Great to attend on 25 & 26th SeptAlways a good show the PPMA and this year seemed to be more well attended than recently. I believe businesses have now decided they have to play catch up with investing in their production facilities. It was great to catch up with contacts and long term friends on my list of stands to hit. Big shout out to the boys from INTERFLON (UK) it was good to see them back at a show. Also Tom Reames from MaintMaster who have now acquired OEE Systems so they have an integrated CMSS/OEE solution; some excellent insights about industry, we always find we share many synergies as businesses. Found a few new and novel products that I will be able to share with my clients if they have a need for them.
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Keynote Address at IMSSI was invited a few months ago by Rachael and Edward at Western Business Media to present a keynote to start this new one day show called the "Industrial Maintenance Solutions Summit" It was easy to say yes as our business is all about solutions, they wanted a pragmatic feel to the day so I chose the subject of Criticality and my experience of delivering a Pragmatic Criticality over the past two decades based on facts and the needs of a business... no BS or fancy folders with calculations you can't understand! Annual visit to the MAINTEC ShowAnnual pilgrimage to the Smart Manufacturing + Engineering Week show at the NEC didn't disappoint.
Caught up with many connections in the MAINTEC area most of them in the photos above. The new Sonaphone 2 demonstrated on the CBM Partners stand was the highlight for me, although I stay agnostic to the technologies there are certain instruments I come across that if I was buying would spend my money there, Sonotec devices is one of them. Maintech Recruitment had the most impressive stand with the most energy going on, they must all be knackered after last week! Great to meet Matt Fletcher from Fletcher Moorland at last, we have known each other virtually on LinkedIn for nearly 10 years, I'm a great fan of the work he and his team carry out for industrial and transport clients. We also met up with a couple of new prospects attending the show and agreed site visits, good to bump into an old PepsiCo colleague as well, I might be revisiting one of his sites shortly. I attended both days and still missed loads of stands in the other areas, great show recommended if you want some inspiration away from the shop floor. New Client in Pet Food IndustryOne of the most engaged groups I've had the pleasure of working with in years.
This was break time after the first session and there were already loads of notes being taken. Great new facility as well for the eight engineers and myself to relax in. Excellent questions about Condition Monitoring and how to approach it in their business, lots of new things for them to take away and implement over the next few weeks. One Day Training EventBottom line is my face was aching by the end of the day through smiling and laughing.
Some great information shared in presentations throughout the day with plenty of show stands if you wanted to see the hardware on offer, a really good mix of people from all sectors, lots of practitioner knowledge in the room. Finally got to meet collaborator and friend Sanya Mathura with her sister Tanya all the way from Trinidad, good friends from LinkedIn messenger were Vitalij and Andre, we have had many virtual conversations so it was great to finally talk and have dinner together. Getting out to in person events has so many benefits if you can free up the time I would recommend it. Looks like a trip to Barcelona in May 2025 for the next edition of CBM+ Reliability Connect 👏 Many thanks to Mobius Institute for a great day in Manchester UK Maintenance Strategy ConsultingNice to be back at my previous employer this time helping PepsiCo R&D with their Maintenance Strategy on a newly commissioned asset being used in a research environment.
You have to think differently about the risks and consequences when an asset is going to be used part time, then come up with a strategy that fits that requirement, fortunately this is not the first (or last) time UPTIME Consultant has been tasked with this conundrum. Great to see some old colleagues and catch up with the R&D section again. National Motorcycle Museum UKGreat few hours over Birmingham at the NMM attending the very busy Food Manufacturing Live event.
Caught up with some connecting including David Smith from Schaeffler, Jon Rowen from MachineSafe and many new connections. Liked the simple toolbox instruments from Optibelt for aligning belts and testing for correct tension shown here. The peacock welcome at reception and free entry to the collection was a bonus, the motorcycle is the first winner of the Isle of Man TT in 1907, a 6hp Norton fitted with a Peugeot V Twin engine, look at that drive belt! Excellent Machinery Lubrication Lunch & Learn session from NORIA presented in our home city of Coventry by global representative Austin O'Kelley.
Great mix of people from industry, lubricant suppliers, specialists and Oil Safe who are sponsoring this series of events. They will be following up with sessions in Edinburgh and Dublin next week (26 & 28th March) then Manchester is planned for later on this year, highly recommended if you want access to Lubrication training from NORIA, or if you would like to collaborate or partner with them. Great three day visit to FB Chains and RotaLube® in BlackburnUPTIME Consultant's last Lubrication Workshop of 2023 took place on the 12th December at FB Chains location in Blackburn which is also the home of their sister company RotaLube.
This workshop was made more special as we started the day before with a meet up at a local hotel then dinner followed by a lot of networking, early to bed for me to 'perform' the following day. FB Chain had also flown in delegates from Austria, Germany and Letchworth! See FB Ketten for the European FB Chain offerings. The next day was "UPTIME Consultant's Lubrication Workshop" a course that primes people for taking on an MLT1 qualification course. I cover about 95% of the ICML body of knowledge requirements at a high level to give engineers and technicians a start in their lubrication learning journey. We had ten delegates for the course, a number I feel is at the top of what works for me, groups between 6-10 I think work the best. We had a quick Q&A at the end along with a 20 question quiz to test retention, pleased to say nearly everyone stayed awake. Staying over at the same hotel afterwards gave us the opportunity to expand on any lubrication questions, especially in lubricating chains used in many heavy industries. If you are UK based and require an independent to train basic or more advance Lubrication practices then please feel free to get in touch via our contact form, or email me directly. Great 'fast dating' format at MTCLocal to our business is the MTC - Manufacturing Technology Centre here in Coventry.
I've collaborated on and off for a few years with the teams there involved with engaging SMEs, this 'Meet Make Manufacture' meeting was the first organised by Andy Wylie, and he put on a great show in a very interesting format. Partners were available in a large meeting room laid out like an exam room, the idea was that the business you were interested in speaking to were on your list, this itinerary was pre-selected via email a few days prior. You had 15 minutes divided by a bell and buzzer to move on, this gave enough time for two elevator pitches and a conversation to explore any synergies. Even though the make up didn't look like it fit my sector I learnt a lot about many businesses and did find those synergies, I made lots of new connections and it certainly made good use of the available time. Teas, coffees, fruit and a buffet lunch were all served by the MTC whilst more networking took place. I will be looking out for the next one taking place in 2024 👏 |
Andy
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