MRO’s round table continues to engage

MRO has run a round table at the PEMAC Asset Management Association of Canada Maintrain conference since before I become editor of MRO in 2018. The 2023 conference was held in Winnipeg, and the round table was the biggest ever.

This year, the speakers included Paul Daoust, SCIO Asset Management Inc., who led a discussion about minimalist maintenance metr ics; Susan Lubell, Steppe Consulting Inc., discussed competenc y frameworks for asset management; and James Reyes-Picknell, Conscious Asset, looked at if it’s time to outsource maintenance, which is available as an article on page 24.

The final speaker was Erika Mazza, The Regional Municipality of Durham, who asked her group about green maintenance and if it is a trend or a responsibility.

I wanted to focus on Mazza’s discussion, as it is of utmost importance with our ever-changing climate. Her group talked about the need to start monitoring and understanding how we are impacting our environment. This is important, as you cannot improve anything if you don’t measure it fir st, meaning the need to measure and understand, and then start identifying strategies that can reduce this impact. Waste and how to manage it is a big part of that. She asked, “how are we managing the disposal of products and how can we replace assets when they are no longer active or useful, or to repair them.”

In this respect, Mazza mentioned that planning is essential to reducing waste, to make sure jobs are safe, and to conserve resources.

Also important is reducing the amount of mobilization of crews, which is a big part of the ecological footprint, as we are putting emissions into the environment just by mobilizing crew from one site to another.

Fur ther, if you are a company that works in remote locations and need to mobilize machinery, think about using drones in that area, which reduces the impact on the environment.

Another big aspect mentioned of reducing waste was to make sure to design for repair or design to be ecological responsible. If we think from the design stage about how assets are going to live their life and how much they’re going to impact the environment during their useful life, we can reduce the amount of waste, and be more efficient.

On last item to think about is making sure to have a policy of asset life cycle inventory. Inventory, a lot of times, is a use it or lose it proposition. Therefore, when it has reached the end of it’s lifespan (shelf life), it is scrapped. In that respect, carry only what you need.

To learn more about the topics discussed, view MRO’s summary videos of the round table are available on our web site and YouTube channel. As the topics are different each year, you can also find videos from the 2022 version there as well.

Next year, the Maintrain conference makes its way to Saint John, New Brunswick, and MRO will once again be there running the round table. It will again have insightful discussions about the topics that are of utmost important to the maintenance community. Hope to see you there.

MARIO CYWINSKI Editor mcywinski@mro.ca

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WINTER 2023 Volume 39, Number 4

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Daemar offers a comprehensive range of seals tailored to cater to the specific needs of maintenance engineers across diverse industries. Their wide variety of seal styles, including specialized materials like Viton® & polyurethane, ensures optimal performance even in challenging conditions.

ANCA Inc., is expanding its footprint Canada by adding Brady Roarke as applications eng ineer and technical sales expert, based near Toronto, Ontario.

“I am honoured to be part of ANCA’s talented team and to contribute to the company’s ongoing success in the Canadian market,” said Brady. I look forward to collaborating with colleagues and clients alike to deliver exceptional grinding solutions.”

Brady brings nine years of experience as applications engineer. Five of those years were spent milling, and four grinding.

“We are thrilled to welcome Brady to our team,” said Russell Riddiford, president, ANCA Inc. “With his extensive experience and deep insights into the grinding industry, we are confident that Brady will be instrumental in driving ANCA’s growth and success in Canada.”

The Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) launch the Clean Energy Jobs Canada web site (cleanenergyjobs.ca). It aims to help accelerate recruitment of skilled workers into the renewables and energy storage industries.

The new web site allows job seekers to post their CVs, search for current openings across Canada, apply for jobs, and create personal job alerts. Employers can post job openings and search a database of qualified candidates.

“We know that the number of people interested in renewables is higher than it’s ever been, and we have heard from our member companies that there is a crying need for workers, so CanREA has built this website to try to connect those dots,” said Mathieu Côté, director of CanREA’s Operations Program. “Clean Energy Jobs Canada aims to move people from ‘interested’ to ‘employed’ in this industry.”

CanREA member companies get complimentary job postings on the site in 2023 and discounted posts in 2024.

German Technology Day hosted 22 of Germany’s leading automation and advanced manufacturing equipment manuf acturers. The fifth iteration of the annual event, has the number of exhibitors and presenters steadily growing since its inception.

With the theme of transformation, the show showcased each company’s industry-leading, energy-efficient solutions, and a series of 30-minute presentations from each participant throughout the day.

Standout presentations included Weidmuller’s automation and network specialist, Visal Jhurry, presenting the company’s recently released u-OS, a Linux-based embedded OS designed for IIoT and automation applications, and Pilz’s product manager, Guillaume Lavoie, who explained how IO-Link Safety is transforming the future of safety communication and diagnostics.

Other standouts included a WAGO case study on optimizing uptime with predictive maintenance, presented by Tyrone Visser; and Murr Elektronik, head of system solutions, Tom Jensen’s summary of IIoT infrastructure technologies.

Thomas Böck, has been appointed as head of the Management Board at Festo, succeeding Oliver Jung, effective Jan 1, 2024.

“I am very much looking forward to contributing my experience to Festo. Together with the Festo team, we will keep the value-oriented family-owned company on course for success and promote its further development,” said Böck.

Böck was most recently CEO and previously chief technology officer of CLAAS. Böck brings a wealth of experience in implementing an international growth strategy in a high-tech environment.

“I am very proud of what we have achieved to date at Festo together with our employees. I wish Mr. Böck all the best for the ongoing development of the company. Personally, I will continue to feel closely connected to the Festo family in the future,” said Jung.