Maintworld 2/2020

2/2020 www.maintworld.com 

maintenance & asset management 

To the Bravest 

Asset Managers – 

Living and working 

in the post-corona era p 12 

ADAPTIVE ALIGNMENT PG 26 DATA-DRIVEN SPARE PARTS MANAGEMENT PG 48 MANAGING THE CRISIS EFFECTIVELY PG 52

Your best weapon against poor 

reliability is knowledge. 

You need knowledge. Your colleagues need knowledge. Techniques, 

solutions, strategy, and the business case - it is all critical knowledge. 

Whether your focus is condition monitoring or the bigger picture of 

reliability improvement, our websites, live events, and worldwide 

communities provide easy access to the information you need. 

We invite you to be part of MOBIUS CONNECT. With MOBIUS 

CONNECT you can... 

• Learn and share 

• Customize your learning pathway 

• Continue your educational journey, live or online 

• Engage with industry leaders from around the world 

www.mobiusconnect.com

Find 

Your 

Learning 

Path

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EDITORIAL 

This Summer 

will be Different 

THIS SUMMER WILL BE DIFFERENT for most of us, 

and for maintenance people too. COVID-19 has 

brought havoc to industry, markets and societies 

around the world. There are winners as well as 

losers. We remember well the last global economic 

downturn in 2008. We remember manufacturers 

cutting their maintenance budgets, and we remember 

how these manufacturers struggled to cope 

with demand after production volumes got back to 

normal levels, or even higher after that economic 

episode. Lessons learned? Cutting the maintenance 

budget is just borrowing money from the 

future. It works fine for now, next month or even a 

few years, but after some time, underinvested assets will take their tax: bad OEE, increasing 

failure rates, more serious failures and even accidents. Business continuity 

is a continuous and never-ending process with several stages: 

In this pandemic year, the industrial producers had to go through the phase of 

reaction at the beginning of the crisis. To react means to take immediate actions 

and measures to avoid harm. It was very important to realize that the thing has 

really come, and we must fight – react. Look back and think: when exactly did you 

realize that COVID-19 is here? And impacts your business? Was it early or late? 

This delay may result in overreacting with panic and hysteria - as we observed. 

The immediate response was followed by the fight to survive. For many, this 

was solely about cash-flow. Producers were, or still are, struck by quarantine measures 

resulting in limited (human) resources and loss of production capacity. The 

suppliers were not able to deliver materials for production. And the demand from 

end customers for certain products plummeted. This was a deadly cocktail for many 

companies. 

To survive we must adapt. By this I mean specifically taking advantage of the 

situation. The production slowdown, or stoppage, was a unique opportunity to do 

what was never done properly: shutdowns and turnarounds in full scope, neglected 

preventive maintenance, deferred investments, cleaning, optimizing preventive 

and predictive maintenance etc. Obviously, for these you need some money, 

reserves to spend in hard times. Companies that have not created enough reserves 

during the good times are now losing on this opportunity. There will be no “back 

to normal” in this game. Too many things have changed. Therefore, in the recovery 

stage, we will have to rethink and reengineer our former processes and strategies, 

including business objectives and resulting maintenance strategies. 

But the essential phase of the business continuity cycle is the phase of preparation 

when we prepare for the next downturn, crisis or disaster. And we can be 

sure that bad things will happen again. The preparation stage is the time for risk 

management: identification of risks, evaluation of their impacts and probabilities 

and mitigating. And creating financial reserves to spend in the next period of hard 

times. Take advantage of the opportunity and use the reserves you made previously 

to do all shutdown maintenance, revamps, preventive maintenance, asset register 

clean-up, process and technologies optimizations as well as optimizations of 

predictive maintenance techniques that were heavily implemented in recent years 

but their efficiency was never really evaluated. Cutting your maintenance budgets 

means introducing new risks into your operations. 

6 maintworld 2/2020 

Tomáš Hladík 

Principal Consultant 

Logio 

Prague 

52 

The 

Coronavirus crisis 

requires a cost-centered 

asset management 

strategy. For many plant 

operators, this will be a 

shift of their strategy by 

180 degrees.

IN THIS ISSUE 2/2020 

20 

With 

the ongoing digital 

transformation of the rail 

industry, the increasing 

volume and speed at which 

data can be collected is 

becoming a significant problem 

for track maintenance teams. 

= 

44 

External 

forces of change can 

be more relentless in forcing 

change. In some instances, 

an organization or business 

must change or go out of 

business and cease to exist. 

8 

COVID-19: guidance helps businesses 

protect workers and communities 

12 

To the Bravest Asset Managers – Living 

and working in the post-corona era 

16 

18 

20 

Norwegian Society of Maintenance 

(NFV) and Mainnovation Share 

Knowledge with Webinars 

Asset and Maintenance Management: 

Combined Technologies to Uncover 

Untapped Business Value 

Consolidating Data Silos for 

Track Maintenance 

24 

26 

30 

34 

38 

Revolutionary Profitability with 

Intelligent Condition Monitoring and 

Remote Services 

Adaptive Alignment – Next-Generation 

Technology for Solving Every Shaft 

Alignment Challenge 

Ultrasound and the IIoT: 

The Future of Condition Monitoring 

Most Common Myths about 

Accelerometers and Frequency Range 

Asset Care and Reliability in the 

Mining Industry using Ultrasound 

40 

42 

44 

48 

Dynamic measurement – 

are you missing a checkbox? 

Are you ready? 

How the maintenance team can thrive 

and grow during a time of disruption 

Monetizing Data in Maintenance: 

Data-driven Spare Parts Management 

50 

Maintenance activities and 

Industrial Rescue 

52 

Managing the Crisis Effectively: 

How to Develop a Successful Asset 

Management Strategy During the 

Coronavirus Downturn 

Issued by Promaint (Finnish Maintenance Society), Messuaukio 1, 00520 Helsinki, Finland tel. +358 29 007 4570 Publisher Omnipress Oy, 

Väritehtaankatu 8, 4. kerros, 01300 Vantaa, tel. +358 20 6100, toimitus@omnipress.fi, www.omnipress.fi Editor-in-chief Nina Garlo-Melkas 

tel. +358 50 36 46 491, nina.garlo@omnipress.fi, Advertisements Kai Portman, Sales Director, tel. +358 358 44 763 2573, ads@maintworld.com 

Layout Menu Meedia, www.menuk.ee Subscriptions and Change of Address members toimisto@kunnossapito.fi, non-members tilaajapalvelu@ 

media.fi Printed by Reusner, www.reusner.ee Frequency 4 issues per year, ISSN L 1798-7024, ISSN 1798-7024 (print), ISSN 1799-8670 (online). 

2/2020 maintworld 7

HSE 

COVID-19: Guidance helps Businesses 

Protect Workers and Communities 

COVID-19 continues to 

spread rapidly around 

the world. The European 

Agency for Safety and 

Health at Work (EU-OSHA) 

urges businesses to 

protect workers and show 

their commitment to 

preventing the spread of 

this disease by following 

its guidance resources for 

the workplace 

CHRISTA 

SEDLATSCHEK 

EU-OSHA 

Executive Director 

THE COVID-19 situation changes day 

by day. But what can workplaces do in 

practice to help tackle this pandemic 

and protect employees? Knowledge and 

awareness are key — everyone must 

be well informed about how the virus 

spreads, the symptoms of infection and 

how to minimise exposure. Under the 

tagline, ‘Healthy Workplaces Stop the 

Pandemic’ EU-OSHA has started an 

initiative to address the occupational 

health and safety challenges linked to 

the current pandemic, offering a range of 

workplace guidance on COVID-19. 

Resources include: EU guidance to 

limit the spread of the virus and on preventive 

measures for a safe and healthy 

return to workplaces; information on 

how to minimise exposure to biological 

agents; awareness-raising videos; practical 

guides, tools and visual resources 

for a healthy home-based telework and 

a range of links to good practice material 

from EU and international organisations. 

What is COVID-19? 

COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus, 

thought to have an incubation period of 

between 2 and 14 days. The main symptoms 

are coughing, breathing difficulties 

and fever. Older people and those with 

chronic health conditions (such as diabetes 

or cardiovascular diseases) are more 

likely to suffer from severe symptoms. 

Coronaviruses are spread by close 

person-to-person contact or by touching 

8 maintworld 2/2020

HSE 

an infected surface and then touching 

the eyes, nose or mouth. Such viruses are 

thought to live on some surfaces for 72 

hours, sometimes longer. 

How can businesses help minimise 

the impact of COVID-19? 

Employers have an important role to play 

in protecting workers, and in preventing 

the spread of COVID-19 in the wider community. 

They should: 

• revise the workplace risk assessment 

to ensure that distancing and 

hygienic measures can be taken, 

without additional risk to workers 

• respect the hierarchy of control 

measures and prioritise technical 

and organisational over personal 

protection measures 

• provide adequate PPE where it is 

needed in addition to technical and 

organisational arrangements 

• encourage workers to wash hands 

frequently and thoroughly and provide 

hand washing facilities or hand 

disinfection liquids 

• ensure that frequently touched surfaces 

are cleaned regularly 

• provide disposable wipes, so that 

commonly used surfaces can be 

wiped before use 

• emphasise the importance of employees 

staying away from work if 

they develop symptoms, even if mild 

• enable home working and flexible 

working hours where feasible 

• follow public health authority advice 

if someone with suspected COVID-19 

has been in the workplace or travelling 

to an affected area. 

It is also important that businesses 

mitigate the impact of COVID-19 by developing 

contingency and business continuity 

plans. Plans should address how 

the business will keep running if workers 

or suppliers become ill or are affected by 

travel restrictions. They should also cover 

sick leave arrangements and any other 

support available for workers. Consulting 

these plans with workers and communicating 

with all others connected with the 

business — highlighting key points and 

making sure that everyone knows how the 

plan relates to them — is essential. 

Back to the workplace - 

Adapting workplaces and 

protecting workers 

Once the physical distancing measures 

achieve a sufficient reduction in 

COVID-19 transmission rates, national 

EMPLOYERS HAVE AN IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY IN 

PROTECTING WORKERS, AND IN PREVENTING THE SPREAD 

OF COVID-19 IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY 

administrations are authorising a gradual 

resumption of work activities. This 

is being done stepwise, with work that is 

considered essential for health protection 

and the economy authorised first 

and work that can be done effectively 

while working from home last. 

However, regardless of how and to 

what extent normal work activities 

resume, it is highly likely that some 

measures will remain in place for some 

time to avoid a steep increase in infection 

rates. Furthermore, it is also possible that 

an increase in infections at some point in 

the future will require a reintroduction of 

restrictive measures in some cases. 

Appropriate preventive measures also 

help to achieve a safe and healthy return 

to work and contribute to suppressing 

transmission of COVID-19. EU-OSHA 

has produced occupational safety and 

health EU guidance to help in this process. 

These non-binding guidelines aim 

to help employers and workers to stay 

safe and healthy in a working environment 

that has changed significantly 

because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

They give advice on risk assessment and 


HSE 

appropriate measures such as minimising 

exposure, resuming work, coping with 

absences and managing workers working 

from home. Workers’ involvement and 

taking care of those who have been ill is also 

included as well as information and further 

links for many sectors, occupations 

and countries. 

COVID-19 is not the only risk 

For some workers, exposure to infectious 

agents on a regular basis is the norm and, 

according to the 2015 European Working 

Conditions Survey, is on the rise, especially 

in healthcare and veterinary services, 

agriculture, sewage management and laboratories. 

Our recent review and five discussion 

papers explore the risks posed by 

biological agents in the workplace. We aim 

to raise awareness of exposure to these 

hazards at work and provide more information 

on the associated health problems, 

which include not only infectious diseases 

but also cancer and allergies. 

Home-based telework 

In the current context of confinement due 

to the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of 

European workers are forced to work from 

home full-time to cut down the risk of contracting 

the virus. A new reality that can 

take its toll on our health. Long periods of 

sedentary work, lack of physical exercise, 

working in isolation, blurring boundaries 

between paid work and private life and 

stress are some of the risks associated 

with telework that may have an impact on 

the musculoskeletal and mental health of 

workers. 

EU-OSHA’s brand-new MSD database 

of practical tools and guidance makes it 

easy to assess and manage many MSD 

risks, including from telework. It contains 

links to resources from all across Europe: 

publications, case studies, guidance, practical 

tools, audio-visual materials. So far, 

more than 550 entries are available and 

regular updates will follow during the life 

of the current 2020-22 Healthy Workplaces 

Campaign Lighten the Load. 

Working together is key 

to combatting COVID-19 

The current COVID-19 pandemic is one 

of the biggest challenges that businesses 

— and indeed societies — have ever faced. 

Overcoming this challenge will be possible 

only if we work together to stop the spread 

of this disease — and guaranteeing safe and 

healthy working environments is vital to 

this. 


ASSET MANAGEMENT 

To the Bravest Asset Managers 

Living and Working in the Post-Corona Era 

Text DIRK DE NUTTE, CEO THE GRAIN 

Will corona have a lasting 

impact on the maintenance 

sector, and by extension 

the industry and the whole 

world? That seems to be 

a rhetorical question. Because 

in the post-corona 

era, man and machine will 

continue to fail. 

THE “FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS” of 

maintenance which Nowlan and Heap 

put forward in their Reliability Centered 

Maintenance in the 1960s remain valid, 

as do the 6 failure patterns and the 

P-F lifecycle. The only thing that will 

undoubtedly change is the way we will 

deal with this as people and as experts. 

Just like healthcare providers such as 

doctors and nurses in intensive care, 

our industrial healthcare providers such 

as operators, maintenance technicians 

and reliability engineers will also look 

for a new, safer way of working, partly 

out of legal obligation, and partly out of 

self-protection. 

As essential as the industry is for all 

our lives, our maintenance sector is vital 

for the industry. We are the cardiovascular 

specialists who, when feasible, 

predictively monitor the veins and the 

heart of our industry assets, preventively 

or curatively when necessary and thus 

help the core of our economical society 

to survive. Due to our crucial role within 

the industry, we are deeply intertwined 

with the whole of society and as a sector 

we also play a prevailing role in society 

which should not be underestimated. 

TOWARDS ANTHROPOCENTRISM 4.0 

In "Modern Times" Chaplin workers 

were depicted as modern slaves who 

lived and worked to the rhythm of the 

assembly line. As a consequence to of 


industrialization in those early days, 

everything literally revolved around the 

(steam)engine. 

Today, the machine comes next to humanity, 

such as in production halls where 

humans and robots work side by side. Asset 

management is also shifting more and 

more towards people. Man is the central 

axis of our work process, but therefore 

also the main source of calamities. 

Only 30 percent of all problems are 

of a purely technical nature (or special 

cause effect), while 70 percent are 

caused by some kind of human intervention 

(common cause effect). It is therefore 

perfectly justified that a great deal of 

importance is currently attached to procedures 

and rules, standardization and 

consistent behaviour to prevent technical 

calamities (failure or even standstill) 

and accidents (safety). 

By working together with technology 

and being intensively supported by it, 

we can cover our human failures even 

further and limit the risks in all areas for 

everyone to the absolute minimum. 

THE OPPORTUNITY OF A GOOD CRISIS 

During the formation of the United 

Nations shortly after World War II, 

Winston Churchill proclaimed "Never 

miss the opportunity of a good crisis." 

From the ashes of the most inhumane 

war on an industrial scale, a global association 

with peace and cooperation as its 

main goals emerged. 

The corona crisis is forcing employees 

to work remotely and children to achieve 

learning goals remotely. With digital tools 

this works miraculously well and sometimes 

even more efficiently than before. 

Let this be a valuable lesson for what 

maintenance can look like tomorrow. 

Wouldn't it be more efficient to have 

just one pair of boots on the ground, 

supported by a few extra brains and eyes 

watching from a distance? This is what 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented 

Reality (AR) can help achieve. Not tomorrow 

or the day after tomorrow, but today. 

Fewer trips, fewer errors, less downtime, 

less costs, Higher returns, more 

production, more success, more job

P 

The foundational elements of maintenance & reliability management 

will never change. But the way technology can deliver value to asset 

management programs is changing faster than ever. 

The Grain combines its expertise in industrial asset management 

and data science to enhance the performance and reliability of your 

assets by building customized, accessible and scalable AI solutions. 

F 

It is our mission to facilitate day-to-day work of maintenance 

practitioners, reliability engineers and operators. 

We embed the power of advanced analytics to accelerate the process 

of learning by combining signal data, maintenance logs or any other 

operating context information to predict the asset behavior, add 

new insights enabling you to prepare the right actions at the right 

time. We believe that blending artificial and human intelligence is 

key to exponential performance of your assets. 

Welcome to the age of prescriptive maintenance. 

Want to be part of it? 

Find out more on www.thegrain.pro/innovators or call +32 3 376 33 50 

Industrial AI applications


satisfaction. Something good can come 

from something bad, just like the UN 

came from World War II. 

DAM AGAINST DISASTER 

But we can do more than just making 

things more efficient. Because crises 

can, with the necessary courage and 

ambition, also lead to completely new 

industries and job creation. When in 

World War II German U-boats destroyed 

many US ships heading for the UK, the 

US quickly accelerated the construction 

of their Liberty ships from 6 months to 

4 days for one ship, due to exponentially 

increased efficiency (lean processes). 

Ten years later, a storm surge in 1953 

flooded entire parts of the Netherlands, 

the United Kingdom, Germany and 

Belgium. This disaster took the lives of 

thousands of people and also meant an 

unprecedented catastrophe that destroyed 

large parts of the economy and 

infrastructure. 

But instead of giving up, the severely 

affected Dutch dared to take on this 

tragedy and developed the Delta plan. 

With this modern wonder of the world, 

our northern neighbours put themselves 

on the global map as specialists in waterworks, 

while at the same time creating a 

new economic branch. 

Every crisis changes our general spectrum 

and how we look at processes. Because 

in traditions and acquired knowledge 

there is also a danger of rigidity and 

stagnation, just think of the joke of the 

sausage and the pan. Now is a time of 

introspection and reflection, but also of 

action and change. Or as Martin Luther 

King put it: "We must build dikes of courage 

against the storm surges of fear." 

AI and robotics will drastically and 

fundamentally change our jobs and our 

sector. Our operators, maintenance 

technicians and reliability engineers will 

all become F1 racing drivers only concerned 

with getting the maximum return 

from their car and winning the race, but 

during the race they also forward more 

than 1,500 data points per second to the 

engineers who are on the side about the 

operation of their machine. The racer as 

a high-tech operator with the technology 

of the future. 

Sounds like sheer science fiction, 

right? Leonardo da Vinci drew in the 15th 

century the first airplanes, Jules Verne 

wrote about traveling to the moon. What 

seemed like nonsense at that time is now 

history. At the end of the 19th century, 

people who then moved by horse and 

cart and communicated mainly by letter, 

might have a hard time imagining that a 

few generations later their descendants 

would be making video calls in self-driving 

vehicles. Because neither the car nor 

the phone existed back then, but a good 

century later they seem indispensable. 

Someone who is now 60 saw childhood 

James Bond movies with futuristic gadgets 

such as car radios, GPS and fingerprint 

security. Someone who is 40 today 

has experienced the breakthrough of the 

PC, the internet, the smartphone, virtual 

reality (VR), Bitcoin and AI. We now experience 

the kind of accelerations which until 

now would have taken us tens or hundreds 

of years, in just a few years. What 

will someone aged 20 or 0 experience? 

One thing seems certain: the acceleration 

has only just begun. 

Perhaps within a few years we will 

remember with nostalgia the period 

when people still manually maintained 

machines, electrical cabinets and installations 

themselves. Question to the bravest 

of asset managers: when will we make the 

complete transition to AI powered and 

robot performed maintenance? Now in 

China, there are already advanced and implemented 

applications of maintenance in 

this way. Do we want to miss this boat and 

drown in a Chinese flood? 

ASSET MANAGEMENT IN THE 

AFTER-CORONA LIFE 

After the financial crisis, the banking 

world changed radically and as a result 

the rest of the world changed with it. 

Governments demanded compensation 

for provided state guarantees, imposed 

BACK TO THE FUTURE (TOMORROW) 

The fear of the new, like the fear of 

death, is inherent in people. The great 

unknown is a constant challenge for us 

as humans and as humanity. But change 

and "progress" are also essential elements 

in our personal story and larger 

historiography. 

And the change is already permeating 

many sectors. In the medical sector, 

doctors are increasingly performing 

complex operations with robots More 

and more industries are proving that 

human-machine integration works, 

just think about Audi Brussels' stateof-the-art 

production lines. What is the 

difference between a human vein and a 

machine cable. 

AS ESSENTIAL AS THE INDUSTRY IS FOR 

ALL OUR LIVES, OUR MAINTENANCE 

SECTOR IS VITAL FOR THE INDUSTRY. 



stricter control rules and mitigated all 

risks, with implications for ordinary individuals 

and entrepreneurs. 

In any case, this crisis will have consequences 

and change our general behaviour 

and our specific functioning, be 

it social distancing or something else. We 

will most likely be subject to new, modified 

safety rules that will make the work 

for our and other industries much more 

difficult or at least a lot more complicated. 

But on the other hand, this crisis also 

offers opportunities to transcend such a 

challenge and ourselves as a sector. After 

all, technology can reduce or even completely 

solve many of the new corona related 

problems and challenges within asset 

management. It is better to embrace 

technology yourself than to be overrun 

by a foreign tech tsunami. So, we make 

sure that we as a progressive region can 

once again be participating in the start of 

a new industrial transition as earlier in 

the 19th and 20th centuries. 

Change is difficult, but inevitable. 

Of course, we can opt for security and 

“business as usual”, just as Kodak, Nokia 

or Bank of America did with all its consequences. 

The knowledge, data and 

technology to transform our traditional, 

reactive, preventive and predictive way 

of maintenance into a proactive and 

prescriptive way of maintenance are 

available today. 

If AI and AR are sufficiently accessible, 

intuitive and people oriented, we can 

thus predict, analyse and execute safety 

and maintenance problems better than 

ever before. Algorithms can constantly 

learn and, thanks to advancing insight, 

predict and prevent asset failures better 

than us humans, and this through 

a smarter mix of forecasting models 

based on richer historical, contextual 

and current data. AR can support technicians 

and operators in a consistent and 

standardized manner when performing 

tasks and thus reduce the risk of failure. 

Moreover, our efficiency could increase 

exponentially using new technology. 

Why let 10 engineers walk around when 

the F1 car can be perfectly monitored 

from a distance? 

For example, we will evolve from 

reactive (What do we see?), through 

diagnostic maintenance (Why did it happen?) 

to prescriptive, proactive maintenance 

(What could happen best?), which 

can make our industry grow and diversify 

exponentially. And if we choose to become 

the bravest among asset managers, 

we may be at the cradle of a new, thriving 

economy which has no equal worldwide 

with an exponential revival of industry 

in Europe, Belgium and Flanders. 

TIMES ARE CHANGING 

Every hour, every minute, every nanosecond 

changes the world, and asset 

management changes. We are evolving 

into a world where people become less of 

an executive centre, but rather a creative 

innovator. 

As mentioned, this will require adjustments 

from everyone within asset 

management. Our role in maintenance 

is changing drastically, so we will have 

to learn new skills. The classic maintenance 

profile will gradually evolve into 

an operator context, such as the F1 driver 

or the aircraft pilot who not only controls 

the aircraft, but also monitors and 

adjusts the operation. A maintenance 

manager with the right tools and support 

can become a change manager and game 

changer for the entire company. 

Because maintenance has a higher 

purpose than just running machines. We 

are vital in running our economy and life 

itself. From food supplies for our growing 

world population to new pandemic 

medicines, asset management plays a 

vital role for everyone. And we also need 

to fulfil that role in the future. 

If we want to offer ourselves and the 

future generations in Europe and Flanders 

a future, we will have to make our 

industry better, more efficient and more 

innovative. Not only out of pure cost 

efficiency but also to provide a powerful 

counterweight to the emerging markets. 

As a result of the corona crisis, we might 

eventually evolve towards a “new form 

of globalization”, one of institutional 

diversity and heterogeneity, or do we 

continue to “sub-optimize” in a globalization 

aimed at institutional harmonization 

and convergence? Or else: we opt 

for an over-globalized world, in which we 

depend mainly on imports from the Far 

East and other emerging markets. Or do 

we choose to invest with all our knowhow 

and resources in new high-tech 

industries which will conquer the world 

themselves? The choice is ours. 

Let us make an opportunistic use of 

this crisis and achieve something big. Let 

us have the courage to go further and to 

transcend ourselves like the Netherlands 

did after the disaster of 1953. It is time 

for asset management 4.0. 


NEWS 

Value Driven 

Maintenance is More 

Important than Ever 

NFV AND MAINNOVATION SHARE KNOWLEDGE WITH WEBINARS 

NORWEGIAN SOCIETY OF MAINTENANCE 

NFV and Mainnovation offer a special 

webinar series: the “VDM XL Deep Dive Sessions”. 

In these months, in which we are 

dealing with COVID measures, value driven 

maintenance/world class maintenance is 

more important than ever. Therefore, both 

organizations decided to share their knowledge 

to support and train maintenance 

professionals. 

Technical Services Departments are 

struggling. We are dealing with COVID measures 

and still we must make sure we can depend 

on our asset availability and reliability. 

Besides this, Western industry is aging, and 

installations need to be replaced. And we 

need to make sure we keep up with digitalization, 

future maintenance and automation. 

To stay competitive, constructive maintenance 

is essential. The good news is this does 

not need to be a cost aspect! With VDM XL , 

a proven methodology from Mainnovation, 

the Technical Services Department can 

make a difference and create value. 

Join forces 

The Norwegian Society of Maintenance 

(NFV) thinks it’s important to give maintenance 

professionals future knowledge 

about maintenance and asset management. 

Therefore, Per Schjølberg, deputy chairman 

at NFV and Mark Haarman, managing 

partner from Mainnovation, consultancy 

firm on Maintenance & Asset Management, 

decided to join forces. Value Driven 


JOINING THE WEBINARS 

THE VDM XL Deep Dive Sessions consists 

of 16 different webinars. The 

webinars can be joined individually 

or as a complete package. 

You can find a subscription and the 

dates of the complete webinar series 

on the website of NFV: www.nfv.no. 

Everyone who finds these webinars 

of interest, is invited to subscribe. The 

first webinar will take place August 

25 th 2020. 

Maintenance & Asset Management, or 

simply VDM XL , explains how to extract 

maximum economic value from an existing 

plant, fleet or infrastructure using a 

professional management approach. With 

this methodology capital-intensive companies 

can professionalise their Technical 

Services Department and transform it 

from a cost centre into a business function 

that continuously improves business performance. 

The work is based on a quantitative 

control model, a control panel with 

12 KPI’s, sector-specific benchmarks, and 

over 50 best practices. 

The webinar series is also in line with 

World Class Maintenance (WCM). The 

modules are going to be included in the 

World Class Maintenance – Maintenance 

Management course, that is arranged for 

Norwegian participant of the NFV with the 

start of October 2020. 

Content 

The webinar series cover the most relevant 

topics in future maintenance. World Class 

Maintenance and VDM XL , Value Driven 

Maintenance and Asset Management, are 

the foundation. The VDM XL Deep Dive 

Sessions covers themes and topics, a maintenance 

professional can instantly turn into 

practice. Subjects vary from a focus on cost 

control to creating an ideal staffing of your 

Technical Services Department and the status 

of Predictive Maintenance. Experts will 

answer questions like: How can you increase 

the competitive value of your installations? 

Which skills are important in the new era 

of digitalization and automation? What are 

the seven biggest pitfalls in maintenance 

change projects? What is good spare part 

management? All topics a maintenance professional 

would want to know more about. 

Earlier this year the webinar series was, 

in cooperation with the Dutch maintenance 

association NVDO and the Belgian maintenance 

association BEMAS, presented to 

maintenance professionals in the Netherlands, 

Belgium and France. The attendees 

were very enthusiastic about the content. 

They were impressed with the fact that 

within an hour very hands on information 

was given about maintenance.

PARTNER ARTICLE 

Asset and 

Maintenance 

Management: 

Combined Technologies to 

Uncover Untapped Business Value 

In the technology-pervasive times we live in; whether 

called the Information Age, the Digital Age, or Industry 4.0; 

new, easier ways to work have emerged. 

MELISSA TOPP, 

Senior Director of 

Global Marketing, 

ICONICS, 

melissa@iconics.com 

THERE’S NO DOUBT how fundamentally 

technology has affected both individuals 

and organizations. Maintenance technicians, 

in particular, have seen the nature 

of their jobs evolve, in step with the 

latest advances in IT and OT. Multiple 

combinations of software and hardware 

have helped move maintenance priorities 

from the legacy break-fix model to 

a more proactive, time-reducing, and 

cost-saving model. 

Some specific technologies have 

helped to guide this major change. These 

include asset-based monitoring and control, 

as well as predictive fault detection 

and diagnostics (FDD); concepts that 

have been developed and furthered by 

ICONICS, a global provider of automation 

software (https://iconics.com), into 

its AssetWorX and FDDWorX solutions, 

respectively. 


ASSET-BASED MONITORING AND 

CONTROL 

There are multiple benefits to being 

able to see an organization’s connected 

digital assets in an easy-to-understand, 

hierarchical format. It allows managers, 

operators, and maintenance personnel a 

shared overview as to the equipment involved 

in business operations. The asset 

“tree” provides a functional hierarchy 

for navigation and for data roll-ups. Lower-level 

equipment combines to form 

higher levels in the structure. Physical 

locations and areas of responsibility can 

be identified in the hierarchy. 

ICONICS AssetWorX helps to organize 

enterprise and equipment data into 

reusable asset equipment classes (templates), 

which allow for reuse and scalability 

while also improving ease of configuration. 

These configured assets can 

represent any equipment or area in an 

application (e.g. pumps, heat exchangers, 

well heads, gas fields, turbines, chillers, 

buildings, building zones, manufacturing 

cells, plants, etc.). In addition, the ability 

to auto-configure assets for use within a 

SCADA system (for monitoring, control, 

etc.) helps save on engineering time, increases 

ease of use, and ensures scalability 

for future application additions. 

AssetWorX can identify specific 

equipment and all of its associated 

properties and KPIs, including real-time 

MAINTENANCE TECHNICIANS, 

IN PARTICULAR, HAVE SEEN THE 

NATURE OF THEIR JOBS EVOLVE, 

IN STEP WITH THE LATEST 

ADVANCES IN IT AND OT. 

status, alarm data, historical data, 

runtime accumulation, or downtime 

accumulation by cause. In maintenance 

applications, configured asset properties 

can include maintenance work order 

information with data acquired from 

a network-connected enterprise asset 

management (EAM) system, fault detection 

rules, mechanical drawings accessed 

from a networked CAD system, or unit 

production data accessed from an enterprise 

resource planning (ERP) system. 

Assets configured through AssetWorX 

can then be monitored and controlled 

through runtime, using an Asset Navigator, 

where users can perform a variety 

of commands, such as accessing reports, 

displays, trends, alarms, and other information 

about the equipment from the 

asset tree by left- or right-clicking on any 

node in the tree. Right-clicking pops up 

a menu of options that have been previously 

defined for runtime users. Runtime 

menus can vary from node to node, 

and from platform to platform. For example, 

a user could create menu options 

that are available only from a desktop 

monitor or only from a phone app. The 

list of highly useful commands accessible 

through an asset node in ICONICS AssetWorX 

continues to grow.


For more information 

on any of ICONICS’ 

automation software solutions, 

visit https://iconics.com. 

PREDICTIVE FAULT DETECTION AND 

DIAGNOSTICS 

AssetWorX allows for embedding certain 

capabilities into individual connected 

assets, such as the ability to monitor 

energy use (by equipment, line, product, 

building, plant, etc.). For maintenance 

operations, it can be especially useful 

to set specific assets for predictive 

maintenance purposes using artificial 

intelligence (AI) and ICONICS FDD 

technology. 

ICONICS FDDWorX helps users to 

analyze all available information to detect 

and predict faults in equipment. It 

incorporates algorithms that weigh the 

probability of faults and advises maintenance 

personnel, operators, and managers 

of actions to prevent equipment 

failures or excessive use of energy. When 

equipment failures occur, the connected 

assets’ current and historical information 

is analyzed along with symptom/ 

cause relationships that the system has 

been taught. The software executes AI 

algorithms and provides users guidance 

with a list of probable causes sorted by 

probability. This immediate guidance reduces 

mean time to diagnose and repair, 

equipment downtime, and overall maintenance 

costs. 

Detection is based on definable logic 

that aggregates all available past and 

present data to detect current or future 

faults. Faults can be defined in many 

different ways, but are far more specific 

than alarm conditions, allowing users to 

specify enabling conditions that must 

be met and parameters that can help 

determine if a fault has occurred, or is 

about to occur. Diagnostics is about capturing 

knowledge from existing workers 

(the experts), work order history, alarm 

history, manuals, and device symptoms 

into a single place. It allows for the type 

of “institutional knowledge” that may 

have previously only existed in the heads 

of senior technicians to be recorded and 

kept digitally and used for analysis. By 

aligning conditions with symptoms and 

probability-ranked causes, fault diagnostics 

can be used to suggest the most likely 

cause of a fault as soon as one occurs. 

A COST-SAVING, TIME-REDUCING 

COMBINATION 

ICONICS provides a combination of 

an ISA-95 compliant hierarchical tree 

structure that mimics the layout of an 

organization’s plant, building, campus, 

or enterprise with advanced predictive 

maintenance technology. The software 

solution is easy to set up and deploy and 

integrates with the most popular BAS, 

SCADA, and business systems. An extensive 

library of standard equipment 

diagnostic models is also included to 

speed setup and deployment time, while 

a rules-based editor helps users easily 

customize and add new equipment diagnostic 

models. 

FDDWorX integrates with AssetWorX 

for defining assets, faults, diagnostic 

models, relationships between those 

assets, security on those assets, and a 

powerful commanding infrastructure for 

rich visualization in the runtime environment. 

ICONICS aims to help organizations’ 

maintenance operations with logical 

asset-based control used in tandem with 

state-of-the-art fault analytics. Not only 

do these methods help to keep better 

track of all connected assets and data, 

but also to analyze them to uncover previously 

hidden additional value, such as 

savings from energy management, proactive 

maintenance, and much more. 



Consolidating Data Silos 

for Track Maintenance 

Learn how you can maximize your existing 

investments in track maintenance by consolidating data 

silos and see how Bentley's AssetWise solutions help 

advance transportation organizations by Going Digital. 

ROBERT HENDERSON 

Rail and Transit 

Consultant at 

Bentley Systems 

WHILE RAIL AND TRANSIT organizations 

are great at collecting various forms of 

data, they typically struggle to effectively 

analyze it in order to inform decision 

making. With the ongoing digital transformation 

of the rail industry, the increasing 

volume and speed at which data 

can be collected, and therefore needs to 

be consumed, is becoming a significant 

problem for track maintenance teams. 

Compounding this is the likelihood that 

data is coming from multiple hardware 

suppliers, each providing their own independent 

software solution for its analysis, 

resulting in the creation of data silos 

across the organization. What is needed 

is a solution that is hardware neutral. 

A system that provides the ability to 

consolidate and manage all third-party 

data, thereby providing easy access to 

data it can trust as the basis of all types 

of analysis, including for example linear 

analytics related to track maintenance. 

The Data Silo Obstacles for 

Rail and Transit 

With data coming from multiple sources 

and in many formats, the variety of this 

information often exceeds the understanding 

of a single person. Different 

teams will likely use a range of isolated 

datasets to perform specific activities 

across a network, and different team 

members will typically use and understand 

the different types of data in a 

number of ways, so the system should allow 

for the seamless sharing of datasets 

between the business units involved. In 

a world where so-called ‘Big Data’ is increasingly 

the basis for critical decisions 

within an organization, any solution they 

deploy needs to address four substantial 

obstacles of these ‘Linear Data’ silos. 

1. Datasets from Different Sources: 

The track maintenance reliability 

team will receive data from track 

recording cars, either autonomous 

or human-operated vehicles. 

Data can also come from walking 

inspectors, identifying defects. 

Datasets could also be images 

from ground-penetrating radar 

(GPR) scans, or video and Point 

Cloud surveys, or work records. 

2. Storing Datasets: Isolated systems 

could be the most significant 

obstacle for a rail and transit organization. 

Typically, the industry 

works in a siloed environment, 

and a change in methodology and 

culture is often required. Often 

datasets are segregated by product, 

or region, or business unit, or 

another grouping an organization 

considers valuable. 

3. No Accessibility: Beyond datasets 

being isolated from each other, in 

many cases, rail and transit organizations 

have no unified visibility 

across the isolated systems. Maintenance 

decisions are made based 

on several data streams from a 

number of silos, and in most cases, 

decisions are made without realiz- 



ing data that could provide insight 

is available. 

4. Data is an Asset: Data must be 

treated as an asset itself and maintenance 

across several systems 

brings additional obstacles. It may 

not be understandable across data 

silos, or the information may be 

duplicated and/or inconsistent. 

Consolidate from 

Multiple Sources 

The best decisions can only be made by 

generating a complete view of the situation. 

For example, a rail maintenance 

engineer analyzing an asset must see 

the current performance, as well as the 

historical and future trends, while at the 

same time understanding nearby and 

related assets, plus the maintenance activities 

applied to the entire surrounding 

area. Additionally, the data must be represented 

in a form that allows complex 

conditions to be easily understood. Data 

visualization is critical in transforming 

vast quantities of complex-linear data into 

actionable information that users can 

readily access, understand, and utilize. 

Consolidation of datasets is the core 

concept of AssetWise Digital Twin Services; 

the solution doesn’t care who supplied 

the hardware, nor does it care what 

the data represents. The solution allows 

an organization to not only visualize all 

the data about the linear assets regardless 

of source, and at the same time; the 

system can also configure the way it 

is visualized, enabling the targeting of 

tasks against roles in an organization. 

This visualization configuration ensures 

that the right team members are able to 

see any and all information relating to 

their decision-making process. 

The Approach for 

Consolidating the Data 

The concept of consolidating the data 

into a single source may seem simple 

at a high level. However, one reality is, 

there is no international standard for the 

THE BEST DECISIONS 

CAN ONLY BE MADE BY 

GENERATING A COMPLETE 

VIEW OF THE SITUATION. 

format of track related linear data. Each 

source and each vendor of hardware 

used to generate the data has its independent 

standard form. The data, therefore, 

needs to be aggregated, cleansed, 

and normalized, to provide a coherent, 

current, and comprehensive representation 

of it. Once imported, this cleansed 

and trusted data can be augmented with 

management intelligence and then analyzed 

allowing this additional insight to 

aid more informed decision making. The 

methodology of consolidating data silos 

for track maintenance to achieve this has 

four steps: 

1. Collection: This is done through 

inspections, by track recording 

surveys, maintenance records, 

manual walking inspections, 

Geographical Information Systems 

(GIS), GPR, and ultrasonic 

imagery. Various business units 

or teams within a rail and transit 

organization will typically collect 

datasets that are of value to their 

business objectives. 

2. Dataset Creation: Previously 

these datasets were siloed due 

to the various business units or 

teams collecting and managing 

the information in isolation of 

others. These datasets need to be 

collected in their original format 

and the records must never be 

modified for auditing purposes. 

3. Aggregate: This step requires 

cleansing and normalizing the 

data into a single system. All 

modifications from the original 

data are made in isolation, and it is 

this cleansed data that is used for 

further analysis. 

4. Visualize and Analyze: The configuration 

of views to suit any preferences 

required for individual business 

units within an organization. 

This ensures that individuals do 

not receive information overload 



when analyzing data that has an 

impact on their decision-making 

process. Advanced statistical 

analysis will help determine the 

history, the present, and the future 

condition of the assets on the 

linear network. Trending the data 

to predict a functional failure to 

ensure an organization can schedule 

maintenance before needing 

to enforce speed restrictions or 

shutting down of the line. 

Empowering track 

maintenance 

THE BENEFITS WITH THE RIGHT SOLUTION 

The need for rail and transit organizations 

to do more with fewer resources is 

an everyday reality. Solutions that consolidate 

data will be essential for moving 

Empowering track maintenance 

Intelligent linear analytics 

forward. If an organization doesn’t currently 

have a culture of continuous improvement, 

there will be a culture shock 

and this needs to be addressed at the 

start of implementation. There will be 

bumps and roadblocks moving forward 

but working together and having a clear 

vision will ensure success in the future. 

This consolidation will empower track 

maintenance teams to perform analysis 

and forecast trends; make betterinformed 

decisions about maintenance 

and renewals; and improve safety, security, 

and reliability of the linear network. 

Going Digital with Bentley 

Going digital with Bentley ensures digital 

context, components, and workflows 

become part of your network’s digital 

DNA. OpenRail builds on your existing 

investments in BIM and enables your organization 

to take its next step in advancing 

the railways of tomorrow. 

• Comprehensive - The depth and 

breadth of Bentley’s OpenRail is 

unrivalled in the industry. It is 

trusted and proven on thousands 

of projects around the world over 

the past 30 years. 

• Open and Flexible - Bentley’s 

OpenRail leverages data in the 

common data environment to 

provide immersive and interactive 

modeling of rail and transit corridors 

plus related infrastructure 

assets. 

• Scalable - Bentley’s OpenRail is 

scalable and modular, enabling 

your solution to grow as your 

organization’s digital strategy 

evolves. 

• Timely - Bentley’s open, connected 

data environment enables teams to 

access trusted information wherever 

and whenever it is needed. 

Start Going Digital 

Digital technologies are changing the rail industry, 

and your organization might already 

be going digital. But if you are struggling to 

embrace change, or realize the benefits of 

digital technologies, Bentley can help. 

To assess what stage your organization 

has reached we have developed two digital 

assessments (advancement frameworks) 

– one for owner-operators focused on asset 

performance and another targeting 

supply chain members working on the delivery 

of capital projects. Both cover your 

current business practices and use of digital 

context, components, and workflows 

to help benchmark your organization’s 

existing digital practices, identify areas 

of opportunity, and highlight where the 

greatest value might be gained. 

The advancement framework covers 

five levels of advancement – aware, engaging, 

connecting, automating, and optimizing. 

It is often the case that organizations 

find variation within the different disciplines, 

teams, or phases of the lifecycle in 

which they work. Where an organization 

might be ‘automating’ in some areas of 

the business, it might only be engaging in 

others, so Bentley encourages you to use 

the assessment across key areas of your 

business and in collaboration with different 

team members. 

To take your digital assessment, visit 

https://www.bentley.com/en/goingdigital/ 

rail/asset-and-network-performance-rail 



Text and photos: DISTENCE OY 

Revolutionary 

Profitability with 

Intelligent Condition 

Monitoring and 

Remote Services 

There is a revolution in smart solutions in industrial condition monitoring and remote 

services. Technology is cheaper than ever before, and this is improving rates of return 

on investment, especially in heavy industry. For more than a decade, Distence in Finland 

has been providing cloud and edge computing solutions for large OEM companies. 

OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS many cheap 

condition monitoring sensors, often 

wireless and based on MEMS technology, 

have come to market to combat the cost 

of engineering heavy high-end online 

condition monitoring systems. The needs 

that lie in between these extremes have 

been met only with portable measurements 

performed periodically. That is 

changing, and now it is possible to introduce 

high accuracy online condition 

monitoring to smaller, tier 2 equipment. 

Panu Kinnari, COO of Distence Oy, 

says that the more cost-effective technology 

is made visible in the way companies 

can provide remote services to their 

customers. Instead of just sensors and 

threshold alarms, they can provide analytics 

and guidance to maximise the asset 

lifetime value. 

– The number of devices that are not 

measured at all or only rarely monitored 

is reduced. In heavy industry, it has 

been found that remote monitoring and 

the regular measurement of machines 


and equipment is a smarter and more 

cost-effective way of operating, Kinnari 

describes the direction of the changes 

brought about by the Internet. 

According to him, behind this trend 

are more intelligent control technologies, 

such as web-based methods for cloud and 

edge computing. Distence's answer to this 

challenge is the Condence platform, which 

utilises cloud and edge computing and is 

manufactured and developed in Finland. 

Condence development is based on 

experience accumulated over 15 years. 

The terminal collects measurements using 

commercial off the shelf sensors and 

converts the raw data into an understandable 

form using analytics algorithms at the 

edge. Significant data is sent to the cloud 

where the information is visualised into 

metrics describing the condition of the 

asset. 

– Condence is built from the ground 

up for remote management, so it is well 

suited for geographically dispersed 

monitoring of assets. Wind turbines are 

a perfect example. Many wind turbines 

are located either in the fells, offshore 

or in otherwise hard to reach locations, 

which can for example only be reached 

during a particular season. Mining, as 

well as equipment in the pulp and paper 

industry, are additional good use cases 

for Condence, Kinnari says. 

As said, the Condence system consists 

of standard modules, so its deliveries 

are swift. Thanks to remote management 

functions and complete control 

of the software stack, the mechanical 

installation can be separated from the 

configuration of the system. Separating 

mechanical installation from the configuration 

allows for optimal allocation 

of resources used in the implementation. 

Smart measuring devices 

have lots of significant users. 

Distence specialises in rotating machinery 

and equipment by combining 

vibration analysis and other methods


CONDENCE DEVELOPMENT 

IS BASED ON EXPERIENCE 

ACCUMULATED OVER 

15 YEARS. 

of continuous condition monitoring. 

The company's objective is to produce 

complete solutions that enable suppliers 

and service providers of industrial 

machinery and equipment to agilely and 

cost-effectively digitise their product 

portfolio to suit their customers. 

Typical end-users of Distence's products 

are industrial companies with a 

large number of medium to large rotating 

assets. Vibration analysis, with acceleration 

data from IEPE sensors, utilised 

by Distence due to its suitability to a 

large variety of situations can deduce the 

source and severity of the failure from 

the collected vibration sample, allowing 

for accurate allocation of maintenance 

resources. 

The Distence customer list is undeniably 

an exciting read. There you will find 

great partners from Algol Technics, Danfoss, 

DavidBrown Santasalo to Moventas 

Gears. Not all of the customers can be 

named though. 

– The large end-users are the customers 

of our partners, i.e. condition monitoring 

service providers. So our relationship 

with reputable companies is a bit 

like a doctor's relationship with patients, 

he explains. 

Kinnari mentions one industry that 

has so far excelled in its absence from 

Distence's partnership lists. The forest 

industry, and paper companies in particular, 

apparently want to keep condition 

monitoring under their control; 

expensive paper machines are not often 

given to outsiders to monitor. 

Change takes time 

According to Panu Kinnari, there is still a 

misconception among the industry that 

the continuous measurements of condition 

monitoring are just simple analytics 

and more sophisticated analytics is not 

possible with continuous monitoring. 

– This perception is most likely due 

to the way condition monitoring has 

evolved from machine protection systems. 

Protection systems are developed 

for the rapid shutdown of machines and 

equipment in the event of sudden problems. 

Such a system needs to respond 

quickly to changes, so analyses must be 

able to be rapidly generated. Condition 

monitoring monitors more slowly developing 

phenomena, which means that 

analyses can be more complex and that 

there is more time to analyse changes, 

Kinnari explains. 

One reason for lack of measurements 

is the business-as-usual approach – if 

one can live with the status quo, why try 

to change things? 

– In a way, people tend to protect 

themselves as well. In many cases, the introduction 

of measurements also reveals 

past omissions. No one wants to be the 

scapegoat for poor system performance, 

Kinnari ponders. 

Manual measurements and the analyses 

based on them still have such a legacy 

that the right interpretations always require 

human experience. Panu Kinnari 

believes that machine learning will become 

more common in the field of measurement 

as well, but there is still also a 

lot to achieve with rule-based systems. 

– Even in the field of condition monitoring, 

expert people retire every year 

and not enough new young experts 

replace them. In Finland, for example, 

it is no longer possible to specialise in 

the field of condition monitoring, as was 

possible before. So education should be 

changed in a more attractive direction 

for young people, he contemplates. 

Condence can produce measurement 

accuracy rivalling the most expensive 

systems in the market while still maintaining 

the measurement point cost in 

line with low-cost wireless alternatives. 

Broad adoption of continuous monitoring 

allows companies more flexibility in 

resource allocation and better accuracy 

in maintenance planning. 



ADAPTIVE ALIGNMENT 

Next-Generation Technology 

for Solving every 

Shaft Alignment Challenge 

STEPHEN GERRARD 

Senior Director Marketing, 

FLUKE RELIABILITY 

The invention of laser shaft alignment revolutionized the industry by delivering 

measurements more precise by orders of magnitude than traditional methods. 

Because laser systems have moved from being “state-of-the-art” years ago 

to “state-of-the-business” today, one might be tempted to think that all laser 

measurement systems are the same, and that there is nothing left to innovate in 

this important technology. But that view is mistaken. It is true that some systems 

have remained the same, but others have continued to evolve. 

THIS ARTICLE introduces the latest 

advance: adaptive alignment. It is a combination 

of software and hardware innovations, 

enabling maintenance teams 

to address any type of shaft alignment 

task, from the standard, daily and simple 

alignment jobs through to the more 

complex and challenging tasks such as 

the alignment of cardan shafts, vertical 

flanged machines with right-angle gearboxes, 

or extensive machine trains with 

gearboxes. 

Adaptive alignment eliminates human 

error while delivering new levels of 

accuracy and speed. This next generation 

in laser shaft alignment is made possible 

by two must-have underlying innovations: 

Single-Laser Technology and 

Active Situational Intelligence. 

Systems outfitted with these technologies 

deliver new levels of flexibility 

in three key areas: 

• Adapting to the Asset 

• Adapting to the Situation 

• Adapting to the Maintenance 

Team 

In this article we will introduce the 

first two key areas. Part 2 of the article 

will be published in Maintworld 

3/2020. 

Single-Laser Technology 

With a single-laser system, users have 

just one sensor and one laser to set up. 

Not only is this faster, it eliminates the 

many frustrations and risk of inaccuracies 

that happen when working with two 

lasers firing in opposite directions. 

Dual laser systems are challenging to 

coordinate through the entire measurement 

process. In particular, they suffer 

from a “divergence” phenomenon that 

happens when line-over-length between 

the laser and sensor is out of range … 

and contact between the laser and detectors 

is lost. 


Figure 1: Dual 

laser technology 

over long distance: 

line-overlength 

divergence 

Figure 2: Singlelaser 

dual detector 

technology solves 

the line-overlength 

divergence 

problem 

Dual laser systems struggle with angular 

alignment in particular. Technicians cannot 

easily maintain the line to the detector 

– a fundamental problem that is magnified 

as the measurement distance increases, 

such as measuring across a spacer shaft. 

Technicians have to restart measurements, 

which means stopping, loosening 

the feet, moving the machine, retightening 

the feet, and then hoping the detectors are 

now within range. This process may need 

to be repeated multiple times. Every one 

of these episodes adds significant time to 

the process and increases the potential for 

errors. 

Basic laser alignment systems 

can’t adapt. They recommend doing a 

“pre-alignment” before taking the first 

measurement. But this involves moving 

the machine from its as-found state – thus 

being unable to document it – and is really 

nothing more than a visual educated 

guess. In addition, only horizontal parallel 

movement is practically performed, overlooking 

the very real possibility of angular 

misalignment. 

For critical assets 

that have rollers, 

In-Situ Cardan Shaft 

Alignment is an 

innovation that saves 

tremendous amounts 

of time and money – 

while delivering a highprecision 

result. 

Single-Laser alignment systems eliminate 

all of these problems. Leveraging 

two optical detector planes in a single 

sensor, technicians never need to stop, 

loosen and retighten feet, or take multiple 

sets of measurements. Used in conjunction 

with Freeze Frame Measurement 

(explained below), long distances 

can be measured without any chance of 

the laser losing the target sensor. 

Single-Laser Technology delivers rapid 

completion of alignment tasks while 

improving precision at the same time. 

Systems outfitted with this technology 

include a “Live Move” capability that 

enables technicians to literally see corrections 

in real time. They see updated 

results in vertical and horizontal planes 

simultaneously across the full range 

of the sensor detection surfaces. This 

overcomes the limitations inherent to 

non-adaptive, dual-laser systems that 

have the line-over-length divergence 

problem. 

Active Situational Intelligence 

Active Situational Intelligence (ASI) 

is software that provides real time, “in 

the moment” feedback and guidance. 

For instance, quality of measurement is 

tracked and displayed to the technician 

during a continuous sweep. Certain factors 

that can compromise measurement 

quality in non-adaptive systems, such as 

errors induced by coupling backlash or 

environmental vibration, are automatically 

detected and filtered out on the fly, 

enabling highly precise measurements 

even in challenging circumstances. 

ASI is real time, actionable intelligence. 

It is situationally aware and delivered 

as work is being done. It dynami- 



cally reacts to everything involved in the 

alignment process. ASI also has predictive 

intelligence, enabling technicians to 

evaluate different possible courses of action 

before embarking on the time-consuming 

task of moving a machine. 

With these two breakthroughs, advanced 

systems can deliver on the promise 

of adaptive alignment in all three critical 

areas common to every alignment 

task – the asset, the situation, and the 

maintenance team. 

Adapting to the Asset 

Basic laser alignment systems are not 

engineered to support a broad range of 

critical rotating asset types. They are 

very difficult to use with certain asset 

types. This becomes a costly and timeconsuming 

problem for plants 

that rely on those assets or on certain 

specialized but common asset configurations. 

Capabilities for adapting to the 

asset include: 

Figure 5: Automatic 

Multi-Factor Quality 

Enhancement Provides 

Immediate Feedback 

Figure 6: PRUFTECHNIK’s 

Alignment Reliability 

Center® 4.0 is an example 

of collaborative 

communication 

SIMULTANEOUS MACHINE 

TRAIN ALIGNMENT 

Adaptive alignment quickly and easily 

handles machine trains, measuring 

multiple machine couplings simultaneouslyvia 

a unique multi-coupling measurement 

capability. Machine trains are 

common with gearboxes, and are among 

the most challenging of all alignment 

scenarios. As soon as you get to 3 machines 

the combinations of angles and 

offsets become almost exponential, and 

far beyond the capabilities of dual laser 

systems without ASI. 

With basic systems, a lot of trial-and-error 

happens with machine 

trains, and they often resort to mathematical 

projections in place of actual 

measurements. Because they use only 

one set of heads in this scenario, they 

only physically measure and monitor the 

live adjustment of one coupling at a time. 

But the movement of the gearbox affects 

simultaneously both couplings and all 

shaft positions. Only if both couplings 

are monitored in real-time can actual, 

not theoretical, changes be tracked. 

As work progresses sequentially on 

the train using a basic system, wrong 

moves can easily be made early in the 

process but not discovered until later. 

Assets can become bolt-bound or 

base-bound, and technicians cannot 

move them any further in the desired 

direction. When this happens, they must 

change the fixing point and start over. 

WITH ADAPTIVE ALIGNMENT, UNCOUPLED SHAFTS CAN BE IN 

ANY POSITION; THE LASER JUST NEEDS TO HIT THE DETECTOR. 

With no situational intelligence, 

rework becomes the order of the 

day. Adaptive alignment systems 

can measure a machine train in one 

go. Unique ‘under-constrained’ and 

‘over-constrained’ asset support enables 

the system to operate accurately 

with no fixed feet, one fixed foot, or 

two or more fixed feet – so technicians 

can get the optimum alignment 

incorporating real-world machine 

constraints. 

Used in conjunction with the 

Virtual Move Simulator (described 

below), Simultaneous Machine Train 

Alignment enables technicians to test 

a range of tolerances and proposed 

movements on the complete machine 

train, eliminating the trial-and-error 

and consequent rework common to basic 

laser alignment systems. 

TOTAL THERMAL COVERAGE 

In operating condition, most assets 

change their relative position due to increased 

temperatures and therefore need 

special presets during alignment. Since 

alignment can only be done when the 

machine is stopped, it’s essential to fully 

anticipate and account for real operating 

temperatures. 

Basic systems only measure the coupling 

changes. Unfortunately, this is 

only half of the thermal picture, ignoring 


machine feet measurement changes. By 

not calculating and displaying the feet, 

maintenance technicians using these systems 

do not have complete information, 

and thermal impact becomes a matter of 

guesswork. 

Some systems attempt to compensate 

by enabling entry of one set of presets 

and attempt to derive the others. But this 

does not give technicians the full range of 

adaptability and control they want. 

Adaptive alignment systems deliver 

total thermal coverage that includes dynamic 

changes at both the coupling and 

the feet. This enables the maintenance 

team to enter thermal presets at both the 

coupling and/or machine feet. 

IN-SITU CARDAN SHAFT ALIGNMENT 

Not every industry has cardan shafts, but 

those that do face extreme alignment 

challenges. Standard practice for these assets 

is to take the cardan shaft out in order 

to accomplish alignment. This means dismantling 

and removing the cardan shaft, 

which may require a hoist or crane just 

to undertake an alignment measurement 

check. 

Adaptive alignment includes breakthrough 

technology that enables measurement 

with the cardan shaft in place – so no 

removal is needed. For critical assets that 

have rollers, In-Situ Cardan Shaft Alignment 

is an innovation that saves tremendous 

amounts of time and money – while 

delivering a high-precision result. 

When laser alignment supports the 

widest range of assets and configurations, 

it is a more complete solution that 

eliminates the manual workarounds and 

accuracy problems common to basic laser 

alignment systems. 

Situational Adaptability 

Although alignment seems to be a simple 

process – measure ? move ? remeasure, 

maintenance technicians know it is deceptively 

simple. They have to deal with 

many variables that come into play: asset 

type, asset location, installation or maintenance 

project, measurement setup, 

movement options, etc. 

Perhaps the strongest attribute of 

adaptive alignment is Active Situational 

Intelligence – its ability to adjust to these 

many different variables while delivering 

a smooth, rapid, and accurate alignment 

experience. The concept of adaptive 

alignment applies throughout the process 

and is driven by ASI. Here are a few 

of the innovations that come into play: 

UNCOUPLED SHAFT AWARENESS 

When installing machines, the alignment 

should commence with uncoupled 

shafts, to remove any residual forces in 

the machine train. But basic systems 

don’t have optimized measurement 

procedures for uncoupled shafts. Technicians 

have to manually hold shafts to 

make sure both are at the same relative 

angle, then manually take the point, then 

manually move them. This greatly increases 

the risk of errors. 

With adaptive alignment, uncoupled 

shafts can be in any position; the laser 

just needs to hit the detector. During the 

measurement, shafts can be freely moving 

while the adaptive system works out 

the angles and obtains the measurement. 

This capability delivers high ROI 

when teams are installing an asset, 

because accurate results and required 

machine movements are obtained in the 

fastest possible time. 

FREEZE-FRAME MEASUREMENT 

Laser alignment systems, when confronted 

with a big initial misalignment, 

will come to the end of the detector 

range before completing the shaft rotation. 

The alignment cone is so big that 

the laser exceeds the measurement 

range, and a complete measurement is 

not possible. 

In cases like this, and because they 

lack adaptability, the standard advice for 

basic systems is to do a “pre-alignment” 

or “rough align” so that subsequently 

the laser and detector can operate 

within their limited range. Of course, 

this pre-alignment is done without any 

measurement help – technicians don’t 

know how much shimming or horizontal 

movement to do. They are estimating 

without knowing what the underlying 

problem is. Plus, in a practical sense 

these systems only show visual indications 

of horizontal position. Although 

some acknowledgement of the need for 

vertical positioning is made, no practical 

process for obtaining vertical position, 

such as shim correction amounts, are 

given – so technicians operate in the 

dark. 

Adaptive alignment solves the problem 

with Freeze-Frame Measurement. 

It handles any misalignment, no matter 

how big, over any practical distance. 

Technicians are automatically alerted 

when getting towards the detector edge 

during a continuous sweep measurement, 

and can freeze the measurement, 

reposition the laser, and continue with 

the continuous sweep. Built-in algorithms 

connect the sectors when the 

measurement is 

finished, “stitching” them together. 

The result is complete knowledge and 

documentation of the misalignment: 

where the problem actually is, and therefore 

what to do about it, without resorting 

to guesswork. 

AUTOMATIC MULTI-FACTORED QUALITY 

ENHANCEMENT 

An advanced innovation built into Active 

Situational Intelligence is the ability to 

detect and compensate for many factors 

that might negatively influence a 

measurement. ASI applies these quality 

enhancement factors in real time, during 

the continuous sweep. Technicians get 

immediate feedback, and in cases where 

automated corrections are not enough to 

produce a highly precise result, the technician 

is told exactly what to pay attention 

to when doing a new continuous sweep. 

This means that even less experienced 

technicians can take high-quality 

measurements by just following the 

steps and tips displayed on the screen. 

ASI evaluates many quality factors 

simultaneously in real time, such as 

rotation angle, speed, and evenness, providing 

instantaneous feedback. Included 

among those factors are these common 

issues: 

• Instant Coupling Backlash Filtering 

Basic laser alignment systems advise 

and/or warn users to “eliminate coupling 

backlash to obtain accurate measurement.” 

That’s easy for the vendor to say 

but not so easy for the technician to do. 

In contrast, ASI assumes that coupling 

backlash is going to happen. Builtin 

intelligence automatically detects 

backlash during the continuous sweep 

and filters it out. By recognizing coupling 

backlash and eliminating the appropriate 

measurement data, ASI delivers a 

clean measurement even when coupling 

backlash is present. 

• Environmental vibration 

Another automatic adjustment happening 

in the background during the 

measurement is the filtering out of 

the low-quality measurement points 

induced by environmental vibration – 

which commonly happens when a nearby 

machine is operating and producing 

such vibrations. 



Ultrasound and the IIoT: 

The Future of 

Condition Monitoring 

When a powerful and versatile technology such as 

Ultrasound meets the Internet of Things, new solutions 

arise that will take condition monitoring of assets to a 

whole new level. The development of ultrasonic sensors 

and their integration with data collection points promise 

to be a game changer when it comes to continuous and 

remote monitoring of industrial assets. 

BLAIR FRASER 

UE SYSTEMS 

AIRBORNE & STRUCTURE-BORNE ULTRA- 

SOUND has certainly become a major 

player in condition monitoring. Once 

considered just a leak detector, more 

maintenance & reliability professionals 

are beginning to realize all of the benefits 

associated with using ultrasound for 

condition monitoring applications. 

The P-F Curve with which we have all 

become familiar with reflects that trend: 

ultrasound is considered one of the 

first lines of defence against unplanned 

downtime, being able to spot bearing 

failures at a very early stage. 

Besides, ultrasound is well known for 

its versatility: the technology can be applied 

to different domains such as leak 

detection, bearings condition monitoring 

& lubrication, steam traps & valves 

inspections and electrical inspections. 

Traditionally, and still nowadays 

more commonly, ultrasound technology 

is used in maintenance and condition 

monitoring practices via handheld 

devices. These have been going through 

their own enhancements and many 

of them are sophisticated inspection 

devices and data collectors which can 

greatly improve any reliability program. 


YOUR PARTNER IN 

ULTRASOUND 

INSTRUMENTS 

Leak Detection 

Bearing Condition Monitoring 

Bearing Lubrication 

Steam Traps & Valves 

Electrical Inspection 

TRAINING 

CAT & CAT II Ultrasound Training 

Onsite Implementation Training 

Application Specific Training 

CONTINUOUS SUPPORT 

Free support & license-free software 

Online Courses 

Free access to our Learning Center 

(webinars, articles, tutorials) 

UE SYSTEMS 

www.uesystems.com 

info@uesystems.com 

CONTACT US FOR AN 

ONSITE DEMONSTRATION


The Surge of Ultrasonic 

Sensors 

The ultrasonic handheld devices certainly 

still play an important role, but 

when we couple the technology with 

the capabilities that the internet brings 

us, we can create powerful monitoring 

solutions by using ultrasonic sensors 

connected to network-enabled devices. 

The sensors are always listening, as if 

an inspector was always there inspecting 

the asset, continuously, 24/7. They 

collect data from assets in the form of 

dB readings and send them to central 

devices who will process the data. This 

brings, of course, a huge potential for improvements 

on maintenance & reliability 

programs. We can now setup alarms, 

notifications, trend the condition of assets… 

all automatic, seamless and taking 

advantage of the well-known benefits of 

ultrasound technology. 

Sensors for mechanical assets 

Imagine you have an asset at your facility, 

let’s say a bearing. This is a critical asset 

that simply can’t fail. An ultrasound 

sensor can be permanently mounted 

on the bearing, continuously collecting 

dB readings and sending them to a 

data processing box. Is the dB reading 

abnormal? You get notified by email 

or SMS. You are always on top of your 

assets condition. Alarms can be setup 

according to your needs: want to know 

when a bearing needs lubrication? When 

there’s a damage on it? Want to have a 

sound recording of the bearing when an 

alarm is reached? Everything is possible 

since maintenance managers will be 

able to setup their own alarm thresholds 

and notifications. And make unplanned 

downtime a thing of the past. 

Sensors for electrical assets 

The same applies to ultrasound applications 

requiring airborne sensors, such as 

electrical inspections. Place the airborne 

sensors next to your critical equipment, 

and they will be constantly listening to 

these assets. As soon as something abnormal 

is picked up by the sensors, data 

in the form of dB readings & sound recordings 

will be sent to a central processing 

box, which will again trigger the setup 

alarms and notifications. Ultrasound 

has proven to be an excellent technology 

when it comes to finding electrical faults 

such as corona, tracking, arcing or mechanical 

looseness. Coupled with online 

sensors, improvements in safety and inspection 

methods could be huge. 

New Ultrasound based 

IIoT Solutions 

There are already easy to implement 

solutions on the market that couple ultrasound 

technology with sensors and 

network-connected devices, allowing 

for truly continuous and remote monitoring. 

For bearings and other mechanical 

assets, there is for example the On- 

Trak, a remote IIoT bearing monitoring 

system using UE Systems’ Ultra-Trak 

750 sensors. The system is composed of 

16 sensors and a central processing box 

that can be connected to the network 

via wifi, ethernet or cellular data. Data 

from the sensors can be easily viewed 

on any laptop, tablet or phone. Real time 

insights and notifications can be used to 

constantly monitor lubrication & condition 

insights. Additionally, data can 

be integrated to cloud platforms such as 

Azure, AWS, Google, IBM Watson, PTC, 

Thingworkx, etc. 

Another solution for bearing monitoring 

is the 4Cast, working with the 

RAS (Remote Access Sensors) from UE 

Systems. Up to 4 sensors can be connected 

to a 4Cast box, which then connects 

to the network via Ethernet to provide 

data insights from the bearings. Data is 

then sent to UE Systems DMS 6 software 

for trending an analysis. The great advantage 

of the 4Cast is its ability to also 

record and store sound samples from 

the monitored bearings – this feature, 

together with the ability to create instant 

alarms, makes the 4Cast a great solution 

for critical and slow speed bearings. 

For electrical safety there is a solution 

such as the 4Site available. Similar to the 

4Cast, it can record & store dB readings 

and sound samples from up to 4 sensors. 

In this case, and since we are talking 

about electrical inspections, these sensors 

are airborne. Online continuous ultrasound 

inspection can be performed at 

all voltage levels (low, medium and high) 

and is used to detect corona, partial discharge 

or tracking, arcing and mechanical 

vibrations (transformers). 

ULTRASOUND IS WELL KNOWN FOR ITS VERSATILITY: 

THE TECHNOLOGY CAN BE APPLIED TO DIFFERENT 

DOMAINS SUCH AS LEAK DETECTION, BEARINGS CONDITION 

MONITORING & LUBRICATION AND ELECTRICAL INSPECTIONS. 



CONCLUSION 

FROM HANDHELD DEVICES to connected 

sensors – this is the natural 

progression of ultrasound technology 

when used in industrial environments 

for maintenance, condition monitoring 

and reliability. Such as other technologies, 

integration in the IoT world 

will become a fact, and though the 

current solutions are already bringing 

exciting advancements, there is still 

much to discover and explore. What 

we know for sure, is that with the 

currently available solutions, maintenance 

departments have very effective 

weapons to fight against issues 

such as unplanned downtime and 

electrical equipment failures. 



In this article I will talk 

about the frequency range 

of accelerometers and 

about common mistakes 

in understanding them. 

RADOMIR SGLUNDA 

Managing Director, 

ADASH LTD. 

Most Common Myths 

about Accelerometers 

and Frequency Range 

The most common accelerometer 

has 100 mV/g sensitivity. The frequency 

range declared by its producer is: 

0.5 Hz - 15 kHz, with plus minus 3 dB bias. 

Many people think that +/- 3 dB is not 

too much, that it is something around 

+/- 3 percent. But this is not true. 

The +/- 3 dB is much, much more. Minus 

3 dB is minus 30 percent, plus 3 dB is 

plus 40 percent. But the frequency range 

is not the primary subject of this topic. 

Let's suppose that the response function 

is flat. Most of the users want a very 

low frequency limit. They say: “I have 

to measure a slow speed machine, my 

machine speed is only 30 rpm, I need to 

measure 0.5 Hertz.” 

If I ask them why, they do not answer, 

because they do not understand the 

question. Let me give you an example: 

If I want to measure the acceleration on 

low frequency, what acceleration level 

can I expect? Would it be for example 1g? 

Most of the people are not able to 

imagine the vibration acceleration and 

velocity. Everybody can imagine the displacement. 

When you say that a 



machine vibrates +/- 3 mm, then everybody 

understands. 

So, we can use this formula for conversion 

of acceleration to displacement 

and displacement to acceleration: 

acc [m/s2] = disp [m] * (2 × π × speed 

[Hz])2 

Using this simple math, we can convert 

1 g to meters. If the speed is 30 rpm 

it means 0.5 Hz. (Do not forget to convert 

g to m/s2 firstly.) The corresponding 

displacement level is 1 m. Not one millimetre, 

but one meter. No machine could 

work with such a vibration level. The 

corresponding velocity level is 

3,200 mm/s, it is 125 ips, impossible... 

Now I suppose the displacement level is 

1 mm. The corresponding acceleration 

level is 0.01 m/s2. It is 0.001 g. 

If the sensor sensitivity is 100 mV/g, 

then the voltage for 0.001 g is 0.1 mV. 

It is not too much. Can you measure such 

a voltage level? 

The answer is NO, because the usual 

sensor noise level in the field is from 

0.2 to 0.4 mV. With such noise it is very 

difficult to measure the 0.1 mV because it 

is lower than the noise level. But let's go 

back to the basic question. Why measure 

the amplitude on 0.5 Hz? 

Another answer is: “I would need it 

when I would want to balance the machine 

or investigate the looseness or 

misalignment.” 

Yes, in these cases I need to measure 

the level on speed frequency, but I do not 

know who really wants to do it. When the 

speed is so low, then you should have the 

unbalanced mass tens of kilograms to 

increase the vibrational level. The centrifugal 

force depends on the square of 

the speed. At 30 rpm it will be very low. 

But the users say: “No! I do not want 

to balance, I want to measure the condition 

of the roller bearing.” 

And this is the key point. 

For such measurement I do not need the 

low frequency. 

When the bearing balls are passing 

scratches or it goes through bearing pitting 

if you wish, on inner and outer races, 

then the shocks appear in time signal. 

The natural frequencies of shocks 

are very high. Typically, between 500 Hz 

and 25 kHz. We do not need to measure 

low frequencies; we need to measure 

these very high frequencies. And this 

is not easy for low speed bearings (machines). 

We need high resolution of the 

signal (high sampling frequency) and 

at the same time we need a long-time 

signal, because the time interval between 

shocks is very wide. So, the whole 

measurement is extremely demanding 

on data processing and data storage. 

ADASH has therefore developed and put 

into use the ACMT measuring method 

for low speed bearing analysis, which 

through smart compression solves the 

mentioned problems and keep most of 

the information in the signal. 

The next most common misunderstandings 

are bearing fault frequencies. 

They can be very low for slow speed 

machines and users again use the wrong 

rule. They say that the accelerometer 

has to be able to measure the frequencies. 

This is wrong. The fault frequency 

is the repeating frequency of shocks, it is 

not pure sine frequency which should be 

captured by a sensor. 

We need to measure the natural frequencies 

of shocks. And they are again 

higher than 500 Hertz. 

THE NATURAL FREQUENCIES 

OF SHOCKS ARE VERY HIGH. 

TYPICALLY, BETWEEN 500 HZ 

AND 25 KHZ. 

Figure 1 

In Figure 1 you can see the 

spectrum and time signal (measured 

on a low speed bearing). The 

range is 25 kHz. All higher amplitude 

lines are in a range of 2 kHz 

and more. 

Please notice those very low g amplitudes 

in spectrum. The spectrum 

displays the energy of the signal. We see 

only shocks without significant energy 

in this signal. That is why the spectrum 

displays very low values. 



THE BEARING FAULT 

FREQUENCY IS THE 

REPEATING FREQUENCY 

OF SHOCKS. 

Figure 2 

Figure 3 

In Figure 2 we measured the spectrum 

in a 25 Hz range only. The repeating 

frequency of shocks for this bearing 

is around 1 Hz. You see nothing around 

1 Hz. 

If I want to see the repeating frequencies 

in spectrum, then I must apply the 

demodulation. It means, I must add the 

energy. Demodulated spectrum can display 

something visible. The demodulation 

spectrum uses the time signal which 

is enveloped. We want to measure only in 

the band from 500 Hz to 25 kHz. We are 

not interested in low frequencies. 

You can imagine the enveloping like 

simple electrical circuit: the shock comes 

and charges the capacitor and then the 

capacitor is discharged through the resistor. 

Discharging is much longer than 

the length of the original shock. 

This is the additional energy which 

helps us in spectrum. And it really 

helped. 

In the third picture you can see the 

repeating frequency 0.85 Hz and its harmonics. 

The harmonics always occur because 

the enveloped signal is distorted. It 

is not pure sine-wave which can display 

only one line in spectrum. 

I hope you will remember this article 

when you face measurement on low 

speed machines and hope you will now 

be able to check these machines more 

efficiently. 



Asset Care and Reliability in the 

Mining Industry using Ultrasound 

THOMAS J MURPHY 

C.Eng., SDT 

Ultrasound Solutions 

Ultrasound applications 

are diverse, and yet many 

of the people that use 

them “know” about them 

for only one or two of 

their applications. 

“I KNEW IT DID AIR LEAKS, BUT I DID 

NOT KNOW THAT YOU COULD DO ALL 

THIS WITH IT” is therefore a common reaction 

when I refer to 8 pillars introducing 

the use of Ultrasound. 

There are many industries where all 

of these applications are important, and 

mining is an example to explore. 

COMPRESSED air is used in so 

1| many applications. Compressed 

air leaks become huge energy losses – 

in some mines there are megawatts of 

power used to produce compressed air. 

Air leaks in pneumatics and control systems 

however, can become show stoppers 

bringing production to a stop. 

Using Ultrasound for listening to internal 

air leaks or cracks on the boom of 

a dragline. 

STEAM is of major importance in 

2| certain mining processes – consider 

the steam injection systems used in 

a SAG-D (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage) 

plant for instance. Steam is injected 

underground to warm up and soften bitumen 

and heavier oils to make them easier 

to extract from the earth. The production 

of steam is thereby clearly linked to the 

production of oil in this application. 

Airborne ultrasound is used to safely 

identify steam leaks from a distance, 

which is clearly a major safety hazard in 

any steam process. The steam temperature 

may be almost 300°C corresponding 

to a pressure of roughly 8,000kPa, which 

means leaks can easily become the cause 

of serious injuries, or worse still, fatal accidents. 

There are sites around the world 

where the only safe, approved, method to 

inspect for steam leaks is ultrasound. 

Contact ultrasound is used to maintain 

the good operating condition of the 

steam traps in the system by identifying 

those failing steam traps that are not 

removing air, CO2 and condensate from 

the steam system. 

VALVES are used in so many applications 

and are virtually omni- 

3| 

present in the mining industry – consider 

how a hydraulic, or water system, is 

going to operate properly without the 

proper operation of the valves involved. 

Process failures tracked back to 

incorrect valve operation can create a 

large amount of unwanted downtime 

– one particular story in a coal mine 

comes to mind where an internal leak on 

a valve and also on the refurbished spare 

in the maintenance stores resulted in 12 

hours of downtime. Ultrasound is now 

used to provide a predictive maintenance 

service to identify such defects at 

a much earlier stage and schedule work 

on the valve at a convenient time. 

Everyone will understand the need 

to test valves to ensure that they are not 

passing or blocked, but there are other 

important failure modes on valves: 

valves can cavitate for example, which 

will result not only in premature failure 

of the valve but can also cause premature 

failure downstream – especially 

if the particular valve is on the suction 

side of a pump. 

HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS are used for 

4| motion and for power and there 

are many valve applications involved 

here too. Failure of hydraulic systems is 

not an option and yet too few businesses 

consider any maintenance practice 

other than breakdown, with the corresponding 

huge expense of downtime. 

Ultrasound can be used on shovels for 

example to listen to internal bypassing 

on boom, stick and bucket cylinders. 

The inspection method for cylinders 

is quite simple: merely place a sensor on 

the cylinder and allow it to operate in its 

normal fashion. 

Failure modes in hydraulics systems include external leakage, internal leakage, 

by-passing, and blockages. They are detected with ultrasound because they produce 

Friction, Impacts, and Turbulence. 



THERE ARE MANY ELECTRICAL 

5| SYSTEMS involved in the mining 

industry from DC to HV. In many cases 

dust is a major contributor to failure. 

One of the key problems associated with 

the build-up of dirt, dust and moisture 

on the surface of components is tracking. 

The ceramic insulator pictured here 

failed because it was covered in dust 

which was causing the tracking. Oncondition 

cleaning using ultrasound to 

identify the presence of the tracking is 

used to eliminate failures by optimising 

cleaning procedures. 

The mining community in South Africa 

are also leading the way in the adoption 

of ultrasound as a safety screening 

tool to protect electricians working in 

substations. A small ultrasound kit is 

located at the entrance to the substation 

and there is a series of assessment 

measurements to be performed in order 

to provide approved safe access to the 

building and proximity to the panels 

inside. This approach is undoubtedly 

saving lives by providing a higher level of 

safety in the work environment than can 

be provided by flameproof or arc-flash 

clothing alone. 

TIGHTNESS testing of the air intake 

systems of the large diesel 

6| 

engines in haul trucks using ultrasound 

has saved one mining company alone 

over €14M in three years for an investment 

of less than €28,000. Additional 

operational savings have been seen by 

minimising the time spent ensuring 

that the drivers’ cab environments are 

dust-free. 

MINING MACHINERY is diverse 

7| – sometimes simple like a conveyor, 

other times more complex as in 

the case of a reclaimer. The condition 

monitoring requirements in the mining 

world are, therefore, quite diverse 

and frequently not simple. 

Airborne ultrasound, sometimes 

using a parabolic dish pointing out of 

the window of a pickup is a very quick 

and reliable means of inspecting the 

condition of a conveyor – especially if it 

is 12km long. 

There is more than the usual amount 

of slow-speed equipment in mining 

which is often in critical operational 

roles. Ultrasound is perfectly capable 

of listening to bearings rotating at even 

less than 1rpm and still providing valuable 

diagnostic information. 

Finally, there is the need to consider 

the condition of machinery, which is 

itself moving – like shovels or is moving 

violently – like vibrating screens. 

This critical bearing rotating at 

24rpm was found to have failed during 

an ultrasound inspection. The bearing 

had recently been replaced, so it was 

relatively new. Unfortunately, the 

replacement bearing was not quite the 

correct one and was undersized for 

the load requirement. Very quickly, 

the new bearing disintegrated. 

OVER-LUBRICATION is quite 

8| an established tradition in the 

mining world – “grease that bearing 

until I can see the grease coming out 

of the sides”. 

So, there you have it. One technology, 

Ultrasound, used in either airborne 

or contact mode to identify problems 

in 8 major problem areas in mining. 

Conservatively, in the last decade the 

savings that customers have achieved 

must be well beyond €23.5M. Time 

for you to start? 



Dynamic measurement – 

are you missing a checkbox? 

ROMAN MEGELA 

GAZDOVA 

Reliability Engineer 

at EASY-LASER AB 

I want to start by making 

you think about car 

manufacturing. You can 

pick any car manufacturer 

you want. The way they 

build cars is based on 

their procedures which 

comply with international 

standards. Once the 

vehicle is built it goes for 

quality inspection. 

THERE THE INDIVIDUAL systems are 

checked making sure they are working as 

intended. Is then the car ready for delivery? 

No, of course it is not. The individual 

vehicles are going for testing and the 

car runs on the test bench for a certain 

amount of time. That means the quality 

inspection will assure that the whole system 

works perfectly together and is fully 

integrated. 

How about rotating 

machinery? 

So, what do we do when it comes to the 

maintenance and installation of rotating 

equipment? Do we test the machines 

before they come into the operation? 

We know some of the manufacturers of 

rotating equipment are individually testing 

and certifying their machines before 

they leave the facilities. But that does not 

necessarily mean that whole systems will 

be integrated together and work properly. 

In that scenario, it is like you buy 

your new car without it being tested. Get 

it, drive it, and find out for yourself if it 

works. Sounds safe and reliable? 

What are dynamic forces? 

In the assembly and installation phase, 

the rotating equipment is being installed. 

Only that. Then it is handed over 

to pre-commissioning and commissioning 

teams where the equipment is going 

to be tested. The commissioners will run 

the process and check vibration, temperature, 

and pressure. Here is where 

dynamic measurement comes in place. 

Dynamic measurement is on-site laser 

measurement which is performed to 

measure and show movements of the 

machinery when in operation. Thermal 

growth, pipe strain, nozzle load or any 

other dynamic forces which affect our 



equipment. For example, how does pipe strain affect our 

asset? Pipe strain is the misalignment between the suction 

flange of the asset and corresponding pipe flange connection. 

This misalignment makes deformation of the body of 

the asset and as consequence stress the bearings which leads 

into an increase of vibration. The similar thing happens with 

thermal growth, the machine condition where the increased 

temperature of the asset will change its physical condition 

making it grow in vertical and horizontal direction compared 

to its shaft centreline. 

This will lead to misalignment which produce shaft deflections. 

And again, this will stress the bearings and produce 

vibration. When the shafts are deflected, the bearings get to 

carry different loads than for what they were designed. We 

expect our equipment to be stable and solid. In the case there 

is unexpected movement, dynamic measurement will show 

us how much and in which direction the movement occur. 

This is a final test prior to enter into full operation and certify 

proper installation. 

How does it work? 

When the machinery is installed in place and final laser alignment 

has been done, the lasers will be mounted on the machinery 

using special dynamic measurement brackets. Now you 

will have two choices, to start measure offline to running or 

running to offline. That means you will start measuring from 

the ambient temperature and run your asset until it reaches 

full operating conditions, or vice versa you will start measuring 

at full operating capacity and let the machine run to stop and 

cool down to ambient temperature. That will provide you with 

full picture of how your equipment behaves under the load. 

Then you have your data so you can have a plan for necessary 

corrections. This is one very important part of reliable machinery 

installation. 

You are welcome to find out more on how to perform the 

measurement on easylaser.com. 

Reveal Your Potential 

Get a Reliability and Maintenance Assessment 

Call us +1 919-847-8764


Are you ready? 

CHRISTER IDHAMMAR 

Reliability and 

Maintenance 

Management Guru, 

Founder IDCON INC 

“We need to implement 

Maintenance 4.0! I just 

came back from a conference 

and it seems like 

everybody is doing it,” 

exclaimed John, a 

reliability engineer. 

“JOHN, I LIKE YOUR ENTHUSIASM AND 

I AM GLAD YOU LEARNED SOME NEW 

STUFF AT THE CONFERENCE. We have 

higher priorities for you to work on. 

We had three major break downs this 

month that caused eight hours of lost 

production and expensive repairs. The 

daily schedule compliance is only at 

58 percent, and most of the jobs in the 

schedule aren’t planned” said Brian, the 

maintenance manager. 

“Yes” John replied, “But if we implement 

more machine learning and online 

sensors, we can increase data collection 

and fix this”. 

“John, do you remember when we 

put in about 100 sensors on process line 

two? Your cell phone was jammed up 

with alarms. And even though you spent 

a lot of time filtering them and requesting 

only the most urgent repairs, our 

backlog went way up. Your requests had 

to compete with all other urgent work in 

backlog. Several of the failures you had 

reported went to break down. It took 

us almost a year to get backlog back to 

what we considered normal. The same 

will happen, on a larger scale if we jump 

into more technology that we are not 

ready for.” 

“John, in the long run I agree that we 

should implement new technologies. 

I want you to keep learning about all 

the new technologies we can use and 

implement at the right time. Right now, 

you have to help me get the very basics 

implemented.” 

“So, what do you want me to focus on 

before we can implement Maintenance 

4.0?” asked John. 

“To start with the planners are only 

using 30 percent of their time actually 

planning work. The Bill of Materials is 

incomplete, so they can’t find the parts 



or materials needed for the work they 

need to plan. That means they are wasting 

time searching for or even buying 

parts. And don’t get me started on the 

fact that most of the work requests are 

given a much higher priority than they 

should be because they aren’t truly important 

but emotional.” 

I’ve heard discussions like these many 

times over the years, only the names of 

the technologies are different. 

I am all for new technology. In the late 

1970s I introduced and taught technologies 

such as SPM and Acoustic Emission, 

Wear Particle Analyses with Ferrography, 

Thermovision and many more, in 

Europe, China, India and many other 

countries. I was also instrumental in 

developing the first Computerized Maintenance 

Management System in 1968. A 

much-updated version that is still on the 

market, The Idhammar System. 

Today, new technologies are being 

introduced and adopted rapidly such as 

Internet of Things (IOT), cloud-based 

applications, better sensors and capabilities 

to accumulate huge amount of data. 

This is good and I am certainly all for it 

– when it is applied at the right time for 

the organization. I like this quote from 

Bill Gates: 

“The first rule of technology used 

in a business is that automation [new 

technology] applied to an efficient operation 

will magnify the efficiency. 

The second is that automation 

[new technology] applied to an inefficient 

operation will magnify the inefficiency” 

– Bill Gates 

I fully agree with this statement 

because I have seen so many examples 

where this is true. I visited a plant 

that had installed on-line condition 

monitoring systems that overwhelmed 

the Reliability Engineers and others 

with alarms on possible early failures. 

They were overwhelmed because 

their very basic reliability and maintenance 

management processes were 

not well-developed and at best only 

partially executed. Backlogs were increasing 

and failure reports from their 

Vibration and Oil Analyses were not 

be acted upon. 

This new technology for the plant 

would have been good if they had been 

in a position to Plan then Schedule the 

correction of these failures before they 

develop into a breakdown. 

Even though I have been preaching 

this for 50 years, I cannot stress 

enough how important it is, when implementing 

new technologies, that the 

very basics of maintenance prevention, 

inspections, plan, schedule and 

execute must be working well. 

This includes that most reliability 

related maintenance work is generated 

as a result of condition monitoring 

and basic inspections, right priorities 

in notifications and work requests, 

less than 10% changes in daily schedules 

that were frozen 20 hours in advance 

of execution, etc. 

Most of us who have been in this 

business a long time knows this. But 

the next generation will learn a lot of 

new technology at colleges and conferences, 

which is important, necessary 

and very good. However, they will also 

have to understand that people and 

good execution of the basic RM processes 

is still necessary for successful 

implementation of new technologies. 

John, the Reliability Engineer in this 

article, should focus on implementing 

the basics to be ready for financially 

viable use of upgraded technologies. 

When maintenance prevention including 

lubrication, justified fixed time 

maintenance, precision alignment, 

balancing and Root Cause Problem 

Elimination (RCPE), etc. are executed 

at a good level, and the chain (Inspect, 

Plan, Schedule, Execute), is not broken, 

you will enable great results using the 

technology you are ready for. 

You might think this is antiquated 

and that there must be a better way to 

manage maintenance. You are right, the 

same processes have been around for 

almost 2000 years, perhaps longer than 

that. The only thing that has changed, 

and will continue to change is technology, 

which in the last 60 years has 

become much better and much more 

affordable. 

The first known book on Maintenance 

Management that I have found 

is De Aquaeductu Urbis Romae written 

by Sextius Julius Frontinus AD 97. 

NEW TECHNOLOGIES ARE IMPORTANT BUT USE ONLY THE 

TECHNOLOGIES YOUR ORGANIZATION IS READY FOR. 

He was appointed by the emperor of 

Rome to maintain the aqueducts. Rome 

had a shortage of water and the alternative 

was to build a new aqueduct. 

Instead Sextius Julius improved maintenance 

of the aqueducts. The results 

included surplus of water in Rome 

without building a new aqueduct. 

What he did can be summarized like 

this: 

• Site visits 

• Documentation 

• Inspections 

• Daily meetings 

• Work preparation (Planning) 

• Preventive Maintenance 

We can call maintenance management 

by many new acronyms, but the 

basics are the same. 

I like to end with something I have 

said many times over the years: 

“New Technologies are important but 

use only the Technologies your organization 

is ready for”. 



Forces of 

Change 

HOW THE MAINTENANCE 

TEAM CAN THRIVE AND 

GROW DURING A TIME 

OF DISRUPTION 

TRACY STRAWN 

CMRP 

Strategic Advisor 

MARSHALL INSTITUTE 

The world has seen much change in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has 

brought many countries of the world to their knees as we are experiencing 

one of the most disruptive events in memory. 

AT THE TIME of this writing, the terrible toll of the coronavirus 

pandemic on the US economy has continued unabated bringing 

the total of unemployed to more than 36 million. Fortunately, 

the latest figures from the labor department show the 

rate of unemployment claims are slowing, meanwhile many 

states and municipalities around the US are reopening their 

businesses. 

As a result of the pandemic, the US Government and the 

CDC have recommended that citizens adopt new ways of interacting 

and working going forward. Recommendations include 

things like social distancing, wearing personal protection 

equipment (PPE), and frequent hand washing, to name a few. 

These changes are becoming a way of life. 

This disruption caused by the COVID 19 virus is forcing 

change in all areas of society including organizations and 

businesses around the world. Organizations adjust to small 

changes all the time, possibly looking to improve productivity, 

responding to a new regulation, hiring a new employee, or 

something similar. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 is 

causing change on a massive scale. 

Some call this a driving force of change. Forces of change 

manifest themselves two ways, internally and externally. The 

COVID-19 virus is considered an external force of change. 

External forces of change can be more relentless in forcing 

change. In some instances, an organization or business must 

change or go out of business and cease to exist. 

So how do “forces of change” work? In Kurt Lewin's model 

there are forces driving change and forces restraining it. Where 

there is equilibrium between the two sets of forces there will 

be no change. In order for change to occur, the driving force 

must exceed the restraining force. See Lewin’s model below. 

The COVID 19 disruption has presented many companies 

with a grim reality: adapt, improvise, and implement new ways 

of working or cease to exist. 

Although COVID-19 has brought tremendous sorrow and 

loss of lives and livelihoods, some suggest that the driving 

force of change such as the disruptive COVID-19 virus can be 

harnessed and turned into something positive or constructive. 

With that in mind, it might be possible to capitalize on this current 

force of change and make some good things happen from it. 

Below I am going to list 5 things that many maintenance 

teams can begin doing now to add value while preparing them 

for the future. 


1. Master the Virtual Meeting: virtual meetings are becoming 

an indispensable way of doing business in this current business 

climate. Stay at home workers are becoming the norm as 

a result of social distancing requirements brought on by the 

pandemic. 

Organizations reluctant to adopt virtual meetings will now 

be forced to do so. Going forward, working from home will not 

only be acceptable but encouraged. To be successful, the maintenance 

team should do the following: 

• Standardize virtual meeting software and learn how to 

use it. 

• Ensure it’s compatible with smart phones as well as PCs. 

• Make attendance and participation as easy as possible to 

ensure maximum participation. 

• Use the camera! It’s important to see faces in the meeting 

as this helps understand and monitor engagement. 

• Respect the time - start on time and finish on time. 

• Engage and communicate with team members. This will 

be the way of connecting and communicating going forward. 

2. Communicate with Internal and External Suppliers and 

Customers: Primarily, we will be concerned with our internal 

suppliers and customers (or partners as we often call them) e.g. 

the production team, the storeroom, engineering, vendors, and 

contractors. As our businesses are disrupted by the repercussions 

of the virus it’s important to communicate. We will have 

less face time with our partners at the plant and within the organization.


Kurt Lewin´s Force Field Analysis 

DRIVING FORCES 

RESTRAINING FORCES 

EQUILIBRIUM 

OR 

PRESENT 

STATE 

The maintenance team must keep their suppliers and customers 

up to date on what’s changed and what’s not changed. 

Information that needs to be communicated: 

• Equipment repair updates 

• Maintenance schedule changes and updates 

• Shutdown and outage timing 

• Equipment problems 

• Employee changes or absences 

• Business priority changes 

• Production line changes 

All of the maintenance process partners, vendors and suppliers 

will be affected by the disruptions. Continuous communication 

will be absolutely essential to keep them informed. 

Consider a weekly e-newsletter sent out to key partners and 

external suppliers as well as phone calls and virtual meetings. 

3. Empower your team - I’ve heard people talk about this 

for years and yet they only give it a half-hearted effort. Now is 

the time to make it happen and the reason is obvious – business 

survival. Empowerment is the process of enabling or 

authorizing an individual to think, behave, and take action, and 

control work and decision-making about their job in autonomous, 

independent, self-directed ways. 

Current conditions have made this essential. Here are some 

things you can do to empower your team: 

• State what you need – be clear with team members about 

the new responsibilities, what’s required and expected. 

State it in measurable terms and be prepared to follow up 

and adjust. 

• Release control - remove barriers that limit the ability of 

staff to act in empowered ways. 

• Measure – Establish metrics that measure the team’s output. 

Review them with the team and let the metrics speak 

for themselves. 

4. Employ game-changing maintenance strategies - For 

years you had several initiatives that you’ve needed to implement. 

All of these were designed to improve efficiency and 

effectiveness of the organization. A lot of things have held you 

back including a strong enough business case that would involve 

management support. Here some ideas to move forward: 

• Identify time-based PM tasks that can easily be transferred 

to condition monitoring. This should be based on 

ease and cost of implementation. Consider using a vendor 

or outside resource. Allow them to manage the program 

while providing metrics, updates and action plans. 

“IT IS NOT THE STRONGEST OF THE 

SPECIES THAT SURVIVE, NOR THE 

MOST INTELLIGENT, BUT THE ONE MOST 

RESPONSIVE TO CHANGE.” 

CHARLES DARWIN 

• Engage the operators! You’ve discussed it for years, now 

is the time. Studies have shown that a well-trained operator 

can prevent up to 75 percent of all impending failures. 

Benchmarking studies have confirmed at least 25 percent 

of plant operators' time can be utilized for carrying out 

certain types of maintenance work. Four operators doing 

frontline maintenance equate to one fulltime equivalent 

maintenance technician. This allows maintenance to 

employ the maintenance techs in more technical and value-added 

activities. 

• Outsource some of the projects that can be done remotely 

such as procedure review and updating, PM reviews and 

updates, CMMS master data updates and builds, BOM 

development, and business process documentation, mapping 

and updating to name a few. 

5. Invest in people - At this time, your people will be worried 

about their jobs and their futures. Leadership will need to 

communicate clearly and regularly what steps they are taking 

to secure their employees and keep them safe. 

Some organizations are experiencing a shortage of workers. 

It’s therefore possible the maintenance team may not have 

the required skills to support it. This would be a good time to 

accelerate upskilling to cover these gaps in the team that are 

critical or will be when the crisis subsides, and the plant begins 

expanding. Some things to consider: 

• Virtual training 

• Online computer-based training 

• Virtual coaching and mentoring 

• On the job training led by staff or senior technicians 

Many say change is inevitable and that may be true. Unfortunately, 

most are never ready or prepared for it. Change can 

be disruptive and at times brings with it fear, pain, and suffering. 

Today’s challenge is to face it and resolve to make something 

positive out of it. 


WE’VE GOT WHAT 

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Life may be remote, but you’re still in control. Our 5 new 

remote based services provide maintenance and reliability 

leaders the ability to meet goals and sustain gains. The 

remote services include: Maintenance Effectiveness 

Assessments, Hourly Coaching, Process Guide Library, 

SAP Training, and a Maintenance Management e-Series.


Monetizing Data in Maintenance: 

Data-driven Spare Parts Management 

Author: TOMÁŠ HLADÍK, Principal Consultant, Logio s.r.o. 

ORGANIZATIONS TODAY maintain huge amounts of data, 

structured or unstructured. However, from research of renowned 

organizations like Gartner, we know that industrial 

firms today are not able to use 70—90 percent of data that 

are collected and stored. This paradox is described in this 

article, and various generic models of big data monetization 

are proposed. Some of these models are presented as examples 

from spare parts management.. 

Spare parts inventory can lock in significant amounts of 

workingcapital. This article summarizes recommendations for 

effectivespare parts inventory management and spare parts 

optimizationusing various sets of data and statistical analytical 

methods. In Maintworld 3/2020 -magazine we will continue 

on the topic. 

Management of spare parts and other materials needed for 

realization of maintenance processes is one of the key functions 

in physical asset management. Especially in power generation, 

oil and gas and heavy chemical industries, spare parts 

inventories can easily add up to tens of thousands of various 

items, in a value of hundreds of millions of euros. 

It is obvious that efficient spare parts inventory management 

can have significant impact on the financial performance 

of the company. Better spare parts management can lead to 

improvement of financial performance of the company. In 

previous research we discussed several recommendations for 

spare parts inventory management. Using these recommendations, 

companies can achieve better financial performance 

in different parts of the spare parts lifecycle. In some of these 

Figure 1: ABC analysis 

of spare parts inventory 

based on available stock 

value [CZK]. 

Figure 2: ABC analysis 

of spare parts 

inventory based on 

consumed quantity 

[pcs]. Dominance of 

categories C and D (i.e. 

items with very low or 

zero consumption) is 

characteristic for spare 

parts. 



Figure 3: Spare parts inventory segmentation in 

value according to the consumption frequency 

in the last 12 months. Segment 0 represents the 

value of items with no consumption over the last 

12 months; segment 1 represents the value of 

items with consumption recorded in 1 out of 12 

months of the analysed year, etc. 

MANAGEMENT OF SPARE PARTS AND OTHER 

MATERIALS NEEDED FOR REALIZATION 

OF MAINTENANCE PROCESSES IS ONE OF 

THE KEY FUNCTIONS IN PHYSICAL ASSET 

MANAGEMENT. 

recommended practices, various data can be employed and 

analysed – especially in areas like portfolio segmentation, criticality 

assessment, forecasting, improving spare parts naming 

and identification, or cleaning and rectifying master data. 

Eight Rules of Good Spare Parts Management 

In our previous research, we refined the following eight rules – 

best practices – for good spare parts management: 

• Focus on preventative maintenance – for preventative 

maintenance no inventories of spare parts need to be held. 

• Solve problems in spare parts processes. 

• Segment your spare parts portfolio. 

• Evaluate spare parts criticality. 

• Use suitable forecasting methods and verify their accuracy 

and reliability. 

• Use special methods for intermittent demand items. 

• Consider the whole lifecycle of your assets while making 

decisions related to spare parts. 

• Implement a good information system for spare parts 

management so all above stated rules are supported 

and/or automated. 

Some of these rules are described in detail in the following 

chapters. 

Each Item is Different: 

Segment your Spare Parts Portfolio 

In almost any inventory, different groups or segments of items 

can be identified. The primary objective of segmentation is to 

effectively divide an extensive portfolio of items on stock into 

separate groups requiring a different inventory management 

system, approach in planning, or specific optimization methodology. 

A good spare parts management information system 

allows for carrying out such analyses and portfolio segmentation 

quickly and easily, including visualization of outputs. 

For inventory segmentation, several methods and criteria 

can be applied: 

• ABC analysis of inventory based on quantity and value 

available on stock (Fig. 1) and other criteria 

• ABC analysis according to item consumption (Fig. 2) 

• Segmentation based on frequency of consumption 

(identification of slow-moving inventory) in quantity or 

value (Fig. 3) 

• ABC analysis according to item criticality 

• Categorization based on item accessibility (common, 

special, made-to-order) 

• Identification of intermittent items (special test of intermittent 

demand) 

• Segmentation based on suppliers’ lead-times 

For ABC analyses, in case of spare parts, the prevalence of categories 

C and D (items with low or zero consumption in longterm 

history) is very typical. 

Using segmentation based on consumption frequency, 

slow-moving inventory (SMI, items with minimum turnover, 

including “dead stock”) items can be promptly identified (Fig. 

3). For spare parts, the 0 segment is usually the most important. 

This segment covers items with no consumption record in 

the past 12 months. Segment 0 is generally the most significant 

both in quantity and in value. It includes items of strategically 

important and critical spare parts – items with the highest 

value in the portfolio. Other segments with low frequency of 

demand are also significant (segments 1, 2, etc.). Segments with 

frequent consumption (segments 10, 11, 12) contain items of 

fasteners with relatively low value (Fig. 3). 

The segmentation may also include specification of links 

between spare parts and appropriate production equipment 

(technical site). Bills of material, obtained in this way, make it 

possible to closely trace spare parts consumption for individual 

parts of production equipment, measure costs in each stage of 

the production equipment lifecycle, and identify critical spare 

parts in relation to the criticality of production equipment. 

For each identified inventory segment (or for each individual 

item, if possible), the required level of availability (service 

level) needs to be specified. The desired logistic service level 

is closely related to the spare part’s criticality: for highly critical 

items a service level of, for instance, 99.7 percent will be 

required. Obviously, there is a trade-off involved: the higher 

service level that is required, the higher minimum level of inventory 

is needed. 


HSE MANAGEMENT 

Maintenance 

Activities and 

INDUSTRIAL 

RESCUE 

Maintenance services 

everywhere, are called 

to guarantee the smooth 

and efficient working of 

the industrial plants and 

maintenance management 

helps in improving the 

productivity keeping the 

machines/equipment in 

their optimum operating 

conditions. 

ADRIANO PAOLO 

BACCHETTA 

President I.E.RE.SP. 

www.ieresp.eu 

ing, chemical industry, water and sewer, 

agriculture, shipyard, motor, freight 

transportation, steel manufacture, corrosion 

removal, tank inspection and repair, 

and a number of other industries in 

which work involving Confined Spaces 

is carried out . Every day, we have a lot 

of people that enter Confined Spaces 

to perform their work functions for: 

construction, routine (or non-routine) 

maintenance, repair, modification, rehabilitation 

and inspections. Overall, the 

first goal must be to check if it is possible 

ALL WORKERS INVOLVED AS 

FIRST RESPONDERS, MUST 

RECEIVE SPECIFIC TRAINING 

THROUGH SPECIFIC COURSES. 

MAINTENANCE IN GENERAL is an important 

and inevitable service function of 

an efficient production system. In many 

maintenance activities, the work to be 

performed is planned in Confined Spaces. 

Around the World and, obviously also 

in Europe, we can find a large number of 

places that have Confined Spaces. There 

are many industry sectors that carry out 

work involving Confined Spaces and 

most industrial facilities have Confined 

Spaces. Oil and gas refineries, electrical 

and power utilities, food processing, 

pulp and paper, airlines, waste processto 

avoid entering a Confined Space. Since 

this is the best policy, any time is suitable 

to check if entering is inevitable, or 

if a Confined Space could be modified so 

that entry becomes unnecessary and/or 

work should done from outside. Working 

in a Confined Space holds many hazards, 

for example: 

• limited means of entry and exit 

• poor oxygen 

• presence of toxic fumes and vapours 

• electrical risks 

• … and many others 

that pose serious risks to workers and 

fatalities could happen unexpectedly. 

Fatalities in Confined Spaces 

happen in no time, during seemingly 

innocuous situations: inhaling an 

atmosphere that contains no oxygen 

causes loss of consciousness in a matter 

of seconds. Often the hazard is not 

present at the time of entry, which 

reinforces the need for continuous 

monitoring and supervision of work in 

Confined Spaces and half or more of 

all workplace Confined Space fatalities 

involve workers trying to rescue their 

colleagues. 


HSE MANAGEMENT 

If entering a Confined Space is performed, 

risk assessment results must be 

used to identify the precautions needed 

to avoid, or reduce to a minimum, the 

risk of injury and the Employer has to 

make sure that the safe system of work, 

including the precautions identified, is 

developed and put into practice. Everyone 

involved will need to be properly 

trained and instructed to make sure they 

know what to do and how to do it safely. 

Furthermore, adequate emergency arrangements 

must be put in place before 

the work starts. 

Emergency management, whatever 

its origin, is a particularly important aspect 

that requires a specific commitment 

by HSE managers. The Employer must 

put an emergency response plan in place 

to ensure the safety and health of Employees 

during critical emergency operations. 

To do this, it is necessary to equip 

the organization with rescue and emergency 

service that must be speciaised 

for the specific emergencies predictable 

depending on the business activities. 

The responders must be qualified on 

site Rescue/Standby teams and to be 

able to perform: 

• High angle rescue/ 

above ground activities 

• Confined Spaces rescue 

• Trench rescue 

• Fall protection rescue 

• Remote locations and difficult 

work locations rescue 

All workers involved as First Responders, 

must receive specific training 

through specific courses. In case of fire 

prevention, training courses must be 

related to the type of activity and the 

workplace level of fire risk (low risk, medium 

risk or high risk). In case of a health 

origin emergency, it is necessary to highlight 

the specific limits of the planned intervention 

by a certified responder that, 

in the workplace, is normally in line with 

the concept of proper first-aid services 

according to the Community Directives. 

First aid, in fact, is the immediate application 

of first line treatment following an 

injury or sudden illness, using facilities 

and materials available at the time. Outside 

the EU, we can also find a specific 

sanitary responder called Industrial Paramedic, 

that is a clinical practitioner in 

paramedicine, with an expanded scope 

of practice, that uses his skills and expertise 

to provide emergency response, 

medical assessment, primary health 

care, chronic disease management, 

injury prevention, health promotion, 

medical referral and coordinate emergency 

medical evacuations as needed for 

Workers. Normally, Industrial Rescuers 

are not paramedics and their designation 

must take into account their capabilities 

and conditions in relation to their health 

and safety as well as the dimensions and 

specific risks of the company or production 

unit. 

That said, it remains to define what 

is the minimum level of preparation for 

emergency management (Preparedness) 

and reaction capacity (Response) required 

to ensure the effectiveness of the 

intervention in particular areas, such as 

Confined Spaces. 

ASSET RELIABILITY 

PRACTITIONER® 

[ARP] Training & Certification 

Improving the reliability and performance of an industrial facility is important. A top-performing facility will be 

safer, have fewer environmental incidents, provide for job satisfaction, and support financial reward for owners 

and shareholders. 

The Mobius Institute Asset Reliability Practitioner [ARP] training and certification program provides the 

knowledge, qualifications, and growth path to enable a program to be run successfully. 

[ARP-A] 

ARP-Advocate: 

Teaches the big picture 

including terminology. 

[ARP-E] 

ARP-Engineer: 

Educates on technical 

aspects of a reliability 

maintenance program. 

[ARP-L] 

ARP-Leader: 

Trains leaders on how to 

successfully implement 

reliability and improvement 

initiatives involving an entire 

organization. 

Choose the ARP course that is right for you! 

Visit www.mobiusDL.com for virtual, instructor-led course details. 

And, for self-paced videos, visit the ON-DEMAND LEARNING CENTER also at www.mobiusDL.com


Managing the Crisis Effectively: 

How to Develop a Successful 

Asset Management Strategy 

During the Coronavirus Downturn 

FRANK UWE HESS, 

Chairman and 

Co-Founder 

at T.A. Cook Consultants. 

COVID-19 is disrupting 

all sectors including the 

process industry – plants 

around the world are 

operating in emergency 

mode or are shut down 

completely. 


There is no hint about how long the 

situation will last nor can anyone realistically 

predict the scope of the economic 

impact it will have. Therefore, it is crucial 

to minimize costs while not compromising 

the effectiveness of the plants. 

The "bull market" has collapsed. 

For eleven years, stock market prices 

knew only one direction: up. COVID-19 

suddenly put an end to the seemingly 

eternal upward trend. A global recession 

seems inevitable. The only question 

that no one can seriously answer now is: 

Which development will the recession 

take? Economists distinguish between 

so-called "V", "L" or "U" movements depending 

on the curve shape. Within a few 

days, companies had to drastically limit 

their supply capacities. Airlines, travel 

agencies, hotels, car manufacturers, 

suppliers – all sectors are increasingly 

affected. 

But what does the dramatic situation 

mean for asset management in the 

process industry? Currently, the maintenance 

community is no longer concerned 

with optimizing availability. Instead, 

those involved are fighting to cut 

costs without jeopardizing the reliability 

and safety of the assets. In order to make 

this balancing act – and thus the crisis 

– as successful as possible, clear and unambiguous 

leadership is required. But 

what does good crisis management look


like during these times when COVID-19 

is dictating all aspects of human activity? 

We present six recommendations to help 

you optimize your asset management 

decisions during this unprecedented 

time and to emerge from the COVID-19 

slowdown unscathed and ready when 

business returns. 

1. Advance planned plant 

shutdowns (turnarounds, 

cleaning, etc.) 

Prepare your organization for earlier, legally 

or technically required plant shutdowns 

that were originally scheduled 

for late 2020 or 2021. Above all, check 

whether the necessary requirements are 

met. In other words, enough staff must 

be available both at your ser-vice providers 

and in your own company as soon as 

the current lockdown ends. If we have 

learned one thing from the 2008/2009 

financial crisis, it is that the global economy 

will need around two years to fully 

recover from a shock of this magnitude. 

Conversely, demand and product prices 

will drop significantly over the next few 

months. The advantage: This also applies 

to almost all service and material costs. 

Use this “window of opportunity” wisely. 

2. Avoid random budget cuts 

We all know that maintenance must help 

reduce costs in times of tight budgets. 

How-ever, if you reduce your maintenance 

costs across the board, you will 

feel the effects more clearly in a year 

or two – exactly in the period when the 

economy – presumably – is slowly picking 

up speed again. For you, this would 

mean that if the demand on the market 

picked up again, you would not be able 

THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS 

REQUIRES A COST-CENTERED 


STRATEGY. 

to deliver the required plant availability 

that is in demand. So, check very carefully 

and systematically where you can 

reduce your costs with the least possible 

risk so as not to accidentally cause longterm 

competitive disadvantages. 

3. Reduce plant downtime 

(TA Scope) to a maximum 

Turnaround (TA) work packages related 

to expansive capital investments should 

be challenged immediately. However, all 

work packages that serve cost-effective 

production should remain in the TA- 

Scope. Investments that don’t reduce 

cost in the near-term should be delayed 

until the economic forecasts look brighter. 

The same analysis should be applied 

to work packages that exceed the legally 

required examinations. So, minimize 

your TA-Scope as much as possible. Due 

to probable resource bottlenecks, it may 

be more cost-effective to run two small 

Turnarounds, rather than one big, complex 

one. 

4. Maximize precision in 

maintenance and inspection 

work 

Nothing increases Mean Time Between 

Failures more than the consistent monitoring 

of wear and tear, the main cause 

of most system failures. If assets are 

bucking, make noises, become hot or 

dirty, they will not last as long as their 

quiet, cool and clean counterparts. Let 

your plant operators know the optimal 

reference conditions for fasteners, lubrication, 

alignment and balance, and 

improve communication between production 

and maintenance. 

5. PdM optimization and 

system troubleshooting 

Almost every company that we have 

worked for in the past 25 years routinely 

performs PdM (Predictive Maintenance) 

work that is inefficient. Optimize all 

maintenance and inspection plans that 

have a high proportion of corrective 



costs despite defined PdM measures. 

Because the expected level of production 

is likely to be relatively low in the next 

few months, you should take the opportunity 

to carry out a root cause analysis 

of your major system failures ('bad actors'). 

Bad actors all too often fly under 

the radar but are responsible for a high 

proportion of unplanned maintenance 

and excessive maintenance cost. These 

are malfunctions which, although they 

do not have a great impact on the availability 

of the system, can (as a whole) 

cause high costs. Your operators and 

engineers can also easily carry out a bad 

actor analysis and the associated PdM 

optimization from the home office. Use 

the current situation and available time 

capacities to significantly reduce disruption 

costs in the future. 

6. Adjust maintenance 

measures to market demand 

The lower market demand will lead to 

a decrease in production volume. For 

maintenance, this means switching 

from an availability-driven 

strategy to a cost-oriented strategy. 

Therefore, evaluate all maintenance 

measures regarding their contribution 

to availability and the associated 

maintenance effort. Check all static 

maintenance strategies according to 

the new availability conditions and 

delete, stretch or postpone as many 

measures as possible without unnecessarily 

increasing the risk of failure 

beyond the desired availability level 

or violating legal provisions. Convert 

your maintenance to a 'demand driven 

maintenance model'. However, 

remember that maintenance and reliability 

function “out of phase.” If an 

investment today produces improved 

reliability two years from now. A 

cutback today results in reduced reliability 

during the same time period. 

Make sure that your reliability investments 

synchronize with the timing of 

market demand. 

CONCLUSION 

THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS requires a 

cost-centered asset management strategy. 

For many plant operators, this will be 

a shift of their strategy by 180 degrees. 

To ensure that this process is as successful 

as possible, we have shown you the 

crucial areas of action. 

THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE is hidden 

under point 2, since it directly 

affects all other aspects. It is essential 

to avoid reflex (panic) reactions to 

arbitrary cost cuts. Otherwise, careless 

short-circuiting operations jeopardize 

the ability to reliably run your systems 

at full load again when demand returns, 

which it invariably will. Be stringent and, 

above all, very methodical to utilize the 

time your employees spend in the home 

office to complete or optimize your asset 

management strategies. This is how you 

can turn the crisis into an opportunity. 


VIBRATION ANALYSIS 

THERMAL IMAGING 

ULTRASOUND 

MEASUREMENT 

eyesight – hearing – sensitivity 

we have in common 

MASTER THE LANGUAGE OF YOUR MACHINERY 

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Maintworld 2/2020

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