Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site
Fred shares insights from consulting with over 150 organizations on the perennial struggle between reactive “heroism” and proactive design. Mojan and Fred discuss the measurable benefits of investing in reliability early—such as reduced development time and lower warranty costs—and why 80% of companies still find themselves trapped in a “build-test-fix” cycle. ᐅ Play Episode
We talk with Mike Payne—owner of Hill Manufacturing and host of By the Numbers from the Making Chips network—about scaling businesses, valuing maintenance, and saving shops from extinction.
Payne shares how neglected maintenance can slash business value, why he’s passionate about helping owners exit successfully, and how his “integrated life” philosophy drives both productivity and purpose.
If you’re in manufacturing leadership, finance, or operations, this one’s for you.
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Mojan and Fred discuss the benefits of using failure models with testing. They explore the delicate balance between theoretical analysis and physical testing. While robust design starts with analysis, they discuss how testing serves as the ultimate “insurance policy” for decision-makers and why understanding the “Confidence Stack-up” is essential for a product’s success.
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This week on CMMSradio, we meet Andrew Forbes — machinist, mentor, and founder of the Make American Manufacturing Great Again foundation (MAMGA). He’s building a pipeline of skilled workers through scholarships and hands-on training. If you care about the future of manufacturing, this episode is for you.
Register at MAMGA here: https://mamga.us/
Hello #reliabilitygang I hope you are all having a productive week. This weeks podcast we talk about Lubrication and why it’s probably one of the most important reliability tasks we carry out. We talk about the effects of poor practice and how damaging a poor lubrication practice can be. We talk about ways to improve practice and how these methods can increase the life of your machines. We also talk about a recent case study poor practice in lubrication caused a critical failure!
We would love to get your thoughts on this weeks podcast in the forum! You can access it below.
https://conditionmonitoring.co.uk/forums/
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In this episode, we’re joined by Alex Bolan from Digital Thinker Inc., fresh off the Streamline Asset Management User Conference. We cover a lot in a short time — from implementation pitfalls to training that actually sticks — with more in-depth episodes coming soon.
One thing Alex makes clear: successful CMMS implementation isn’t magic. It takes full-spectrum buy-in, effective communication, and a plan that doesn’t fall apart under pressure.
Enrico and Fred discuss a listener’s question about using a single sample for testing.
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In this episode CMMSradio talks with Roshan Satish, AI Lead at MaintainX, about how artificial intelligence is being thoughtfully integrated into maintenance workflows. They focus on empowering frontline workers, simplifying data tasks, preserving institutional knowledge, and enhancing CMMS usability—without replacing technicians. Roshan explains how their AI assistant uses real-world interactions, customer habits, and reliable sources to deliver helpful, validated support while avoiding common pitfalls like hallucinations or irrelevant answers.
Key Topics:
Switching systems can be great. The idea is that we can use redundant components to extend the life of a system … and protect the ‘standby’ component from harm until the ‘primary’ component fails. To do this, we need a switch. This often means that we get better reliability than a ‘parallel system’ where both redundant components start wearing out from day one. By protecting the standby component with a switch, reliability can be greatly extended. However, the analysis of a switching system can be challenging. The switch can fail, and the standby component has different reliability characteristics in ‘standby’ and ‘operational’ modes. Many textbooks model switching systems using very basic assumptions to simplify the analysis. But … these assumptions are so inaccurate for most real-world systems that they estimate reliability to be worse than that of a parallel system! This webinar shows you how to model switching (and other complex) systems using Monte Carlo Simulation in Excel … to come up with a ‘perfect’ model to ensure that all that hard work that goes into designing a switching system is not missed by the subsequent analysis! [Read more…]
Enrico and Fred discuss the essential or basic skills necessary to be a good reliability engineer.
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CMMSradio welcomes Trent McJunkin to CMMSradio for a thoughtful conversation on what makes CMMS implementations successful. They reflect on past and upcoming events while digging into real-world insights for getting maintenance systems right. McJunkin emphasizes that while CMMS implementation is conceptually simple, execution is complex—demanding alignment between technicians and stakeholders. Key points include avoiding common pitfalls, building strong business cases, training with purpose, and not letting the tool drive the process. The episode wraps with plans to continue the conversation during their June panel discussion.
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In our latest episode of our interview series, “A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts,” we delve into the human aspect of engineering with Karli Auble. Karli is a leader from the defense industry whose unique perspective integrates systems engineering with positive psychology.
With a decade of experience under her belt, Karli introduces us to her THRIVE Framework, a holistic approach for engineers to balance technical and human elements effectively.
Karli Auble is an Engineering Leader in the defense industry who has over a decade of experience leading high-pressure teams. She is also a Speaker, Author, and Coach. With her combination master’s in systems engineering and positive psychology, she created THRIVE: a six‑pillar framework whose name stands for Thoughts, Habits, Relationships, Instincts, Values, and Environments. Karli contributed a chapter to the book Beyond the Pipeline, where she shares how engineers can embed THRIVE into their everyday lives.
What makes Karli’s perspective especially valuable for you (whether you lead a design team, drive R&D strategy, or advise high‑tech organizations) is that she translates human behavior into more reliable engineering design.
1. Engineering with Human Error Codes in Mind: Karli emphasizes the need for engineers to recognize the ‘error codes’ in their own bodies, akin to the ones in technical systems. By paying attention to physical responses like stress or anxiety in high-pressure meetings, engineers can mitigate burnout and enhance decision-making.
2. Instincts and Environments: Two pillars of the THRIVE Framework discussed extensively by Karli are Instincts and Environments. She shares personal anecdotes and practical tools like ‘box breathing’ to manage stress and avoid ‘fight or flight’ responses during critical moments.
3. Improving Communication and Coordination: Karli touches on the necessity of fine-tuning communication, whether addressing team dynamics or engaging in conflict resolution. She shares strategies such as meeting follow-ups and environment adjustments (both physical and virtual) to foster healthier interactions.
Karli Auble’s approach, which seamlessly blends positive psychology with engineering principles, provides a refreshing perspective for professionals seeking sustainable success. By addressing both the tangible and intangible aspects of work, engineers can not only solve technical problems but thrive personally and professionally.
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This man has a face for radio! It’s George Williams and he highjacked the CMMSradio podcast, with style and grace, to host Anjelica Williams of ReliabilityX from the 2025 Streamline Asset Management User Conference in Greenville, SC. A great interview where we get insights around what’s next for ReliabilityX and her approach to constantly building this high integrity brand!
Connect with ReliabilityX here: https://reliabilityx.com/
If a $26,000 drone repair can be done in the field—but policy says it has to be shipped back to the manufacturer, do you really have a reliability problem… or a repair access problem?
Today on the show, I’m joined by William Santos, International Sales Manager at ABI Electronics and a global advocate for the Right to Repair movement.
William recently wrote a compelling article titled “Readiness Through Repair: How the U.S. Military is Strengthening Capabilities with Right to Repair,” where he explores how repair access—or the lack of it—directly impacts mission readiness, lifecycle cost, and operational resilience within the U.S. military.
For decades, highly trained military technicians have been prevented from repairing mission-critical equipment due to restricted access to diagnostic tools, software, and spare parts. That model is now being challenged.
In April 2024, the U.S. Army announced plans to embed Right-to-Repair provisions into both new and existing contracts—a major shift with enormous implications for reliability, sustainment, and cost control.
Today, we’ll unpack what this policy change really means, why repair capability is inseparable from readiness, and what lessons commercial industry can learn from the military’s pivot toward repair empowerment.
Willian’s Posts:
Exposing the Myths and Truths of the Repair Industry!
https://tinyurl.com/mr47r33p
Readiness Through Repair: How the US Military is Strengthening Capabilities with Right to Repair
https://tinyurl.com/4pytbvcs
ABI Electronics
https://www.abielectronics.co.uk
Repair Don’t Waste Podcast
https://tinyurl.com/du8skcxk
