Engineering for Reliability

Kevin is Chair of the IMechE’s Engineering for Reliability Work Group and Network Rail’s Subject Matter Exert in Design For Reliability. He is an IMechE Fellow who gained his passion for continuous improvement at Ford Motor Company, where he was Quality Supervisor for Dagenham Body and Assembly Plant. His MSc in Advanced Automotive Engineering gained him a patent for an intelligent system which identified squeak and rattle issues using frequency finger-printing in 1996.

As part of Ford’s world class Engineering Quality Improvement Programme, he trained and supported engineers and managers in Total Quality Management tools such as Statistical Process Control, Design of Experiments, Potential Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, Problem Solving, Quality Function Deployment and Robustness. This allowed him to build an extensive portfolio of successful projects, including winning Ford’s prestigious President’s Customer Driven Quality Award twice. Kevin was on the first waves of Ford’s Six Sigma Black Belt and Master Black Belt training and then headed up and deployed Six Sigma into foundries, V-Engine plants, Automatic Transmission Design and Diesel Engineering.

After spending time as the Quality and Reliability Supervisor for European Diesel Engines fitted into Jaguar vehicles, Kevin joined Network Rail to deliver their Maintenance Six Sigma Programme leading to very significant signed-off savings. A role as Reliability Improvement Manager for Signalling, led him to identify the need, write and gain stakeholder approval for Network Rail’s mandated Design for Reliability Standard, integrating reliability tools into the design process. He has briefed and taught this to Network Rail, suppliers and European Infrastructure Management companies. Kevin received a Network Rail Technical Fellowships, for experience and knowledge in the fields of quality and reliability. He won Kepner Tregoe’s combined technologies 2022 Global Excellence Award for his work on Design For Reliability and recognised at the 2022 National Rail Awards for his Outstanding Personal Contribution to Rail. Kevin has written a regular article on reliability for ‘Rail Infrastructure Magazine’ since July 2022.

Bob Wilson is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer having served an Engineering apprenticeship covering both Mechanical and Electrical engineering and was elected a Member of the IMechE in 1971. A Diploma in Industrial Management and Membership of the Chartered Management Institute (formerly BIM and IIM) followed in 1986/7. He is also a member of the Safety and Reliability Society.

His engineering career has covered both Mechanical and Electrical engineering including Research and Development, Design, Production, Applications and Project Management and Trials on Commercial and Defence programmes in both Industry and the MOD. Prior to early retirement in 2004, he was a Senior R&M Engineer in the Reliability Policy branch within the Defence Logistics Organisation of the UK MoD. responsible for procurement and test programmes, weapon development, production and proving trials.

He supported the introduction of the Reliability Case and pioneered Root Cause Analysis as part of the MoD reliability tool kit. Since retirement Bob has been involved in Accident Investigation, Risk Assessment and similar activities relating to Safety and Reliability but now only in an advisory capacity.

Ian currently serves as the Vice Chair of the IMechE's Engineering for Reliability Work Group. As a subject matter expert and delegated design authority, he oversees facilities, plant, and equipment in high-hazard industries.

Ian's career began as a craft apprentice at Kinetrol in Farnham before he pursued Combined Engineering at Coventry University.

His extensive experience spans multiple industries, including defence, mobile phone technology, ozone generation, natural gas, and nuclear environments.

Over the past 30 years, Ian has led several dedicated teams to successfully deliver diverse programmes such as product development, plant reliability, major build project handovers, technical/safety audits, and safety case management, review, and improvement.

Ian enjoys a hands-on approach and engages in vehicle restoration and maintenance, from vintage motorcycles to classic armed vehicles like the Centurion.

Sathyanarayana Appia graduated from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, in 1989 with a First-Class degree in Mechanical Engineering. He then joined Walchandnagar Industries Limited, a heavy engineering products and EP&C services company based in Mumbai, India, as a Graduate Engineer, specializing in Production Planning and Control.

In 1991, he qualified in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), a prestigious national-level examination in India, and subsequently completed his Master’s degree in Cryogenic Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. He successfully oversaw the erection and commissioning of the Integrated Liquid Hydrogen Plant (ILHP) project at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India.

After a brief tenure at INOX Air Products as a Senior Project Engineer, where he contributed to the design and development of small cryogenic oxygen and nitrogen plants, PSA Nitrogen generators, and PRISM membrane technology, he joined Air Liquide SA, France. As Manager of Operations for an unmanned HPN FLOXAL unit for float glass applications, he successfully achieved a 99% on-stream factor in a challenging environment.

In 2001, he was promoted to Worldwide Director – Risk, HSE, and QMS at Air Liquide Engineering, Paris, France. During his tenure in Europe, he chaired HAZOP, FMEA, FMECA, root cause analysis, What-If analysis, and Cause-and-Effect Ishikawa diagrams for several global projects. He also led the Quality Management System (QMS) at Air Liquide Engineering, ensuring compliance with ISO 9001 quality standards and certification processes. Additionally, he was part of the Technical Review Committee at Air Liquide Engineering and published several research papers and articles in reliability engineering.

Upon returning to India, Sathyanarayana became actively involved in the start-up ecosystem in Bangalore, being a member of TiE Global/The Indus Entrepreneurs, Smart City initiatives, and contributing to Edu-Tech and skill development start-ups such as Sarathsri E-Technologies and Engineering Expert.

In 2012, he joined Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Automobile Engineering. In 2016, he joined the Work Integrated Learning Program (WILP) at BITS Pilani, teaching Materials Technology to postgraduate students. Later, he was promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Christ University, Bangalore.

In 2020, he was appointed Group Director of Vikrant Group of Institutions, Madhya Pradesh, India. After the COVID-19 pandemic (2022–2024), he served as a Visiting Professor at T. John Institute of Technology, Bangalore. During his academic tenure, he was actively involved in the development of alternative fuels and biofuels. He successfully completed his Ph.D. at Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in 2019.

Sathyanarayana has published several research articles and papers in the field of biofuels and has presented his work at numerous international conferences and seminars.

He joined the IMechE’s Engineering for Reliability Working Group to promote reliability engineering. He is also actively involved in promoting STEM education for underprivileged and rural schoolchildren in India.

Jamie has a background in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Leeds and worked in Finite Element Analysis and Computational Fluid Dynamics before pursuing a career in Safety and Reliability Engineering and Asset Management. Jamie has a keen interest in data science and systems Engineering that supports his primary focus of Reliability Engineering.

Jamie spent his first years at British Sugar supporting Reliability Centred Maintenance studies and implementing preventative maintenance plans before joining Wilde Analysis focussing on software implementation, training, and consulting across a wide range of industries.

In his current role at Indicatura, Jamie focusses on large scale projects in the chemical, defence, and nuclear sectors. Heavily involved in long term projects, Jamie leads strategic direction and process development as well as exploiting new technologies to solve novel Reliability Engineering and Asset Management problems.

Jamie’s interests are split across Reliability Engineering management and analysis, the former driven by the need for scalability and addressing skills gaps in the field, and the later driven by a sincere interest in supporting decision making through the understanding of system failures.

Jamie joined the IMechE SRG with the aim of furthering his network, to get exposure to other fields, and to encourage engineers to consider careers in the field of Reliability Engineering.

Dennis is an experienced Chartered Engineer with extensive work experience in delivering and managing risk management, engineering assurance, Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety (RAMS) and compliance services and functions for railway projects in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Mainland China, Dubai and the UK for nearly 30 years. Dennis has undertaken an assortment of roles including Employer’s Representative, Project Manager, Risk Assurance Manager, consultant and Independent Safety Assessor. He has hands-on skills and experience in safety management system, risk management, training, Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP) & risk workshop, risk/assurance audits; and collaborating with management and stakeholders for the implementation of risk mitigations and Corporation-wide initiatives for projects as well as aspects of operations & maintenance; and incident investigations.

Dennis has developed a specialist expertise in risk assurance with a broad understanding of the principles of the railway infrastructure & assets, and their interactions through the project implementation and delivery cycle to preparation for revenue services and railway management, operation & maintenance. He is conversant with the relevant British Standards EN 61508, IEC 62198, EN 50716, ISO 31000 and OHSAS 18001; and an Approved International Engineering Safety Management (iESM) Practitioner (since the withdrawal of the RSSB “Yellow Book”).

Eur Ing Dr Franceskides is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and member of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. His current role at the IMechE is Vice Chair of the Reading area and organising committee of the Great Debate 2025, whilst professionally he is operating in asset management consulting for Indicatura Ltd.

As a forensic engineer he handled various claims, from pharmaceutical, manufacturing and property damage (contamination) as well as reinstatement, including low value contentious claims to high-value, high-profile matters.

Achieving his MEng in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Liverpool, he then joined Cranfield University and completed an MSc in Forensic Engineering and Science and PhD in Biomedical and Biomechanical Engineering.

He is experienced in Defence and Civilian industries with predominant focus in health, manufacturing, motorsport, marine and aerospace; where he has carried out component analysis and testing, rig design, build and commissioning studies as well as being engaged in change management and continuous improvement but also recovery and remediation activities.

Brian Graduated from South Bank University with an HND in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1985 and with an Honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1990. He Joined MEL in 1986 as Junior Engineering Support Engineer working on military Radars, Electronic Warfare and Radio equipment’s.

MEL was bought by Thorn EMI in 1990 and Racal in 1990 and 1995 respectively and by 1997 he was a Senior Principle Engineer working on Mine detection, electronic Counter-measures and Drones for the British Army.

Racal was bought by Thompson-CSF in 2000 and soon after re-branded as Thales UK, where he has worked ever since on Radars, Integrated Communication Systems, Radios, Countermeasure, Sonars, Electronic Warfare, Nuclear Power Station and Drone equipment’s. Rising to Lead Supportability Engineer for the SIX Business unit as a Thales UK recognised Specialist in Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Testability, Integrated Logistic Support Engineering and Management and Through Life Support Modelling.

James is a Chartered Engineer with a 1st Class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sheffield. Since graduating, James has over 13 years’ professional experience with a major focus on technical consulting within UK Defence.

His experience includes: (1) Working for AgustaWestland as a manufacturing engineer, specialising in repair and overhaul of composite aircraft components; as well as (2) Working with tpgroup as an operational analyst and modeller. James’ long-term role however has been as a consultant with BMT, working in the disciplines of Integrated Logistics Support and Reliability & Maintainability (R&M), applying reliability engineering techniques to support both customers and suppliers across a variety of programmes and domains.

James joined the SRG in 2024 with a desire to develop and maintain awareness of best practices being applied in adjacent industries, and to share knowledge based upon his previous experience. In particular, James has a keen interest and passion in the application of mathematical modelling techniques to analyse complex problems, undertake risk-based analysis, and support project, programme and policy decision making.

Jim is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with IMechE and a Fellow of Engineers Ireland. Jim has 30 years’ experience in operations, maintenance, utilities, asset management and project management. Jim is based in Cork, Ireland. Jim worked in the power generation and petrochemical industries for 10 years, from 1991-2001, in Operations and Maintenance roles.

Jim joined Janssen Pharmaceutical in 2002, as maintenance engineer before moving to maintenance and utilities manager in 2003. In 2005 he moved to the green field Janssen Biologics Cork start-up, building and setting up the maintenance, utilities and facilities team. In 2012, he led a global reliability improvement initiative in Janssen pharmaceutical plants. In 2014 Jim became the Global Director for Asset Management in the Facilities Management Centre of Excellence; building a series of asset management programmes and processes to improve and standardise the management of facilities assets. Jim oversaw the transformation of asset management in J&J commercial sites to IFM service providers, as well as leading standardisation of facility condition assessments and capital spending. Jim then worked in the Engineering and Design group, leading the Industry 4.0 programme for Facilities Management. Jim is currently a Project Director on a large Biotech capital project, leading the Commissioning and Qualification team, the Engineering Handover Documentation team, acting as Utilities system owner and Maintenance system user.

Christopher is a master's student in Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London. He holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Birmingham, where he received the Joseph Thom Carding Memorial Prize for excellence. During his time at ROSEN, he developed asset management solutions for C-suite clients in the energy sector. He has a keen interest in emerging technologies, such as quantum systems and their reliability, and presented a poster at Imperial’s Quantum for Humanity conference in August 2024, engaging in discussions on the future applications of quantum engineering.

He currently serves as the Young Member Representative for the Safety and Reliability Group at the IMechE, ensuring that the perspectives of young engineers are considered in the group's initiatives. In this role, he collaborates with other Young Member boards and panels to promote engagement and knowledge sharing within the engineering community.

Mike is Currently the Head of energy for NHSS National Services Scotland. He is a Chartered mechanical engineer and fellow of the IMechE.

Mike has been in the NHS for 35 years the last 20 at Director of estates or senior roles in central NHS agencies or the Department of Health (DoH), during the pandemic Mike was the national oxygen lead for NHSE and was the medical gas engineer for the Excel Nightingale.

Mike was a co-author for the SFG20 healthcare suite of documentation and has been a lead author to many hospital technical and managerial guides for the DoH as well as lecturing in the UK and internationally on technical matters.

In 2019 Mike was awarded the IMechE CBSD lifetime achievement award for work his work in the healthcare sector

Before the NHS Mike was in the MoD/Army and has strived to apply the safety risk and reliability (SRR) assessment models developed there to the life safety systems within the healthcare sector.

Mike was the lead author on developing a suite of national occupational standards for competencies required for all Designated Person (DP) roles in Medical Gas Pipeline systems (MGPS) after the findings from the official HSSIB inquiry into the pandemic, as this and the sad events of the Grenfell disaster show only too well the need for clear nationally accredited knowledge, skills and behavioural competencies

Rasa Remenyte-Prescott is an Associate Professor in Risk and Reliability Engineering and the Head of Resilience Engineering Research Group at the University of Nottingham. The focus of her research is the development of techniques for risk, reliability and resilience, asset management, maintenance modelling and fault diagnostics, as well as models for the failure and recovery of engineering systems and clinical processes. The research spans across a few industrial sectors, including railway, highway, aerospace and energy. Rasa chairs an ESRA technical committee in the Healthcare and Medical Industry, and regularly participates in ESReDA projects groups in maintenance modelling and resilience. She joined the SRG Board in 2013.

Chris has a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wolverhampton coupled with 25+ years of engineering experience. After various manufacturing roles, Chris went on to become a Safety and Reliability Engineer for civil and defence products in the air, at sea and ground vehicles. He is the host of the ReliaCast podcast series and an Application Engineer for ReliaSoft software. He supports industry and university customers with reliability software solutions and best practices in reliability engineering.

Here at IMechE Chris sits on the WG1 committee of the Safety and Reliability Group (SRG). The SRG group promotes the development of safety and reliability requirements for products, systems or services.

Zhuocheng (Gary) Zhang is a Master of Research student at the University of Birmingham. With a strong background in materials engineering and data-driven predictive analysis, he is passionate about enhancing reliability in engineering applications, hence serving as a young member of the Safety and Reliability Group (SRG). He is actively recruiting volunteers to support upcoming Young Members Board events, encouraging more early-career engineers to get involved in shaping the future of the profession.