Learning Sessions

Larry Jordan – Director Business Development-Lubrication Service, Conco Services

Industry standard practice targets a Reynolds Number of 4,000 to achieve turbulent flow during oil flushing. While technically accurate, this threshold is not sufficient velocity to create the chaos needed to remove all contamination. Many facilities attempt oil flushing with system pumps, only to find they cannot achieve necessary cleanliness because they are not meeting the right flow rates. The industry is using Re4000 as a target when it should be at least Re10000.

This session explains what turbulent flow is, why sub-optimal flow rates fail, and what the correct flow rate target should be. Learn how to calculate Reynolds Numbers, understand how nitrogen or pneumatic vibration can increase turbulence, and determine whether your existing pumps can achieve the right flow or whether an off-board flush provider is required.

Terry Southall – Global Brand & Distribution Manager, Hamar Laser Instruments, Inc.

Shaft misalignment is one of the most underestimated causes of machinery failure in rotating equipment. Even minor deviations lead to increased vibration, premature bearing and seal wear, excessive energy consumption, and costly unplanned downtime. Many facilities still rely on outdated tools or inconsistent techniques, resulting in recurring equipment issues.

This session demonstrates proven methods for detecting and correcting shaft misalignment using modern laser alignment systems. You’ll learn how precision tools and repeatable measurement techniques eliminate guesswork and prevent machinery problems. Learn practical strategies for identifying and quantifying misalignment, understanding its impact on performance, and integrating alignment practices into existing reliability programs. You’ll leave with actionable tools to improve alignment accuracy, extend equipment life, reduce maintenance costs, and increase operational uptime.

Milan Heninger – Senior Manager, Commissioning, Fervo Energy

Reliability programs often struggle not because of poor tools or lack of effort, but because reliability is introduced only after startup. By the time operations and maintenance teams take ownership, critical decisions about equipment baselines, data quality, and performance expectations have already been made during commissioning, often by prioritizing mechanical completion over long-term performance. New assets frequently enter service with latent defects, no meaningful baselines, and incomplete engineering data.

This session demonstrates how commissioning can deliberately serve as the starting point for reliability. Learn how to structure commissioning activities to establish meaningful baselines, which reliability technologies to introduce during startup versus later, and how to translate acceptance criteria into sustainable maintenance expectations. You’ll discover how to prevent early-life failures, align project teams and operations around shared outcomes, and bridge the handover gap.

Victor Calvo Pernia – Territory Manager, EagleBurgmann Industries LP

Mechanical seal failures account for over 30 percent of pump breakdowns and nearly 40 percent of repair costs. Current troubleshooting practices are fragmented and lack structured methodology, leading to premature conclusions, misclassified failure modes, and repeated downtime. This session introduces a systematic, evidence-based troubleshooting process that promotes cross-functional collaboration and accurate root cause identification.

Learn a structured methodology modeled on the scientific method, including evidence collection, failure mode classification, and hypothesis testing. Explore how to validate process conditions and engage maintenance, operations, process engineering, and OEMs to eliminate bias and improve collaboration. You’ll gain practical tools such as checklists, classification guides, and reporting templates to implement accurate data reporting and scale solutions across your equipment population, reducing repair costs and preventing recurring failures.

Jerid Jackson – Reliability and Asset Management Sr. Manager, Frito-Lay (PepsiCo)

Sebastian Traeger – Managing Director, Reliability.com / EasyRCA / PROACT

Scaling Root Cause Analysis across more than 40 manufacturing sites at Frito-Lay North America exposed common enterprise challenges including inconsistent methods, slow investigations, and corrective actions that failed to transfer between sites. Fragmented tools, locally built templates, and reliance on tribal knowledge reduced quality and repeatability.

This session walks through how Frito-Lay designed and implemented a repeatable RCA framework that scales across multiple sites. Learn how standard methods, shared equipment templates, and a centralized digital platform create consistency while accelerating investigations. Discover the common failure points that prevent RCA from scaling and how connecting people, processes, and data enables higher-quality investigations and faster replication of corrective actions. You’ll gain practical strategies to standardize RCA, improve cross-site alignment, reduce repeat failures, and drive measurable reliability results faster.

Jeff Shiver – Managing Principal, People and Processes

Every maintenance planner has the same goal: build a reusable job plan library for corrective work, standardize formats, and capture senior technician knowledge before they retire. But that day never comes. Planners are buried in work orders, chasing parts, and fielding constant interruptions while the clock ticks on jobs needing planning and retirees walking out the door.

This session shows how AI can change the math. What used to take hours can now start with a solid first draft in fifteen minutes. Learn how to prompt AI for corrective job plan drafts, produce validation workflows with human checkpoints, and understand where AI accelerates work versus where it fails. Discover how to extract and standardize tribal knowledge and build your library incrementally using small chunks embedded in your existing workflow with no dedicated project needed.

Greg Livingstone – Chief Innovation Officer, Fluitec

Sanya Mathura – Founder, Strategic Reliability Solutions

Oil-derived deposits, commonly called varnish, on bearing surfaces are among the most persistent and costly reliability challenges in rotating equipment. These deposits disrupt heat transfer, reduce oil film thickness, and trigger instabilities like the Morton Effect, leading to elevated temperatures, vibration excursions, and premature bearing failure. Traditional oil analysis often misses these localized deposits because bulk fluid properties can appear normal even as degradation accelerates.

This session demonstrates how integrating vibration diagnostics with advanced oil analysis provides earlier, more accurate detection of bearing deposits. Learn how to apply tribology fundamentals and interpret oil analysis methods such as MPC, FTIR, and particle counting. You’ll explore how vibration patterns signal instability and how to correlate these signatures with chemical degradation pathways. Gain practical strategies for identifying deposit mechanisms in journal and thrust bearing systems and improving predictive maintenance.