Plant & Works Engineering June 2022

10 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk June 2022 Insight – Talking Industry: Plant & Asset Management F ollowing an introduction by Aaron Blutstein, Editor of PWE, the event featured two external speakers: Sally Sillis, Technology Centre Manager Schaeffler UK, who has specialised in condition-based maintenance for the past five years. She has 22 years’ experience in engineering, and also holds a BSc in mechanical engineering from University of Liverpool. And Tony Coghlin who was appointed as Managing Director of Turck Banner in January 2022. He has worked at Siemens and served in the Royal Australian Navy as an avionics engineer. Setting the scene, Aaron Blutstein explained how the implementation of Maintenance 4.0 fits into an overall digitalisation strategy, often referred to as Industry 4.0, or the Internet of Things. It describes the current trend of automation and data interconnection, including wireless sensors, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data. It is often claimed that the UK is lagging behind in utilising digital methods in maintenance. Sillis challenged this assumption. “Schaeffler is predominantly known as a bearing manufacturer, notably the INA and FMCG brands. What we find in the UK that is, from that point of view, the UK is very mature. Much of the expertise stems from the oil and gas industry, with specific expertise in condition monitoring with vibration. But we do have old infrastructure in our plants in the UK. Maintenance 4.0 is easier to implement if you are building new factories from scratch, and there aren’t that many of them in this country.” Blutstein injected: “Going back a couple of years now, on a visit to Germany, the feeling was that the UK was just dabbling in condition monitoring. But in order to get to a vision of Maintenance 4.0, we obviously need to get on the road of condition monitoring in the first place. Without these incremental steps it is hard to build up a strategy. Many smaller companies are still struggling to understand the advantages of condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. I don’t know whether there has been a change of attitude over the last couple of years, due to COVID? Has it had a game- changing influence?” Coghlan responded: “I agree with Sally – Turck Banner has had success in the UK implementing condition monitoring. Customers are dipping their toe in the water a lot more The growing importance of Plant & Asset Management Talking Industry’s latest panel discussion looked at the future of Plant & Asset Management. Andy Pye highlights the discussion. Talking Industry