News
Don’t Focus On Wrench Time to Justify Planning & Scheduling ROI
Maintenance organizations often have similar motivations for reassessing their planning and scheduling processes. These include addressing a lack of visibility into resource availability, managing out-of-control backlogs, or responding to management pressure to reduce maintenance budgets.
Currently, over 67% of business cases for planning and scheduling software focus primarily on improving wrench time through scheduling solutions and process reviews. It’s widely known that the average Hands on Tool Time (HOTT) for most companies ranges between 25% and 35%. However, companies employing best practices in planning and scheduling report wrench times of 60% and higher. What accounts for this significant difference?
Reducing costs through enhanced reliability
Unplanned downtime regularly results in high costs for industrial businesses. That’s according to an ABB survey of 3,215 plant maintenance leaders across various sectors, including energy, metals, utilities, food and beverage, and chemicals. In the energy and power generation sector alone, an hour of unexpected downtime can cost nearly USD180,000 and 69 percent of industrial businesses experiencing these shutdowns at least monthly.
Reliable equipment delivers clear advantages in reducing unplanned downtime, maximizing operational uptime, improving performance, and ensuring continuous equipment availability. However, despite the well-recognised benefits of reliability, current maintenance practices often fall short.
Is installing a sensor for predictive maintenance always the right answer: How to make the hype work?
The use of sensors in predictive maintenance is a hot topic in the discussion about asset performance. Although sensors are used widely today, their effectiveness is a subject of debate. One thing is certain: sensors are not the be all and end all. They only provide value when used in support of people (experts who know the machines) making informed and better decisions. Jonas Vancauwenberghe, an expert in the field, sets the tone.
Unleashing the Power of Digitalization in Asset Management: Lessons learned at Aquafin
Aquafin, a company dedicated to the transport and treatment of wastewater for over six million people in Flanders, is at the forefront of creating sustainable environmental solutions. “Our mission is to improve the quality of the rivers, and we take a wider view than wastewater alone. We are also looking at how we can play a role in creating a living environment in harmony with rainwater, next to our traditional core business, managing and treating waste water.” Van Eygen explains. This holistic approach to environmental management underpins Aquafin’s commitment to long-term sustainability and resilience.
Enhancing Predictive Maintenance at Nordic Sugar: Insights into Steam Dryer Optimization
Nordic Sugar, a key player in the sugar production industry and a part of the Nordzucker Group, has been pioneering innovative maintenance strategies at its Nakskov plant in Denmark. As part of their continuous improvement efforts, they have embarked on a significant project to implement predictive maintenance on their steam dryer, a crucial component in their sugar production process. This initiative, led by Anders Jørgensen-Juul, Head of Projects, is setting new benchmarks in the industry.
Predictive Maintenance at Unilin Group: Leveraging Online Vibration Monitoring and Anomaly Detection
The Unilin Group, part of the larger Mohawk International, is a major player in the European construction and building materials market. With over 30 factories across Europe, Unilin specialises in flooring, insulation materials, and boards used in furniture manufacturing. In a this interview, Kurt Dhaene, one of the Group Reliability Managers at Unilin, shares his insights into the company’s transition towards data-driven maintenance and the implementation of predictive maintenance technologies.
Circular Asset Management – Minimization of the release of waste during industrial cleaning
At present, a multitude of techniques are used in the process industry for cleaning industrial equipment, machines, tools, etc. The performance of these methodologies is still insufficiently controlled and assessed in terms of sustainability. Although it is known that cleaning produces a relatively large amount of waste and requires a significant amount of energy, there is insufficient insight into which of the current cleaning methods and processes is the most sustainable one.
De Watergroep wins Asset Performance 4.0 Award
Antwerp, 25 October 2023 – This evening, BEMAS – the Belgian Maintenance Association, presented the fourth Asset Performance 4.0 Award during the Asset Performance Conference. Out of eight participants, one was crowned the winner live in the Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerp: De Watergroep. ArcelorMittal won the audience award.
Sitech Services: Pioneering Sustainable Industrial Maintenance through Data-Driven Predictive Models
Manufacturers across Europe face a huge task to keep producing optimally while making the shift towards sustainability, and all this under the watchful eye of critical stakeholders. So the industry is aware of the importance of careful maintenance of their plants and recognizes the importance of a reliable service provider with a proven track record
5 Traps to Avoid When Selecting Asset Performance Management Software
The market is saturated with software that promises to improve asset performance and reduce or eliminate downtime. Whether it brands itself as asset performance management, predictive maintenance, reliability centered maintenance or condition-based maintenance software, all seem indistinguishable from each other.