Accendo Reliability

Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site

  • Home
  • About
    • Contributors
  • Reliability.fm
    • Speaking Of Reliability
    • Rooted in Reliability: The Plant Performance Podcast
    • Quality during Design
    • Way of the Quality Warrior
    • Critical Talks
    • Dare to Know
    • Maintenance Disrupted
    • Metal Conversations
    • The Leadership Connection
    • Practical Reliability Podcast
    • Reliability Matters
    • Reliability it Matters
    • Maintenance Mavericks Podcast
    • Women in Maintenance
    • Accendo Reliability Webinar Series
  • Articles
    • CRE Preparation Notes
    • on Leadership & Career
      • Advanced Engineering Culture
      • Engineering Leadership
      • Managing in the 2000s
      • Product Development and Process Improvement
    • on Maintenance Reliability
      • Aasan Asset Management
      • AI & Predictive Maintenance
      • Asset Management in the Mining Industry
      • CMMS and Reliability
      • Conscious Asset
      • EAM & CMMS
      • Everyday RCM
      • History of Maintenance Management
      • Life Cycle Asset Management
      • Maintenance and Reliability
      • Maintenance Management
      • Plant Maintenance
      • Process Plant Reliability Engineering
      • ReliabilityXperience
      • RCM Blitz®
      • Rob’s Reliability Project
      • The Intelligent Transformer Blog
      • The People Side of Maintenance
      • The Reliability Mindset
    • on Product Reliability
      • Accelerated Reliability
      • Achieving the Benefits of Reliability
      • Apex Ridge
      • Metals Engineering and Product Reliability
      • Musings on Reliability and Maintenance Topics
      • Product Validation
      • Reliability Engineering Insights
      • Reliability in Emerging Technology
    • on Risk & Safety
      • CERM® Risk Insights
      • Equipment Risk and Reliability in Downhole Applications
      • Operational Risk Process Safety
    • on Systems Thinking
      • Communicating with FINESSE
      • The RCA
    • on Tools & Techniques
      • Big Data & Analytics
      • Experimental Design for NPD
      • Innovative Thinking in Reliability and Durability
      • Inside and Beyond HALT
      • Inside FMEA
      • Integral Concepts
      • Learning from Failures
      • Progress in Field Reliability?
      • R for Engineering
      • Reliability Engineering Using Python
      • Reliability Reflections
      • Testing 1 2 3
      • The Manufacturing Academy
  • eBooks
  • Resources
    • Accendo Authors
    • FMEA Resources
    • Feed Forward Publications
    • Openings
    • Books
    • Webinars
    • Journals
    • Higher Education
    • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • 14 Ways to Acquire Reliability Engineering Knowledge
    • Reliability Analysis Methods online course
    • Measurement System Assessment
    • SPC-Process Capability Course
    • Design of Experiments
    • Foundations of RCM online course
    • Quality during Design Journey
    • Reliability Engineering Statistics
    • Quality Engineering Statistics
    • An Introduction to Reliability Engineering
    • Reliability Engineering for Heavy Industry
    • An Introduction to Quality Engineering
    • Process Capability Analysis course
    • Root Cause Analysis and the 8D Corrective Action Process course
    • Return on Investment online course
    • CRE Preparation Online Course
    • Quondam Courses
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Live Events
  • Calendar
    • Call for Papers Listing
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Calendar
  • Login
    • Member Home

by Robert Kalwarowsky Leave a Comment

How Should I Start?

How Should I Start?

This morning, I was swimming and I was thinking about a question that I get asked frequently.  The question goes like this:

Rob, my facility is very reactive, how do I start my reliability program?

Having a water polo background is something I rely on when I embark on new projects.  I didn’t become a better swimmer by reading, watching YouTube videos or planning to become the best swimmer.  I got better at swimming by swimming.  I don’t discount the value of a coach, teammates or a plan (I had a coach and a team) but at the end of the day, you need to start.

How does that apply to reliability?

There are many ways to start.  You can buy an ultrasound probe and fix compressed air leaks.  You can buy an infrared camera and look for electrical faults.  You can dig through your CMMS data, determine your bad actors and work on those.  You can talk to your mechanics & operators and solve their biggest problems.

All of those (and by no means is that an exhaustive list), will add value to your plant and get you started on your reliability journey.  Pick something that you have the capacity and resources (people, budget, tools, etc.) to do and go execute.

So, what should I do?

Get started, add value, talk about your wins and the people who helped you get those wins, learn, improve and repeat. 

The first step is starting.  Put your swimsuit on and jump in the pool.

Reliability Never Sleeps,

Rob

Filed Under: Articles, on Maintenance Reliability, Rob's Reliability Project

About Robert Kalwarowsky

Robert Kalwarowsky joined Fluid Life in the spring of 2014 and currently focuses on machine learning, lubrication & reliability audits and reliability product development. Previously, Rob worked as a Reliability Engineer at Teck Resources and his work focused on condition-based monitoring analytics, failure prediction, risk analysis and spare parts optimization. He also has consulting experience in financial modeling with an emphasis on optimization and cost benefit analysis. Prior to that, Rob graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Management.

« Data Analysis and Questions to Answer
6 Maintenance Challenges CMMS Helps Resolve »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • test
  • test
  • test
  • Your Most Important Business Equation
  • Your Suppliers Can Be a Risk to Your Project

© 2025 FMS Reliability · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service · Cookies Policy