The History of SMRP

AN ABBREVIATED HISTORY

The Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) came to be as a result of discussions between senior officers of HSB Reliability Technologies and Applied Technology Publications, the publisher of MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY , which took place near the end of 1991 and into early 1992. The two founding companies invited a number of their clients and associates to attend a meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Chicago to discuss the need for an association which would be directed to maintenance and reliability personnel and to be the charter members if conclusions were positive. This meeting took place on March 22-24, 1992. Maintenance and reliability personnel from 18 companies joined representatives of the founding companies and concluded that the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals would be formed. The charter members represented the following organizations: Alumax of South Carolina, Amdahl Corporation, B.F. Goodrich Chemical, E.I. du Pont, Eastman Kodak Company, Elkem Metals Company, Florida Power & Light Company, Ford Automotive Components Group, Henkel Corporation, Howmet Corporation, Hudson Bay Mining, Lake Superior Paper, Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company, Logan Aluminum, Ore-Ida Foods, U.S. Postal Services, Uno-Ven Company and Virginia Power. The names of the charter members can be found below

. It was decided at this first meeting that the society will:

• Facilitate information exchange through a structured network of maintenance and reliability professionals,
• Support maintenance as an integrated part of business management,
• Present a collective voice on maintenance and reliability issues and advance innovative maintenance and reliability practices, and
• Promote and support maintenance and reliability education at all levels.

All of which will enhance production, quality and the work environment. Key mile posts were:

• A meeting took place in the Summer of 1992 during which officers were elected and committees were established. The officers were: Al Weber, Chairman; Jorge Mendieta, Secretary; Bill Busch, Treasurer, Terry Crisp, Membership; John Day, Technical Adviser. The committees were: Education, headed by Jim McNeil; Standards, headed by Fred Newman; Benchmarking, headed by Ed Jones; Communications, headed by Ed McKinley; and Research and Development, headed by Bill Wymer.
• The vision, mission and strategic issues were defined at this meeting and the six sigma logo was developed.
• The headquarters for the Society were established in Chicago and the first newsletter was published in December.
• Also in December of 1992, the results of the first benchmarking of 18 of the Society's corporate members were circulated. The first call for membership went out in December of 1992.
• By the end of January 1993 the Society had 32 corporate members and slightly over 200 individual members.
• Society by-laws were adopted in March of 1993.
• The Society's first annual conference was held in Nashville in October of 1993 with 260 people in attendance
• By January of 1994 the Society had 41 corporate members and 372 individual members.
• The Society held its second annual conference in Fort Worth in October of 1994 with 326 people in attendance.
• By the middle of 1995 the Society had 532 members. Four of the corporate members and 14 individual members were from nine countries outside North America.
• The Society held its third annual conference in Chicago in October of 1995 with 414 people in attendance.
• By the Fall of 1995, the benchmarking database had data from 250 plants.
• As of June 15 of 1996 the Society had 782 members; 89 corporate and 527 individual.
• Also the Society's not-for-profit status is confirmed and the six sigma logo becomes a registered trademark.
• In August of 1997 the SMRP board endoresed the certification goal and set in motion the creation of the Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) designation.
• In 1998 the Professional Certification Committee (PCC) gathered to begin work on the charter, objectives, and goals of the committee.
• By 1999 the PCC had surveyed 400 maintenance and reliability practitioners and determined the support for a certification program was there.
• At the 2000 SMRP Annual Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, volunteer applicants took the first public beta exam, thus validating the exam content for official use.
• In 2001 the PCC was renamed the SMRP Certifying Organization (SMRPCO).
• At the SMRP Annual Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, a membership campaign of gaining 10,000 members by 2010 was unveiled.
• As of June 2007, the exam has been administered over 3,100 times with over 1,800 successful CMRPs.
• As of mid-June 2007, SMRP had 2,375 members; 874 corporate, 1481 individual, 206 organizations.

Charter Members of SMRP

• Alumax-John Day
• Amdahl-Terry Crisp
• Applied Technology Publications-Bob Baldwin and Ciro Buttacavoli
• B.F. Goodrich Chemicals-Ed Mc Kinley
• Dofasco Inc.-Gino Palarchio
• Du Pont-Ed Jones
• Eastman Kodak-Al Weber
• Elkem Metals-Bob Wymer
• Florida Power & Light-Bob Lohman
• Ford-Ray Yanok
• HSB Reliability Technologies-Andy Ginder, Ray Oliverson, Brad Peterson, Charlie Robinson and Jim Sutherlin
• Henkel-Bill Busch
• Howmet-Fred Newman
• Hudson Bay Mining-Mark Nilsen
• Lake Superior Paper-George Brown
• Lockheed-Charles Brewer and John Costis
• Logan Aluminum-Bill Schlegel
• Ore-Ida Foods-Gary Kniep
• U.S. Post Office-Leigh Hettick and James Wilson
• Uno Ven-Dennis Denton
• Virginia Power-Donald Craft