Summit attracts industry experts

The keynote speaker line-up for a two day conference at ERIKS MAINTEC SUMMIT, endorsed by IAM and organised by IP&E, has now been confirmed - and it features some of the UK's foremost authorities on asset management and maintenance issues

Scheduled for the 30th and 31st March 2011 at Birmingham's NEC, the Summit, sponsored by ERIKS and chaired by the Institute of Asset Management (IAM) will include papers and case studies from leading lights in the fields of 'lean' plant management, process management, health and safety and thermal technology. Between them they will address the need to understand the key challenges and opportunities impacting on the asset management and maintenance functions going into the next decade. And they'll give guidance on how to get board-level attention to change the behaviour of front-line employees in order to deal with these challenges and exploit the opportunities. easyFairs UK managing director Matt Benyon, said: “This year's SUMMIT has attracted a line-up of pre-eminent voices in the maintenance sector; the case study presentations will show how many of the UK's leading manufacturing and process industries are responding to their challenges. “The ERIKS MAINTEC Summit promises delegates an opportunity to benchmark their asset management capability, set performance expectations, better manage the risks and regulatory pressures, and build a business case for change. And crucially it will highlight why asset management should be considered a value adding operation, not merely an overhead. The conference is sure to add to what already looks set to be a great MAINTEC show.” The IAM will be chairing the event over the two days. IAM are a not-for-profit, professional body for those involved in acquisition, operation and care of physical assets. David McKeown, CEO at IAM, commented: “Maintenance is a crucial part of the lifecycle and whole life costs of most assets. Too often maintenance activities are perceived as overheads that should be cut as much as possible. The IAM sees maintenance as another aspect of investment to achieve the right outcomes for the owners and stakeholders and is working to help organisations take this view - in other words that CAPEX and OPEX need to be balanced. He continued:“Many leading organisations now use BSI PAS 55:2008 and have started to gain from embedding asset management thinking in their business. An important idea is the 'Line of Sight' that should exist between boardroom policies and activity at every level and enables the relative importance and value of maintenance to be seen. The Institute has a long-standing association with MAINTEC and is delighted to be helping develop the profile and reputation of the ERIKS MAINTEC Summit. This year's theme should interest every business that spends a significant proportion of its turnover on maintenance.”

Putting lean in RCM The first case study to kick start the proceedings will be looking at how maintenance thinking has evolved over time, the introduction of Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) and the lessons learned by earlier pioneers of the process. The paper will be presented by Richard Kelly, managing director at EMS. He commented: “The presentation, titled 'Putting the Lean in Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM)' will be looking at why RCM is so drastically different to traditional maintenance and what results can be expected. I'll also be discussing how Lean thinking has transformed the application of RCM and why the transfer of skills and ownership is key to sustainability.” To date, Kelly has trained several hundred maintenance managers, engineers, maintainers and production team members in the theory and application of Lean RCM. Through EMS, Kelly has facilitated many successful site-based RCM implementation programmes in diverse industrial sectors.

Process improvement The second Case Study being presented at the Summit on Day 1 comes from Idhammer Systems.

Alan France, operations director at Idhammer Systems commented: “For our presentation we will be presenting a joint paper called 'Process Improvement - Its Role within Asset Maintenance. This will show how Premier Foods & Idhammar Systems worked together to improve production performance in over 40 factories. Premier Foods launched, some time ago, a project to measure and improve the production process in all their factories. This paper will show the basics behind their OEE Attack Loop Process and how it impacted on their asset maintenance. The presentation will also show the decisions made, methods used and the progress attained.”

Design and maintenance Rounding up Day 1's Case Study presentations will be IAM who will be talking 'Product Design and Maintenance - The Vital Balance'.

Topics for Day 2 On Day 2 the opening case study will be presented by Neal Stone, Director of Policy & Research at the British Safety Council. His presentation will be looking at 'People - An Asset to be Managed and Maintained.' Elsewhere, IAM will be talking through another Case Study of theirs titled “Maintaining the UK's Infrastructure - Maintenance in the Public Sector, while Summit sponsors ERIKS will be concluding the conference with a presentation on 'Risk Based Approach to the Frequency of Thermographic Surveys on Electrical Devices.'

Book a place To book a place at the ERIKS MAINTEC SUMMIT, endorsed by IAM and organised by IP&E, and to take advantage of 'early bird' delegate prices, please call Lucy Daley on the number below or email her at: [email protected]