costs we’ve discussed in previous episodes. Keeping an eye on pressure as well as the status of compressors and dryers are a few examples of how to avoid issues. We talk about how to better manage critical compressed air assets by collecting and reviewing data and leveraging the built-in communications capabilities that most current compressed air equipment offers.

Technological advances in asset management

Mike Reed is the Manager of AVEVA’s AI Center for Excellence. He has over 25 years of experience in engineering and operations of electrical power plants, both in the U.S. and globally, and is experienced in mechanical engineering design, construction, startup, and operations. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; a M.S. in Systems Management from the University of Southern California; and is a U.S. Army Veteran. Plant Services Editor-in-Chief Thomas Wilk spoke with Mike about how AI and machine learning are going to transform asset performance management.

Safeguarding your assets in a world of IT-OT convergence

Rick Kaun is VP Solutions at Verve Industrial Protection and has worked in the industrial sector for more than 20 years on a wide variety of IT security projects. Plant Services Editor-in-Chief Thomas Wilk spoke with Rick recently about what plants are doing to safeguard their OT assets in a world where IT and OT infrastructures are increasingly converging.

SMRP‘s 29th Annual Conference: Advance your skills to improve processes at your plant

The Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) is a nonprofit professional society formed by practitioners to develop and promote excellence in maintenance, reliability, and physical asset management while creating leaders in the profession. With over 6,250 members worldwide, SMRP provides value for individual practitioners and professionals looking to expand their knowledge and skills and build more business connections with others.
The SMRP Annual Conference is a maintenance and reliability event that brings together more than 1,000 attendees from all over the world. The conference also provides professional development, networking and tour opportunities. Thomas Wilk recently spoke with Adrian Messer, leader of strategic accounts for UE Systems, about what to expect at this year's SMRP Conference in St. Louis.

Preparing for disruptions and building a more resilient supply chain

Per Hong is a partner at Kearney focused on Strategic Operations, and the lead partner for the company’s relationship with the World Economic Forum relationship. He has a 25-year career working with clients across a range of industries to mitigate disruption in their global supply chains and help them build long-term strategic advantage. In July, Kearney and the World Economic Forum released a report titled “The Resiliency Compass, Navigating Global Value Chain Disruption in an Age of Uncertainty”, and he spoke with Editor in Chief Thomas Wilk about some of the key findings.