August 13, 2025
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When Reliability Is the Difference Between Crisis and Continuity
When a furnace leak threatens to halt an entire petrochemical plant, there’s no room for guesswork. For INEOS Olefins & Polymers, that’s when they call Kevin Sprague — Senior Reliability Engineer and Interim Mechanical Authority.
With a career spanning over 30 years in consulting, EPC project work, supplier-side operations, and global reliability leadership, Kevin has built a reputation for solving high-stakes engineering challenges while fostering a culture of trust, prevention, and mentorship.
Mechanical Engineer Career Journey
Kevin’s journey began in Ohio, where his father worked first as a machinist and later as a plant operator. Seeking warmer weather, the family moved to Louisiana — and years later, Kevin found himself at LSU studying mechanical engineering.
That path wasn’t his original plan. Initially drawn to geology, Kevin was persuaded by his wife to choose engineering, recognizing his natural problem-solving instincts. While at LSU, he worked in metallurgical failure analysis, giving him early exposure to chemical plant troubleshooting, forensic equipment investigations, and diverse industrial environments.
Reliability Engineering Explained
Kevin makes the distinction clear:
“Maintenance repairs what’s broken. Reliability engineering figures out how to make it so it doesn’t break in the first place.”
Reliability engineers study how failures occur — whether from equipment design, process inefficiencies, or human factors — and work to prevent them. According to Kevin, as much as 70% of failures originate in the design and construction phases, making early involvement crucial.
Case Study: The Compressor Skid Fix
At one facility, persistent vibration and cracked welds plagued a compressor skid. The root cause? It had never been properly anchored during installation. By fixing the mounting and eliminating natural frequency coupling, Kevin’s team resolved a long-term issue that had been costing the plant hundreds of thousands in repeat repairs.
Listen to him talk about it on Spotify
How to Build a Reliability Culture
Kevin stresses that reliability isn’t the job of one department — it’s a shared responsibility. His approach:
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Win over operators first – Solve small, nuisance problems to build trust.
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Celebrate quick wins – Show measurable improvements to encourage buy-in.
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Listen before prescribing – Understand what’s making life harder for those in the plant.
“If you can improve someone’s quality of life at work, they’ll start bringing you the problems that really impact production.”
Furnace Reliability in Action
In high-temperature cracking furnaces, even small inefficiencies can be costly. Kevin’s team detected air ingress through wall penetrations, adversely affecting temperature regulation and system efficiency. Partnering with Piping Technology & Products, they installed high-temperature furnace bags at these interfaces.
The result: tighter process control, improved efficiency, and reduced emissions risk. Other fixes, like reorienting spring hangers to match actual pipe expansion paths, underscored Kevin’s belief that addressing design and execution flaws early pays off in the long run.
Mentorship: Developing the Next Generation of Engineers
Kevin’s philosophy is simple: give new engineers a real problem, let them take the first shot, and then guide them toward the solution.
“In school, you’re given all the variables except one. In the real world, you might be given one variable and have to find the rest.”
He encourages curiosity, critical thinking, and asking why before how. These habits, he says, are more valuable than technical skills alone.
Technology, AI, and the Engineer’s Judgment
Kevin embraces tools like AI and advanced modeling software — with a caution:
“Treat AI as a reference, not a decision-maker. Garbage in, garbage out.”
Whether it’s a design program or ChatGPT, Kevin insists that engineering judgment must always be the final authority.
Key Takeaways for Engineers and Leaders
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Start with trust — Build relationships at every level of the plant.
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Prevent, don’t just repair — Address risks during design and construction.
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Stay curious — Every issue is a chance to learn.
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Mentor actively — Share knowledge to strengthen the team.
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Use tech wisely — Always validate with human expertise.
About Kevin Sprague:
Kevin Sprague is Senior Reliability Engineer and Interim Mechanical Authority at INEOS Olefins & Polymers. His experience spans consulting, EPC projects, supplier operations, and global reliability leadership, making him a sought-after problem-solver in the petrochemical industry.
Listen to the Full Episode on Spotify or watch it on YouTube
Catch up on all the episodes!
Listen to episode one: Engineering Unplugged with John-Paul Schmidt of Dow Chemical | John-Paul Schmidt
Listen to episode two: Putting the P in EPC: Kiewit’s VP of Procurement OGC Talks Supply | Carsten Bernstiel
Listen to episode three: AI, Cloud, & the Future of Pipe Stress: CloudCalc CEO Isn’t Afraid of Tech-Wary Engineers | Tom Van Laan