KELLY CAILLIER
Founder and CEO
KDC Reliability
SEATTLE, WA
HOW DID YOU FIRST BECOME
PASSIONATE ABOUT NDT?
Thirteen years ago, I was installing a
risk-based program in a refinery, and I
made a friend working there. He loved
baseball and I love baseball, so we
gravitated toward each other. He was
telling me about his practice plans for
his T-ball team, and he was so excited.
We bumped fists and went our separate
ways into the plant. About two hours
later, I heard a huge, blasting boom.
When the day ended, I found out my
friend Sean didn’t make it out that day.
The incident occurred when he was
working over what’s called a chemical
injection point—a high-consequence,
high-probability-of-failure item—and the
threads of the bull plug were compro-
mised by the acid and blew out. He
never made it to that practice.
And at that moment, it hit me—with all
the knowledge that we have and all the
advancements that we’re making, we can
save lives. We’re going to get focused.
Our goal in KDC has always been to
improve the effectiveness of asset
integrity tasks, and that’s by installing
measured certainty models in all integrity
tasks. Our product is certainty. This focus
began to attract AI [artificial intelligence]
firms. This point is where I started to work
as an expert within many firms [that are]
now in AI.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT
YOUR BACKGROUND?
I have an industrial engineering under-
graduate degree and entered the
industry as a project manager in the
NDT/Asset Integrity field. Once I got
into it, I was influenced by the safety
impact, and the codes and standards,
and realized our actions were mandated
by the code of federal regulations. I then
became a certified reliability engineer,
which opened the door to my educa-
tion in data science. With a focus on
certainty models, I then started to assist
in building payloads for various robots
and screening tools that we use in our
industry today. From a business stand-
point, I hold an MBA degree and am
currently pursuing my PhD. Combining
engineering, reliability engineering,
and business and research mindsets
in our industry to solve challenges has
now proven to be a catalyst in building
solutions.
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS SOME OF THE
BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING THE
NDT INDUSTRY RIGHT NOW?
Getting qualified inspectors is
huge, and I think the challenge is
we qualify people from Level I to
Level II very quickly because we
need to fill spots on a job. I’ve
witnessed it, and it’s not
right.
Another big problem we have in our
industry is data. We have never had so
much data but possess so little knowl-
edge. And that’s where the AI gains its
impact, because AI can evaluate large
datasets accurately, identify patterns,
predict outcomes, and serve as an
augmentation tool for prioritization—if
the models are trained properly and
have enough population to achieve the
certainty level needed.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE
QUOTE THAT YOU LIVE BY?
I measure myself every single evening
by these questions: “Have I lived this day
fulfilling my fullest potential with the gifts
that have been supplied to me? And did I
do it for a greater cause?”
SCOPE
|
ATWORK
86
M AT E R I A L S E V A L U AT I O N • J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6
Founder and CEO
KDC Reliability
SEATTLE, WA
HOW DID YOU FIRST BECOME
PASSIONATE ABOUT NDT?
Thirteen years ago, I was installing a
risk-based program in a refinery, and I
made a friend working there. He loved
baseball and I love baseball, so we
gravitated toward each other. He was
telling me about his practice plans for
his T-ball team, and he was so excited.
We bumped fists and went our separate
ways into the plant. About two hours
later, I heard a huge, blasting boom.
When the day ended, I found out my
friend Sean didn’t make it out that day.
The incident occurred when he was
working over what’s called a chemical
injection point—a high-consequence,
high-probability-of-failure item—and the
threads of the bull plug were compro-
mised by the acid and blew out. He
never made it to that practice.
And at that moment, it hit me—with all
the knowledge that we have and all the
advancements that we’re making, we can
save lives. We’re going to get focused.
Our goal in KDC has always been to
improve the effectiveness of asset
integrity tasks, and that’s by installing
measured certainty models in all integrity
tasks. Our product is certainty. This focus
began to attract AI [artificial intelligence]
firms. This point is where I started to work
as an expert within many firms [that are]
now in AI.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT
YOUR BACKGROUND?
I have an industrial engineering under-
graduate degree and entered the
industry as a project manager in the
NDT/Asset Integrity field. Once I got
into it, I was influenced by the safety
impact, and the codes and standards,
and realized our actions were mandated
by the code of federal regulations. I then
became a certified reliability engineer,
which opened the door to my educa-
tion in data science. With a focus on
certainty models, I then started to assist
in building payloads for various robots
and screening tools that we use in our
industry today. From a business stand-
point, I hold an MBA degree and am
currently pursuing my PhD. Combining
engineering, reliability engineering,
and business and research mindsets
in our industry to solve challenges has
now proven to be a catalyst in building
solutions.
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS SOME OF THE
BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING THE
NDT INDUSTRY RIGHT NOW?
Getting qualified inspectors is
huge, and I think the challenge is
we qualify people from Level I to
Level II very quickly because we
need to fill spots on a job. I’ve
witnessed it, and it’s not
right.
Another big problem we have in our
industry is data. We have never had so
much data but possess so little knowl-
edge. And that’s where the AI gains its
impact, because AI can evaluate large
datasets accurately, identify patterns,
predict outcomes, and serve as an
augmentation tool for prioritization—if
the models are trained properly and
have enough population to achieve the
certainty level needed.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE
QUOTE THAT YOU LIVE BY?
I measure myself every single evening
by these questions: “Have I lived this day
fulfilling my fullest potential with the gifts
that have been supplied to me? And did I
do it for a greater cause?”
SCOPE
|
ATWORK
86
M AT E R I A L S E V A L U AT I O N • J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6
