Reliability Gang Podcast

Reliability doesn’t fail because the maths is wrong. It fails because of people. That’s where we begin this straight-talking conversation with Steve Morris, the driving force behind Mainstream. For more than 30 years he has been building something different: a movement that puts real maintenance leaders on stage, replaces the hero firefighter with predictable performance, and keeps the community alive all year round so practitioners can share what actually works without the sales pitch. We look back at where it started, from a handful of TPM calls to what has grown into the biggest reliability conference in the Southern Hemisphere. But what makes it stand out is how it protects the quality of the peer group, only puts customers on stage, and is built on research that identifies the real blockers—communicating risk, finding funding, and leading culture change. Steve lifts the lid on innovation theatres, curated networking, and the free online platform that now connects more than 5,000 professionals across industries. From mining and water to food and oil and gas, the challenges are different but the root causes are the same—people, incentives, language, trust, and habits. We also look ahead to Mainstream UK. This will be a focused two-day event with five concurrent tracks, global storytellers from Woodside to Mars, and pricing that removes the excuses. If you have ever felt your best preventative work goes unseen while the 2am saviour gets all the recognition, this is your chance to flip the script. It is about rewarding prevention, learning how to sell the value in finance’s language, and being in rooms where practitioners lead the conversation. The next five years are critical for reliability. Teams are ageing, technology is moving fast, and the skills gap is widening. The advantage will go to those who make the time to think, to share, and to adopt what already works. If this resonates, subscribe for more conversations with reliability leaders, share the episode with your team, and leave a review so others can find it. Most importantly, connect with the Mainstream community and take one idea back to your site this month. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1278656/support]

When most people think reliability, vibration analysis is the first thing that comes to mind. But what about the electrical side of your motors. That’s where a lot of hidden damage is happening and it’s often ignored. In this episode we get into shaft current. It’s been around since variable speed drives first hit the scene but it’s still not well understood and definitely not well managed. These stray electrical currents eat away at bearings and windings, quietly cutting motor life down by decades. The scary part is that from what we are seeing around 90 percent of drive installs haven’t been designed properly to deal with it. I reference the teachings of electrical condition monitoring expert Mark Gurney to break this down. We look at how to actually detect the issue with oscilloscopes, Rogowski coils and the SKF TechEd tool. We explain the difference between common mode and circulating currents and why quick fixes like grounding rings aren’t always the silver bullet people think they are. Done wrong they can even make the problem worse. We also talk about Motor Current Signature Analysis MCSA. For me this is the future of motor testing. It gives you the ability to pick up not just electrical faults but mechanical ones too. Bearings rotor bars even belt tension can all be identified just from reading the motor’s electrical signal at the MCC. If you’re serious about IoT and advanced monitoring MCSA is a game changer compared to just scattering sensors everywhere. The bottom line is this. Why are we okay with motors failing after 10 years when they are designed to run 30 or 40. It’s time to move beyond only looking at vibration and start treating electrical testing as a key part of reliability. Our most critical assets deserve that level of care. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1278656/support]

The reliability landscape is rapidly transforming, but are organizations truly ready for this evolution? In this thought-provoking episode, we reunite after our individual "side quests" working with different customers to discover we've both encountered the same concerning pattern across manufacturing facilities. While technology advances at breakneck speed—from pixelated camera phones to sophisticated AI systems in just a few decades—the cultural foundations of reliability and maintenance strategies are evolving at a glacial pace. This creates a dangerous disconnect: companies eagerly investing in IoT sensors, machine learning algorithms, and data historians while neglecting fundamental reliability practices that would make these investments worthwhile. We share a sobering case study of a critical cooling tower failure that cost over £100,000 in emergency measures, despite previous recommendations for a £2,000 monitoring solution. This exemplifies how organizations often pursue technological silver bullets while overlooking basic maintenance fundamentals. The cooling tower had never received lubrication despite being a lubrication-dependent motor—a simple practice that could have prevented catastrophic failure. The episode explores why AI and machine learning belong at the top of the reliability maturity assessment, not as shortcuts to excellence. While these technologies show tremendous promise, they require clean historical data, established maintenance practices, and experienced professionals who understand failure modes to interpret their findings. Without these foundations, organizations risk drowning in information while suffocating for wisdom. Whether you're a maintenance professional navigating digital transformation or a leader making technology investment decisions, this episode offers crucial perspective on balancing innovation with reliability fundamentals. The future belongs to those who master both. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1278656/support]

What does it really take to keep 81 manufacturing sites around the world running at world-class reliability standards? In this episode, I sat down with Pablo, the Reliability Champion at SKF, the world’s leading bearing manufacturer, to find out. And this chat was packed with gold. Pablo opened up about how SKF have built something seriously special. Their Maintenance Excellence system brings together the best of Japanese TPM and reliability-centered maintenance to create a global standard that actually works, site to site, culture to culture. But here’s the standout bit for me. It’s not just about the systems or tools. It’s about the people. SKF have cultivated a real community of over 400 maintenance professionals across the globe. They’re not just clocking in and out. They’re sharing wins, solving problems together, and raising the bar as a unit. We also talked about their week-long Maintenance Excellence Bootcamps run across three continents, combining deep-dive training with hands-on work to embed excellence into their culture. Add in their push towards smarter CMMS rollouts and the integration of AI for predictive maintenance, and it’s clear these guys aren’t just keeping up. They’re leading the way. The part that stuck with me most was this quote from Pablo: "You can have the most perfect system in the world, but if the people aren’t on board, it’s worthless." That hits home. It’s not the tech. It’s the trust. It’s the culture. It’s the belief that people make reliability real. Whether you’re running one site or a global operation, there’s something in this conversation for everyone who believes in better maintenance. Tune in and see how SKF keep evolving while staying true to what matters most: people, purpose, and precision. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1278656/support]

In this episode, I sat down with Joseph Anderson from Reliability X for one of the most honest and refreshing conversations I’ve had on reliability. We didn’t just talk tools, data, and KPIs… we talked about what really matters: people. Joseph shares his own journey, from what he calls being a “defect initiator” (yep, he says he would’ve fired himself back then!) to becoming a leader who changed plant performance by focusing first on the people behind the machines. What really hit me was when he mentioned that maintenance departments have an 80–85% divorce rate. It stopped me in my tracks. That stat alone says it all: reliability is about more than machines. It’s about creating workplaces that don’t destroy home lives. What I love about Joseph is he breaks down reliability into simple human truths. Relationships between operators and maintenance, leaders who actually listen, collaboration over blame. He even draws lessons from his time running restaurants to show how these principles go beyond manufacturing—they’re about how we treat people, full stop. We also got real about why companies trip themselves up: blaming individuals instead of fixing broken systems, chasing completion rates instead of real results, buying the latest tech without teaching people how to use it properly, and cutting costs today only to pay big later. Through it all, Joseph keeps coming back to the same truth: when people know you care, they’ll care for the equipment. It’s that simple. If you lead a maintenance team, run a plant, or just want to get better at building a strong, reliable culture, this one’s for you. As Joseph says:  "Maintenance is simple. Don’t overcomplicate it. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be." Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1278656/support]