On this week's episode of The Maintainers: A Blue Cap Community Podcast, hosts Jake & David are joined by an outstanding guest, Anna Goodman. Anna is the Senior Mechanical Reliability Engineer at Celanese, a global chemical leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Anna is bringing in her extensive and diverse manufacturing background to the conversation today. 

Some topics that are covered in this episode include: What differences exist between various manufacturing industries, why leadership should be taking a top-down approach towards their predictive maintenance efforts, and how the tides might slowly be shifting to close the gender gap in the industry. Anna also stresses the importance of mentorship in fostering early career development, and the ways in which she works with professional organizations to do her part. 

Additionally, David & Jake poke around the subject of AI, and where the industry might be headed as it is further integrated into the work done everyday. Hear Anna give her thoughts on how she views the future potential available, and if it will be fully replacing humans or working together to enable more intellectual work.

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Guest Bio

Anna Goodman is a Senior Mechanical Reliability Engineer with Celanese in Houston, Texas.

She began working in the nuclear industry in 2011. She received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2010. In the past 12 years, she has worked in various industries including nuclear, food, plastics, petrochemical, and chemicals. 

The primary focus in each being to work with teams of various disciplines at the facilities to improve reliability and mechanical integrity of the equipment. Her work over the past 5 years can be summarized as covering the following subjects:

• Focused on cleanup of Mechanical Integrity programs documentation and follow through on inspection findings.
• Review of MOCs to ensure mechanical integrity and reliability details are addressed as they need to be. 
• The evaluation and optimization of inspection and maintenance programs. 
• Managed and led crews to perform repairs and replacements for equipment that did not have good equipment health or integrity.
• Led and performed FMEAs and RCAs for failed or frequently failing equipment. 
• Trained other maintenance professionals about mechanical integrity and reliability principles. 
• Earned a Certification of Maintenance and Reliability Professional, API 510, API 580, and API 570.

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Guest Quote

“Try to help the user find the failure before it happens. Then you don't have any surprises. The surprises lead to the accidents and possible injuries depending on what the risk is of that particular piece of equipment.” – Anna Goodman

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Time Stamps 

*(01:42) Opening Icebreaker

*(02:27) Anna's Background

*(04:31) Automotive vs. Chemical Manufacturing

*(06:08) Segment 01: The Maintainer Mashup

*(08:30) Why is predictive maintenance important

*(13:38) Section 02: What's in Your Toolkit?

*(17:04) Segment 03: The Future of Factories

*(20:03) Women in manufacturing and maintenance

*(24:26) How professional organizations can help

*(26:21) Mentorship matters

*(29:03) Segment 04: Fix It Funnies

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Links

• Connect with Anna Goodman on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Celanese
• Connect with David Lee on LinkedIn
• Connect with Jake Hall on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Tractian