Reliability Management and Leadership

By Fred Schenkelberg

April 14, 2026 / 9am Pacific Time

Did you know that you do not need to be a manager to be a leader. And, many managers are not very good leaders. What does it take to manage and/or lead a reliability improvement effort in an organization. If your organization already produces very reliable products, how do you keep it that way? Likewise, if you recognize the reliability performance could be better, what should you do.

Let’s talk about the difference between management and leadership, and how you can play an effective role as both a manager and a leader focused on improving reliability outcomes. Where to start, how to build a team, and how to get results.

Applied Statistics in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: A Review and Vision

By Simin Zheng and Caleb King

April 2, 2026 /9-10:30am Pacific Time

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has significantly changed many domains, including applied statistics. This review and vision paper explores the evolving role of applied statistics in the AI era, drawing from our experiences in engineering statistics. We begin by outlining the fundamental concepts and historical developments in applied statistics and tracing the rise of AI technologies. Subsequently, we review traditional areas of applied statistics, using examples from engineering statistics to illustrate key points. We then explore emerging areas in applied statistics, driven by recent technological advancements, highlighting examples from our recent projects. The paper discusses the symbiotic relationship between AI and applied statistics, focusing on how statistical principles can be employed to study the properties of AI models and enhance AI systems. We also examine how AI can advance applied statistics in terms of modeling and analysis.

The Hidden Cost of Tribal Knowledge: Why Maintenance Teams Can’t Afford to Train the Old Way

April 2, 2026 / 10am Pacific Time

When your most experienced technician leaves, retires, or gets sidelined, decades of hard-won knowledge goes with them. The procedures that only they knew. The workarounds that kept critical assets running. The institutional memory built from years of failures, fixes, and lessons learned. None of it written down, none of it transferable.

In this live webinar, we’ll unpack the real cost of tribal knowledge loss and show how modern maintenance teams are using training to capture what their best people know before it walks out the door.

You’ll leave knowing:

• Why traditional approaches (binders, shared drives, shadowing senior techs) don’t scale — and what does
• What a real knowledge transfer system looks like in practice
• How your existing work order history and CMMS data can become the foundation for training — without starting from scratch
• How incidents in the field can automatically trigger the right training assignments, so what goes wrong becomes what gets learned

Human Error Elimination Through Inspection Redesign and Reliability Engineering

By Charles H Paul

April 3, 2026 / 10am Pacific Time

$150

This webinar walks participants through a detailed, real-world case study that demonstrates how human error elimination can be achieved through process design rather than people-focused fixes.

The setting is a high-volume manufacturing operation producing battery casings using 35 individual cam-operated presses. These machines operate under significant mechanical stress and require major component repairs after certain failures. Following repairs, presses were returned to service after inspections that were considered complete and compliant. However, hidden broken or misaligned components routinely went undetected.

This session explains how the team redesigned the inspection process using human reliability and operational excellence principles. Instead of asking technicians to “be more careful,” they engineered a system that made incomplete inspections difficult to perform.

Webinar 3: AI for Reliability

April 6, 2026 / 9am Pacific Time

This webinar offers a high-level tour of how AI is being used to improve reliability outcomes across the product lifecycle. It covers common application patterns such as predictive maintenance, intelligent test planning, automated failure-mode discovery from text, vision-based inspection, reliability knowledge graphs, and LLM copilots for FRACAS-style workflows. The session focuses on practical deployment thinking, i.e., what data and infrastructure are needed, what makes an AI output actionable, and how to start with low-risk pilots that deliver measurable operational value.

Risk and Decision Making from a Practitioner View

By Dr. Thomas Monroe

April 7, 2026 / 10am Pacific Time

Drawing on experience in submarine operations, major defense acquisition, and enterprise risk management, Dr. Monroe will examine how engineering economy principles guide high-stakes decisions in mission-critical settings.  Participants will gain practical insight into structuring risk-aware decision processes, managing programmatic uncertainty, and strengthening organizational resilience in high-consequence environments.

How to Quickly Fix Manufacturing Quality Problems

By Michael Pfeifer

April 8, 2026 / 8am Pacific Time

Introduction to Repairable Systems Analysis and Modeling

By Andre Kleyner

April 8, 2026 / 8:30-11:30am Pacific Time

$300

A system is considered repairable if it can be restored to satisfactory operation by a repair action. One of the most important tasks of analyzing the repairable systems is to estimate the number of failures N(t) and make a prediction of the future number of failures in order to optimize maintenance strategies, obtain the necessary number of spare parts, estimate the cost of repairs and warranty. To achieve this requires a basic understanding of several key reliability and maintainability concepts and mathematical modeling approaches.

This webinar will cover:

• The difference between repairable and non-repairable systems and the ways they are analyzed and modeled (statistical distribution vs. stochastic process).
• Explanation of the renewal process
• Methods of predicting the future number of system repairs
• Different states of repair (as good as new, as bad as old, partial repair)
• Concept of system’s virtual age
• Non-parametric and graphical methods of repairable systems analysis
• System’s reliability vs. availability
• Availability measures

The Value of Certification

By Susan Lubell and Nicolle Guillen

April 8, 2026 / 10am Pacific Time

You’re invited to join us for a complimentary information session to learn more about value of PEMAC certifications; the impact they have on your career and your organization; and the many pathways to achieving recognition.

Topics include:

• What is a qualification vs certification?
• PEMAC’s education and competency-based certifications – MMP, CAMP, CTAM, CPAM, CSAM, and the new CEAM & CFAM certifications
• Why Continuing Professional Development (CPD) matters
• Value to individuals of earning and maintaining certifications
• Value to organizations of hiring and employing people who hold certifications – as employees, contractors, and consultants
• How to get certified

CALCE/SMTA Counterfeit Symposium in its Twentieth Year

By Dr. Diganta Das

April 9, 2026 / 8am Pacific Time

In this webinar, Dr. Diganta Das, the Founding Chair, will explore the landscape of threats posed by counterfeit electronics over the decades and the responses of the industry, professional societies, funding agencies, government, and academia. He will cover promising technologies, their successes and shortcomings, policymakers’ hits and misses, and some of the blind alleys we are still pursuing. He will focus on how CALCE contributed to knowledge, tools, and methods, and the policy landscape.

AI Driven SRE (Site Reliability Engineering)

By Akash Thakur

April 9, 2026 / 9am Pacific Time

No abstract at this time.

Checklist Basics – A Key to Error Reduction

By Mark Galley

April 10, 2026 / 8am Pacific Time

Checklists are a simple yet frequently overlooked tool in a company’s daily operations. A checklist is a summary of how a task should be done. People naturally keep a lot of information in their heads about how to perform a particular task, but sometimes a little thing can be missed. A checklist can help reduce those errors because checklists don’t forget. This Webinar covers some checklist basics and shows how they’re used by different organizations to reduce risk.

Why Do Motors Fail?

By Noah Bethel

April 14, 2026 /11am Pacific Time

Motor Failure can happen at the least opportune time. Often on a Saturday when resources are limited or not available to optimize a troubleshooting process. This webinar will focus on the most likely causes of motor failure and how to quickly get to the root cause for a reduced downtime and rapid Mean Time to Repair (MTTR).

Learning Takeaways:

1. Motor Reliability Basics
2. Motor Construction Fundamentals
3. Common Electric Motor Failures
4. Successful Troubleshooting Approaches

Introduction to Cause Mapping® – Effective Root Cause Analysis

By Mark Galley

April 17, 2026 / 9am Pacific Time

Learn how to become better at solving problems in your job in just 45 minutes. During this webinar, we’ll demonstrate Cause Mapping® RCA, which is evidence-based cause-and-effect root cause analysis that can be used on day-to-day issues as well as catastrophic incidents. Anyone wanting to become a more effective manager or team member can benefit from this discussion. Participants will take away practical tips that can be implemented immediately.

Webinar 4: Reliability of AI

April 20, 2026 / 9am Pacific Time

This introductory webinar reframes AI systems as engineered systems that must be reliable, auditable, and safe in changing environments. It surveys common failure modes of deployed models (data drift, distribution shift, miscalibration, pipeline faults, and human misuse) and outlines an assurance toolbox: testing beyond accuracy, uncertainty-aware “don’t know” behavior, monitoring, versioning, rollback, and governance. The goal is to help reliability engineers apply familiar reliability thinking (FMEA-like reasoning, controls, continuous improvement) to build trustworthy AI in production.

A Statistical Engineering Approach to Problem-Solving

By Dr. Roger W. Hoerl

April 21, 2026 / 8am Pacific Time

The design, monitoring, improvement, and control of processes of all types creates a continual flow of problems that must be solved for processes to perform as designed, and effectively and efficiently serve customers. As a result, various types of problems arise, and numerous problem-solving methods have been developed to address these problems. Using the principles of statistical engineering, we develop a framework that maps problem types to problem-solving strategies. The proposed framework introduces a structured decision logic based on several dimensions: the fundamental intent of intervention (fixing, improving, or creating), whether the solution direction is known or must be discovered, the degree of complexity, whether process requirements are fixed or fluid, and the availability of sufficient problem-relevant data. The framework is designed to help practitioners choose the most effective problem-solving methodology for each unique challenge. This work emphasizes that the problem and its characteristics should drive the selection of tools, not the other way around. The framework is illustrated using real problems from the authors’ collective experience. This talk is based on a recent publication of the same name in the journal Quality Engineering.

Software Verification and Validation – The 10 Must Have Documents

By John E. Lincoln

April 21, 2026 / 10-11:30am Pacific Time

$199

Software design and development is under increased scrutiny by the new “tougher” U.S. FDA. Recently a major pharma company paid a $750 M fine for poor compliance, and software V&V was one of the key contributors. Product, production / test equipment, and even the QMS are heavily software / firmware driven in today’s manufacturing. A comprehensive, corporate wide plan is a necessity. Growing “cloud” issues add urgency to upgrade control. Software’s complex logic pathways mandate resourse-intensive V&V activities, in a resource-constrained environment. What are the best approaches for companies to take? How can tougher FDA expectations be met? What V&V is necessary to minimize software failures in the field or in-house? How to bring software V&V in under budget and within project timelines.

Webinar Takeaway:

• Recent industry failures.
• Tougher FDA Expectations / Requirements
• Roles of Verification and Validation
• An FDA “Model”
• A Typical Software V&V Protocol / Test Report
• A Brief Overview of 21 CFR Part 11, ER / ES
• Legacy, Hybrid, and New Systems
• Expected Regulatory Deliverables
• Complementary Guidelines, e.g., GAMP

Sensor Selection & Mounting Best Practices

By Mike Scott

April 21, 2026 / 11am Pacific Time

Join IMI Sensors, a PCB Piezotronics Division, for a focused, practical webinar that helps reliability and maintenance teams choose the right vibration sensor and install it correctly to get reliable condition‑monitoring data. We’ll compare quartz and ceramic sensing technologies, explain how to read and apply key specifications, review pros/cons for common predictive maintenance applications, and dive into detection of rolling‑element bearing defects including why high‑frequency ranges matter for early fault identification. The session mixes concise theory with real‑world examples and mounting tips you can apply immediately.

Thermal Imaging Technology

By Eric Fritz

April 21, 2026 / 4-6pm Pacific Time

The versatility and diverse scope of use cases make Infrared Technology a necessary tool for nearly every industry. While the operation of any camera can seem simple skin-deep, there is depth to it in order to get the best, most reliability results. Thermal imaging cameras are no different. Utilizing the technology is inexpensive, requires a short training curve, and a quick ROI but does require a broad understanding before users can rely on the results and feel confident in an imager’s repeatability. This presentation will cover an introductory view of how thermal cameras operate, what they can and cannot do, and cover some of the main uses of the technology. We will also cover some of the “unique” applications that it can be used on.

Excel Tips & Tricks for Using the Cause Mapping® Template

By Aaron Cross

April 24, 2026 / 8am Pacific Time

This FREE Webinar will demonstrate how powerful the drawing tool within Excel can be to document, communicate and share your entire investigation within our Excel Cause Mapping template without having to invest in new expensive, complicated software.

Ways to Manage Retrofit Strategies for Motors and Drives

By Taha Mohammed and Ian Smith

April 28, 2026 / 11am Pacific Time

Industrial plants across all sectors rely on motor-driven systems as critical components of production. However, aging motor assets, outdated drives and shifting regulatory requirements have made retrofit and replacement projects a growing priority. This webcast addresses the practical realities of upgrading motors and drives within existing plant infrastructure — from identifying technical and compliance triggers to overcoming integration challenges during retrofit implementation.