Meet the Plant Services Authors

Joe Anderson / Captain Unreliability

Joe Anderson is a partner and chief operating officer for ReliabilityX. Joe helps companies reach their full potential through improvement gains and lowering costs, giving them a competitive advantage on their journey to excellence. As a regular contributor to Plant Services magazine, Joe shares his over 25 years of experience in maintenance, reliability and management excellence in various industries with the world through his writing. He is a CMRP, CRL, CARO, MLT2, MLA1, LSSGB, IAM-55k, CRL Black Belt and was recognized as one of the top 50 leaders in the country by the United States Congress, being awarded the National Leadership Award. He has also brought humor to the world through his experiences, and it can be seen in the character creation of Captain Unreliability. Read Joe's column

Joe Kuhn - Leadership in Action

Joe Kuhn, CMRP, former plant manager, engineer, and global reliability consultant, is now president of Lean Driven Reliability LLC. He is the author of the book “Zero to Hero: How to Jumpstart Your Reliability Journey Given Today’s Business Challenges” and the creator of the Joe Kuhn YouTube Channel, which offers content on creating a reliability culture as well as financial independence to help you retire early. Read Joe's Column

Doc Palmer - Palmer's Planning Corner

Doc Palmer, PE (Ret.), MBA, CMRP is the author of McGraw-Hill’s Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook and as managing partner of Richard Palmer and Associates helps companies worldwide with planning and scheduling success. For more information including online help and currently scheduled public workshops, visit www.palmerplanning.com. Read Doc's column

Jeff Shiver - From the Plant Floor

Jeff Shiver CMRP is a founder and managing principal at People and Processes, Inc. Jeff guides people to achieve success in maintenance and reliability practices using common sense approaches. Read Jeff's column

Anna Townshend - Head of Content 

Anna Townshend has been a journalist and editor for more than 20 years. She joined Control Design and Plant Services as managing editor in June 2020 and became chief editor of Plant Services in July 2026. In addition to writing and editing thousands of articles in her career, she has been an active speaker on industry panels and presentations and a regular host of the Ask a Plant Manager podcast on Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. Read Anna's work

Michael D. Holloway

Michael D. Holloway is an industrial strategist, author, educator and systems thinker with more than 40 years of experience in reliability engineering, lubrication, condition monitoring, designed experiments and industrial workforce development. He is the president of 5th Order Industry where he has developed advanced technical training systems serving thousands of professionals across manufacturing, energy, transportation and process industries.

Holloway has authored numerous technical books and papers spanning tribology, analytical chemistry, reliability engineering, microgravity materials science and industrial cognition. His writing and speaking style uniquely blend systems engineering, philosophical inquiry and lived operational experience, focusing not merely on how systems fail, but why humans misunderstand failure itself. His work emphasizes pattern recognition, decision quality, uncertainty management and the hidden relationships between mechanical systems, organizational behavior and human perception.

Sheila Kennedy - Technology Toolbox

Sheila Kennedy, CMRP, is a professional freelance writer specializing in industrial and technical topics. She established Additive Communications in 2003 to serve software, technology, and service providers in industries such as manufacturing and utilities, and became a contributing editor and Technology Toolbox columnist for Plant Services in 2004. Prior to Additive Communications, she had 11 years of experience implementing industrial information systems. Read Sheila's column