Accendo Reliability

Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site

Rooted in Reliability: The Plant Performance Podcast

A weekly Maintenance and Reliability podcast covering common industry challenges and what you can learn from them. Each episode dives deeper into critical issues and explains how you can begin correcting theses maintenance flaws today. Sharing new tips and techniques to help you achieve industry best practice and shining a light on widely debated maintenance topics with special guest experts.


Your host and founder of Rooted in Reliability James Kovacevic, will take you on a weekly tour of his 13+ years of shop floor experience, along with special guest that lend an expert look inside your maintenance departments problems and concerns.


Plane, train, or automobile, however you’re traveling to work Rooted In Reliability is compatible for listening on the go.

by Leave a Comment

285 – Conserving Water through Proper Sealing Selection with David Brewer

285 – Conserving Water through Proper Sealing Selection with David Brewer

Conserving Water through Proper Sealing Selection with David Brewer

It’s my pleasure to welcome David Brewer to the podcast. He is Atlantic regional manager for SEPCO sealing equipment.

I spend most of my time in paper mills, chemical plants, food processing wastewater treatment plants. I work with distributors and solve problems when it comes to process equipment.

In this episode we covered:

  • What are some of the common things you see come about that we must address when it comes to solving sealing problems?
  • Water conservation is a big deal. Why are organizations so concerned with this right now?
  • Now, where is this water loss occurring?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

284 – A Systems Engineering Approach to Reliability with Andrew Kelleher

284 – A Systems Engineering Approach to Reliability with Andrew Kelleher

A Systems Engineering Approach to Reliability with Andrew Kelleher

It is my pleasure to welcome Andrew Keller to the podcast. He is the Managing Director for Rams Men Taught in Germany.

I’ve trained as a materials engineer, having spent approximately 20 years working in different aspects of reliability engineering from failure analysis to risk-based inspection, to design. He has experience in all aspects of reliability engineering. He is now self-employed, helping and targeting process plant engineers.

In this episode we covered:

  • What’s the traditional approach to improving reliability implants that we typically, see?
  • There’s lots of tools out there: FMLA, RCA, maybe some work planning, I don’t know if they’re interconnected as well as they should be?
  • When we look at using all these different tools when needed: FLMA, RCA, what are the limitations when we have that ad hoc approach?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

283 – Habit #4: Decide with Data with Peter Horsburgh

283 – Habit #4: Decide with Data with Peter Horsburgh

Habit #4: Decide with Data with Peter Horsburgh

It’s my pleasure to welcome back Peter Horsburgh. He is the author of the ‘Five Habits of Extraordinary Reliability Engineers.’ He has a long history within reliability engineering. He essentially started in manufacturing, then moved to mining, then to power generation, and to aluminum smelting.

In this episode we covered:

  • Now we’re here to discuss habit number four; decide with data. So, what does this mean to you?
  • You mentioned data-driven debate. What is it?
  • In the book, you said problem solving should follow a framework. You mentioned problem-cause-solution-value framework. Can you elaborate a bit on that?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

282- The Low Hanging Fruit of Lubrication Improvements with Devin Jarrett

282- The Low Hanging Fruit of Lubrication Improvements with Devin Jarrett

The Low Hanging Fruit of Lubrication Improvements with Devin Jarrett

It’s my pleasure to welcome Devin Jared to the podcast. Devin is a success manager at Noria.

He has worked as a processes guy, made a transition over into the technical team, managing projects, then I stepped into the technical consultant role, then now a success manager. He officiates football on the side as a hobby.

In this episode we covered:

  • Where do we start with lubrication?
  • What are some of those low hanging fruits you typically see that we need to address in organizations?
  • Would you consider filtering oil before putting it in equipment low hanging or is that a little bit more advanced?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

281 – Asset Criticality with Gregory Perry

281 – Asset Criticality with Gregory Perry

281 – Asset Criticality with Gregory Perry

Welcome Gregory Perry to the Podcast. Gregory is a Capacity Assurance Consultant at Fluke Reliability. Today we will discuss asset criticality.

In this episode we covered:

  • What is asset criticality? Why is it important to organizations?
  • How do organizations determine asset criticalness?
  • What about the ranking system within each category?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

280 – Healthy Buildings with Brian Turner

280 – Healthy Buildings with Brian Turner

280 – Healthy Buildings with Brian Turner

Buildings IOT is a:

● System integrator
● Software developer
● Services provider for the built environment: Work spaces, play, and industrial buildings except housing.

In this episode we covered:

  • What is a healthy building?
  • Is it more than custodial work?
  • Prior to COVID-19 people rarely talked about air quality

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

279 – Learning from Metrics with Dan Miller

279 – Learning from Metrics with Dan Miller

279 – Learning from Metrics with Dan Miller

Welcome Dan Miller to the podcast. Our topic will be metrics; how to pick the right KPIs and we will also discuss cornerstone metrics. But first, about Dan:

Dan is a maintenance reliability engineer at Global Water Resources. The guest worked as a consultant but currently is settled at the water company in Arizona.

In this episode we covered:

  • You need KPIs to ensure your assets are working correctly, right?
  • What is performance management?
  • Why do we have to do performance management?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

278 – Maintenance Task Analysis with Lucas Marino

278 – Maintenance Task Analysis with Lucas Marino

278 – Maintenance Task Analysis with Lucas Marino

Welcome Lucas Marino to the podcast. Lucas is the founder of East Partnership and initially spent a lot of time as an engineer with Coast Guard starting off as a diesel engineer and rising through the ranks. Today’s topic is maintenance task analysis. But first:

In this episode we covered:

  • What is the East Partnership?
  • What is maintenance task analysis?
  • So it involves everything needed to maintain an asset, correct?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

277 – Adoption of Mobility with Ryan Chan

277 – Adoption of Mobility with Ryan Chan

277 – Adoption of Mobility with Ryan Chan

Welcome Ryan Chan back to the podcast. Today we will discuss mobile work solutions.

In this episode we covered:

  • What are mobile work solutions?
  • Why would organizations want to leverage mobile work solutions?
  • Why haven’t many organizations implemented mobile solutions?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

276 – Driving Asset Answers with Suspect Data with Manjish and Yanpei

276 – Driving Asset Answers with Suspect Data with Manjish and Yanpei

Driving Asset Answers with Suspect Data with Manjish and Yanpei

Welcome our guests to the podcast. We are going to discuss Asset Answers in today’s episode. However, briefly about our guests:

Yanpei has a background in telecom and smart grid. Currently is working as a product leader at Asset Answers.

Manjish is the service lead for Asset Answers and has been in the maintenance and reliability for 15 years building CMMS and analytic software on top of the CMMS)

In this episode we covered:

  • Many organizations have data but not information. Have you witnessed such?
  • What are the main causes of suspect data?
  • Does the data have to be perfect to start?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

275 – Decoding Mechanical Failures: A class experience with Shane Turcott

275 – Decoding Mechanical Failures: A class experience with Shane Turcott

275 – Decoding Mechanical Failures: A class experience with Shane Turcott

Welcome Shane who is the author of Decoding Mechanical Failures. More about Shane and Steel Image:

Shane is a mechanical engineer who founded Steel Image, whose primary business is analyzing information on broken parts: how it failed, mechanisms of failure, and whether the part was built correctly or not.

They avail all this information to aid those conducting RCAs.

In this episode we covered:

  • What is Mechanical Failure?
  • What is the process of diagnosing the failures?
  • How do the “boxes” work for fractures e.g. brittle?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

274 – Dealing with Ramp Up and Degraded Assets with James Reyes-Picknell

274 – Dealing with Ramp Up and Degraded Assets with James Reyes-Picknell

274 – Dealing with Ramp Up and Degraded Assets with James Reyes-Picknell

Welcome James Reyes who is the author of Uptime and many other books, also a principal consultant at Conscious Asset. More about James:

Having a career that spans for 44 years, James has worked in different organizations and industries some of which include reliability on board both at sea and air. The guest began a reliability consulting career in 1995 focusing on the execution of reliability programs.

In this episode we covered:

  • What types of Issues are companies going to face?
  • How do organizations reduce the risks of these challenges?
  • Do you believe organizations are still hunkered down?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

273 – Understanding and Leveraging OEE with Ron Moore

273 – Understanding and Leveraging OEE with Ron Moore

273 – Understanding and Leveraging OEE with Ron Moore

Welcome Ron back to the podcast. Ron is an author and the founder of RM Group.

In this episode we covered:

  • What is OEE?
  • Do companies use OEE simply because it is strategic and tactical?
  • Why does maintenance get blamed for poor OEE?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

272 – Operator Care: A Thought Out Approach with Cliff Williams

272 – Operator Care: A Thought Out Approach with Cliff Williams

272 – Operator Care: A Thought Out Approach with Cliff Williams

Welcome Cliff Williams back to the Podcast. Cliff is a principal advisor with People and Process as well as TMS Asset Management. The guest has also worked as an asset manager for many years.

In this episode we covered:

  • What is operator care?
  • Where should we use operator care and autonomous maintenance?
  • What prerequisites are often needed to implement operator care?

ᐅ Play Episode

by Leave a Comment

271 – Developing Operational Standards with George Williams and Joe Anderson

271 – Developing Operational Standards with George Williams and Joe Anderson

271 – Developing Operational Standards with George Williams and Joe Anderson

Welcome Joe Anderson and George Williams back to the podcast. They are the founders of ReliabilityX and are consultants as well as trainers. 

Briefly about them and Reliability X:

Reliability X covers all aspects of reliability; both operational and maintenance, coaching and currently creating online classes.

Joe Anderson has been in the pharma and food industries for 25 years before moving to consultancy.

George Williams has a background in pharma and medical devices rising from a technician over the years to a global reliability manager.

In this episode we covered:

  • What are operational standards?
  • Why would we need operational standards?
  • Who develops standards?

ᐅ Play Episode