New Ultrasound instrument on test Thanks to David Smith and IRISS Corp I have loaned the latest generation Atex standard Ultrasound instrument to run it through its paces on the front line this week. Currently working with major Food Industry manufacturer that has many potentially explosive atmospheres around their process halls. Highly dust ladened at areas have the risk of explosion if your electrical devices are not up to standard so why take the risk? Really looking forward to testing the capabilities with some back to back comparisons with my Acoustic Emission equipment. The comprehensive kit looks very impressive with distance horn, detail probe, contact probe for bearings etc, ultrasonic microphone and a temperature contact probe.... you could even add a parabolic dish if that's your thing! 
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Uptime Consultant's annual pilgrimage SILK CUT #2 Jaguar XJR-9 Le Mans winning car in the BMM Workshop today It's becoming a bit of a tradition now for Uptime Consultant to pay a visit each year to the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire. I can thoroughly recommend it especially if you have a soft spot for Jaguars as it's the home of the Jaguar Heritage Trust Collection. The XJR-9 here was in the workshop for some remedial work after the first gear had given way when the car was taking part in the recent Coventry Motoring Festival, chatting to the technician today about how 'weak' these first ratios are as the cars were never really meant to use it in anger, apparently it was during the demonstrations that it 'let go' after burning some rubber!  Jaguar XJ220 Motor Show concept with #8/10 Pre-production XJ220 in the foreground My claim to fame with these two Jaguars is that I machined both the concept car Transaxle and front axle then years later machined the ten pre-production vehicles transaxles when I worked for FFD Ltd. I also machined the Le Mans XJ220C Transmissions that were very special in that they were cast in aircraft spec magnesium alloy. It's the first time I have seen these cars side by side and I must say they did a very good job of keeping the production car true to the concept of the original, save for loosing the V12 and four wheel drive. Great looking supercar in my opinion.   Uptime Consultant Ltd article in print July - August 2018 issue of Industrial Maintenance Engineer magazine I like going to trade shows, sometimes to take in what developments are taking place, often to catch up with companies I have worked with or for in the past but generally to meet like minded people. It's great to hear how people try to sell their products and services and I sometimes pick up or share some tips or advise. One of the shows I attended at the NEC in the spring had me talking quite randomly to an editor of a magazine that specialised in the industrial sector, one thing lead to another as we swapped business cards with a view to me contributing an article. I have regular requests for this but they all tend to be too sales orientated in that they would like me to pay to contribute to their magazine, I always say thanks but no thanks as I am not in the business of massive outreach to lots of prospects. This though was different as they wanted information sharing which suited me fine. Roll forward a couple of months and an email landed asking if I was still interested, another thing was the short deadline of just over a week and I would be away in two days. I agreed and sent a copy based on their requirements in a couple of hours and made the July/August edition of the print only (no digital) Industrial Maintenance Engineer magazine. Below Uptime Consultant Ltd's Predictive Maintenance article "Model Of Success"  If you would like to read the full article I have reproduced it on an 'Uptime Consultant Article' page that is a drop down under the 'Training' heading.
Let me know what you think or if you are a publication that would like a guest to write you an article on an Uptime Consultant subject then send me an email andy@uptimeconsultant.co.uk Uptime Consultant at Southampton Science Park The Kenneth Dibben House where Uptime Consultant presented to 17 Data Scientists Spent a very enjoyable morning presenting the Uptime Consultant Condition Monitoring Seminar to a team of Data Scientists after being invited by their CTO Rob Russell who asked me to 'take them into the front line of a production environment'
This was a new audience for me so it took a little thought of pitching how PdM works in the real world to a group of scientists that had never experienced a production environment nor considered the constraints or complexity of interacting assets. The morning was split into two halves with the first section covering some strategic thinking, criticality, sensor deployment, the importance of people and many other aspects of how these things operate in the real world. Part two was a session about where we find ourselves now with Predictive Technology and what the future may look like with their help developing the connected Condition Monitoring of the future. For more information on Senseye visit www.senseye.io  Senseye's June webinar looked at the FMCG and Food & Beverage sectors Uptime Consultant had already agreed to run the seminar in the morning for all the Data Scientists and Computer Analysts to gain a better understanding how things looked at the front line of Condition Monitoring, so they kindly invited me as a guest to take part in the afternoon June webinar.
This was a perfect fit for me as this month they were focussing on the sector I have the most recent experience of: FMCG Food & Beverage. They have a great format that runs once a month with a knowledge sharing approach so light on the sales front. It had attendees from around the world tuning in live and putting forward their questions at the end of the hour long session. Theresa Farrell presented and chaired the session along with Peter O'Hara and myself answering a couple of the specific questions regarding what the future may look like and the role experienced PdM Techs will play in that future. Peter spent some time sharing a live demonstration of how the intuitive dashboard works and the insights that can be generated in real time, historically through trending and prognostics using machine learning and front line feedback through the app. If you would like to sign up to future webinars visit www.senseye.io Helping the worlds favourite snack food brands with Asset Management Some very nice box hedge topiary at the Pepsico Global R&D site in the UK Another visit to my previous employer to talk about assisting with the Asset Management program to ensure the availability of their critical assets for partners all around the world in the Snack Food arm of the Pepsico business.
That's all I can say really other than it's great to work with some ex-colleagues and new people that share the same drive for improvement as myself. I'm sure we will achieve some better than expected results here. Great two day event with CRL Training Workshop and presentations The attendees, presenters and supporters of the two day symposium on the lawn, Uptime Consultant at the back there! An excellent two days immersed in Reliability with the Reliabilityweb organisation and supporting partners Pruftechnik, IRISS, Emerson, Interloc, Stork (Fluor Company) and ARMS Reliability.
Billed as the "Reliability & Asset Management Training Symposium" with world leaders in reliability like Terrence O'Hanlon and Dave Rieber from Reliabilityweb presenting keynotes and running training classes, supported by the associated companies mentioned above is was bound to be a successful event and it was. Some delegates had been studying for their CRL (Certified Reliability Leader) exam that was to take place on the afternoon of the second day after attending three workshops to support that. This is the basis for many in industry to take the first steps in their reliability journey and from seeing the content is a great way to start. The team from Reliabilityweb were just as I expected, warm, friendly and helpful with a schedule that ran like clockwork thanks mainly to Maura Abad who kept things on track. I chose to attend the first two hour workshop with Martin Robinson, CEO of IRISS with 'How to Create an Effective Electrical Maintenance Program' which was eye opening for many attendees especially when we looked at risks of Arc Flash and electrocution. The afternoon of day one I then took in a session from Oliver Booth of ARMS Reliability with his presentation 'How to Get Optimal Strategies on Every Asset All The Time' most of the content I already use when training or talking to my clients including, RCM, Criticality, Risks vs Rewards and Consequences of Failure. Another well balanced session from a top presenter. Day two started with three RAP talks, similar to a TED talk that last about 20 minutes and were presented by Ian Higham, Michael Whittaker from Emerson Automation and Terrance O'Hanlon CEO of Reliabilityweb.com The morning workshop was from ARMS Reliability and Steve Vardy explaining their own 'Apollo' RCA approach to problem solving, basically more than 5 Whys and Fishbone; imagine mixing both with 5W branches on the Fishbone to broaden the analysis. After another excellent lunch provided I took in a session for two hours with Dave Rieber of Reliabilityweb entitled 'How to Support, Promote and Sustain an Asset Condition Monitoring Project' another great presentation saying most of the things I already share; drive ROI, report the wins, act with integrity, sell the Condition Monitoring benefits relentlessly in your business. Reliabilityweb.com are going to return to the UK in 2018 so look out for those dates, I know I will be there either taking in the presentations or presenting if they will have me! Highly recommended and if you are looking at a formal qualification for Reliability this is the place to look. Great catch up with Jonathan & Alex Flying visit to take in two shows in one morning at Birmingham NEC.
Straight in off the train to visit Jonathan and Alexander from Senseye to catch up on how things are going in the world of Prognostics in the automotive sector. Had a nice chat with an engineer from Ricardo about their battery development facility in Cambridge and a blast from the past visiting Grainger and Worrall looking at automotive CNC machining; I once procured transmission casings for the Jaguar XJ220 supercar back in 1996? Snackfood central of Walkers brands Beautiful sunny day for a trip up to Skelmersdale to drop in and visit a former Predictive Maintenance colleague at the site.
Spent a very enjoyable couple of hours sharing ideas and methods to drive Reliability in Food Manufacturing processes. Really good to hear how the Skem' site has developed over the past few years. Some great work and further challenges, hopefully I gave Norman a few ideas! Excellent site and the usual PepsiCo welcome. Here's Uptime Consultant's positionGDPR has stirred quite a lot of last minute emailing and I must admit it has been cathartic to unsubscribe from so many databases and lists I didn't know I was part of!
Fortunately Uptime Consultant Ltd has never taken part in unsolicited email or calling activities. All of my contacts are purely business to business and are all down to prospects and clients contacting Uptime Consultant Ltd directly. I hold no personal data about any of the trainees or clients in any databases. This website is hosted with the highest levels of security and the cookie policies have been updated by the site provider recently. Today is GDPR Day but it will be an ongoing process, I will constantly review and update security levels as they become apparent. If you have any concerns contact me directly at andy@uptimeconsultant.co.uk Thanks, Andy |
Andy
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