by Paul V. Arnold

You won’t find them wearing white laboratory coats and firing up Bunsen burners, but when there is research or investigation work to be done on production machinery, people at Whirlpool’s plant in Findlay, Ohio, turn to the guys in the Reliability Lab.

Since 1999, Dan Barringer, Jim Stone, Dick Klingler, Dave Erwin and Kenny Camper have comprised the strike force of skilled tradespeople who work out of the Reliability Lab, a plant-floor office filled with computers, reference materials and the latest predictive maintenance tools.

When a maintenance situation goes beyond the scope of a production operator, semi-skilled operator or area maintenance technician, the lab is called and one or more of these reliability technicians help find the solution.

Each person brings special skills to the table. Barringer has extensive training in infrared testing, airborne ultrasonics and motor testing. Stone and Erwin excel in thermography, and airborne and contact ultrasonics. Klingler does ultrasound and is the expert on lubrication. And, Camper heads up vibration analysis efforts.

Barringer is an electrician by trade, while the other four are millwrights. All work on the first shift except for Stone, who supports the late-night crew.

“Inherent with these guys’ jobs, they have a little more time to think about root cause solutions,” says senior reliability engineer Richard Word. “They have access to many information resources, where they can look up problems and solutions. Besides all of the knowledge that they have and are exposed to, these guys succeed because they are naturally curious. If you are really curious, you’re going to find out why things go wrong.”

But being a lab guy isn’t always glamorous. In between calls to test, break down and investigate, there are other, less heroic assignments.

“Most of my time is spent writing PMs (preventive maintenance tasks),” says Barringer, as his labmates nod in agreement. “Our PMs have room for improvement; they are very generic. We spell them out on what truly needs to be done.”

They also represent the lab or their particular skilled trade in Reliability-Centered Maintenance events. And, they provide training to operators on general maintenance skills and the use of predictive maintenance tools.

“Predictive maintenance is our ‘full-time job,’ but it’s not our full-time job,” says Stone. “We’re about reliability, not about being a separate reliability department.”

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