The following list of invited speakers and suggested topics are subject to change.

Tor Idhammar, VP and Partner, IDCON, Inc., Raleigh, NC

"Optimization of Preventive Maintenance Including Operators & Maintenance Professionals"
Tor Idhammar is a Vice President and Partner with IDCON, Inc.  He has worked in over fifty plants in nine countries in several industries. His primary responsibilities at IDCON, INC. include training and implementation support for preventive maintenance/essential care and condition monitoring, planning and scheduling of maintenance work, and root cause problem elimination. Tor also works with IDCON’s benchmarking tours, conferences and product development. His prior professional experience includes project management for supply chain management systems with MS-systems, as well as, maintenance work in the Swedish army. Tor possesses a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University and a Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lund University, in Sweden.

"Building a Bill of Materials"
Frank Murphy, CPMM, is the Founder and President of Inventory Management Services Inc., of Greenville, SC.   IMS’s “hands-dirty” consulting approach changes MRO-parts storerooms from a reactive practice to a proactive process. 

IMS implements Best Practice and common-sense principles of storeroom design, storage fixture selection and setup, and parts consolidating and organizing.  Drawing on 35 years of maintenance and storeroom experience, IMS provides all the “hands-dirty” services needed to set up a Lean and Reliable MRO parts storeroom: design, setup, relocation, consolidating and organizing, physical inventory, and bar-code labeling services for the implementation of Lean and Reliable MRO-parts storerooms and maintenance tool cribs.
Clients include Alcoa, Cognis, ConAgra, Domino Sugar, General Electric, Gillette, Kraft Foods, Miller Brewing, Pepsi, Proctor & Gamble, US Gypsum, and US Steel.

Frank is a Certified Plant Maintenance Manager (CPMM), has presented seminars at both the National Facility Managers Expo, and the Lean Manufacturing Expo conferences, and has published articles for both trade journals and organizing websites.

"How to start an IR window program and 2008 Changes" 
Martin Robinson, I Eng, MInstD Incorporated Engineer, NEBOSH Certified, Level II Vibration Analyst, Level III Thermographer

Martin Robinson is a highly sought after trainer and speaker for topics ranging from infrared windows and general thermography, to electrical preventative maintenance, condition based monitoring, “green energy,” and electrical safety standards.  With over 15 years practical “field experience” Robinson’s expertise is also valued on various committees, such as the British Institute for Non-Destructive Testing - Infra Red Training Working Group (responsible for establishing the training standards and working practices for Thermographers in the UK) where he is a standing committee member.

Robinson founded Global Maintenance Technologies (GM Tech) in the United Kingdom in 1997. Focused regionally, GM Tech provides Condition Monitoring, and energy management services to some of the most recognizable and prestigious landmarks, organizations and businesses in the city of London and Southeast England.

As necessity is often the “mother of invention,” Robinson recognized many needs while he and his team were serving their clientele. From these needs Robinson created (and patented) a series of solutions for Electrical Thermographers which enables them to perform their jobs more accurately, more efficiently and with far greater safety than was possible before. As the products became increasingly popular, Robinson split the business into 2 discreet entities to provide focus for each. The second company, IRISS, inc., was incorporated in Sarasota, Florida, USA.

The IRISS product line includes: the world’s only industrial-grade infrared windows capable of passing durability and impact requirements which no other IR window is capable of; the world’s first ultrasound ports; emissivity standardization “landmarking” tags, and the world’s only transmissive PDU panels; and other groundbreaking solutions released continually.

Martin Robinson is a devoted husband and the proud father of 8.  Currently, he resides in Sarasota, Florida when not travelling internationally for speaking engagements.

Mike has 22 years of practical experience in the field of industrial lubrication and equipment reliability management. He has assisted in developing reliability improvement strategies and implementing reliability centered machine lubrication programs for many well known multi-national manufacturers, including Cargill, International Paper, Ford Motors, Goodyear, General Mills, Saturn, Southdown, Chemetals, Arcadian Group, Diesel Recon, and many others.

Mike has an extensive background in theoretical and practical tribology, and uses this knowledge assisting organizations that want to improve machine reliability through training, in-plant coaching, failure analysis, and through advice and support developing standards for precision lubrication practices. 

"The nature of failure and some tools to manage them"
Richard Word, CMRP speaks on Monday at Preconference Wkshp
35+ years of experience in Manufacturing; General Electric & Whirlpool (Retired); Senior Reliability Engineer, Engineering Positions in Maintenance, Controls & Safety. Degree in Industrial Electronic Technology from Kentucky State University; License in Manufacturing Reliability from the University of Dayton, Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional from the Society of Maintenance & Reliability Professionals ( SMRP). 49 RCM analyses to date.

Current responsibilities: President of Catalyst Consulting & Reliability, providing Consulting and Training in Reliability Centered Maintenance, TPM,  Problem Solving, Failure Prevention, Condition Monitoring, Team Building, Reliability & Maintenance Strategies & Root Cause Analysis.

Richard Word has made several presentations and conducted training in the US & Internationally on Plant Reliability and has been featured in multiple publications

"Results Oriented Reliability and Maintenance 2008"
Christer Idhammar, a world renowned expert in Reliability and Maintenance, began his career in the Swedish merchant marine, where he started developing the fundamentals of his “Results Oriented Reliability and Maintenance Management” concept. Over the span of 35 years, this concept has evolved with his diverse experiences as a mechanic crafts person, engineer, manager, consultant, educator and philosopher, reliability guru and company leader. As a consultant, he started the Idhammar group of companies in 1972 and his own company in USA 1985 -IDCON, INC in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA in 1985.

He received the coveted EUROMAINTENANCE Incentive 2002 Award during the bi-annual EUROMAINTENANCE 2002 conference in Helsinki, Finland, in June 2002. Among 19 member European countries, he was nominated and received the award from the European Federation of National Maintenance Societies (EFNMS), for outstanding achievement and world-wide accomplishments in the field of reliability and maintenance.

"Fighting the Maintenance Crisis"
The average age of hundreds of thousands of maintenance people across the globe is 48. Many of the boomer generation have started to retire, leaving empty maintenance positions unfilled. Companies are facing a challenge in finding qualified workers to fill these vacancies. With no one to fix broken pipes, frayed wires, aging equipment, and few who understand how to support modern automation technologies, nations are finding themselves in what Joel Leonard has coined, “The Maintenance Crisis.”

A former vice-president of the Association for Facilities Engineering, Joel is taking the lead internationally in identifying, explaining and helping to solve the problem. His creative strategies to build awareness have included holding job fairs specific to the maintenance industry, writing articles, public speaking at from major conventions to high school classes, writing songs, developing an on-line TV network and now writing books. As a result of his efforts, Joel was appointed to the United States Council on Competitiveness, a national think-tank whose purpose is to work with legislators and the White House to inform policy decisions that lead to effective strategies for economic development.  Internationally, corporate and governmental leaders are seeking Joel’s advice and he has been interviewed on National Public Radio and CNBC.

Working with Chicago-based Putman Media, Inc., a publisher of nine trade magazines, Joel has been a contributing columnist for Plant Services Magazine for the past five years. The 140,000 readers have followed Joel’s work onto the Internet, where, in 2007, Joel founded SkillTV.net, the first on-line television network dedicated to helping build awareness of and offering solutions to the “Maintenance Crisis.” Programming includes interviews with congressional leaders, Fortune 500 CEOs, educators, engineers and maintenance technicians in the US, Canada and abroad.

In 2008, Joel received the Gold Award for his column in Plant Services Magazine from the American Society of Business Publications Editors.

Joel has often presented at and been the keynote speaker at national and international conventions since 1998. In 2008, he was the first American to deliver the opening address at the Euro Maintenance Conference in Belgium, a meeting attended by governmental and corporate leaders from 51 nations. His songs, “The Maintenance Crisis” and “Find Me a Maintenance Woman,” have been played on National Public Radio and downloaded more than 100,000 times. They are often played at major conventions.
Joel is a 1987 graduate of Elon University with a BS in Marketing. While working at Thomasville Furniture Company, he developed an appreciation for the maintenance field and says he’s been an engineer at heart ever since. As business developer at DP Solutions, he helped more than 500 businesses implement computerized maintenance management software programs. Joel served as a Maintenance Solutions Provider at Life Cycle Engineering and supported the growth of the MPACT Learning Center.

"Times of Major Cultural Change"
BS - Business Administration
Post-graduate degree - Pulp and Paper Technology
Sixteen years line supervision in all areas of an integrated pulp and paper facility
Eleven years as superintendent of three paper machines
Two years as plant maintenance manager

"Highwall Miner Reliability - From Rags to Riches" CASE STUDY
Sonny Griffith is an Electrical and Computer Engineer currently working for Arch Coal Inc as a Maintenance Engineer. Upon graduating from West Virginia State University and the National Institute of Technology, Sonny spent three years designing and troubleshooting electrical high voltage systems before joining the team of Arch Coal Inc. In his current role, Sonny is tasked with the layout and implementation of an in house PdM program that consists of Vibration Analysis, Infrared Thermography, Oil Analysis, Ultra Sonics and Motor Circuit Analysis for three underground coal mines and one surface coal mine.

"How a North American Maintenance Excellence Award Winner Applies Root Cause Failure Analysis to Tackle Equipment Failures and Process Upsets" – CASE STUDY

Steve Fox is a reliability engineer with Aera Energy LLC, an oil and gas producer headquartered in Bakersfield, California.  Steve has worked in the upstream oil industry for 21 years, spending eight years in facilities / project engineering, and the last 13 years as a reliability engineer at Aera’s Belridge oil producing complex.  His surface equipment reliability roles include facilitation of failure analysis events, development of predictive and preventative maintenance strategies, and implementation of rotating equipment reliability improvements.

Steve holds a BS degree in Chemical & Petroleum Refining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and is also a Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional through the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals.

"Recruit, Train and Assess your Maintenance Organization of Tomorrow"
Dave has worked within the industrial maintenance arena for more than 30 years.  Prior to CenTec, Dave directed a group that managed the recruiting, training, and assessments for the 24 Michelin North America facilities located throughout the United States and Canada. His journey involved transitioning 2,300 maintenance technicians in union and non-union facilities into fully proficient maintenance technicians.  Dave’s group has been successful in forging partnerships with represented bodies and management to enable a successful multi-skilled progression system. Over the last six years, Dave has been involved in assisting  premier manufacturers in successfully implementing a fully proficient maintenance organization. A native of Nova Scotia, Dave now resides in Greenville, SC.

"Oil Analysis Interpretation"
Diego Navarro, Service Marketing Manager, November 2003 to present
John Deere Construction and Forestry Company, Moline Illinois,
Currently developing Condition Based Maintenance and Root Cause Failure Analysis for the EnterpriseDivision Manager Product Support for Canada,   1998 to October 2003.

John Deere Construction and Forestry Company, Seattle WA, Moline IL
Established revised hydraulic flushing procedures after failures and introduced a highly successful and intelligent caddy identified as the Super Caddy.

Division Manager Product Support for Overseas, Moline Illinois 1989 to 1998.
John Deere Intercontinental GmbH, Moline Illinois
Developed a Product Support Marketing Manual for Latin American John Deere dealers

Territory Sales Manager, Venezuela, Colombia and the Caribbean 1983 to 1988 
John Deere Intercontinental GmbH, Construction, Caracas, Venezuela
Grew market share and develop new machine applications in the region

Deputy Manager, Construction Company, Quito, Ecuador 1981 to 1983
Road building in the Amazon jungle. Established a condition based maintenance program in 1981 with onsite oil analyzers for Granito Construction Company.

Area Manager Product Support, Venezuela 1976 to 1981. 
John Deere Intercontinental Ltd, Construction, Caracas, Venezuela
Factory field representative and technical support

Service Manager, Ponce Yepess Cia de Comercio, Quito, Ecuador,
John Deere dealership 1971 to 1976

BS Aeronautical Technologies, MITA, Quito, Ecuador  1969 -1971
Mechanical Engineering, Politecnica del Ecuador, Quito 1966-1969

"How To Reduce Storeroom Inventory Painlessly"

Education
Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Science, 1982, Shorter College, Rome, GA
Certified Plant Maintenance Manager, 2003, Life Cycle, Charleston, SC

Personal
Raymond L. Atkins is a veteran maintenance professional with fourteen years experience in the lumber industry.  He is based in Rome, GA, where he spent the last five years as Maintenance Superintendent at Temple-Inland’s Rome Lumber facility.  He holds the CPMM and CMRP designations and is a lifetime member of AFE.  He is a Contributing Editor to both Lubrication Management and Technology and Maintenance Technology magazines. 

Affiliations

• Association for Facilities Engineering
• Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals
• Southeastern Writer’s Association
• Georgia Writers
• Rome Area Writers
• Rome Area Council for the Arts
• Shorter College Alumni Association
• Highlands College Alumni Association
• Atlanta Writers
• Chattanooga Area Council for the Arts

"The Contamination Equation - Cost Effective Control Equals Big Results"
For over 7 years, Trigg Minnick has been helping companies across the country with best practices in reliability and maintenance products and processes.  Trigg has been a featured speaker at a wide variety of industry conferences, including the past four LRL events.
 
Trigg directs the sales team for Des-Case, provider of some of the premier economical products for lubrication maintenance.  Prior to joining Des-Case, he was a mortgage loan officer for American National Home Mortgage.

He and his colleagues believe in innovation, and they continue to drive their company to provide the next solution for the many industries they serve.  There are many steps to maintenance excellence, and he strives to ensure clients consider all aspects of what is needed.
 
Trigg holds a Certified Lubrication Specialist (CLS) certification as well as a bachelor’s degree in finance and a minor in engineering from Tennessee Technological University.   He and his wife, Chris, have three children and reside just north of Nashville, TN.

"The Importance of Alignment in Converting Industries"
Jay Tannan, a Sales and Service Engineer, first joined PRUFTECHNIK Service Inc. in May 2006.  Jay holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  His prior experience includes extensive work in the paper industry, and his knowledge of multiple industries continues to grow, with experience in converting, printing, plastics, steel, and aluminum. 

Read about speakers from the 2007 conference and speakers from the 2006 conference