Reliability Gang Podcast

Closing The Engineering Skills Gap - With Parker Burke

The engineering skills gap is already shaping what factories can deliver, how reliable our assets can be, and how quickly new infrastructure can scale. We’re joined by Parker, president of Fluke, and we dig into what we’re hearing from the next generation of technicians and engineers and what leaders can do right now to make these careers easier to discover and harder to ignore. A highlight comes from our time with students at Texas State Technical College. The talent pipeline isn’t “one type” of person: we meet people straight out of high school, veterans bringing a decade of service, and career changers who want a fresh start and a future they can control. That range forces a rethink of how we talk about the trades, reliability engineering, and technical careers. When we clearly explain the menu of opportunities, from working globally to owning your own business, we give people a reason to lean in. We also get practical about education and early exposure. Schools are moving beyond traditional shop class into modern STEM programmes, including robotics, 3D printing, and automation. The goal is to make hands-on learning engaging and fun while still building real skill. Parker shares how Fluke supports the next generation through internships, training, and partnerships that put current tools into classrooms, and we connect those skills to high-growth areas like data centres where power quality and reliability matter every day. If you care about workforce development, manufacturing, and keeping great people, you’ll take away a simple message: meaning and mentorship are not “nice to have”. They are the system. Subscribe, share this with someone starting their career, and leave us a review with your answer: what first pulled you towards engineering or the trades? Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1278656/support]

SYSTEMS THAT 10X EFFICIENCY

You can have all the data in the world coming out of your condition monitoring programme… vibration data, OGI surveys, thermography images, air leak reports… and still not improve reliability. And it usually comes down to one simple thing. No one can actually see what’s going on end to end. In this episode, we talk properly about that. The gap between finding issues and actually fixing them. Because too often the insight is there, but it’s sat in emails, reports, or spreadsheets and nothing really moves forward. We get into the systems we’re building to solve that. Things like customer portals where everything sits in one place. Recommendations, evidence, current status, deadlines. So actions don’t just disappear or get forgotten about. Everyone can see what needs doing and where things are at. We also break down what should sit where, because this is where a lot of people get it wrong. Your CMMS is there to manage work. History, failure codes, maintenance actions. That’s its job. But it’s not built to visualise vibration data or leak images. Trying to force it into that role just creates friction. That’s why we’re pushing towards more of a reliability hub approach. Something that sits alongside your CMMS and, where possible, links into it. So when you raise a recommendation, it can turn straight into a work order with proper traceability. And where integration isn’t possible because of security or system limitations, we still need that feedback loop. So we talk about simple, practical ways to capture comments, updates, and closures without slowing engineers down or adding more admin. We also get into the value of closing the loop properly on repairs. When you can link the fix back to the original condition monitoring finding, everything becomes clearer. Photos, verification, root cause… it all starts to tell a story. People understand what those “high readings” actually meant. And more importantly, what needs to change to stop it happening again. There’s also a lot of money being left on the table in areas people overlook. Air leaks are a big one. They just sit there costing thousands until someone actually takes ownership and fixes them. And we touch on RCM and FMECA as well. How to keep them simple and useful, rather than turning them into massive Excel exercises that no one wants to touch. If you’re serious about predictive maintenance, defect elimination, and building systems that actually work for engineers, this one will land. If it does, share it with someone you work with, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a review so we can get it out to more people. And I’d be interested to hear this… What would give you better visibility on your site right now? Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1278656/support]

RELIABILITY MENTORSHIP - THE SOLUTION FOR THE SKILLS GAP?

Mentorship beats tools. Full stop. I’ve been on the road with Maintain Reliability across food factories, metal plants and logistics sites, and the pattern is the same everywhere. Companies invest in systems before they invest in judgement. They gather more data before they build the confidence to act on what they already know. Then they wonder why the breakdowns keep coming. The issue is rarely a lack of information. It’s a lack of guided decision making. Training gives knowledge. Mentoring builds judgement. There’s a big difference. In a classroom everything makes sense. On a live plant with production breathing down your neck and budgets under pressure, it’s a different game. That’s where experience matters. Someone standing next to the engineer saying, focus here, not there. Fix this first. Leave that for now. Sequence it properly. Order is everything in reliability. Before we talk about monitoring strategies, we ask simple questions. Is planning and scheduling tight. Are critical assets clearly defined. Is lubrication consistent. Are work orders closed properly. Do people understand their roles. If those foundations are weak, adding more layers just increases confusion and backlog. When the basics are strong, performance compounds. A proper reliability audit is usually the turning point. Not a tick box exercise. A real look at how the plant operates. It exposes gaps in communication, spares, lubrication standards, ownership and accountability. More importantly, it gives leadership clarity. It turns reliability from a cost into a structured improvement plan. Technology has its place. We use condition monitoring every day. But the team must own the data. They must understand what a trend means, what the risk is, and what action follows. Without that, nothing changes. I’ve seen engineers with almost no budget transform a site because they closed the loop fast and acted decisively. I’ve also seen sites with serious investment still stuck reactive because culture didn’t support action. Reliability works when people take ownership. When KPIs drive behaviour. When leaders back decisions. And when mentors hold the rope when pressure hits. If you want results that last, start with an honest audit. Build a roadmap you can defend. Strengthen the people. Then layer in the systems. That’s how we do it at Maintain Reliability. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1278656/support]

FIX THE SYSTEMS NOT THE SYMPTOMS

What if the problem isn’t your data at all but the way you’re trying to use it? Too many plants are stacked with sensors dashboards and alerts yet they are still fighting the same fires every week. I see it constantly. Technology gets layered on top of a weak maintenance strategy and everyone is surprised when nothing really changes. In this conversation I speak openly about an uncomfortable truth. Sensors do not fix broken thinking. Structure does. Planning does. Stopping defects before they ever enter the plant does. We talk honestly about the skills gap and how it quietly drives reactive behaviour. No software will ever replace judgement that is built through training experience and time on the tools. From route based vibration done properly with strong visual observations to acceptance testing that catches motor issues most sites never look for like impedance imbalance these simple disciplines reduce risk and cost when they are done consistently. We also have a real conversation about wireless versus wired monitoring. No hype. Just reality. Load variation mounting quality battery life signal stability over time. The message is simple. The method has to fit the failure mode and the business need not the trend. To help decisions stick I walk through modelling that turns engineering sense into numbers leadership can actually trust. When you map functional failures consequences and detectability you can compare strategies clearly. Run to failure redesign handheld condition monitoring or online systems. You can see the cost the risk and the expected failures over time. What comes through again and again is that reliability improves fastest when we focus on fundamentals. Better design better planning and scheduling precision alignment and strong repair standards. We share real stories including a blower that went red within days despite being monitored to show why reliability has to be built in from the start. If you are tired of dashboards that look good but change nothing and you want to focus on the actions that actually improve outcomes this conversation is for you. Subscribe for more honest conversations about reliability.  Share this with someone who loves tools more than systems.  And leave a review with one change you are committing to this quarter. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1278656/support]

HIDDEN ELECTRICAL TRUTHS, MCA AND MCSA - MARK GURNEY

Ever wondered how a “high-efficiency” motor can start wasting energy and damaging bearings before it’s even been switched on? We did too. So we tested it. Using offline motor circuit analysis alongside online motor current signature analysis, we inspected brand-new IE4 motors still sitting in their crates. What we found changed the conversation completely. Critical impedance imbalance straight out of the box. One motor already showing early winding defects before it ever saw load. That’s the moment labels stop mattering and evidence takes over. This episode walks through why pairing de-energised and energised testing matters. Offline MCA tells us what’s happening in the windings – contamination, resistive imbalance, insulation condition. Online MCSA, sampled at 44 kHz with serious resolution, shows us what vibration often can’t: rotor bar issues, air-gap problems, electrical harmonics, inverter-driven bearing currents. In difficult environments – noisy plants, submersible pumps, generators, limited access assets – current signature analysis often gives cleaner, more repeatable insight than vibration alone. We’re seeing faults that used to hide in the noise. And this isn’t theory. Across 750+ motors tested in the field, we see a clear link between impedance imbalance and winding health: • <5% – normal  • 5–8% – defect initiation  • 8–15% – accelerated damage  • >15% – critical That gives teams something powerful: defensible alarm limits and a simple acceptance test that stops bad assets entering the plant. There’s a practical win too. On one motor we reduced resistive imbalance from over 30% down to around 3.8% just by cleaning and correctly torquing the terminations. Test. Fix. Retest. Immediate improvement. The real gains come when sites take this seriously:  Acceptance testing written into purchase orders.  Evidence required from the factory.  Faults confirmed using at least two technologies. That’s how you reduce energy loss, prevent shaft currents from destroying bearings, and turn condition monitoring into real reliability improvements – not reports that sit on a shelf. If uptime matters.  If energy efficiency matters.  If you want better decisions with less noise and less drama. This episode shows the path: measure what matters, set your own standards, verify the fix, and keep learning. Enjoy the episode.  If it helps you rethink your motor strategy, subscribe, share it with a teammate, and drop a quick review with your biggest testing win or surprise. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1278656/support]