Ricky Smith

Who He Was

Ricky Smith is a maintenance and reliability consultant who started like many technicians: with a tool bag. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, he began his maintenance career in the U.S. Army working on M551 Sheridan tanks, then worked as a plant maintenance technician at companies including Exxon and the Alumax Mt. Holly aluminum plant. Over more than 35 years, he moved from technician to supervisor to maintenance manager and eventually to corporate reliability leadership. He retired from the Army and Army Reserves in 2008 after a final tour at the Pentagon as a facility investigator. He holds both the Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) and Certified Maintenance and Reliability Technician (CMRT) credentials and is now Vice President of World Class Maintenance, where he trains maintenance teams in roughly 30 countries.

Why He Matters

Smith's co-authored books, including Rules of Thumb for Maintenance and Reliability Engineers and the Industrial Machinery Repair pocket guide, are used to train technicians in the daily habits that keep plants running: preventive maintenance done on schedule, work planned before it starts, and repairs done the same right way every time. His career also shows the ladder this trade offers. The technician who learns to fix machines well can become the person who teaches an entire company how to keep them from breaking.