High profile conference augments another successful Maintec

Although asset management still has a very familiar feel in its core Computerised Maintenance Management/Enterprise Asset Management systems, it now finds itself at the very heart of digital transformation. The Maintec exhibition was representative of this change with a healthy mix of the traditional and visionaries.

Austin O'Kelley from Noria, speaking at the conference, said that the cost of a reactive maintenance program can be up to 10 times that of a proactive approach. This affects downtime, employee morale, attrition to share price and even operational viability. In his presentation, He explained why a proactive maintenance regime and sound asset management programme should start with a world-class lubrication programme.

Digital progress

A company’s digital transformation journey can start small to address a single issue, such as pump health or personnel safety and build from there. Alternatively, it can explore company-wide programmes across a full impact area, such as reliability. 

Network-enabled intelligent sensing devices and applications are used to collect, analyse and act upon huge amounts of plant data. Companies in process and manufacturing have for many years been using connected sensors to feed data into computers to control their processes. The IIoT uses connectivity to extend this methodology, so that real-time data can be accessed and interpreted by experts.

Companies that have invested in IIoT are now achieving quantifiable business value through a significant reduction in maintenance costs. The technology can warn that a piece of critical equipment is about to fail, enabling them to repair or replace it before it does so.

But how do we that ensure the data needed for planning, processing and documenting maintenance measures is exchanged reliably? On day one (30th October), Gary Ingram from Emerson Automation Solutions presented the keynote on ‘Accelerating the Digitalisation Journey with Operational Certainty’. 

Emerson studies suggest that a company can save around £40 million on their ongoing maintenance budget for every £1 billion of capital that they already have deployed in their plant.

Culture clash

No review of Maintec 2019 would be complete without acknowledging the versatile contribution of Bassey Okon Bassey, a lecturer from Cranfield University, who contributed a paper, participated in the Round Table Discussion and was even there, asking the last question of the year from the floor during the final presentation on Day Two! Bassey even wrestled control of the microphone during the exhibitors' party on the evening of Day One and proved he is no mean jazz singer as well.

His excellent paper, delivered at the end of Day One, looked at maintenance procedures from a different angle to all the other presentations, which were exclusively technology-based. Bassey used his experience in the Nigerian oil industry to highlight the difficulties which can arise when the maintenance and production departments have apparently conflicting objectives. Of course, taking equipment offline to install devices to improved maintenance procedures can be frustrating to production personnel, but can lead to improved uptime in the future. Bassey covered how such conflicts can be managed and how to set up a company culture which ensures that all departments are working to a known common objective.

Clashes of culture are not limited to the shop floor. They can happen in the data centre as well. Martin Walder is Chairman of the Engineering and Machinery Alliance (EAMA) and Vice President Industry, Schneider UK. His keynote paper on Day Two On (31 October), spoke on ‘Merging IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) to Maximise the Potential of Digitalisation’. 

Information Technology (IT) teams that are accustomed to working in spotless data centres now need to collaborate with Operations Technology (OT) colleagues who often work in dangerous industrial settings. What happens when OT and IT collide? If not managed well, the result can be a clash of cultures and a potential crisis. One Schneider case study talks of an instance where IT and OT were not working well together so the manufacturer sent both IT and OT to school to learn about each other’s area of expertise!

Pharma case study

An addition to the Conference programme this year was to encourage case study style presentations, dual presentations featuring a supplier and customer on the same stage. Where we were able to secure presentations of this type - and it can be challenging for a whole raft of reasons! - these proved to be the best attended, as delegates voted with their feet (or backsides!) by filling the two conference theatres.

And so the undoubted highlight of the conference programme, and also the best attended one, was a case study on building a Predictive Maintenance Programme from scratch in the pharmaceutical industry.

Ultrasound technology offers a wide range of application areas and can be particularly effective when applied to maintenance activities, such as in the pharmaceutical industry. UE Systems Technical Support Engineer Chris Hallum led a presentation with Ipsen Biopharm, a global biopharmaceutical leader for whom the UK is one of three global hubs.

The main speaker was the pharma company’s Vincent Hall, a Reliability Engineer, who gave an extensive and honest explanation and appraisal of the programme that was carried out on Ipsen's critical systems and equipment, before deploying the same across for all similar assets.

Especially heartening for us as exhibition organisers was that the programme was initiated as a result of a discussion held on the floor of Maintec in 2018!

Waste management

Also returning to report on past contacts made at Maintec was Ultimo. Urbaser is a leader in environmental services, providing municipal waste treatment and recovery services to residents throughout the UK. Urbaser and leading international infrastructure group Balfour Beatty have formed a joint venture to manage Gloucestershire’s municipal waste under a contract with Gloucestershire County Council established in 2016. 

The Gloucestershire Energy from Waste (EfW) facility at Javelin Park is designed to significantly reduce the amount of municipal waste that is landfilled in Gloucestershire by using tried and tested technology.

Aside from safely dealing with residual waste, which cannot readily be recycled or composted, the facility will generate the equivalent electricity to power 25,000 homes, and will contribute to Gloucestershire’s renewable energy production.

The facility will divert over 90% of the County Council’s residual waste from landfill, preventing methane production, and producing sustainable aggregates. There will be a net reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions through running the facility as compared with continued landfilling.

Ultimo asset structure management software covers all 2500 assets, including the building structure and 120 identified spaces within the facility site. Each asset is linked to a vendor with serial numbers and linked to a process function, leading to over 9000 process functions in a structure of 280 equipment types. Over 800 spare parts are also linked to equipment or process functions. 

Machine Sentry

Plant reliability specialist AVT Reliability demonstrated its intelligent condition-based maintenance (CBM) system Machine Sentry, which  constitutes a significant advance in wireless condition monitoring. It offers multiple web connectivity options and can collate a diverse range of data on one platform, consolidating condition monitoring data, asset management, failure detection and troubleshooting into one seamless maintenance system.

Technical director Lee McFarlane spoke to attendees about the latest advancement ADA, an Automated Diagnostic Assistant rather like Siri or Alexa, but as an integrated feature of Machine Sentry. ADA can predict stage 2, 3 and 4 bearing failures and detect a wide range of other common fault conditions related to rotating equipment. ADA is based on thousands of hours of vibration data and extensive in-the-field expertise of vibration analysts.

BOX OUT A

Around the Table

In 2018, we ran a Round Table Discussion on the first evening. On this occasion, we moved this into the core conference programme, and it was held at lunchtime on the first day. This year, it was video recorded and has been posted on our YouTube channel. It covers global issues surrounding the maintenance function, which are in the spotlight as companies become more global in their outlook and have to deal with long-distance maintenance issues.

You can watch the discussion on YouTube at  www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsRvoDkIwdg&feature=youtu.be

Many of the presentations given during the conference are also uploaded onto the Maintec website. Please do contact us if you require further information from any of the conference speakers or cannot find their presentation.