About Us
BDB Solutions LLC is a team of Asset Management Professionals who has walked in your shoes. All of the BDB Solutions LLC team has actually turned wrenches, used meters, ran a crew, planned and scheduled work, eliminated failures, or led an operating or maintenance department at an industrial facility.
Blake A. Baca, CMRP, CRL
Owner/Asset Management Coach
BIOGRAPHY
Blake graduated from Texas Tech University in 1989 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Upon graduation from Texas Tech, Blake went to work as a mechanical engineer at Alcoa, Inc., Rockdale Operations in Rockdale, Texas. Alcoa Rockdale Operations was an aluminum smelter that made over 2,000,000 pounds of molten aluminum per day. In 1995, after six years as a Staff Mechanical Engineer at Alcoa Rockdale Operations, Blake moved into Operations as Area Supervisor responsible for the assembly of carbon anodes used in the aluminum smelting process. Blake had full accountability for maintenance and operations in this area including one operations foreman, one maintenance foreman, 17 hourly union production employees, and 8 hourly union craftspeople including mechanics and electricians.
Later that year at Alcoa Rockdale Operations, Blake was promoted to Maintenance, Engineering, and Environmental Area Supervisor responsible for all maintenance, engineering, and operation of environmental control systems in what is called the potrooms, the area of an aluminum smelter where molten aluminum is produced. Blake held that position until 1999 when he was promoted to Maintenance and Engineering Superintendent at Alcoa, Inc. Tennessee Operations in Alcoa, Tennessee. At Tennessee Operations, Blake was responsible for all maintenance, reliability, and engineering for the entire smelting plant.
In 2001, Blake was promoted to Senior Staff Project Engineer at Alcoa, Inc. Primary Metals Business Unit Office in Knoxville, Tennessee. In that role, Blake served as Project Engineer for Primary Metals growth capital projects as well as reliability consultant to the Primary Metals Business Unit.
In 2004, Blake was once again promoted to Maintenance and Engineering Manager at Alcoa, Inc. Rockdale Operations where he had started his career with Alcoa. There he was responsible for all maintenance, reliability, and engineering for the entire plant. Blake held this position until the plant was shut down due to business conditions at the end of 2008. In 2009 Blake began BDB Solutions, LLC. Since then, Blake, with some of his former Alcoa maintenance and reliability staff, who are employees of BDB Solutions, LLC has been providing consulting services with particular emphasis on Maintenance and Reliability. Those consulting services include Work Management Development, Maintenance Planning and Scheduling education and training, Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), Reliability Engineering, Maintenance Engineering, Equipment Maintenance Plan (EMP) Development, and Preventive/Predictive Maintenance (PM/PdM) Optimization.
Blake also served as Maintenance Manager for Barrick Gold Corporation (Goldstrike and Cortez Hills Mines) in Elko, Nevada from 2017-2019.
Stephen Srnensky
Work Management SME
BIOGRAPHY
Stephen began his career as a Production Helper at Alcoa Rockdale Operations in Rockdale, Texas in 1974. Alcoa Rockdale Operations was an aluminum smelter that made over 2,000,000 pounds of molten aluminum per day. In 1995, Stephen completed his apprenticeship and became a Journeyman Instrumentation/Industrial Electrician at Alcoa Rockdale Operations working on instrumentation, controls, electrical and high voltage electrical systems. Stephen still maintains his certification as a Certified Industrial Electrician with the US Department of Labor. In 2000, Stephen was promoted to Maintenance Planner/Scheduler accountable for providing high quality work plans and effective work schedules including coordination of the availability of equipment and facilities. In 2005, Stephen moved into a position as Maintenance Supervisor responsible for crew work execution and safety as well as equipment reliability and budget management. Stephen retired from Alcoa in 2006. In 2011, Stephen joined BDB Solutions as a Maintenance Reliability Coach and has enjoyed assignments in mining, power plants, foundries, distribution facilities, and refineries. In this capacity, Stephen has provided work management expertise as well as process development, coaching, and facilitation of change to leaders, maintenance planners, schedulers, and supervisors, both in operations and maintenance. Stephen is a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP).
Sandy Cater
Supply Chain SME
BIOGRAPHY
Sandy Cater is a Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) professional consultant and project manager who has been completely focused on all aspects of R-MRO since 2005. Her areas of specialization include MRO business processes development, coaching, training, Bills of Materials (BOM) development, detailed identification of parts/spares, inventory optimization, optimal storeroom design and implementation, data analysis, and data cleansing. She is also well versed in Maximo, HxGN, Oracle, SAP, JD Edwards, and Asset Suite.
Throughout her career, Sandy has supported customers with the goals of enhancing their performance and transferring knowledge to their employees for ongoing growth. She has developed highly detailed and customizable MRO business process packages, which include process flows, standard operating procedures, roles and responsibilities, and tools to perform process activities. Serving as Maintenance Project Manager, MRO Materials Management Project Lead, and/or a supporting resource, she has worked with Nutrien (formerly PotashCorp), Agnico Eagle, BP Chemical, Kraft, Sinclair Oil, US Army Medical Command, Los Alamos National Laboratory, WestRock (formerly MeadWestvaco), and Teck Cominco.
Currently, Sandy is responsible for leading her team in a variety of projects to establish MRO business processes, perform detailed identification of parts through research and walkdowns, develop BOMs, design and implement maintenance storerooms, and provide inventory optimization, parts criticality, data analysis, and data cleansing. Each of these projects has provided sustainable results that meet or exceed each customer’s unique requirements and expectations.
Sandy has served as a break-out speaker, certification instructor, and board volunteer for the Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM). She has also published MRO best practices articles for ReliabilityWeb.
Sandy resides in Midland, Ontario, Canada. Outside of work, she enjoys gatherings with friends and family, skiing, playing guitar, and reading.
Edward (Ed) L. Potter, CMRP
Senior Asset Management Coach
BIOGRAPHY
Ed is a mechanical engineer that graduated from Virginia Tech in 1978. Ed has over 35 years Alcoa experience in Smelting, Refining, Cast House, and Power Plant Operations. Ed’s roles include Plant Engineer, Production Engineer, Reliability Engineer, Maintenance Supervisor, Engineering and Maintenance Manager, Regional (US Primary Products) Maintenance Manager, and various other special assignments. Ed is a highly skilled craftsperson and Reliability Engineer with working knowledge with all Reliability Engineering tools.
Ed was instrumental in development of Alcoa’s Asset Integrity Assessment process. He authored and was chief auditor for 2 of the 6 Asset Integrity Protocols, and completed assessments and improvement plans at 11 of Alcoa’s 13 worldwide smelters. Ed was instrumental in development of Alcoa’s Maintenance Best practice sharing process and co-authored the Best Practice documents for; Maintenance Planning and Scheduling, Lubrication, Kitting and Staging, and several Asset specific Reliability Best Practices.
Ed developed Alcoa’s Pre-Production Reliability Activity (PPRA) process which focuses on designing Reliability into new capital installations. He implemented this process on the $500M expansions in Alcoa Mosjoen, Norway and the $600M installation of the SO2 scrubber at the Alcoa Warrick Indiana Power Plant. Ed owns a small antique business and can often be seen restoring antique and vintage furniture and repairing antique mechanical clocks. Ed is currently finishing up a restoration of 1957 oval window Volkswagen Beetle. Ed is competitive handgun shooter and also avid weight lifter, having been a competitive power lifter in his younger years. Ed is a Certified Maintenance Professional (CMRP).
Jason D. Kukla, CMRP, CRL
Partner/Asset Management Coach
BIOGRAPHY
Jason has a Mechanical Engineering degree from the School of Mines in Rapid City, South Dakota and certifications related to maintenance and reliability leading practices. He has had an opportunity to gain experience in multiple industries including: power generation, mining, refining, corn wet milling and food manufacturing.
Jason grew up on a farm and cattle ranch in North Dakota and developed an early interest in equipment. In 1999, Jason took a job as a maintenance technician for Southwest Water Authority where he maintained raw and potable water systems including pipelines and water treatment facilities.
In late 2000, Jason started working at a pallet manufacturing company while obtaining his degree. Upon graduation from SDSMT, Jason went to work as a project engineer for Tate and Lyle, a corn processing facility in Loudon, TN. After learning the wet milling, refining, ethanol and specialty starch processes Jason migrated to the maintenance department and was later given operations and maintenance responsibilities for steam production and energy management programs as an Area Manager.
In 2006, Jason returned to the Black Hills area as a planning engineer for Black Hills Corporation, a regional power generation utility. In this role Jason planned, scheduled and executed plant turnarounds for multiple power generation facilities. In this role he helped develop a team of engineers which later assumed his strategic asset management (5-10 year CAP/MEP) and turnaround responsibilities.
In 2007 Jason was promoted to O&M Manager and kicked off an initiative to implement work management processes and replace the CMMS and financial/people management systems. Jason was also a key player in the construction, commissioning and startup of 2 coal fired power plants.
In 2008, Jason was promoted to Reliability and Performance Manager where he implemented condition based maintenance and a plant performance program. Plant performance monitoring and tuning was further enhanced with the installation of real time process monitoring software (OSI PI) and development of key performance indicators.
In 2011, Jason transitioned into the world of Food Manufacturing by joining Kellogg as the Senior Maintenance and Reliability Manager. In this role Jason had responsibility for maintenance, reliability and the MRO store room. This included 40+ salaried and hourly union workers.
In late 2013, Jason joined the Georgia Pacific team as a Reliability Leader at a gypsum facility where he was responsible for maintenance, reliability engineering and project engineering. Jason was later promoted to Assistant Plant Manager which added management responsibility for the underground mining operation.
Jason has been an Asset Management Coach with BDB Solutions LLC since 2015, and has been a BDB Solutions LLC Partner since 2016.
Jason enjoys spending time with family, home improvement projects, the outdoors, four wheelers, fishing, hunting and sports.
Josh Stoudt, CRL
Asset Management Coach
BIOGRAPHY
Josh Stoudt is a Certified Reliability Leader (CRL) that grew up in Blue Rapids Kansas where he enjoyed high school sports, hunting, fishing and dirt bike riding.
Josh graduated from Manhattan Area Technical College in 2005 with a degree in heating ventilation and air conditioning maintenance technologies.
Josh started his career with Central Mechanical Construction in 2005 as a service technician. Josh’s role as a service technician included commissioning new equipment, troubleshooting, corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance for all industry and facility types. During his stay at Central, Josh completed a 3yr mechanical apprentice program followed by earning his mechanical journeyman license. In 2010, Josh was promoted to superintendent of the service department.
n 2012, Josh joined the Georgia Pacific Gypsum facility in Blue Rapids Kansas as the Reliability Engineer. As the Reliability Engineer, Josh was responsible for the development and execution of asset strategies both on mining and surface equipment. Josh was also responsible for the maintenance department which included 8 mechanics, 2 utilities, 3 electricians and 1 loader operator. During his role as a Reliability Engineer, Josh completed a 10-week Reliability Excellence course hosted by the Georgia Pacific Operations Excellence Group.
In 2014, Georgia Pacific promoted Josh to the Reliability Leader position where he assumed responsibility for maintenance, maintenance planning & scheduling, engineering and projects which included 4 salaried direct reports.
In 2015, Josh joined BDB solutions as an Asset Management Coach.
Josh is married with two children and a dog. He enjoys hunting, fishing, coed softball and spending time with his family.
Walter L. Peschke
Planning and Scheduling Subject Matter Expert (SME)
BIOGRAPHY
Walter acquired a degree for Texas State Technical College with a degree in Mechanical Drafting and Design. Upon graduation, Walter went to work for Texas Instruments in Houston as a Mechanical Designer. After several years in the Designer Role. Walter decided to change his career, and he started a lengthy career in the Power Generation Business.
Walter spent 37 years in various Maintenance roles in the Industrial Power Generation business; with companies like Texas Utilities, Alcoa, and most recently Luminant.
While in the Maintenance Support Group, his roles ranged from Supervisor, Planner, Scheduler, Planning Supervisor, Maintenance Manager, Outage Manager, and Reliability Supervisor.
Walter has a strong background in providing the knowledge of developing Asset Ownership. i.e. Reliability Excellence REX program with Alcoa, and also the L3 Work Management Process within Luminant.
Walter was also the site Functional Administrator for various CMMS systems over the years, ranging from eAM-Oracle, Empac, and Maximo.
The most recent CMMS project was Luminant’s acquisition of Dynegy in 2018. He was very instrumental in providing support for the testing, conversion, Integration, and migration of all the Dynegy data to the Luminant version of Maximo 7.5. Spent 6 months providing UAT testing, site training, and end user support to Management, Planners, Schedulers, Supervisors, Buyers, Contractors, and all site users. Very strong in CMMS functionality, Support Scheduling and PM Optimization.
With a strong Maintenance and Maintenance Reliability background, considered to be a leader in the Work Management process and development.
As a consultant with BDB Solutions, Walter provides the knowledge and leadership to enhance any Company in utilizing its resources, and develope a process in becoming a benchmark facility.
Glen Smith
Asset Management Coach
BIOGRAPHY
Glen has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Texas Tech University and an MBA from Angelo State University. Glen has enjoyed a diverse career in manufacturing and facility engineering, as well as maintenance and management. His career over the last 20+ years has given him the knowledge to help facilities grow and become more efficient and effective at managing operations and the maintenance of their assets. Glen has experience in aluminum smelting, medical device manufacturing, and power generation. Glen has spent his career as an electrical engineer and project manager at ALCOA Rockdale Operations, a process control engineer at Ethicon Inc. (a Johnson and Johnson medical device company), and at two federal agencies within the federal sector at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), in addition to Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). Within the federal sector, Glen has primarily worked in hydropower generation by serving in various roles throughout the Pacific Northwest at some of the largest hydropower facilities within the region. Glen has held numerous positions as an engineer, maintenance manager, and facility/plant manager. Recently, Glen has helped the Corps with developing an operations and maintenance optimization program and the development of a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) program. Both of these programs were new to the Corps, and central to developing a more efficient and effective operations and maintenance program. Glen finished his federal career at the Pacific Northwest region’s largest utility, BPA, where he was a senior policy advisor for the generation branch that oversees funding of both the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Corps of Engineers hydropower facilities. Throughout his career, Glen has developed a passion for helping organizations improve their operations and maintenance programs in order to better manage their assets.
Glen continues to live with his partner and three dogs in the Columbia Gorge Recreation area where he enjoys the outdoors.