Maintrain 2023: Live from Winnipeg

Maintenance, asset management, and reliability professionals came to Winnipeg, Manitoba for the PEMAC Asset Management Association of Canada Maintrain 2023 conference.

BY MARIO CYWINSKI

The PEMAC Maintrain conference takes place annually, in different locations each year. Last year, it took place in central Canada, in Toronto, Ontario, next year it will go to eastern Canada, and this year it was in western Canada.

Attendees participated in workshops, sessions, panel discussions, keynote speeches and an exhibition showcase. The hybrid model allowed those not attending in person to attend the conference. Also, pre-conference online only sessions were available before the conference started.

The conference was jam packed with information, in turn, to make it easier to cover, we’ve broken it down into sections.

Round table

MRO held its annual round table once again; this year’s edition was the biggest yet, as around 100 attendees were on hand (live and online). The round table allowed delegates to discuss maintenance topics of utmost impor tance to their operations.

The speakers were Paul Daoust, founder, at SCIO Assset Management Inc., who spoke about minimalist maintenance metrics; Susan Lubell, principal consultant at Steppe Consulting Inc., who discussed competency frameworks for asset management; Erika Mazza, acting project manager, Systems Policies Process GroupWorks Department., The Regional Municipality of Durham, who asked green maintenance - a trend or a responsibility; and James Reyes-Picknell who is the principal consultant at Conscious Asset, looked at if It’s time to outsource maintenance?

The speaker summaries for the round table are available on MRO’s web site.

Keynotes

Each morning, a keynote started the day. This year the keynote speakers included: Chief Gordon BlueSky of the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation; John Hardwick, executive director - asset management, Transport for NSW Government who spoke about Creating an Asset Management Culture for Success; and Jim Pawluk, director of asset management, Manitoba Hydro, who discussed Asset Management - Engaging with the Enterprise.

Tours

A big highlight each year, are available facility tours that are part of the conference. This year attendees had the opportunity to visit WinPak Ltd., a manufacturer and distributor of packaging materials and machines, and MacDon Industries Ltd., a manufacturer of harvesting equipment, f acilities. The tour allowed attendees to see how maintenance and asset management is done at these companies, and what they do to make sure they run efficiently.

Exhibitor showcase manager at the City of Saskatoon Water Treatment Plant, for work on the City of Saskatoon Maintenance Workflow Optimization project. MMP Capstone – Technical Focus award winner was Chris O’Rielly, maintenance supervisor at Halliburton for the project Halliburton Service Truck Replacement . AMP Capstone winner was Ashvin Koarga, manager of Asset and Order Management at Metrolinx - PRESTO, for his project, Metrolinx’s Station Fare Transaction Processor Asset Management Framework.

A big part of the conference each year is the exhibitor showcase, which allowed attendees to network with fellow industry professionals and discover the latest products that are available on the market. Those exhibitors in attendance included Cameco, Cohesive, IPS, Northern Lakes College, Revisionz, STI, UE Systems, Wajax, and many others.

Other highlights

PEMAC hosted members of the Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management (GFMAM) and the World Partners in Asset Management (WPiAM) international organizations, who also contributed to the conference prog ram.

After the conference, attendees networked at The Canadian

Museum for Human Rights. Maintrain will go east next year as the 2024 conference will be in Saint John, NB.

Mario Cywinski is the Editor of MRO, Plant, and Food and Beverage magazines, and a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada. Contact him at mcywinski@mromagazine.com

Awards

Each year PEMAC hosts its Awards Banquet during the MainTrain conference. This year, Alan Cox, chair of the PEMAC Awards Committee took on the hosting duties. A selection of awards was given out to those who show excellence in the maintenance and asset management sphere.

The winner of the MMP Capstone – Business Process award was Brian Sibley, maintenance

Other award winners included: Susan Lubell who won the Asset Management Leadership award; Mike Crowell, won the Maintenance Management Leadership award; Maintenance Team of the Year for a large organization was the maintenance department of Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board; Maintenance Team of theYear award for a small organization is Capital Power’s York Energy Centre; Asset Management Achievement award was given to the Nunavut division of Agnico Eagle Mining Limited; and the Sergio Guy Memorial award was given posthumously to Chris Murphy.

Workshops and Sessions

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. Four sessions took place simultaneously in different rooms.