11 minute read
EVENTS
Maintrain 2022: Live and in-person
Maintenance, reliability, and asset management professionals recently descended on Toronto, Ontario for the PEMAC Maintrain 2022 conference.
BY MARIO CYWINSKI
After two years of going virtual, the Maintrain conference was hosted in-person at the Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Airport, for the first time since 2019. The 2022 event was a hybrid model, so in addition to the 172 attendees at the venue, 79 others joined from the comforts of their home or office. “Beyond the numeric success, it was so great to be able to connect and learn once again in person. The quality of the content and the high spirit of connection was just phenomenal, and it was great that through a hybrid format we were able to extend the opportunity to access the conference content online to people across the country and around the world,” said Cindy Snedden, Executive Director, PEMAC. The conference allowed attendees to participate in workshops, sessions, panel discussions, keynote speeches and an exhibition showcase. Also, the hybrid model allowed for seven pre-conference online only sessions to be available before the conference started. In all, 48 presenters and panelists were a part of the conference. “Maintrain 2022 was an opportunity to reconnect and network with asset management, maintenance and reliability colleagues in person while participating in informative and interactive workshops. Everyone was so approachable and willing to share their experiences,” said Susan Lubell, Principal Consultant, Steppe Consulting Inc.
Workshops
Workshops and sessions were presented by industry experts and allowed for attendees to learn from those who are experts on the topics they are discussing. Workshops included: Maintainability and Reliability Best Practice Metrics Workshop by Michael Raible; Demystifying the Digital Twin and Achieving Whole Life Asset Intelligence for Sustainable Operations by David Armstrong; and
(Left) Just one of many presentations that were available during the conference.
(Right) Coco, the robot dog from Cohesive, was at the conference.
Uptime Improvement Tailoring by James Reyes-Picknell and Martha Myers.
Keynotes
Each morning, a breakfast keynote started the day. This year the three keynote speakers included: Ron Bettin who presented Executive Decisions – What Does Your Boss’s Boss Think of Your Asset Management Strategy?; Jeremy Sylvain presented Strategic Investment Into our Greatest Asset – Our People, Maintenance Supervisor & Coordinator; and Danaka Porter presented Maintaining Reliability in Unreliable Times.
Sessions
Many sessions were also offered to attendees, they were grouped into four categories, asset management, reliability, maintenance, and technology. Speakers included JeanPierre Pascoll, Doc Palmer, Edith Mackenzie, Melissa Schmidt, Cliff Williams, among many others.
Tours
A tour is part of each Maintrain conference, this year attendees had the opportunity to visit Capital Power’s Goreway Power Station. The tour included a presentation about the plant, and a look at the main equipment used.
Exhibitor Showcase
A big part of the conference was the exhibitor showcase, which allowed those in attendance to network with industry professionals and find out about the latest and greatest products that were available. Those exhibitors in attendance included: Cohesive, Northern Lakes College, UE Systems, Benchmark PDM, Cameco, ARMS Reliability, and others.
Maintrain will go west next year as the 2022 Maintrain conference will take place in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
PEMAC celebrates award recipients
BY MONICA FERGUSON
PEMAC’s 2022 awards ceremony took place during the Maintrain Hybrid Conference in Toronto recently.
The annual awards program was created to encourage excellence in maintenance, reliability, and asset management across various industries.
The awards are divided into maintenance management, asset management and member awards and are limited to PEMAC members. Corporate awards are for corporate or allied members and individual awards for individual members.
PEMAC introduced a new award this year: the Maintenance Management Leadership Award, recognizing an individual who has contributed significantly to advancing maintenance management in their organization(s) or within Canada.
“Congratulations to all the 2022 PEMAC Award recipients and thank you to everyone who participated in the nomination and review process this year,” said Alan Cox, chair of the awards committee, PEMAC. “The exceptional contributions that PEMAC members are making towards accelerating excellence in maintenance, reliability, and asset management throughout Canada and around the world are worth celebrating. Nominations will be open soon for the next awards, and we encourage everyone to consider recognizing the great strides their teams are making, as well as individuals who have contributed towards improvement.”
THE 2022 PEMAC AWARD WINNERS:
Maintenance Leadership Award (Inaugural) Dr Sharareh Taghipour - Toronto Metropolitan University
MMP Capstone Award – Technical Focus Francis Ogamba – CertainTeed
MMP Capstone Award – Business Process Dana Nielsen - Neptune Bulk Terminals
AMP Capstone Award Blair Carmicheal - Ontario Northland
Asset Management Leadership Award Suzanne Greeman (posthumous) - Greeman Asset Management
Sergio Guy Memorial Award Abrar Ahmad - Suncor
How maintenance 4.0 technology will help bridge the skills gap
BY JOHN BERNET
Chances are, you’re already aware of the maintenance worker skills gap. This isn’t a new problem – it’s been around for at least 10 years. But every year, the problem seems to get worse.
Fewer young people are getting the training they need to diagnose and repair machine faults.
Maintenance managers and reliability engineers are seeing the pool of skilled workers get smaller and smaller. Meanwhile, qualified workers are hitting retirement age and leaving the workforce.
More and more plants are turning to technology to bolster their maintenance programs. This begs the question – can digital solutions and vibration sensors fill the maintenance skills gap?
The answer isn’t simple. It’s important to maintain some perspective and stay realistic about what technology can do. Today’s best tools can’t replace a human workforce. Even with the best technology, you’ll still need human know-how and experience to keep your operation up and running smoothly.
But at the same time, the right connected tools and sensors, coupled with a solid computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), can help you to shift to a predictive maintenance strategy, so that you can identify and diagnose machine faults early. In the not-too-distant future, AI-enabled analysis software will push these capabilities even further. This means that you will be able to keep your machines up and running for longer, even if you’re operating with a lean maintenance team. If you manage this process correctly, the results can be revolutionary. What is predictive maintenance?
Predictive maintenance is a proactive strategy for keeping your assets up and running. It’s premised on the idea that you should only perform the maintenance work on an as-needed basis. Instead of routinely servicing your assets, your maintenance team will monitor them for signs that they need repair.
Predictive maintenance uses a network of vibration sensors that monitor the vibrations emitted by your equipment. They collect and store this data so that it can be analyzed for signs of fault.
Data collection isn’t new, of course. Maintenance teams have always collected data, simply by observing the machines in their plants and keeping track of how they operated.
As plants get bigger and take on more equipment it’s almost impossible for a maintenance team to directly monitor every single asset. That’s why sensors are so important, especially as the pool of skilled workers is shrinking.
Here’s how a plant can use vibration monitoring sensors, CMMS, and analysis software to make the most of a lean maintenance team.
Step one: performing triage
On its own, data doesn’t add value to your maintenance team. Raw data needs to be organized and analyzed so that your maintenance teams can start to spot patterns. CMMS software can integrate with sensors and software tools so you can organize and analyze your vibration data and put it to use.
The first step is simply identifying any change in vibration emissions. Once a machine shifts from its baseline vibration signature, that’s a sign that it needs to be examined more closely.
This stage of proactive maintenance – looking for changes from the baseline – fills the same function as the triage process in a doctor’s office.
In a doctor’s office, nurses perform the first level of triage. They collect data on patients’ weight, blood pressure, and temperature. That’s usually enough to tell them whether a patient is healthy or not and in need of care.
In the same way, your CMMS software uses the vibration data to perform triage on your assets. It scans for signs of anything unusual which could indicate a new or developing fault.
Triage saves your team time, energy, and funds by allowing you to focus your energy on the machines that actually need to be repaired. You won’t need to waste labour or time on the equipment that’s already running smoothly.
Step two: CMMS, analysis software, and work orders
Vibration analysis software can perform diagnostic tests to identify many common machine faults.
To date, vibration analysis software can diagnose the four most common faults in rotating machinery, namely, imbalance, shaft misalignment, looseness, and bearing faults.
To continue the hospital analogy, the vibration analysis software is like the primary care physicians who can diagnose patients with common ailments.
And, just as the primary care doctors need to be “called in” by the nurse on duty, the algorithms also need to be called in to start their diagnostic process.
That’s where your CMMS comes in. You can set up your CMMS to automatically generate a work order once vibration levels deviate from the norm. That work order will trigger software to assess and diagnose the machine in question.
Step three: scheduling repairs
Once the software has diagnosed the machine fault, your CMMS can automatically generate a work order to review recommended repairs based on that diagnosis.
The CMMS lets teams review the recommendation, then schedule the work based on when your maintenance teams are available, or when it’s convenient to shut down your equipment for repairs.
Most of the time, vibration monitoring and analysis software will alert you to machine faults long before the problems become serious. This means that you will have plenty of time to schedule maintenance at a convenient point for you.
The reconfigured workforce
Shifting to a proactive maintenance strategy doesn’t mean that you won’t need maintenance workers any longer.
Instead, it means that you’ll be able to re-configure your workforce so that you get the best possible work out of everyone on your small maintenance team. Building a tech-centered approach means considering what you’ll still need from your maintenance team.
In most cases, you will need a group of maintenance experts who have the ability to implement a proactive maintenance strategy. That means knowing which machines vibration analysis software is capable of diagnosing, and which machines are too complex. In the future, it will require a similar understand of the limits of AI-enabled vibration analysis software.
If we go back to the hospital analogy, it’s helpful to think of maintenance experts as the specialists in various medical fields. They can diagnose problems that a primary care physician might not know enough about. They can also recommend treatment for these problems.
So, if your machinery has complex faults that AI cannot diagnose, your maintenance experts are on-hand to identify the issues and figure out how to address them.
Bear in mind that you can also outsource the expert level, as needed. If you’re operating with a small maintenance crew, then it’s worth spending some time looking for a trusted partner to advise you on your maintenance needs. Implementing a tech transformation
A successful tech transformation should happen gradually. Too many businesses try to overhaul their whole operation at once. This can lead to chaos and, eventually, disillusionment in the process.
Instead, it’s a good idea to start with a pilot program. Choose 10 or 15 simple rotating machines that are prone to breakdowns. Test your proactive maintenance program on those machines alone. Chances are, these are the machines that have already cost your operation a good deal of time and money. You have the potential to show a major change by introducing technology here.
Getting decision makers on-board
Building a tech-centered maintenance approach takes an investment of time and money. This can raise challenges when it comes to getting your key decision makers on board.
That’s another reason that it makes sense to introduce the new approach gradually as wins happen and prove results.
Start with a pilot program and then gradually add more machines to your program; it’s a good idea to stick with introducing 10 or 15 new machines at a time in phases. As your programs succeed, it will be easier to get your decision makers excited about expanding it.
CMMS can also help you here. By keeping track of your work orders, CMMS documents reductions in breakdowns and in maintenance work orders.
If your company has a change in leadership, you’ll be able to use those work orders to show your new boss how successful the new maintenance approach has been. They’ll be able to see that you are keeping your equipment up and running and that you’ve cut back on routine maintenance costs.
Because ultimately, that’s the goal – decreasing downtime, increasing productivity, and making sure that you’re not overspending on unnecessary maintenance. And that’s what a carefully designed predictive maintenance program can deliver.
Building this framework of connected sensors and software now will prepare your organization for the day that AI-enabled maintenance software is ready to take operations to yet another level.
