Mike Sondalini

In engineering and maintenance since 1974, his career extends across original equipment manufacturing, beverage production, steel fabrication, industrial chemical manufacturing, quality management, project management, industrial asset management and industrial training. His specialty is helping capital equipment intensive companies build sound business risk management practices, introduce world-class lean practices, develop ultra-high reliable enterprise asset management systems and instil the precision maintenance skills needed to continually improve plant uptime.

His more than 35 years in engineering and maintenance spans from mechanical engineering, strategic asset management to rotating equipment reliability. He was previously a mechanical engineer with the State Energy Commission of Western Australia, where he conducted equipment failure investigations and constructed improvement plans. He was then the maintenance manager for the Swan Brewery, responsible for overall plant reliability and project engineering. Mike then spent over 10 years as maintenance manager and head of maintenance engineering services for Coogee Chemicals. In this role, he successfully introduced condition monitoring and maintenance strategies that reduced production down time and maintenance costs.

As a current maintenance, reliability, Lean Six Sigma and quality system consultant, Mike continues to assist organisations such as BHP Billiton NickelWest, Smorgon Steel (now OneSteel), P&H MinePro, Barrick Mining, Imdex and State Energy Commission in improving equipment reliability. He is also reputed publisher of numerous online technical white papers and training materials that are widely sought after by maintenance professionals. His first book, Plant and Equipment Wellness, was published by Engineers Australia Books.

He is a consultant and trainer in Industrial Asset Management, Maintenance Management, Quality Management Systems and Lean Manufacturing. He held lecturing positions at Curtin University in Quality Management Systems and Manufacturing Management Systems. He held project engineering and maintenance management positions during his 8 years at the Swan Brewery. He held maintenance engineer and maintenance manager positions during his 10 years at Coogee Chemicals. In this role, he successfully introduced maintenance planning, condition monitoring and maintenance strategies that reduced production downtime and maintenance costs. Two achievements were reducing bearing failures from 3 a month to 3 a year and mechanical seal failures from over 20 a year to 3 a year. As a maintenance manager, Mike also successfully initiated and trained others in reliability centred techniques focused towards equipment reliability, including vibration analysis, particle analysis, thermography, equipment criticality analysis, root cause failure analysis. He is a qualified mechanical tradesman and an approved internal quality system auditor.

He has authored numerous maintenance and industrial asset management publications and developed the www.feedforward.com.au UPTIME training series for chemical and process plants. His current programs for business – „The Accuracy Controlled Enterprise‟ and „Change to Win Program‟ – inculcate ultra-high reliability best practices into organisations within 100 days. He is a past Chairman of the WA Chapter of the Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia and is a confident and exciting presenter at Australian and international conferences and workshops. His professional qualifications include B Eng (Hons), MBA, Chartered Professional Engineer.

Learn more about Mike and his work at Lifetime Reliability Solutions

Mike’s articles are provided with permission of Feed Forward Publications