Maintenance Partners

MAINTENANCE PARTNERS

A SMART FIT FOR BETTER PERFORMANCE powered by Inside Oil&Gas

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MAINTENANCE PARTNERS

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Inside Industry Maintenance Partners

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PROFILE

PERFORMANCE A SMART FIT FOR BETTER

performance Belgium-based Maintenance Partners, the rotating equipment specialist, is looking to further improve internal efficiency to provide more comprehensive solutions for its clients across a variety of industries. “Now the focus is not on improved machine, but on increased total facility performance,” explained CEO Wim Schelfaut in an interview with Romana Moares.

Maintenance Partners

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Maintenance Partners

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MAINTENANCE PARTNERS

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aintenance Partners, featured in Inside Industry over two years ago, has progressed towards more comprehensive engineering services.

“When we last spoke in 2018, we were in the middle of an extensive strategy exercise, looking in detail at the markets and internally analysing our position, capabilities and competence and deciding what we could do better,” recounted CEO Wim Schelfaut.

“We talked to our customers and suppliers to find out where we are and how to improve our services, investing substantially in engineering, staff training and new equipment, to have a better understanding of what is going on in the Industry 4.0 environment in terms of maintenance.”

Whilst this process has not yet been 100% completed, Mr Schelfaut said one of the key outcomes identified so far has been the need for Maintenance Partners to offer an even more complete approach.

“We don’t look at the machine but at the total process. We can then repair the machine so that the whole facility can achieve better efficiency. We are now starting to see the positive impact of these efforts as we put more customers onto long-term contracts.”

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Maintenance Partners

Mr Schelfaut explained that the strategy involves training of not just the company’s staff but also of customers to make sure that they also follow the latest technology to support Maintenance Partners’ new way of working.

“Training is a major part of this initiative, to get a good understanding of Industry 4.0 and see how we can develop in line with new customers’ requirements.”

He added: “We have introduced two key things: Smart Game – to ensure the right approach to customers so that they get the right delivery for the right price, with much smoother and clearer communication and understanding of customers’ needs; and Fit for Purpose, a tailor made approach where we looked at artificial intelligence and big data, in order to improve the efficiency of the whole facility.”

A Smart Fit has become a new slogan of Maintenance Partners, now applied not only to customers when it comes to providing a customised service, but also to its own employees to enable them to grow with the company both vertically and horizontally. It’s also an expectation – or aspiration – for its suppliers to follow too.

“A Smart Fit really works. We have invested a considerable amount in this project and are already starting to see tangible results,” affirmed Mr Schelfaut.

Comprehensive expertise While the way of work may be changing, Maintenance Partners’ core business has remained the same – providing the best possible solutions for rotating equipment to customers in all industry sectors at optimum cost.

Established in 2001, Maintenance Partners operates as an independent fullservice company, providing maintenance of both electrical and mechanical rotating machines across the whole range, from small motors and gear boxes, blowers and fans to transformers, generators, compressors and turbines.

The company provides a high degree of flexibility offering 24/7 service availability, with an increased focus on safety and quality. Customers also value the company’s technical capabilities including a state-ofthe-art machining department equipped with milling machines, big horizontal boring machines and lathes, as well as its experienced rotating equipment diagnostics team.

“While we still receive a lot of standard maintenance contracts, we want to pursue the development in line with our customers’ strategy to improve their overall performance,” explained Mr Schelfaut. “This is the direction in which we are going and the number of more complex contracts is increasing.”

Just recently, Maintenance Partners signed a long-term service agreement – tailored to suit the client’s specific needs – with a company operating steam turbine generator sets. To support the long-term service agreement, Maintenance Partners offers MP Connectivity, a package that synchronises connections to all relevant turbine equipment, and establishes a connection to a cloud-based database where historical data are recorded.

“MP Connectivity’s very high data acquisition rate of 100 ms allows troubleshooting for advanced trips and failures by our experienced turbine and generator specialists. Through connectivity we can get into the customer’s system and follow the machine in order to improve the maintenance, again with the focus on improving the customer’s performance.”

– Europe will remain the company’s key market although requests are coming in from Africa and the Middle East.

“We don’t have enough people to supply our services everywhere, and would rather focus on an area where we have a good track record.”

He added: “Coronavirus apart, our main concern at the moment remains human resources. Europe has a very high demand for the technical professions and that of course continues to be an issue for us.

Therefore, the new strategy focuses a lot on training, as well as doing maintenance

differently, in a standardised manner which should help to cope with a shortage of technical skills.”

Despite this, the company remains in a buoyant mood in terms of its anticipated future business development. While potential acquisition plans have been put on hold, Maintenance Partners runs a successful branch in France and has recently opened a subsidiary in Sweden to help develop the Scandinavian market.

“Having more local representations is still on our agenda,” acknowledged Mr Schelfaut in conclusion. n

The new future Mr Schelfaut admitted that the company is still coming to terms with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, but after months of limited activity and a drop in turnover, business is picking up again.

“Some of our customers have had a very hard time and our company was also badly hit. Now we are coming back on track, responding to an increasing demand after months of standstill.

“And admittedly, there is something good coming out of every crisis, no matter how hard, and this has been also the case now.

We have implemented a new, more efficient way of working, looking hard at our internal systems and procedures. We have reorganised certain internal flows and scrutinised our operation.”

He added: “Post-Covid-19, things will be different but better, for the company and its people. For example, we can see that it is not necessary in every case to visit the customer’s site and a lot of issues may be resolved by online consultations, which saves a lot of time.”

Mr Schelfaut affirmed that scrutiny has also been applied to geographical markets

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