Name: Rene Viso
Age: 54
Job Title: Reliability Engineer
Company: Unilin-Mohawk
Location: Mount Gilead, North Carolina
Length of Service: 3 years
Rene Viso has enjoyed a long and varied career, getting his start in lubrication 25 years ago as the head of international sales for a local lubricant manufacturer in Venezuela. He later worked for GE-Bently Nevada as a machine diagnostic field engineer and as the general manager for Mantenimiento Trading Corp. For the past three years, Viso has served as a reliability engineer for Unilin-Mohawk. During his career, he has utilized numerous technologies, including vibration, infrared and oil analysis, and is excited to begin applying artificial intelligence (AI) in the near future to help increase his plant’s detection capabilities.
Q: What types of training have you taken to reach your current position?
A: I have had training in oil analysis, machinery lubrication, vibration, thermography, nondestructive testing (NDT) and Six Sigma.
Q: What professional certifications have you attained?
A: I have been a mechanical engineer since 1987.
Q: Are you planning to obtain additional training or achieve higher certifications?
A: I plan to obtain the Machinery Lubrication Engineer (MLE) and Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) certifications.
Q: What’s a normal work day like for you?
A: I begin at 7 a.m. with a safety meeting and exercises in our maintenance shop. At 8:30 a.m., we have a work-orders revision meeting. After these meetings, it is a normal, busy day. If everything goes well, the work day finishes at 4 p.m. with planning for the next day.
Q: What is the amount and range of equipment that you help service through lubrication/oil analysis tasks?
A: We are responsible for the lubrication of approximately 550 assets, and we handle 125 oil samples monthly.
Q: On what lubrication-related projects are you currently working?
A: I am working to improve our equipment information and cleanliness levels as well as to install online oil monitoring sensors.
Q: What have been some of the biggest project successes in which you’ve played a part?
A: The consolidation of the Unilin-Mohawk reliability project has been a success as well as the installation of all types of online sensors, such as temperature, vibration, infrared, oil analysis, etc. We currently are working on the consolidation of all disciplines in our plant to begin to apply AI.
Q: What do you see as some of the more important trends taking place in the lubrication and oil analysis field?
A: We constantly expand the reach of our lubricant analysis program. The last addition was grease sampling during production of our large, low-speed bearings.
