About RFE Consulting

David Tripp started out in maintenance right out of high school as a maintenance technician for a small cold storage warehouse.  There he learned the down and dirty business of reactive maintenance.  He worked as operator and maintenance technician of an ammonia refrigeration system and a small fleet of forklifts.  There he started his journey into Reliability Maintenance.  The starting of this putting together paper binders to document PM tasks and reactive repairs.  He even started to implement a simple digital CMMS to start to track maintenance and parts better.  

Over time, David took on a management role and took on more sites under his responsibility.  The company he worked for took on implementing SAP and used the maintenance module in SAP.  This was rolled out with limited success.  Eventually, company leadership initiated a “reboot” of the SAP maintenance module.  David really took to Maintenance Excellence with this opportunity.  Under the leadership of others at first, David played a role in implementation and training at a number of sites..  He also worked to streamline the reporting out of SAP to make it more simple and actionable.  

This is where David started his continuing education in Maintenance & Reliability.  He enrolled in courses at UW Madison where he received his Maintenance Management Certificate and CMRP (Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional).  He then was enrolled in University of Tennessee RMC program and worked to earn his RMIC Certification (Reliability and Maintainability Certification).

During his role with the warehousing company, he led many implementations to new sites during mergers where he worked with teams to implement Reliability Processes into maintenance teams of various sizes.  

In 2021, David had an opportunity to change roles and work in manufacturing facility making pet food.  There he was instrumental in transforming their Maintenance department from a reactive to a proactive department.  He also supported the roll-out of the factories AM Improvements.  

David has a passion for problem solving and finding creative ways to implement Improvements and reliability based improvements.  He loves associate development, leadership training, and making complex processes simple and sustainable.  He made his career by focusing on targeted learning and personal development and works to share this method of career development with others.  

RFE Consulting is excited to meet with you to discuss the potential of supporting your efforts for manufacturing and maintenance excellence. 

Jessica Tripp has devoted herself to the best career possible since 2004 raising our three wonderful children.  As they have grown older and don’t need quite as much of her time, she has transitioned to managing the business side of RFE consulting.  She works tirelessly in the background making everything run smooth, keeping the bills paid and our partners supported.  She is also very active in a role as a voluntary full time minister helping others find answers to some of life’s big questions.