Maintworld Issue3 2016

3/2016 www.maintworld.com 

maintenance & asset management 

Industry 4.0 

Knocking on Your 

Front Door PAGE 42 

RELIABILITY IN THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY PAGE 12 SMARTENING UP OLD EQUIPMENT PAGE 24 REMOTE MONITORING WITH ULTRASOUND PAGE 48

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©2016 Moog Inc. All rights reserved. 

moogglobalsupport.com

EDITORIAL 

Teksti Martti Hakonen 

From Analog 

to Digital 

Kuva: Antti Verkasalo 

LIFE WAS a lot more analogical when I graduated in the late 1970’s. The 

first microprocessors were out but programming languages such as 

Assembler did not indicate that the new technology would make our 

life any easier. Computers had to be started with on-off switches and 

a punch tape. Whatever you wanted to do, the limitations in memory 

size were a real barrier. 

The milestones in industrial maintenance and process automation, 

which I studied, were about the same. In the early 1980’s maintenance 

started with CMMSs (Computerized Maintenance Management Systems) 

and automation with DCSs (Distributed Controlled Systems). 

Digitalization entered the field in the latter part of the decade with 

measurement instruments for maintenance and automation. However, 

the dominant portion still remained analogical. 

The process industry started to benefit from the 

new generation of high performance electronics, quite 

often with extended operational range due to the 

increased availability of military grade components. 

Later in the 1990’s PC technology jumped in making 

our life again easier. We got a brand new offering 

of tools for core functionality like configuration and 

troubleshooting. 

The integration of software and PC-technology boomed after the 

Millennium. Most of the main players serving the process industry 

released software-based solutions for condition monitoring and asset 

management. Some of them only supported core functionalities, but 

the most advanced ones included sophisticated modelling features 

that help simulate process conditions and guide the user to avoid abnormal 

situations. 

There is a lot new expected to come out during this decade. Think 

about Internet of Things, mobile workers, 3D printing, laser scanning, 

wireless tools for condition monitoring and large data-based prognostic 

software solutions. Most of the above were available before 2010, 

but the real boom only began during the last few years. 

Digitalisation is the enabler of the new technologies. Our challenge 

is to take benefit from these new possibilities and turn them into improved 

reliability in our plants and processes. The good thing is that 

you do not have to do it by yourself – partnering and networking is the 

way to success. 

Last, but not least, I want to introduce the new Editor-in Chief, Nina 

Garlo-Melkas. She is an experienced journalist with a background 

in economics and science. From now on Nina is responsible for both 

Maintworld and Promaint magazines and I’ll provide editorial support 

as needed. Since February she has already been publishing our newsletters. 

Nina’s email is nina.garlo@omnipress.fi. 

Martti Hakonen 

4 maintworld 3/2016 

Our challenge is to take benefit from new 

possibilities and turn them into improved 

reliability in our plants and processes. 

8 

OPC 

products available 

in the marketplace easily 

exceed 10,000; the exact 

number is unknown, and the 

number of installations is 

estimated to be in the tens 

of millions.

IN THIS ISSUE 3/2016 

24 

Researchers estimate that by 

2020 there will be as many as 26 

billion devices connected to the 

Internet. 

16 

To correctly deploy a 

monitoring tool, first 

know what to look for 

and then choose how to 

find it. 

6 

8 

12 

16 

20 

Towards Better Asset 

Performance 

OPC Unified Architecture 

Facilitates the Exchange of 

Information in the IoT 

Reliability - What Fails and What 

Do We Do About It? 

Choosing the Right Diagnostic 

Tools 

Things Many Vibration Analysts 

Don’t Do, but Should – Part 2 

24 

26 

30 

34 

36 

Smartening Up Old Equipment 

with IoT 

Recording - Back to the Future 

(Part 2) 

Smart Maintenance 

Management 

The Maintenance Effectiveness 

Assessment: A Catalyst for 

Change 

Reliability and Maintenance 

Management Beliefs – Part 1 

40 

42 

46 

48 

52 

Detect Leaks with Thermal 

Imaging 

Industry 4.0 Knocking on Your 

Front Door 

Increased reliability through 

continuous and remote 

substation asset monitoring 

Remote Monitoring with 

Ultrasound 

From Data to Decisions and 

Improved Business 

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

Omnipress Oy, Mäkelänkatu 56, 00510 Helsinki, 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 Subscriptions and Change of Address members toimisto@kunnossapito.fi, non-members 

tilaajapalvelu@media.fi Printed by Painotalo Plus Digital Oy, www.ppd.fi Frequency 4 issues per year, ISSN L 1798-7024, ISSN 

1798-7024 (print), ISSN 1799-8670 (online). 

3/2016 maintworld 5

CONDITION MONITORING 

An Immersive Environment for 

VISUAL OPERATIONS – 

Towards Better Asset Performance 

Connecting IT with Operational and Engineering Technology will bring real benefits 

to Asset Performance Modelling. Digital engineering modelling will help to generate a 

3D reality mesh for the real world data. 

BHUPINDER SINGH, 

Chief Product Officer, 

Bentley Systems, 

bhupinder.singh 

@bentley.com 

IT IS HELPFUL to think of digital engineering 

information as the digital DNA 

for infrastructure assets – down to every 

nut, bolt and screw. Just as doctors can 

analyse human DNA to anticipate health 

issues and personalize healthcare for 

better health outcomes, companies can 

harness the digital DNA of their assets to 

personalize asset maintenance for better 

TOTEX, maximized uptime and more. 

As operations technology (OT) leverages 

the Industrial Internet of Things 

(IIoT) with sensors on operating equipment 

and assets producing an enormous 

volume of big data, there is a need for 

improved security, information sharing 

and data management. This, in turn, is 

driving an unprecedented convergence 

with IT. However, organizations are 

struggling to make use of the data from 

their OT and IT systems, causing them 

to miss opportunities to improve asset 

performance. This is due, in part, to the 

fact that the digital engineering model 

developed during the engineering phase 

of capital projects, are typically not playing 

a role in operations. 

What if owner-operators could use 

these models in operations? Imagine 

how a digital engineering model − the 

engineering technology or ET of an asset 

− could help operations and maintenance 

people forecast problems, do 

better planning, and improve performance. 

It is now possible for companies 

to converge their IT, OT and ET – and 

seamlessly integrate process and information 

flows between them – to enable 

asset performance modelling to deliver 

actionable intelligence for decision support 

through an immersive environment 

for visual operations. 

IIOT IS DRIVING A 

CONVERGENCE BETWEEN 

OPERATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 

AND INFORMATION 

TECHNOLOGY. 

The Digital Engineering Model 

For many years, engineering departments 

have been using advanced modelling 

and simulation applications that 

focus on the process of design and construction 

of an infrastructure asset – a 

plant, bridge, highway, railway 

or utility network 

– in a way that improves project delivery 

and asset performance. Better project 

delivery enables companies to optimize 

CAPEX – through both the depth of information 

modelling and the breadth of 

information mobility for collaboration 

during design and construction. 

There’s a staggering amount of information 

related to assets – detailed 

component specifications, precise geolocation, 

configuration management, 

fabrication details, cost information, 

predicted lifetimes, recommended 

maintenance and repair information. 

Today’s engineering technology makes it 

possible to bring all of this information 

together within the federated digital 

engineering model, making it possible to 

track, access, and share with others collaborating 

on the project (see Figure 1). 

The technology also enables engineers 

to model projects in a 3D virtual 

setting for design integration and construction 

work packaging, so that when 

the project is actually constructed in the 

real world, the project teams and 

stakeholders are able to minimize 

unforeseen situations 

and keep the project 

on track. 

6 promaint maintworld 3/2016


Ideally, all of this information flows 

between applications and project teams 

for better project delivery, which is the 

key to better CAPEX, and flows through 

to operations and maintenance systems 

across the entire asset lifecycle, which 

is key to reducing OPEX. For example, 

when companies can integrate the 3D 

models for each discipline involved in a 

project, it improves information mobility. 

Disciplines can more effectively 

communicate critical design details for 

operations, detect clashes earlier in the 

design phase and before construction 

starts, share updates during the engineering 

and construction phases, and 

hand over accurate and complete information 

to ensure successful start-up and 

ongoing operations. 

The Beginning of 

IT/ET/OT Convergence 

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) 

is driving a convergence between operational 

technology and information technology. 

Digital engineering models can 

accelerate this convergence and add the 

visual representation of the real world 

needed to aid decision making; this can 

have far-reaching impacts on the safety, 

productivity, efficiency and operations 

of industries worldwide. 

For example, consider how South 

Australia Water is currently using predictive 

and real-time operational analytics 

to forecast water demand and improve 

customer service while reducing 

operational costs. To create a demand 

forecasting tool, they needed to pull information 

from both the operational and 

IT sides of the organization in real time. 

Bentley’s predictive analytics software 

was chosen as the operational 

intelligence platform due to its real-time 

ability to connect and capture data from 

a wide variety of sources, its ability to 

perform complicated calculations and 

analysis, and its impressive visualization 

capabilities. Real-time monitored sensor 

Digital 

engineering 

models bring together 

critical information 

in a virtual 3D 

environment. 

data is brought in from the reservoirs, 

water treatment plants, valves, flowmeters, 

and pumps spread across the extensive 

pipeline network. 

This operational data is combined 

in real time with climate, energy, cost, 

and population data and is displayed on 

dashboards. Bringing these data sources 

together has resulted in huge benefits, 

including improved performance, enhanced 

understanding of interrelationships, 

and better decision-making and 

more accurate predictions of short- and 

TYING TOGETHER IT, OT, AND 

ET ALLOWS THE COMPANY 

TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF 

LOWER FORWARD MARKET 

PRICING FOR ELECTRICITY. 

long-term demand. 

South Australia Water also integrated 

a demand optimization tool that is used 

to optimize the availability and the 

movement of clean water around the 

network to demand areas quickly and 

efficiently. It calculates how to deliver 

the water by calculating costs and determining 

which pumping stations to use, 

which pumps are needed, and so on. 

Built-in analytics take the output of 

the demand forecasting tool to develop 

a live hydraulic model that determines 

water pressures and flows throughout 

the network. Using this digital engineering 

model, South Australia Water can 

actively optimize water supply and reliability 

to its customers. Customers enjoy 

improved water security, and response 

times to problems, such as broken water 

mains, have been reduced by 90 percent. 

Tying together IT, OT, and ET also 

allows the company to take advantage 

of lower forward market pricing for electricity. 

They can use an energy portfolio 

management spot-market power price 

tool to determine the optimal timing for 

pump operations on five pipelines, as 

well as when to purchase power in highly 

volatile markets. The impact on OPEX 

can be significant – a saving of AUD 3 

million per year. 

The second part of the article will be 

released in issue 4/2016 covering Asset 

Performance Modelling and the Integration 

of Processes and Information. 


INDUSTRIAL INTERNET 

NATHAN POCOCK, 

Director of Technology 

and Compliance at the 

OPC Foundation, 

nathan.pocock@ 

opcfoundation.org 


Facilitates the Exchange of 

Information in the IoT 

The Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 needs no introduction, everybody 

has heard of them, and everybody understands the buzz and the opportunities 

ahead. But how are you prepared to benefit from this next technological leap 

while maximizing your opportunity with minimal risk and cost? 

8 maintworld 3/2016

The Industrial Interoperability Standard 

Much more than a protocol … 

that is why it’s recommended 

for Industrie 4.0 

1 


Interoperability for Industrie 4.0 and the Internet of Things 

OPC UA is a framework for Industrial Interoperability 

➞ Modeling of data and interfaces for devices and services 

➞ Integrated security by design with confi gurable access rights 

for data and services – validated by German BSI security experts 

➞ Extendable transport protocols: 

Client/Server and Publisher/Subscriber and roadmap for TSN 

➞ Scalable from sensor to IT Enterprise & Cloud 

➞ Independent from vendor, operating system, 

implementation language and vertical markets 

Industrie 

IoT 

4.0 

M2M 

Download of 

Technology brochure: 

opcfoundation.org/ 

resources/brochures/ 

Information models of different branches are mapped onto OPC UA to make them 

interoperable with integrated security. The OPC Foundation closely cooperates 

with organizations and associations from various branches: 

TM 

Verband für Automatische 

Datenerfassung, Identifikation und Mobilität 

www.opcfoundation.org

INDUSTRIAL XXXXXX INTERNET 

SINCE THE 1990’S, technology development has generally focused 

on the PC platform. During the past few years, focus has 

been on mobile platforms. Today’s focus is two-fold: small scale 

devices and large-scale cloud infrastructures, and getting them 

and everything in-between to work seamlessly together. 

What is driving this change? Data! Successful businesses are 

maximizing their efficiency to reduce costs. This means that 

important business decisions need to be made much faster 

than ever before, with minimum investment, and maximum 

effect. Is this possible? It’s always been “possible”, it just wasn’t 

cost effective or easy; now it is! 

New products are already available that are intelligent, provide 

contextual information (discussed in Information Modelling) 

to enable rapid decision making (human or automated), 

and scale to the needs of the enterprise. Now it’s your turn! 

IMPORTANT BUSINESS DECISIONS NEED TO 

BE MADE MUCH FASTER THAN EVER BEFORE, 

WITH MINIMUM INVESTMENT. 

Introducing OPC Unified 

Architecture (UA) 

The keys to success are adopting open standards such as OPC 

UA, a platform-independent technology where interoperability 

is assured. 

Initially targeting the Industrial Automation industry, OPC 

technology emerged in the mid 90’s and was based on Microsoft 

technologies, but was revamped in the early 2000’s to be a 

future-facing and platform-independent technology. OPC Unified 

Architecture harmonizes many existing and widely successful 

OPC standards (Data Access, Historical Data, Alarms & 

Conditions, Programs, Security, and more) into one cohesive 

standard. 

OPC products available in the marketplace easily exceed 

10,000; the exact number is unknown, and the number of 

installations is estimated to be in the tens of millions. OPC is 

used in commercial products and in countless internal-only 

systems. There is such an abundance of applications such 

as visualization, data-logging, alert notifications, or other 

business-intelligence applications, which makes a strong case 

for adopting OPC UA because your product can integrate with 

them all, immediately. 

OPC technology is platform independent and is already 

implemented on Windows, Linux/*nix, Apple, Android, and in 

Embedded controllers such as PLCs, Raspberry PI, and a multitude 

of other very small-scale circuitry. 

What’s happening now? The number of PC-based applications 

is massive, but we are also seeing OPC enabled at the controller 

level, from the DCS, PLC, down to the microchip. Companies 

such as Beckhoff, GE, Honeywell, Rockwell, Siemens, and 

others, all have OPC UA enabled hardware. 

OPC has spread beyond Industrial Automation that it has 

served so well for the last 2 decades, and is now deeply rooted 

in Oil & Gas, Building Automation, and Energy, with more industry 

horizontals and verticals following. 

What Does OPC Do 

Why would you choose OPC technology to share data? Because 

that is what it was designed to do! 

There are 5 core features of OPC: Browsing: the ability to 

locate OPC systems on a network and to connect to them, and 

to visually browse the availability of data using a file/folder 

methodology; Reading: data-points or objects etc.; Writing: 

to one or more data-points, or entire objects; Subscriptions: 

receiving update notifications for when data/information 

changes; and Eventing: to provide meaningful alert notifications. 

These capabilities provide the entire infrastructure necessary 

for OPC products to share data/information of any kind, 

with one another. 

OPC technology has three key standards of which the majority 

of products implement: Data Access, for real-time data 

sharing; Historical Data/Events, for analytics and reporting 

of data and/or events stored in a database/historian; Alarms & 

OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is an industrial M2M communication protocol for interoperability developed by the OPC Foundation. 



IIoT Industry 4.0 

OPC 

UA 

M2M 

New Era Technologies 

Conditions, for alarm events that notify when alarm-triggers 

are hit, such as a temperature reaching a Low or High setpoint, 

etc. Each of these Profiles serves a purpose; you can simply 

pick and choose the feature/functionality you need within 

your product(s). 

OPC is successful because of its plug-n-play design. An OPC 

Client interacts with an OPC Server. The OPC Foundation 

Compliance Working Group provides members with Compliance 

Test Tools (CTTs) for automated compliance testing, testcase 

specifications, and interoperability workshops for faceto-face 

testing between different vendors and their products. 

The OPC Certification Test Lab conducts vigorous testing to 

validate a product is interoperable, compliant, robust, and efficient 

with resources. End-users are increasingly demanding 

Certified products because it reduces their risk, and increases 

the overall reliability of their infrastructure. 

SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES ARE MAXIMIZING 

THEIR EFFICIENCY TO REDUCE COSTS. 

Security 

MTBH? Mean Time Between Hack… will that become a new 

KPI? Let’s hope not. Power grids, refineries, utilities, and others, 

have been brought to their knees from hackers. How do you 

prevent your product from being the cause of such a disaster? 

OPC UA provides a significant multi-layer security model 

featuring end-to-end encryption and signing: preventing 

eavesdropping and message alteration; sequencing: to detect 

and request lost messages and to prevent message replay; auditing: 

to provide detailed activity logs; user authentication: 

for allocation of user permissions; application authentication: 

to lock down which systems to communicate with; redundancy: 

for failover support in the case of lost communications. 

Don’t invent your own security model. Simply adopt OPC 

UA and inherit the security which was peer-reviewed by industrial 

cyber-security experts and government agencies, and 

leverages internationally approved best practices and technologies. 

Information Modelling 

Data is good, but is not too useful by itself. Data needs context, 

and this will become even more important as data/information 

flows freely from system to system as the IoT and Industry 4.0 

fully deploy. 

Information can be defined as structured data, or “objects”. 

OPC UA provides a rich information model empowering you to 

define your own object types, data types, and modelling rules. 

Once you define your type(s) you can simply create “instances” 

of them and assure that your data model is always used correctly. 

This is the core interest of many collaborations with organizations 

such as BACnet, MDIS, and PLCopen, etc. who are 

able to define their own object types to represent machines, a 

part, a building, or a process etc. 

Existing OPC applications can readily consume this “information” 

as individual data-points, which is OK for activities 

such as data-logging, visualization, or alert notifications etc. 

However, smart applications will understand the bigger-picture 

of what this information means and will be able to make 

more contextual business decisions at higher layers within the 

enterprise. 

An Abundance of ‘Getting Started’ Materials 

The OPC Foundation provides a wealth of information to help 

you get started, from Specifications to sample code, and a product 

catalogue showing OPC Certified commercial toolkits and 

systems etc. Getting started may be simpler than you think. 

Sample applications are available for download from the 

OPC Foundation website and are intended to demonstrate and 

educate the use of the technology. Several OPC Foundation 

member companies also offer free applications. 

OPC Foundation members can download and use the Compliance 

Test Tools during product development in accordance 

with Agile/Scrum development methodologies to increase 

quality and reduce development and QA costs. 

The Future 

OPC UA is poised to become the de facto standard for securely 

and reliably moving information from the smallest of devices, 

up to the largest enterprise or cloud-based systems. OPC UA is 

leading the way to being a key enabler of the IoT and Industry 

4.0 and we are excited to be a part of it! 


RELIABILITY 

RELIABILITY - What Fails 

and What Do We Do About It? 

Companies in the Oil & Gas industry have been attempting to improve the manufacturing 

reliability of their operations to improve financial performance by setting up 

effective Asset Performance Management (APM) strategies. The driver of this has 

been the potential to realize a 20-25 percent reduction in conversion costs, accompanied 

by a 15-25 percent increase, in real production capacity, without additional 

capital investment. 

PETER BROOSUS, 

Senior Consultant, 

Nexus Global, 

p.broosus@ 

nexusglobal.com 

WHILE THE PRIZE is large, and pressure 

on margins is heavy, many efforts made 

by companies in the Oil & Gas industry 

to improve their manufacturing reliability 

through APM will, or already have 

failed. (See Figure 1.) 

Let’s look at some examples of why 

these sort of efforts fall short by looking 


at the following aspects of APM as they 

relate to Strategy Management and referring 

to Figure 2. 

1. What does Reliability mean? 

2. What equipment / component to 

track? 

3. The interactions of behaviour (culture), 

work processes, and tools. 

1. What does Reliable 

Operation mean? 

Does a Maintenance department create 

or “do” Reliability in your facilities? 

Wouldn’t that be the same as expecting 

the Safety Department/HSE to “do 

safety”? 

We need to realize that Reliability of 

Operations is an output of a system, supported 

by People (culture!), Processes 

and Technology (tools!). Just in the same 

manner safety is. 

Tasking a single department to “do reliability” 

will not lead to success. Achieving 

Reliable Operations requires at least 

four of the core business functions to 

work coherently together, toward the 

same end goals: 

• Engineering 

An Engineering Business Function, 

should be responsible for selecting 

equipment that maximizes design reli-

More Uptime. 

Better Returns. 

Strategy Management 

Zero tolerance for unexpected failures. 

Your assets are the value delivery engine of your business. Their most 

important function is to operate as engineered for their intended design 

life. With predictable performance and predictable results. Maximizing the 

return on your capital employed (ROCE), allowing you to bank more of your 

turnover. Being less sensitive to uncontrollable external factors such as 

commodity price fluctuations, macroeconomics, or monetary policies. 

Nexus Global Strategy Management implementations typically result 

in a 15%-40% reduction in operational costs with a 5%-10% increase in 

capacity utilization while maintaining or improving the risk tolerance of 

the business. 

Download our whitepaper and learn more at 

www.nexusglobal.com/bankonuptime 

+31.30.799.5050 

europe@nexusglobal.com

RELIABILITY 

ability, and in a joint design process with 

Production and Maintenance is set up to 

be designed for maintainability. 

This is where the essential initial 

strategies of run-to-failure (design for 

maintainability), interval-based maintenance 

(maintainability/reliability) 

and condition-based maintenance first 

need to be planned for. Making access to 

components made as easy as possible to 

shorten downtime durations. 

essentially to take ownership of monitoring 

the condition of equipment. Identified 

(potential) issues can be processed 

into actions in an effective and efficient 

manner to execute work that stops completely, 

or slows down further degradation 

of the equipment. 

• Procurement and Logistics 

The decisions taken to realizing lowest 

cost of ownership are far more complex 

it is caused by components that fail. A 

compressor does not fail. A bearing in an 

electrical motor on a compressor may 

fail. Or perhaps an actuator on a valve in 

a discharge system may fail. 

Traditionally inspections are built 

up into text heavy “PM’s” defining fixed 

time-based overhaul or inspections of 

systems or large assemblies. Results that 

allow tracking the condition of equipment 

as it may start deteriorating are 

Figure 1. APM overview of what is needed for high reliability. 

Figure 2. Business Functions 

The decisions taken during the Engineering 

phase will linger on for years 

after decisions are made. Choices for 

equipment and systems decided on, or 

specified, during this period can affect 

upwards of 80 percent of the total lifecycle 

ownership costs. Only 20-30 percent 

of this cost can be influenced in later 

stages of the lifecycle. 

• Production 

Alongside taking ownership of the 

required operating procedures for 

start-up-, produce-, switch-over- and 

shutdown or equipment and systems, 

production teams play an important 

role in the early identification of technical 

issues, and should be the first line of 

defence by conducting operator inspections 

of the equipment they operate, 

performing daily maintenance tasks 

(cleaning, lubricating, etc.), and operating 

within the constraints of the operating 

specifications of the equipment. 

• Maintenance 

The role of any maintenance department 

towards a Reliable Operation is 

than simply choosing the least expensive 

piece of equipment. It may be that the 

best mid-long term buy is one that costs 

most initially but last far longer than a 

“similar” item provided by another manufacturer. 

The procurement agent must 

consider the Total Cost of Ownership 

over the lifetime of the equipment. 

That the procurement agent is familiar 

with the technical complexity 

of components is not a reasonable expectation. 

Interactions need to be close 

between Engineering and Maintenance 

to educate and support the procurement 

department to develop an understanding 

in evaluating technical proposals. 

2. What equipment / 

component to track? 

Most capital projects are focusing on 

designing systems based on the production 

processes required. Basically these 

designs result in a collection of components, 

organized into individual pieces 

of equipment, which are then coupled 

together to form systems. 

Seen from the other side this implies 

that when our assets fail to function, 

either not registered sufficiently, or are 

not easily retrievable. Information is lost 

and things will go awry fast. 

Our inspections should however be focused 

on identifying potential problems 

with components, and tracking progress 

of deterioration. Using that realization 

enables us to apply the whole suite of 

predictive, preventative and corrective 

actions ranging from inspections during 

uptime as well as downtime, or inline, 

real-time monitoring, for parts or even a 

whole piece of equipment or systems. 

Industry 4.0 / Internet of Things may 

help us in analyzing component failures, 

or it may drown us, depending on how 

our processes, and the cultures that 

drive decision making, are set up. 

3. The interactions of 

behaviour (culture), work 

processes, and tools 

Some of our clients have in the past few 

years tended to build the focus of their 

APM improvement efforts on Redefining 

fields in the system, renaming statuses, 

or restructuring Master Data. This 

we can call the SAP-gap, where the ERP 


RELIABILITY 

is seen as the end-all solution to APM. 

This does not change the fundamental 

premise of moving from the text 

heavy “PM Workorder” that inspects or 

overhauls systems or large assemblies. 

Strategy Management improvements 

need to include restructuring inspections 

to focus on components and with 

tolerance limits set (process). In the 

field you need your inspectors to have a 

common reference for what is acceptable 

(culture). Inspectors will need a 

process to report the findings, defining 

what information to include. You 

will need to have people consistently 

executing the process (culture) and 

knowing how to prioritize the work. All 

those steps should clever information 

tools to make them efficient, but could 

fundamentally also be executed manually 

as well. A good rule of thumb is, if it 

wouldn’t work on paper, your IT system 

will probably not solve it, simply as the 

organization will fail to comprehend the 

processes and the information needs to 

support them. 

Setting Your Strategies May 

Require a Restart 

To be successful we need to have people 

executing the right actions, in the right 

way. Whether we equip them with a 10 

Euro-tool from the nearby discount 

store, or a 50,000 Euro-tool, is irrelevant 

until they have the ability and skills to 

productively apply the tool in the first 

place in an appropriate fashion. 

The basic “what” is simple: 

• Define your work processes and 

create your training and SOP’s to 

define behaviours. Set your tools 

up to support your work processes, 

and coach your organization heavily. 

Make sure that the core functions 

of the organization all play 

their part in inspections, and are 

providing their aspects of reliability 

to the operations 

• Organize your inspections to track 

components, know their condition, 

effectively prepare your work instructions, 

and schedule for effectiveness. 

Track what you did, and 

restart the circle. 

The “how” is not. 

TOOLS CANNOT REPLACE 

CULTURAL BEHAVIOUR AND 

PROCESSES. 

Realizing that there are many more 

pitfalls to pay attention to, we will need 

to park those items for another time. At 

last it may however be worthwhile to 

touch on how important it is to be open 

to taking a step back, looking at the big 

picture, and openly asking: “Does what 

we have make sense?” 

The reluctance to be honest with ourselves 

and our coworkers tend to derail 

improvement initiatives and sometimes 

become a devastating fungus in a company’s 

culture. 

Appreciating that companies, or 

rather the individuals making up the 

company, want to pursue success in life. 

It is always frustrating to see people being 

pushed into Ponzi-like schemes to 

satisfy the end of the week, end of the 

month, end of the quarter cheat-sheets 

related to the personal appraisal structure 

to drive one’s career. 

Issues in the company’s processes 

get chopped up in ever smaller pieces, 

cleaned up and stuffed with irrational 

arguments to make it palatable as a ”personal 

achievement” on the “tick-box-list”. 

And “success” is then rewarded based 

on having the box ticked whether or not 

it has done something to the bottomline 

of the business on the long term. 

And because such “achievement” is 

personal, they obviously become a point 

of personal interest for the individual in 

question to safeguard them for critique 

even when there is proof that it makes 

no sense at all. 

In the end, such behavior becomes 

a root cause for “broken business processes” 

and forms artifacts in the culture 

making change harder than necessary. 

Not surprisingly most of those 

“achievements” are coined as “improvements” 

and “innovations” and often 

relate to the themes like the “SAP gap” 

or other nice-to-have tools and gadgets. 

Why? Because that is sexy. It is not perceived 

as “sexy” to achieve an almost 

perfect schedule compliance at the end 

of the day or the end of the week. That’s 

ordinary “work” and tends to be taken 

for granted in the meeting rooms of the 

management echelons. 

It requires determination and full 

support from top- and senior management 

to drive the required behaviors 

into the right direction. 

This then adds one extra point to the 

to-do list: 

• Make a point of doing the right 

work at the right time with the right 

people under the right conditions. 

Change perceptions and make success 

of managing work on a daily, 

weekly, monthly quarterly a “sexy” 

thing to do!! Because in the end, 

growing our business accounts is 

one-on-one related to our ability 

to reliably deliver quality products 

and services to our customers in a 

sustainable manner! 

BENEFITS OF SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTING ASSET PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT (APM) STRATEGIES: 

1. Increased availability of production systems, 

and reliability - knowing they will 

run when required. 

2. Fewer failures of production systems 

and equipment 

3. Lower costs for system and equipment 

maintenance, spare parts inventory, and 

capital replacement. 

4. Improved product quality associated 

with a reduction in costs related to losing 

or reprocessing products 

5. Higher profits to put in the bank, due to 

the compound effect of reduced conversion 

costs through factors above. 

6. Additional real capacity as operating 

units are able to operate at higher yield 

levels for sustained periods without 

excessive failure rates. 

7. Enhanced morale amongst management, 

craftspeople, and other employees 

as they learn to enjoy a proactive 

environment instead of surviving in 

chaos. 

8. A continuously learning enterprise 

resulting from accurate analysis of 

equipment maintenance, repair, and 

replacement records. 



Major bearing manufacturers tell us that between 50 and 80 percent 

of all premature bearing failures are cause by lubrication issues. 

Choosing the Right 

Diagnostic Tools 

The human brain is amazing. How many times have you opened a drawer that’s full of 

all sorts of things and picked out the one thing that you opened the drawer to find? 

THOMAS J. 

MURPHY C. ENG, 

Corporate Training 

Manager, SDT 

International,, 

tom@sdt.be 

WE DO THIS frequently and think little of 

it. How much more difficult would that 

search be if you did not know what the 

object that you wanted to find actually 

looked like? 

Unfortunately, this happens a lot in 

the world of condition monitoring. Companies 

go to great lengths, and considerable 

expense, to purchase the “right” 

equipment or select the “right” contractor 

but then put almost no effort into the 

most important part of the preparation – 

to identify what failures look like. In the 

reliability world, this preparatory stage is 

called Failure Mode and Effect Analysis. 

Having all the right tools and not 

knowing what to look for will yield minimal 

success – all that new high technology 

will end up on a shelf in a couple of 

years’ time and quite possibly there will 

be a stigma attached along the lines of 

“we tried that and it doesn’t work”. 

Failure Mode and Effect 

Analysis (FMEA) 

FMEA is like a formal, structured, version 

of Murphy’s Law. 

• What system defects are possible? 

• How likely are they? 

• How significant are they? 

• How can we design them out? 

• How can we mitigate their effect on 

the system reliability? 

• Is it cheaper and easier to run to 

failure? 

• How can we identify their presence? 

Condition monitoring is all about 

this last question, how to develop a 

structured measurement approach that 

goes looking for the onset of a particular 

failure mode. Included in this strategy 

is the realisation that not all failures are 

trendable – some failures, a leak is a good 

example, are binary. A leak exists or it 

doesn’t, it is binary. What would you be 

measuring on a pipe fitting that would 

predict that it is going to work loose? 

My first manager in my professional 

career was an old Navy man who taught 

me that “to fail to prepare is to prepare 

to fail” and that is as true in the application 

of condition monitoring as anywhere 

else. 

To correctly deploy a monitoring 

tool, first know what to look for and then 

choose how to find it. Choose? Yes, in 

many cases there are multiple tools that 

can find a problem. Realising that brings 

a refreshing freedom: if some of your 

team prefer to use one tool over another 

and both will find the problem, give your 



team the freedom to use whatever they 

enjoy using or are most comfortable using. 

The result? Inspection routines are 

completed, problems are found, your 

expensive tools are used and reliability 

increases. 

What Can I Do with IR, 

Vib and US? 

Infrared cameras measure Infrared 

radiation from which they compute temperature. 

IR cameras provide a full-field 

real-time display that allows the user to 

see thermal patterns and distributions 

far more quickly than can be achieved 

using a single point temperature device. 

Vibration is a measurement of one of 

three things: acceleration (force), velocity 

(momentum or energy) or displacement 

depending upon the frequency 

range and the application. Phase measurement 

is a critical part of vibration 

measurement that is often overlooked. 

The use of phase allows a vibration instrument 

to perform balancing, operating 

deflection shape and modal testing. 

Ultrasound instruments measure 

sound at frequencies beyond human 

hearing, for example in the frequency 

range between 36 and 40kHz. Ultrasound 

is particularly good at detecting 

three parameters: friction, impacting 

and turbulence. There are eight application 

pillars of this type of ultrasound 

equipment: 

• Compressed gas leaks (air, CO2, Nitrogen, 

Argon, etc.) 

• Steam leaks and steam traps 

• Valves 

• Hydraulics 

• Electrical (LV, MV and HV) 

• Tightness 

• On-condition lubrication 

• Rotating machinery condition 

Clearly, from this list, ultrasound offers 

tremendous value for money in terms of 

problem coverage. 

Crossover Applications 

It is not uncommon to come across these 

crossover applications where multiple 

tools are available but a purist will insist 

that “this is the right way to find this 

problem”. Right way? There is no right 

way. If there is a problem and it can be 

found, surely that is the primary concern, 

not compliance with some unwritten 

norm that says “thou shalt use …… to 

find this problem”. 

FMEA IS LIKE A FORMAL, 

STRUCTURED, VERSION OF 

MURPHY’S LAW. 

Coupling misalignment is a typical 

example of a crossover application. It 

is possible to take vibration measurements 

to deduce that there is coupling 

misalignment. If there is line of sight of 

the coupling (something which is quite 

rare these days) it is possible to identify 

that the coupling is warming up, which 

is going to be caused by the periodic 

friction generated by the misalignment. 

Discover 

the hidden 

treasure in 

Maintenance 

Discover 

the hidden 

treasure in 

Maintenance 

There is value hidden in every maintenance organization. All companies have the potential to further improve, either by reducing 

costs, improve safety, work on the lifetime extension of machinery or by smart maintenance solutions that improves uptime. The 

question is where maintenance managers should be looking to fi nd these areas of improvement and where they need to start. 

You will fi nd the answer to this question at Mainnovation. With Value Driven Maintenance ® and the matching tools like the VDM 

Control Panel, the Process Map and our benchmark data base myVDM.com, we will help you to discover the hidden treasure in 

your company. 

Do you want to discover the hidden treasure in your maintenance organization? 

Go to www.mainnovation.com 

CONTROLLING MAINTENANCE, CREATING VALUE.


Graph 1: The lubrication technician follows a pre-defined path through a group of bearings. 

Friction? Ultrasound can hear friction. 

So by simply placing an airborne flexible 

sensor close to a gap in a coupling guard, 

the technician can hear and record the 

periodic friction associated with coupling 

misalignment. 

One highly topical example of a crossover 

application is bearing lubrication. 

Industry around the world is realising 

that there is a problem here. Major bearing 

manufacturers tell us that between 

50 and 80 percent of all premature 

bearing failures are cause by lubrication 

issues. 

If the manufacturers are correct, 

what is the point of taking vibration 

readings that are not focussed on finding 

lubrication issues? Few, definitely not 

all, vibration practitioners have additional 

training in lubrication. Those that 

do recognise that the higher frequency 

measurements associated with ultrasound 

provide greater sensitivity to the 

frictional condition. 

A bearing that needs grease will 

warm up, so why not use an IR camera? 

This is partially true, but if the environment 

that the bearing is operating in 

is already hot, it is unlikely that underlubrication 

is going to cause a further 

elevation in the temperature. Furthermore, 

lubrication physics tells us that 

under-lubrication and over-lubrication 

will both increase friction and therefore 

temperature. This will make the use of 

an IR camera difficult. 

Finally, there may be other defects 

TO CORRECTLY DEPLOY A 

MONITORING TOOL, FIRST 

KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR 

AND THEN CHOOSE HOW 

TO FIND IT. 

present – consider a fan bearing next 

to a misaligned pulley. Our IR training 

tells us that the misalignment will warm 

up the pulley. Thermodynamics tells us 

that the heat from the warm pulley will 

conduct down the shaft and warm up the 

pulley bearing. Oh! I have a hot bearing, 

I must grease it. Is it possible to lubricate 

away pulley misalignment? 

FMEA is suggesting that the course of 

action is to design out this problem. The 

problem springs from the reality that all 

bearings do not consume grease at the 

same rate, which means that their need 

for replenishment is different. Accepting 

this reality means that greasing large 

groups of bearings in the same way on a 

time basis is not logical. 

One of the key approaches which is being 

used around the world for this major 

problem is on-condition lubrication using 

ultrasound. In Graph 1 we can see a lubrication 

history using ultrasound: 

This is a route-based approach. The 

lubrication technician follows a pre-defined 

path through a group of bearings. 

For each bearing there is a history of 

readings. If the current reading exceeds 

an alarm condition, the technician 

1. stores the “before” reading, 

2. makes a comment to flag that the 

bearing was greased, 

3. performs an ultrasonic lubrication 

4. records a second “after” reading 

The result is a history for every bearing 

in the database. When it was greased and 

what condition it was left in. 

Using ultrasound during the lubrication 

process means that the difference 

between a bearing that needed grease 

(reduction in ultrasound) is clearly different 

from a bearing that was already 

over-greased (increase in ultrasound). 

Using ultrasound for lubrication in 

this way has produced some incredible 

successes. One mining Company 

reported a staggering reduction in 

grease consumption from 22 drums 

(15Kg each) per month to just 1 drum 

per month with a significant increase in 

machine reliability. A water treatment 

plant reported at the end of 2015 that 

since the implementation of their ultrasound 

programme, they had not had 

an unexpected motor bearing failure in 

three years. 

Summary 

There are many condition monitoring 

tools at your disposal. Ensure that you 

perform a thorough FMEA in order to 

uncover those defects that are most 

likely to hurt you and develop your condition 

monitoring strategies to deal with 

those problems in the most convenient 

way for your engineering talents. 

FMEAs frequently fail because the 

output is corrupted to 

1. What tools do we have? 

2. What modes will we list then? 

Instead of reaching the conclusions of: 

1. What needs to be measured? 

2. Do we have the tools to find these 

modes? 

Your future success depends upon 

choosing the right tools. 

FIGURE 1 and 2: Major bearing manufacturers tell us that between 50 and 80 percent of all premature bearing failures are 

caused by lubrication issues. 


The result of 40 years of experience 

in ultrasound maintenance 

Our policy: Versatility, Simplicity & Profitability 

• Leak detection 

• Bearing & gear condition 

monitoring 

• Lubrication optimization 

• Valve condition monitoring 

• Steam systems inspection 

• Vibration velocity & acceleration 

monitoring 

• Pump cavitation detection 

• Localization of electrical faults 

SDT International n.v. - s.a. 

Humaniteitslaan, 415 - B-1190 Brussel / Bd de l’humanité 415 - B-1190 Bruxelles 

info@sdt.be - www.sdt.eu +32 (0) 2 332 32 25


Things Many 

VIBRATION ANALYSTS 

Don’t Do, but Should 

JASON TRANTER, 

Founder and Managing 

Director of Mobius 

Institute, 

Jason.tranter@ 

mobiusinstitute.com 

In the previous issue of Maintworld –magazine we introduced 

10 things vibration analysts can do in order 

to make their job easier. In this article we will take a 

look at six more ways to lessen the burden of the 

vibration analysts’ tough job. 

THE 10 STATEMENTS introduced in the previous issue of Maintworld 

–magazine and the following six are general observations 

of common problems that the author of this article has 

observed over the past 30 years. Hopefully you find these suggestions 

helpful in your maintenance program. 

One: Don’t Rely on Vibration Alone 

You should not rely solely on vibration data when diagnosing 

faults. Other condition monitoring technologies such as ultrasound, 

oil analysis, wear particle analysis, motor current and 

voltage testing, infrared analysis and performance data can not 

only detect faults that you can miss with vibration data alone, 

but they can help to confirm whether your diagnosis of a suspected 

fault condition is indeed correct. If you are not collecting 

that data, start collecting it. If you are ignoring it because 

someone else in the organization collects it, start using it. 

How did you decide on the 

technologies, settings, and 

measurement periods? 

CRITICALITY ANALYSIS 

Helps you determine whether CBM and CM is justified 

FAILURE MODES 

Helps you determine which technologies are applicable 

P-F INTERVAL (LTTF) 

Helps you decide how often tests should be performed 

How to decide on the utilised technologies, settings, and 

measurement periods. 


MW Vertical Ad.pdf 1 9/7/2016 9:39:56 AM 



? 

Other technologies can confirm your 

diagnosis & detect faults that you 

might otherwise miss: 

Infrared 

Heat from wear and rubs 

Ultrasound 

Sound where you can’t measure 

Oil & wear debris analysis 

Oil lubricated gears & bearings 

Motor current/voltage analysis 

Rotor, stator, more 

Strobes 

Motion, rattling, source of vibration 

Other technologies that can confirm your diagnosis and 

detect possible faults. 

Two: Fully Utilize Vibration Analysis 

Vibration analysis is a tremendously powerful tool, however, 

most people only use it to detect avoidable fault conditions 

that require some form of corrective maintenance. C 

That is, of course, a very important application and certainly 

M 

generates an attractive return on investment. But there is so 

Y 

much more that can be done. 

First, vibration analysis can be used to detect the root CM 

causes of machine failure. For example, by detecting unbalance, 

misalignment, looseness, resonance, installation 

MY 

CY 

problems, lubrication issues, incorrect operation, and more 

– and then eliminating those conditions – we can greatly CMY 

reduce the likelihood of bearing faults and other conditions 

K 

that will result in corrective maintenance and possibly 

downtime. Sure, you may already react to high vibration due 

to serious unbalance, but what we need to do is eliminate 

these conditions even when they are not severe. 

Second, vibration analysis can be used as a QA tool. As 

described above, we can test the machine after it has been 

put back in service to ensure the work has been performed 

correctly (with precision). But we should also use vibration 

analysis as part of an acceptance-testing program. All new/ 

overhauled machines should be tested based on an agreed 

standard in order to ensure that is “fit for purpose” at your 

plant. You will be surprised how many problems you detect - 

and therefore how many problems you avoid. 

Three: Write Useful Reports 

One of the most common complaints made by people in 

maintenance and operations is that the reports generated 

by vibration analysts are too heavy on data with vague suggestions 

of fault conditions, and too light on information 

and recommendations that can be acted upon. All they want 

to know is what to do and when they need to do it. 

Four: Design the Program Correctly 

After purchasing a vibration monitoring system there can be 

a great temptation to measure most of the rotating machinery 

in your plant (regardless of actual criticality), using the 

“default” settings, collected every 30 days to begin with but 

C 

M 

Y 

CM 

CM 

MY CY 

MY 

CMY 

CY 

CY 

K 

CMY 

CMY 

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Y 

M 

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Y 

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MORE THAN 

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20,000 

20,000 

20,000 

20,000 

VIBRATION ANALYSTS 

VIBRATION TRAINED* ANALYSTS 

*Since 2005, MOBIUS TRAINED* 

INSTITUTE has provided classroom training 

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INSTITUTE analysts. We 

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We CONDITION are ISO/IEC MONITORING 17024 accredited PRACTICES. and provide vibration analysis 

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MOBIUS 

INSTITUTE. 

INSTITUTE. 

AUSTRALIA - BELGIUM 

COSTA RICA - UNITED STATES 

AUSTRALIA - BELGIUM 

COSTA 

AUSTRALIA BELGIUM 

COSTA www.mobiusinstitute.com 

AUSTRALIA RICA - UNITED 

RICA UNITED - BELGIUM STATES 

STATES 

COSTA RICA - UNITED STATES 

www.mobiusinstitute.com 

Call us 


worldwide at (+1) 615-216-4811 or email us at 


Call us worldwide 

learn@mobiusinstitute.com 

at (+1) 615-216-4811 or email us at 

Call us worldwide learn@mobiusinstitute.com 

at (+1) 615-216-4811 or email us at 

Call us worldwide learn@mobiusinstitute.com 

at (+1) 615-216-4811 or email us at


FOTO: STEVE POTTS 

then stretching out to 90 days or even less frequently depending 

upon the available time to perform measurements. Unfortunately, 

this is a recipe for disaster. It can be a disaster because 

machines will still fail on your watch, and/or the warnings you 

provide will be too short and as a result the maintenance and 

operation departments will lose faith in your service. 

The answer is to perform a proper criticality analysis to 

determine where you can justify the use of vibration analysis 

and the overlap of other technologies. You also need to understand 

failure modes in order to ensure that a) vibration analysis 

should be applied at all, and b) that the settings used are correct, 

and c) that the measurement interval matches the lead time to 

failure (LTTR), also known as the P-F interval. You do not need 

to perform a thorough reliability centred maintenance (RCM) 

analysis to make these decisions; a more streamlined approach 

can be taken. But you do need to perform some sort of analysis 

to ensure your program will deliver maximum value. 

Five: Teach Others about VA, 

CBM and Reliability 

There are so many companies around the world with skilled 

vibration analysts working with people who just don’t get it. 

This is tremendously frustrating for those analysts, and it is 

a waste of a terrific opportunity to reduce maintenance costs 

and downtime. It is essential that everyone in the organization 

understands the basic capability of vibration analysis (and 

the other condition monitoring tools) and the principal of 

condition-based maintenance and the principal of reliability 

improvement; eliminating the root causes of failure. 

This represents a tremendous opportunity for industry. 

Everyone should understand these principals, from senior 

management down to operators and craftspeople – and that 

certainly includes people in maintenance and operations. And 

that leads to sixteen. 

Six: Sell (and Re-sell) your Program 

to Senior Management 

Some of the best vibration analysts in the world have come to 

work only to find that the company has shut down the condition-monitoring 

department because they did not appreciate 

the value of the service. I can tell you so many stories. Maybe 

you have been through this already. It is simply not enough to 

be a skilled vibration analyst. 

When the vibration program began it was probably common 

for equipment to fail. These failures had everyone’s 

attention, including the senior plant management and the 

senior executive of the business. Thanks to vibration analysis, 

catastrophic failure becomes less common - even nonexistent. 

What a great job you’ve done! But what happens when someone 

up above decides they need to save some money. Do they 

think they need you anymore? Who needs vibration analysis if 

you don’t have machines breaking down all the time? 

So you need to be proactive. You need to understand how 

your service adds value to the business – how your service is 

aligned with the goals of the business. And you need to frequently 

communicate the importance of your service. Document 

the “saves” you have made. Document the costs you have 

avoided and the costs you have reduced. Measure your current 

state and the progress that has been made since the program 

began. Demonstrate how the vibration program has improved 

safety, reduced the number of environmental incidents, reduced 

maintenance costs, and how your activities reduced 

downtime, thus, enabling operations to achieve their targets. 

Or you could ignore this suggestion and instead work on 

your resume? Just kidding. Sort of… 

Final Words 

Now, it should be stated that any criticisms made above are not 

directed to you personally. These are just general observations 

of common problems that the author has observed over the 

past 30 years. Hopefully one or two of these suggestions will 

help you in your program. And even if all of these suggestions 

apply to you, it does not mean you have not been providing 

an excellent service to your employer or customer. They are 

simply intended to reveal opportunities for providing greater 

efficiency and an improved service. 


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CONDITION XXXXXX MONITORING 

Smartening Up Old 

Equipment with IoT 

The IoT (Internet of Things) proposes that the Internet will link billions 

of everyday objects, so that these devices can create and share data through 

powerful, global cloud computing platforms. 

GLYNN LLOYD, 

Moog Inc., 

glloyd@moog.com 

RESEARCHERS AT GARTNER, Inc. estimate 

that by 2020 there will be as many 

as 26 billion devices connected to the 

Internet. Such a promise sounds grand. 

But what effect, if any, will it have on 

maintaining industrial equipment? And 

why should maintenance managers 

care? 

Maintenance and the Internet 

of Things 

In terms of maintaining industrial 

equipment, the IoT means having the 

ability to instantly access data about 

the condition of industrial products, 

machinery and components from anywhere. 

In an unobtrusive way, managers 

can use the recent advances in wireless 

communication and data processing to 

gauge the health of their infrastructure. 

Different industries will benefit in diverse 

ways from using the IoT for maintenance. 

Table 1 suggests some examples 

from the world of operations and maintenance, 

which could offer managers 

real advantages when using the IoT. 

Another example is an IoT solution 

for retrofitting wind turbines, especially 

those in remote locations or extreme climates. 

IoT solutions in cases like these 

help prevent downtime and reduce the 

cost of energy. 

In fact, the IoT offers a natural benefit 

for a maintenance manager concerned 

about the cost and time required to 

reach and service a wind turbine hub. 

Reaching these turbines, which are 

typically 80 meters (262 feet) above the 

ground and often in remote locations, 

can require maintenance technicians to 

travel an hour or more by boat or helicopter 

to reach the repairs. 

Predicting Failure 

The battery backup system in a wind turbine 

is part of the pitch control system 

that is found in the hub of the turbine 

(see Figure 1). A 2011 report by Reliawind 

and recently conducted research 

by Moog and DNV GL Research identified 

that the pitch system is the number 

one ranked component contributing to 

wind turbine failure and downtime. 

The reason is that pitch systems are 

exposed to harsh ambient conditions inside 

the rotating hub, including extreme 

temperature, humidity, and vibration 

leading to lower reliability compared 

to other turbine components. Though 

pitch systems represent less than three 

percent of wind farm capital expenditure 

costs, they account for nearly a 

quarter of all downtime in turbines. 

While the battery is just one component 

in the pitch system, it has been found to 

be a factor, particularly in remote installations. 

Finding a way to monitor the health 

of that battery in an existing wind turbine 

requires a retrofit solution. Moog 

engineers have worked with wind farm 

professionals to develop a solution consisting 

of dedicated, high-security monitoring 

hardware and flexible remote 

connectivity for a turbine’s pitch control 

system. 

DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES WILL BENEFIT IN DIVERSE 

WAYS FROM USING THE IOT FOR MAINTENANCE. 

Figure 2: Workers 

monitor the 

performance of 

flight simulators 

in a 24/7 training 

centre where uptime 

is critical and 

maintenance crews 

have a four-hour 

window to perform 

maintenance. 


This type of solution provides O&M 

managers with online monitoring of 

battery conditions for all turbines from 

a single desktop or mobile device. Once 

installed by a wind turbine technical 

expert a system like this can provide 

routine health assessments of individual 

back-up battery trays. 

In addition to improved safety, less 

downtime and lower energy costs, a 

busy wind farm O&M manager will see 

the benefits of IoT in terms of convenient, 

secure access to wind turbines that 

include: 

• Automated email and SMS alerts on 

battery health 

• Integrated ordering of replacement 

battery modules and service visit requests 

• Real-time monitoring for other pitch 

system errors and condition deterioration 

• More rapid response and diagnosis 

by technical experts when there are 

problems 

Better, Faster Diagnosis or 

Root-Cause Analysis 

In the event a wind turbine has an unplanned 

outage, it is very common for 

maintenance crews to replace multiple 

components together during their site 

visit to increase the possibility of a successful 

repair, rather than performing 

a detailed diagnosis and full root cause 

analysis to determine exactly which 

component was really at fault. 

This means that it is common for fully 

working parts to be returned for repair 

unnecessarily. With a health monitoring 

option like the one described here, 

maintenance managers have real-time 

root-cause analysis data on their mobile 

device and can be equipped with just 

the right replacement parts before they 

travel. 

Even if you’re not managing something 

on the scale of a wind turbine 

farm, there are still numerous benefits 

to IoT for typical operations and maintenance 

situations. For instance, in a 

flight training centre, remote monitoring 

can help maintenance professionals 

capture usage statistics, forecast spare 

parts usage and make better use of short 

maintenance windows. Once a manager 

has real-time data about a plant’s motion 

control equipment, it becomes possible 

to consider a new level of predictive 

maintenance for today’s industrial operations. 

Preparing Predictive 

Maintenance 

The IoT helps process the data and give 

managers insight that was not previously 

possible. It moves maintenance away 

from a break-fix mentality. Predictive 

maintenance is a journey, though. It can 

take several years to go from a break-fix 

approach to preventative maintenance 

and, ultimately, predictive maintenance; 

it requires: 

• A willingness to share data 

• The patience to perfect the systems 

for collecting and processing that data 

• The discipline to act on what’s being 

collected 

As maintenance managers prepare 

for the IoT, they will have to adopt a new 

mindset rather than a new skillset. Because 

of the low cost of IoT components 

and the ability to retrofit legacy equipment, 

there’s much that can be done, 

even on older machinery. For example, 

a manager can place an IoT monitor on 

a valve and monitor activity (where the 

monitor will have no effect on the valve’s 

operation). 

They may capture temperature or 

vibration from a conveyer motor or robotic 

actuator, or may simply track cycle 

time variations on reciprocating equipment. 

Installing retrofit solutions and 

hardware upgrades like these will benefit 

the user directly, and can also augment a 

supplier’s service offerings via extended 

warranty plans or holistic maintenance 

plans and site service. 

Maintenance managers owe it to 

themselves to explore the potential of the 

information they can capture with the 

IoT. They should determine what more 

there is to know about their equipment 

and processes. Examining opportunities 

in this way will help them find the gaps in 

data and their missing knowledge. 

Figure 1: Cross-section view of a wind 

turbine’s blade and hub showing pitch 

system and battery backup system. 

IOT: SMARTENING UP OLD 

EQUIPMENT 

IoT sensors on equipment can capture 

critical “missing” data and provide 

visibility into existing production 

processes – particularly where 

those processes include older equipment 

IoT connectivity provides remote 

adjustment of settings, firmware 

or performance of machinery with 

possibility for repairs to take place 

24 hours/7 days without visits into 

harsh environments 

IoT platforms provide automated 

SMS or email alerts to end-users 

and technical service teams to flag 

when maintenance or intervention 

is required 

Prediction of the remaining life of a 

product can optimize the scheduling 

of maintenance and allow customers 

to plan for repair downtime 

Communication between similar 

products enables load balancing for 

increased lifetime 

The automated detection of overload, 

improper use or warranteevoiding 

operation of products benefits 

suppliers and users because 

machinery reliability is improved 

and operation is better tailored to 

the application 

The capture of usage statistics and 

detection of operating patterns facilitates 

lifecycle analysis, forecasting 

of spares inventory and improvements 

to future product designs 

Table 1: Examples of IoT benefits in 

operations and maintenance. 


XXXXXX CONDITION MONITORING 

A technician performing machinery 

vibration diagnostics. 

RECORDING – 

Back to the Future (Part 2) 

The recording of the raw signal was described in the first part of this article. Now 

we will move on to the post-processing of recorded raw signal. 

RADOMIR SGLUNDA, 

Managing Director, 

Adash Ltd., 

sglunda@adash.cz 

THE TWO MODES most commonly used 

to post-analyse the raw recorded signal 

in the Adash firmware is the Analyser 

and Run Up/Coast down. You can postanalyse 

immediately after recording 

in-situ or in the office at a later date. The 

Analyser mode offers a wide range of 

readings: simple (overall value), commonly 

used (time signals, spectrum) 

or more advanced readings (frequency 

response). 

The Run up/Coast down mode enables 

readings to be continuously measured 

and saved. This means that you can 

set up the time interval between two 

readings (example: the reading is taken 

every second) or the interval depends 


on the speed change (the new reading 

is taken when there is a speed change of 

more than 1 Hz from the previous saved 

reading). 

You Can Make Time Run 

Faster…. 

If the record of run up, for example, is 20 

minutes long, then post-processing in 

normal mode the play back time is real 

time (20 minutes). This creates a situation 

in which it is the same as if you had 

walked back in time and were doing an 

evaluation right next to the machine, but 

you have the advantage of playing back 

multiple times with a different setup 

until you have the data analysed at optimum 

resolution and frequency. 

In the event you do not want to wait 

20 minutes to have the data analysed, 

then we have developed a very unique 

feature – the time can run faster. One 

minute can be reduced for example to 

only one second. It is done by special 

block data access and a bulk current 

evaluation algorithm. 

The speed up of time is inversely 

proportional to the complexity of the required 

analysis. In the case of processing 

the simple readings like overall values, 

we can make the time even 1000 times 

faster (it means that 1 hour of recording 

is processed in 3 seconds). In the case of 

processing more complex readings, such 

as order analysis that requires relatively 

a long computing time, we can make the 

time only typically 50 times faster. 

The big advantage coming from this 

feature is user freedom to try different 

setups and view the different results in a 

fraction of the time. It allows the analyst 

to “experiment” as if in the field and to 

repeat the data collection process on the 

equipment. 

Virtual Unit in the Computer 

Up to this point, we have been talking 

about the use of an instrument for recording 

and also for analysis. However 

there are more options. The recording


can be easily transferred from the instrument 

memory to the computer (by 

USB cable). 

A version of the firmware running on 

the VA4Pro unit is available to download 

and run on your PC or Windows Tablet. 

This is the 4410 Virtual Unit VA4Pro 

software and it is available free of charge 

to download from www.adash.com. 

This software is a fully functioning 

version of the firmware running on the 

VA4Pro unit. Once the virtual software 

is loaded onto your PC you will have the 

same screen as that which appears on 

the A4400 VA4 Pro analyser. Initially it 

was developed for marketing purposes, 

as it enables a potential customer to 

work with a virtual version of the VA- 

4Pro Analyser. 

WITH RECORDING FUNC- 

TION YOU WON’T MISS ANY 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION 

HIDDEN IN VIBRATIONS. 

As a result we quickly saw the benefit 

of being able to process the saved 

recordings taken in the VA4Pro on the 

PC. Although the mouse and keyboard, 

(or touch screen if using Window 8 or 

10) makes this process much faster and 

more user-friendly, the main advantage 

is the superior processing speed and 

power of most PC’s as compared to the 

CPU in the Adash VA4 results in much 

faster analysis time. 

Share Your Records 

The simple explorer-based file architecture 

allows you to export the records in 

.wav format and share with colleagues so 

they can utilize it with various software 

platforms. Although you can play the 

.wav file by audio output in your computer 

and then connect the analyser to 

perform the analysis, it is of course not 

the best solution because the frequency 

range starts at over 20Hz. The conversion 

from digital to analogue also is not 

painless, but it is better than nothing. 

However, an Adash provides a much 

more elegant solution on how to share 

the recordings with your colleagues 

who do not have the VA4 Pro analyser. 

Remember – a fully functional version 

of the VA4Pro firmware can be downloaded 

for free from our website. 

Once downloaded onto your PC the 

Technology 

developed by 

Adash can help 

you automatically 

detect machine 

faults such as 

unbalance, 

looseness, 

misalignment 

and bearing 

faults. 

Post-processing of data. 

recorded raw data files can be shared 

without restrictions and analyzed by 

anyone who wishes. This can be a very 

powerful tool when the data is collected 

(or recorded to be more exact) in one 

location, but analysed at will by various 

analysts that may have varying perspectives 

on what is of interest; then the results 

are collaborated and discussed. 

The SAB Paired to a Laptop 

is the same as the VA4 Pro 

analyzer 

We don’t necessarily need the VA4Pro 

instrument to create the record. The 

Adash 4404 SAB (Signal Acquisition 

Box) unit, which has the same AC/DC 

inputs as A4400 VA4 Pro is available. 

Simply upload the license file that corresponds 

with the SAB 4 Channel module 

into the 4410 Virtual software then 

connect the SAB to the laptop or tablet 

using a standard Mini-USB and your PC 

or table becomes a four channel analyser 

with all the features of the VA4. 

Many users prefer this alternative as 

the navigation is much easier, it can be 

shared real time with others by utilizing 

the wireless and remote desktop connection. 

This application also offers a 

unique option to “stack” up to four SAB 

units, which turns your PC into a 16 

Channel monitor. 

The small SAB units are much cheaper 

and easier to ship, and they are can 

be more conveniently transported in a 

backpack with a few sensors and cables 

rather than having the burden of a large 

hard transport case and all the accessories 

needed. 

What about the Future, 

Recording Only? 

The possibility to make a recording is also 

available when collecting route data. 

It means that you can make a recording 

for post-analysis apart from common 

route readings (overall, spectra…). 

And what is our vision of the future? 

Why should we take common readings 

such as overall values or spectrum in the 

route? Why don’t we just make a recording 

of the raw signal and do all analysis 

later in the computer interface? 

We have been considering these 

futuristic visions in our company for 

some time. It is obvious that the voices 

of opponents will appear and they will be 

saying that they need to see the results of 

measurements at the site, which is true 

for the analyst. 

On the other hand there are companies 

where the routes are taken by 

technicians or even operators who don’t 

know much or anything about vibration. 

In that instance a record is a better 

solution when technically feasible as the 

“remote analyst” then has more options. 

He/She can review data as in standard 

route mode, but also has the option to 

post analyse in higher resolution or frequencies 

should the need present itself. 

We have been cooperating long time 

with our customers in the nuclear power 

industry to develop this platform for 

condition-monitoring. There are thousands 

of measurement points at that 

site, but only 2 vibration specialists to 

analyse the data. 

In this case they could not manage 

to take all the readings, so maintenance 

personnel have simple data collectors to 

record the data and then the vibration 

specialists can post-analyse. When more 

advanced data acquisition is needed 

then the vibration specialist would use 

advanced analysers and leave his desk. 


Road Map to Operational 

Readiness and Asset 

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Ensure a Safe, Reliable, and Compliant Operation 

Achieve business goals with a risk-based approach to asset management. Bentley will help get you there. 

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© 2016 Bentley Systems, Incorporated. Bentley, the “B” Bentley logo, and AssetWise APM are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley 

Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

Assess risk based on failure severity, likelihood scores, 

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• Risk assessment and work prioritization 

• ISO 55000 implementation 

Learn more at www.bentley.com/AssetWise-APM 

Or call 1-800-BENTLEY

ASSET MANAGEMENT 

Smart 

Maintenance 

Management 

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a way to connect devices, collect data, transform 

it to information and distribute it through the organization via internet (cloud) 

technology. How can we incorporate and make the best use of IoT in our day-today 

maintenance and asset management activities? Moreover, how can we link 

machines, technology and humans together to create an innovative and intelligent 

maintenance system? 

EVELIENE 

LANGEDIJK, 

Manager Business 

development, UVS 

Industry Solutions bv 

The Netherlands, 

info@uvs-is.nl 

DUE TO THE Internet of Things, business 

models will change. Ageing assets, relocating 

production facilities, a shortage of 

qualified technical personnel and changing 

customer demands. For example, 

one-piece production or paying for the 


use of machines instead of paying for 

the whole machine. This, combined with 

increasing technological innovations, 

will shift the way equipment suppliers, 

production facilities and end-users 

interact. It raises more awareness on 

efficiency, ease of use, flexibility, maintenance 

needs and, of course, quality of the 

equipment. 

The biggest shift to be seen in maintenance 

models in the coming years will be 

the change from corrective to predictive 

and condition-based maintenance. And 

even in the maturity level of predictive 

maintenance there will be a shift from 

fixed time-based maintenance to adaptive 

maintenance based on real-time and 

historical data. 

Intelligent maintenance & 

asset management system 

Due to new technologies and easy access 

to the Internet or working in the 

Cloud, accessing and remotely monitoring 

machines can be done anytime and 

anyplace. This asks for reliable remote 

monitoring and access. Safety issues also 

play a big role in adopting new technologies 

using the Cloud or Internet connections.


Depending on the criticality of equipment, 

some equipment needs near to 

real-time condition monitoring to ensure 

it will not fail causing great losses 

or production stops. Critical equipment 

has a risk profile indicating that the consequences 

of failure are severe. Condition 

monitoring, diagnostics and remote 

access require an intelligent system to 

bring together the extended amount of 

data and analysis that is needed in this 

next level of maintenance management. 

The aggregation of data collection, 

storage, analysis and decision making 

for smart maintenance is called an intelligent 

maintenance system. Monitoring 

and analyzing the behaviour of machines 

and components of machines has 

become possible by means of advanced 

sensors, vibration analyses and other 

smart technologies. 

An intelligent maintenance system 

can process the collected data, provide 

insights in behaviour, anticipate erroneous 

situations, trigger alarms and give 

instructions for preventative maintenance. 

It combines Big Data and the 

Internet of Things, collecting data related 

to historic events, the asset health, 

performance of machines and machine 

parts and can thus effectively reduce operational 

and maintenance costs. 

IoT enables maintenance systems 

in remote monitoring in a much wider 

range of devices and machines than was 

previously possible. With an intelligent 

maintenance system organizations can 

gain valuable insight in machines and 

specific components of machines. 

Unplanned downtime can be eliminated 

by the automatic scheduling of 

maintenance before equipment failure 

happens, and when it does happen you 

will know exactly where and how to 

solve it. Total availability and performance 

of equipment can be improved. 

With an intelligent system, standard 

supplier data is matched to behaviour 

patterns so that optimal maintenance 

can be planned. In time this leads to an 

optimal reliability and maintenance & 

asset lifetime strategy. 


XXXXXX ASSET MANAGEMENT 

Making maintenance 

management smart 

An intelligent maintenance system 

brings together technology, data, analyses, 

prognosis and resources aiming for 

the machines and systems to achieve 

highest possible performance levels and 

near-zero breakdowns. 

To make the most effective use of an 

intelligent system you first will need 

to think about which data you want to 

collect and how. With the right data acquired 

from monitoring assets, companies 

can obtain a competitive advantage 

by gaining relevant insights in the performance 

and usage levels of machinery. 

By using an intelligent system criticality, 

planning, processes, production, use of 

resources, maintenance, stock levels and 

spare parts can be managed to an optimal 

form. 

Data collection and remote monitoring 

combined with an intelligent maintenance 

system enables an informationbased 

and future-oriented predictive 

and optimal maintenance strategy. 

Prognoses and valuable insights can be 

created on the future, actual and historical 

condition of machines and machine 

components. 

The ultimate goal of using an intelligent 

maintenance system, leading to 


THE ADVANTAGES OF AN 

INTELLIGENT MAINTENANCE 

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 

• Connecting machines, data, technology 

and people throughout the 

organization 

• Preventative maintenance based on 

real-time data, conditions and circumstances 

• Transformation of data to information, 

to knowledge, to fact-based 

maintenance decisions and action 

with remote monitoring and diagnostic 

systems 

• Intelligent decision support tools 

• Perform maintenance when the 

maintenance activity is most costeffective 

• Valuable insights and influence on 

machine and components behaviour 

predictive maintenance, is to perform 

maintenance at a set point in time 

when the maintenance activity is most 

cost-effective and before the machinery 

loses performance within a threshold 

of time. 

Also of great value is the opportunity 

to collect an entire database with diverse 

knowledge on certain parts, machines 

and suppliers. Knowing how equipment 

holds under different circumstances and 

usage level. For example, the production 

environment, running time, what is processed, 

temperature, humidity, operation 

of the machine and so on. 

Because machines and parts are 

monitored for each machine individually, 

they are not based on average data 

from other machines or supplier specifications. 

This has the advantage that the 

individual performance curves, circumstances 

in production environment, and 

the operational strategy and if necessary, 

previous data on historical incidents can 

be included in the analyses. 

Cases 

Machine builder case 

Together with an international operating 

machine builder we started a pilot 

project combining sensor data, M2M 

communication and an intelligent main-


tenance software. The goals were to get 

a better insight into machine life cycle, 

machine and individual components 

behaviour, maintenance management 

needs and possibilities for remote monitoring 

and diagnostics. 

For the machine builder, the main 

questions were how do our machines 

and specific components perform under 

different production and environmental 

circumstances, processing of different 

substances (liquids, granulates and so 

forth), general usage, running time. And 

accordingly, how can we give our clients 

the best possible service and advice on 

maintenance management so that the 

full potential and performance capability 

of our machines is reached. 

We started with a pilot project with a 

specific type of machine. Sensors were 

placed on the machine to measure variabilities 

such as environmental data and 

the type of product processed by the 

machine. 

This data was sent to our database using 

a remote machine to machine solution 

with a one-way data sending option. 

This was used to secure the data and 

external access to the machine. 

We took the raw data and turned it 

into valuable insights for both end-user 

and our machine building partner. Sensor 

data, control data and environmental 

circumstances were connected to our 

intelligent maintenance and asset management 

system. With all of this real 

time information about the health and 

performance of equipment, valuable 

insights were gained for future design, 

usage, performance levels, service & 

maintenance management and new 

business models. 

Food processing company case 

Together with an international operating 

food company we started a project to 

change maintenance management from 

corrective to condition-based, and even 

for some critical assets, predictive maintenance 

management. 

In this case, vibration analysis, combined 

with other data collected from 

intelligent remote devices was processed 

and analyzed in an intelligent maintenance 

system. The result was the creation 

of intelligent decision support tools 

and an insight into required actions and 

critical resources. 

Conclusion 

The future of maintenance and asset 

management in today’s rapidly changing 

and increasingly technology-oriented 

environment depends heavily on taking 

advantage of a new breed of technology 

and software that answers not only the 

question of what assets do I have, but 

also the question of how do I maintain 

them. The future tasks will be monitoring 

and knowing the health of your 

assets, planning maintenance when 

you anticipate it is really necessary and 

improving performance and effectiveness 

of resources. Making maintenance 

smart. 

Under the patronage of 

H. E. Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa 

Minister of Oil 

Kingdom of Bahrain 

Value Driven Maintenance & ReliabilityMAINTCON 

4th MIDDLE EAST MAINTENANCE 

& RELIABILITY CONFERENCE 

12-15 December, 2016 

Gulf Hotel, Kingdom of Bahrain 

www.maintcon.org 

Organized by 

Supported by: 

Bahrain Society of Engineers, P.O. Box 835, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain 

Tel: +973 1781 0733 Fax: +973 17827475, Email: vivek@mohandis.org

MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT 

The Maintenance 

Effectiveness Assessment: 

A Catalyst for Change 

For the maintenance manager there are some words that often evoke feelings of 

worry, nervousness, anxiety and even fear. One of the most dreaded words the 

maintenance manager can hear is “audit”. There is, however, another tool that is 

often used to measure business performance; it’s called the maintenance effectiveness 

assessment or MEA. 

WHEN THE AUDITOR’S report is out, 

those on the receiving end may feel 

like they are being cross-examined in a 

courtroom. It may not be quite like this 

in reality but that is exactly how many 

feel when they are on the receiving end 

of these types of business audits or examinations. 

At the same time, some may argue 

that the MEA is nothing but a “Benchmark 

Study”. Although they do have 

similar outcomes, compared to a benchmark 

study an MEA uses different tools, 

is usually more comprehensive in scope, 

and more focused in defining performance 

gaps and a way forward. 

Audits and MEA’s are different with 

one stark distinction. First of all, the 

MEA, compared to the audit has a completely 

different purpose, approach, and 

philosophy although similar protocol and 

methodology. The audit focuses on compliance, 

the MEA focus is on improvement. 

You would think that maintenance 

professionals and leaders would embrace 

the MEA more enthusiastically but unfortunately 

that is not always the case. 


TRACY STRAWN, 

CMRP, President, Oil 

and Gas Services, 

Marshall Institute, 

trawn@ 

marshallinstitute.com 

Figure 1. Assessment & Planning Models. 

What Areas of Business Does 

the MEA examine? 

The MEA, as opposed to the audit, is an 

investigation to find ways to improve. 

If managed and conducted properly it 

should represent a partnership between 

the assessors and the maintenance 

leadership and the assessors. Thus, the 

outcome of the MEA should not be considered 

punitive nor something that creates 

unnecessary burden. 

Just like audits and benchmark studies 

the MEA follows a structured methodology. 

Listed below are the typical 

practice areas that are reviewed: 

• Strategic Planning and Policy Deployment 

• Maintenance Organization 

• Training and development 

• Performance Management 

• Competence and Skills 

• Continuous Improvement & Teams 

• Communication 

• Work Management 

• Shutdown/Outage Management 

• Work Execution 

• Preventive and Predictive 

Maintenance 

• Reliability Centred Maintenance 

• Root Cause Analysis 

• Inventory Management 

• Procurement 

• Contractor Management 

• Operator Care 

• Reliability Engineering 

• Life Cycle Analysis 

• Risk Based Inspection 

• Management of Change 

• Performance Standards 

• Safety Critical Equipment 

The above practices may vary from 

industry to industry but the ones listed 

represent what is needed to manage and 

operate an effective and efficient maintenance 

organization. 

MEA Tools and Techniques 

When conducting an MEA the assessors 

will use a variety of tools to perform 

their evaluation and investigation into 

these areas. Some of the tools and methods 

used include: 

• Maintenance Effectiveness 

Assessment questionnaires. 

• Interview with plant personnel 

• Benchmark Metrics 

• Plant and Equipment Observations 

• Productivity studies 

• Surveys 

• Focus Groups interviews (multiple 

viewpoints provide a clearer picture of 

what’s really going on in the business) 

• Documentation review (assessors will 

require up to 80 documents in advance 

for review and analysis)


MEA Preparation 

Preparation for the MEA can begin as 

much as 6-8 weeks before the scheduled 

date of the assessment. The more information 

gathered upfront, the more time 

it gives the assessors to spend on analysis 

and less time searching for the data or 

documents. More time spent in analysis 

results in concise conclusions that meet 

minimal resistance and opposition from 

the organization being assessed. The end 

result should be better improvement 

recommendations for the maintenance 

organization going forward. 

Conducting the MEA 

The number of days required to perform 

an MEA may range from 3 to as many as 

20 depending on the size and complexity 

of the business. Assessors will follow 

the schedule that the maintenance 

organization helps build. The assessors 

will analyse daily the results of the interviews, 

review the data compiled, and 

organize their notes. From the analysis 

of data, interviews, questionnaires, 

documents, and performance metrics 

the assessors will begin building a case 

for improvement. 

MEA CAN BE A POWERFUL 

TOOL FOR IMPROVEMENT 

AND A CATALYST FOR 

CHANGE. 

Figure 2. Sample Assessment Questionnaire. 

MEA Report Out 

Most organizations will require the 

assessor to provide a report out at the 

close of the assessment. The report out 

will highlight findings to include major 

strengths and opportunities for improvement. 

In some cases recommendations 

may be included in a PowerPoint 

presentation. For some organizations 

that may be all that’s required for the 

report out to the business. Some companies 

may require a comprehensive 

written report no later than two weeks 

after the assessment that can be distributed 

throughout the organization and 

even to outside stakeholders such as 

joint venture partners or even government 

agencies. The purpose is to share 

the findings and recommendations and 

gain consensus on the opportunities for 

improvement and the recommendations 

going forward. To be most effective 

the assessors should build and present 

a compelling case to the maintenance 

leadership team for adopting the recommendations. 

This could be based on cost 

savings, greater throughput or even improved 

asset integrity. 

The MEA as a Catalyst for 

Change 

The MEA should be viewed as a “Catalyst 

for Change” as opposed to some sort 

of painful examination that does nothing 

but frustrate the maintenance leadership 

team and organization. In order 

to translate the MEA into a compelling 

business case and ultimately a catalyst 

for change several things must happen. 

1. Leadership must take time to explain 

to their maintenance team and 

even the operations team that their performance 

represents an opportunity for 

improvement based on preliminary data 

the leadership has compiled. 

2. Leadership must communicate to 

the maintenance and operations team 

that, based on their assessment, they are 

engaging an outside party to assess their 

maintenance organization and business. 

3. Leadership must support and 

encourage cooperation with the maintenance 

assessors to ensure they get all 

the data and information required to 

complete their assessment and build a 

business case. 

4. If leadership believes the assessment 

findings were a fair and accurate 

representation of their maintenance 

practices and organization they must 

embrace the assessment conclusions 

and proposed way forward. 

NOTE: many organizations go 

through what maintenance assessors 

term the 4 D’s after an assessment: 

“Deny, Defend, Decide, and Do”. This 

is normal but Leadership can minimize 

the “Deny” and “Defend” time by being 

openly supportive of the findings. This 

will help the maintenance team get to 

the “Decide” and “Do” phases quickly. 

5. Once the maintenance team has 

consensus and alignment on the assessment 

findings and recommendations 

Leadership should sponsor the 

improvement team or steering committee 

assigned to build an improvement 

plan around the recommendations. If 

leadership sponsors the improvement 

plan it increases the probability of the 

recommendations being completed 

thoroughly and on time. 

The challenge of maintenance organisations 

for today is to not only improve, 

but to improve at a rate faster than 

ever imagined. Taking years to develop 

the behaviours, culture, practices and 

processes necessary for a high performing 

maintenance organization will be 

intolerable, if not fatal. This is where the 

MEA can be a powerful tool for improvement 

and a catalyst for change if used by 

leadership properly. 



Reliability and 

Maintenance 

Management Beliefs 

CHRISTER 

IDHAMMAR, 

Founder and CEO 

of IDCON INC., 

Raleigh NC, USA, 

info@idcon.com 

Excellent leadership is the very essential success factor 

for lasting results for any improvement initiative an 

organization undertakes, including improvements to 

Reliability and Maintenance performance. 



AS A LEADER I have found it very important 

to develop and communicate your 

beliefs to your organization. These beliefs 

will then guide your organization on 

its journey to your goals. 

In this and the next issue of Maintworld 

–magazine I will share my own 

and IDCON’s beliefs related to reliability 

and maintenance management in the 

hope that they will serve as a guideline to 

develop your own beliefs. 

BELIEF 1 

Cost reduction does not generate 

improved reliability. Improved reliability 

results in lower costs. 

Reliability performance is measured 

here as performance of Quality x Time x 

Speed. Or Overall Production Efficiency. 

(OPE) 

To sustainably reduce cost you need 

to focus on what drives cost, not cost 

alone. Improved production reliability 

drives down costs. Even if your production 

lines are not sold out the biggest 

saving potential is increased production 

reliability because it shortens the time 

from raw material to finished product. 

Remember that improved reliability 

also improves safety and energy consumption. 

BELIEF 2 

People cannot be more productive 

than the system that they work in 

will allow them to be. 

Even with good skills and good wills 

people cannot be effective if they work in 

a reactive, unplanned and unscheduled 

system. As an example training in skills 

can be wasted because people will not 

be allowed to use their skills to execute 

work with precision. 

BELIEF 3 

It is a leadership obligation to develop, 

communicate, and coach implementation 

of these processes. 

One of the most important things you 

can do as a leader is to develop and document 

the holistic reliability and maintenance 

management system, the processes 

in that system and the elements in 

the processes. 

When this is done you will have a very 

well-defined reliability and maintenance 

management strategy. You can use this 

documented strategy to drive implementation 

and to measure progress towards 

your vision. 

BELIEF 4 

It is more important to do the right 

things than to do things right. 

To decide what the right things to do are 

is leadership. To do things right is execution 

of these things. When developing 

your reliability and maintenance management 

strategy you should only focus 

on the right things to do and not discuss 

how to do them. This is because it is 

easier to reach acceptance on the right 

things to do than how execute them. 

BELIEF 5 

The right people are an organization’s 

most vital asset. 

Many statements declare, “People are 

our most valuable asset”. I do not agree 

with this statement. It should instead 

TO SUSTAINABLY REDUCE 

COST YOU NEED TO FOCUS 

ON WHAT DRIVES COST, NOT 

COST ALONE. 

state. “The right people are our most valuable 

asset”. That is a statement I would 

agree with. Many improvement initiatives 

fail because the right people are not 

accountable and responsible for the task 

they are assigned to. It does not mean 

that these people cannot be right for another 

position. It is a continuous process 

to develop the organization so that the 

right people have the right position.


Illustration of what the basic maintenance 

processes are. Looks so simple, but very 

few organizations do them well. 

BELIEF 6 

Busy people are not productive unless 

they work on the right thing. 

Measurement methods such as 

“Wrench time” can therefore not be 

right thing to do. In fact a very good 

maintenance organization is less busy 

with “Wrench time” between shut 

-downs. Instead, more time is spent 

on Root Cause Problem Elimination 

(RCPE) and preparing for the next shut 

down. This can be done because there 

are very few breakdowns. If work is 

planned and then scheduled, people will 

work on the right things, so it is more 

important to measure the effectiveness 

of the processes people work in than to 

measure the symptoms of the processes 

people work in. 

BELIEF 7 

People do not mind change, but do 

not like to be changed. 

My experience is that people do not like, 

and seldom buy in to, changes handed 

down to people from above without 

explanation of what, why and how. But 

if people are well informed and listened 

to, they will better understand and accept, 

the reason for change. Repeated 

information and education and training 

are essential elements of any improvement 

initiative involving people. 

BELIEF 8 

Basic maintenance processes must 

be in place before implementing 

more advanced tools. 

Many organizations start new improvement 

initiatives before they are ready. 

Some examples include: 

Starting Reliability Centred (RCM) 

Training and analyses before they are 

ready because they are still too reactive 

and they are reactive because they do 

not carry out the very basics well. 

Train crafts people in precision maintenance 

training when they work in a 

reactive process. When most work is 

urgent, it will lead to a situation where 

there will not be enough time to use the 

good skills they have learned. In turn 

this will lead to disappointment and 

skills will be lost. 

A VERY GOOD MAINTENANCE 

ORGANIZATION IS LESS 

BUSY WITH “WRENCH TIME” 

BETWEEN SHUT -DOWNS. 

Upgrading to an advanced Computerized 

Maintenance Management System 

(CMMS) before the organization is 

ready. A good piece of advice is to always 

start with designing the processes first 

and then implement the new system. 

BELIEF 9 

Rapid and sustainable change does 

not exist in maintenance because the 

change process is “90 percent” about 

people and behaviours. 

If change is equivalent to sustainable 

improvements, then the reply to this 

statement is no. Why? Because my experience 

has shown that 90 percent of improvement 

of maintenance performance 

is about people and 10 percent is about 

technology and processes. This does not 

mean that technology and design of processes 

are not important. It is very important 

to design the right processes for 

people to enable them to become more 

productive. But that is the easy part in an 

improvement initiative. This part might 

take only five to ten percent of the effort 

in time and money. 

What takes time is to make an oftenundisciplined 

reactive organization 

to work in a disciplined process. Your 

organization might have many maintenance 

heroes who value the recognition 

they receive when they repair a broken 

down piece of equipment. They might also 

be rewarded by overtime pay because 

of the logic that equipment is more likely 

(76 percent) to break down when the full 

maintenance crew is not in the mill. 

Technology is also very important. 

To acquire the right tools for vibration 

analyses, precision alignment, and 

hand held computers and so on is easy 

because most maintenance people love 

gadgets and tools. Again, to implement 

these tools so that they are used in a disciplined 

process is often a challenge. It 

might be basic things like taking action 

to plan and schedule the correction of 

failures in equipment discovered early 

by any of these tools. To make that process 

work is what takes time. 

It will require a close partnership 

between operations and maintenance 

so priorities of work are done based on 

what is most important for the business. 

These are just a few examples to 

demonstrate that 90 percent of effort to 

improve maintenance performance is 

about people. 

World Class Performance can only be 

achieved in a Reliability Partnership Work 

System. 

BELIEF 10 

Operations, Engineering, Maintenance, 

and Stores must work in a 

partnership to reach excellence. 

Most organizations we work with 

think they work in a close partnership 

between these departments, but not 

many do. This is often reflected in the 

way performance indicators are used. 

Operations are measured by the quality 

tons produced, maintenance by the 

cost of maintenance, engineering by on 

time and within budget for projects, and 

stores by turnover and value of inventory. 

These examples of performance 

indicators do not promote a partnership 

between the departments. 

If you agree with belief 10 you cannot 

only say that: “now we shall all work 

together as equal partners in a reliability 

partnership”, you need to define, document 

and communicate your beliefs, and 

then design all work processes according 

to these beliefs. 


TYÖTURVALLISUUS


Thanks to thermal imaging cameras, 

Inspectahire can easily detect gases in 

difficult to reach or hazardous locations. 

Small leaks can become big ones – that 

is why it is important to be able to 

detect them in an early stage. 

Detect Leaks with 

THERMAL IMAGING 

Inspectahire relies on 

the FLIR GF320 Optical 

Gas Imaging camera for 

maintenance inspections 

and hydrocarbon leak 

detection in the offshore 

oil and gas industry. 


KRISTOF MADDELEIN, 

FLIR Systems, 

kristof.maddelein@ 

flir.com 

ESTABLISHED IN 1981, Inspectahire is 

a leading international supplier of specialist 

remote visual inspection technology 

and solutions to companies in many 

industries around the world. Supported 

by the most advanced technologies 

around, Inspectahire helps its customers 

manage their safety, profitability 

and environmental impact of their assets. 

When the company is tasked with 

the detection of fugitive hydrocarbon 

emissions, FLIR’s GF320 Optical Gas 

Imaging (OGI) camera is their preferred 

choice of technology. 

Inspectahire offers equipment rental, 

contracting and project engineering 

services supported by a team of skilled 

engineers who have a wealth of inspection 

knowledge and experience. Their 

expertise extends to a wide range of 

equipment and assets, both onshore 

and offshore, and in all environments


SAFETY AND COST ARE TWO OF THE BIGGEST CONCERNS IN 

THE OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY TODAY. 

– including harsh and hazardous. All 

Inspectahire’s advanced inspection 

solutions are carried out in accordance 

with the requirements of ISO 9001 best 

practice. 

Oil and Gas Industry 

Having worked for three decades in the 

Oil & Gas industry, both in the North Sea 

and worldwide, Inspectahire has built up 

a strong expertise in this sector. Safety 

and cost are two of the biggest concerns 

in the offshore oil and gas industry today. 

Inspectahire realizes this as no other and 

therefore aims to tackle those challenges 

by using the best technologies available. 

– The offshore oil and gas industry 

are proactive in their search for the best 

technologies for detecting emissions 

that may affect the safety, profitability 

and environmental impact of their assets, 

comments Cailean Forrester, Managing 

Director of Inspectahire. 

– At Inspectahire we strive to identify 

and offer the best available technological 

solutions for all remote inspection 

scenarios. 

Safety and Economy 

Dangerous gas leaks are a concern to 

every oil and gas production plant. Not 

only do some of the gases harm the environment, 

but the leaks also cost companies 

substantial amounts of money. 

– The company has been using thermal 

imaging cameras for a very long time 

to detect dangerous gas leaks, comments 

Cailean Forrester. 

– Thanks to thermal imaging cameras, 

we can easily detect gases in difficult 

to reach or hazardous locations. And 

we can help companies prevent costly 

downtime of their production plant. 

Contact Measurement 

Technologies versus 

Thermal Imaging 

– We have been using certain contact 

measurement tools like laser detectors 

or leaks sniffers, says Cailean Forrester. 

– But the problem is that you have 

to go right up to the object, which is not 

always safe or even possible. In other 

words, this approach is limited and not 

very precise. With a thermal imaging 

camera like the GF320 however, you can 

keep a safe distance and still detect gas 

leaks with great precision. 

Accurate and Ergonomic 

The Inspectahire team is using the 

GF320 optical gas imaging camera for 

maintenance inspections and for all its 

hydrocarbon detection jobs, in hydrocarbon 

production plants or for the inspection 

of any material that uses hydrocarbon 

as a fuel. 

The GF320 camera offers a range 

of tangible benefits compared to traditional 

hydrocarbon leak sniffers, because 

it can scan a broader area much more 

rapidly and monitor areas that are diffi- 

Inspectahire has been using thermal 

imaging cameras for a long time to detect 

dangerous gas leaks. 

With the GF320 camera, you can keep a 

safe distance and still detect gas leaks with 

great precision. 

cult to reach with contact measurement 

tools. The portable camera also greatly 

improves operator safety, by detecting 

emission at safe distance. 

– The camera is very ergonomic and 

very sensitive, comments Cailean Forrester. 

– If a hydrocarbon leak is there, you 

will certainly see it with the GF320 camera, 

even if it is a small one. Small leaks 

can become big ones – that is why it is 

important to be able to detect them at an 

early stage. With the GF320, we are sure 

of an accurate and reliable detection. 

THE FLIR GF320 OPTICAL GAS IMAGING (OGI) CAM 

GF320 Optical Gas Imaging (OGI) camera 

The FLIR GF320 is an optical gas imaging 

camera designed to help the oil and gas 

industries better control hydrocarbon emissions, 

thereby preserving the environment, 

improving operational safety and minimizing 

revenue loss. 

The thermal imaging camera is designed 

for use in harsh industrial environments. It 

takes advantage of a state-of-the-art focal 

plane array detector and optical systems 

tuned to very narrow spectral infrared ranges. 

This enables the camera to image infrared 

energy absorbed by hydrocarbon gas leaks. 

Images are processed and enhanced by 

the FLIR High Sensitivity Mode feature to 

clearly show the presence of gases against 

stationary backgrounds. 

Gases detectable by the camera appear 

on-screen as smoke plumes. In the offshore 

oil and gas industry, the camera offers operators 

a preventive maintenance tool to help 

spot hydrocarbon leaks in tanks, pipelines 

and facilities. The FLIR GF320 can be used 

both for finding gas leaks and maintenance 

inspections. 



Screenshot of the Viu More AR BizCard 

Experience App1: virtual elements anchored 

on a business card in the real world. 

Industry 4.0 

Knocking on Your 

Front Door 

Increasing efficiency, faster work execution, smaller error rates, the right 

information immediately available on the right spot, a shorter learning curve of new 

employees… Aren’t we all facing these challenges in industry today? 

BENNY LAUWERS, 

CEO, Viu More NV 

benny.lauwers@viumore.be 


TODAY, EVERY INDUSTRIAL company is 

challenged by the demand to lower production 

costs. For years maintenance departments 

have needed to do more with 

less. This results in an increasing pressure 

weighing on the shoulders of every 

individual maintenance technician. 

As if this is not enough, we will be 

faced with another challenge in the near 

future when the baby boom generation, 

our current technical experts, will leave 

the labour market. Maintenance Managers 

are already aware of the fact that 

they will not easily be replaced. The 

result is an increasing amount of less 

technically skilled people in maintenance 

departments. 

These less skilled technicians are 

confronted with a decreasing need of 

equipment standardization, mostly for 

reasons of cost effectiveness. Less standardization 

results in less repetitive work, 

more diversity in task execution and 

more different work instructions. This 

leads to the simple fact that technicians 

need to remember more. Needless to say, 

efficiency will suffer and more errors 

will be made. 

Augmented and Mixed Reality 

Industry 4.0 is knocking on the front 

door of our industrial companies, or is 

in some cases already well settled in the 

daily processes. Augmented Reality is 

one of the technologies that can be classified 

under the heading of Industry 4.0. 

Augmented Reality is the technology 

of taking in real time the view of the real 

world and adding digital information 

on top of it. The digital information can 

exist of simple brief text notifications, 

videos and even full 3D images. 

The technology of Mixed Reality goes 

one step further and anchors all virtual 

elements to a specific point in the real 

world. 

For making this possible a sensorpacked 

wearable device is needed, such 

as a tablet or smartphone, smart glasses 

or a smart helmet. A strong evolution is 

going on in the market of smart devices 

because of the efforts of big technology


companies, such as Microsoft, Google, 

Apple and a few promising technology 

start-ups, such as ODG and Magic Leap. 

This leads to the increasing success of 

Augmented and Mixed Reality in different 

fields of use. 

Industrial Applications 

Industry is one of the domains where 

Augmented and Mixed Reality can have 

a huge added value. Virtual elements 

anchored to the real world can offer 

advantages in training new technicians 

and supporting technicians in their 

daily work. For example, you can train 

a relatively inexperienced technician in 

replacing the mechanical seal of a centrifugal 

pump by a step by step digital 

work instruction where the right virtual 

tool (screwdriver, socket wrench…) will 

be placed on the right real world screw 

or bolt. This will increase the learning 

curve of new employees and reduce the 

risks related to less technically skilled 

and experienced technicians performing 

dangerous tasks in the field. 

Tablet used for augmenting the real world 

with digital information. 

Virtual screwdriver and 3 arrows anchored 

at the 4 screws of the lid of the electrical 

box. 

The same technique can also be used 

to support an experienced technician 

in performing a task he or she doesn’t 

normally perform often. Or you can 

support a technician in solving the 

cause of a failure by providing him or 

her with a failure-solving algorithm 

where the addition of virtual elements 

will guide them through the problem 

solving process. Even running a simple 

checklist with the real world being augmented 

by virtual elements gives a lot of 

advantages in reducing execution time 

and lowering the error rates made by 

technicians. 

At the same time it is possible to 

provide the necessary safety measurements 

to the technician as well as every 

other digitally available data, such as 

plans and schemes, manuals, spare parts 

information and equipment status information. 

The resulting advantage of this ‘digital 

companion’ brings us one step closer to 

the necessary gain in efficiency which industrial 

companies are looking for today.

XXXXXX MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT 

BEMAS Innovation Award 

The advantages of Augmented and 

Mixed Reality as well as the level of innovation 

have been acknowledged by the 

jury of the Innovation Award organized 

by the Belgian Maintenance Association 

(BEMAS). In April this year, Viu More 

won this award with their Augmented 

Reality applications for industry. Other 

finalists were Allied Reliability Group 

with their AR-C10 ‘Bridge to better 

condition monitoring’ and Prüftechnik 

with their Rotalign Touch application for 

user-friendly laser alignment. 

The jury recognised how the broad 

field of application and easy accessibility 

of the innovation addressed a very relevant 

issue for our industrial companies. 

CEO Benny Lauwers 

(left) and Chairman 

Dirk Roelens (right) 

receive the BEMAS 

Innovation Award 

2016. 

The Future and Beyond 

Augmented and Mixed Reality will definitely 

be a big part of our future. Not 

only in industry, but also in the consumer 

market both technologies are on the 

verge of breakthrough. Companies such 

as IKEA, L’Oréal and BMW already use 

Augmented Reality applications in their 

marketing, sales and after-sales process. 

Although today a lot is already possible 

with Augmented and Mixed Reality 

in industry, there are also still a lot of opportunities. 

Evolutions on smart devices 

specifically designed for industrial applications 

have just begun. In addition, 

a lot of research is running in the field 

of more robust recognition and tracking 

algorithms. This is necessary to make 

more robust software that can work 

independently of the work environment 

and weather conditions. After all, we 

are dealing here with computer and machine 

vision that we want to perform the 

same tasks as our own eyes and brains. 

And we all know that our eyes and brain 

both are complex pieces of nature. 

The field of gesture recognition is also 

an emerging research field. With gesture 

recognition we can guard the maintenance 

technician and operator in their 

task execution and warn them when 

they make a mistake or an error. Or you 

can use gestures to call new menu items, 

slide between different plans, pick a specific 

equipment form the plan, zoom in 

and study it in detail. 

Fans of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Minority 

Report’, the movie with Tom Cruise 

taking the leading role probably will see 

some similarities. Who knows, within a 

Multiple examples of augmented digital information on top of the real world. 

AUGMENTED AND MIXED 

REALITY WILL DEFINITELY BE 

A BIG PART OF OUR FUTURE. 

few years, all our maintenance technicians 

and operators will make use of the 

same tools Tom Cruise has in this wonderful 

movie. 

Payback Period 

New technologies often suffer from the 

perception that they are expensive, and 

that large investment budgets are needed. 

Sometimes this is true, but in many 

cases the Return on Investment (ROI) 

justifies the initial investment. 

The level of efficiency increase when 

using Augmented and Mixed Reality 

applications is that large that a pay back 

period can be reached in a period of 3 to 

9 months depending on the application. 

There are also some benefits that are 

difficult to insert in the calculation of 

the ROI and pay back period. For example 

savings from a safer task execution 

and savings due to a decreasing cost of 

damaged equipment and production 

losses caused by execution errors. Also 

the decreasing risk on image damage 

due to HSE issues and production losses 

caused by execution errors is not easy to 

calculate. 

Augmented and Mixed Reality is 

knocking at the front door of our industrial 

companies and because of its 

potential nobody can stop it. So, remember: 

“The early bird/adopter catches the 

worm”. 

The Viu More AR BizCard Experience 

can be downloaded in the Google Play 

Store. There is also a link available in the 

Google Play Store where you can download 

our business card. (Only available 

for Android devices) 


THE HIGHEST 

THERMAL QUALITY 

without compromise 

YMPÄRISTÖTURVALLISUUS 

FLIR T1K HD Thermal Camera 

Outstanding image quality: 1024 x 768 px 

Best in class optics 

Fully radiometric JPEGs & videos 

Compact, streamlined design 

that's easy to use and carry 

Check out the amazing HD thermal video at 

www.flir.co.uk/T1K

REMOTE MONITORING 

Text Lenny Shaver, Sr. Director, Product Management, 

LumaSense technologies Inc., Santa Clara, CA. 

Figure 1 TS724DV-PT System in Operation 

Increased reliability through 

continuous and remote substation 

ASSET MONITORING 

Conditioned-based maintenance (CBM) is essential for electric utilities and 

most utilities have initiatives and investments to realize these goals. The use of 

thermography is a well-proven technique for monitoring conditions and detecting 

faults in electrical equipment. 

FOR MANY YEARS, portable thermal imaging 

cameras were known as a reliable 

tool in the condition-based and preventative 

maintenance of electrical distribution 

systems in low-, medium-, and 

high-voltage installations, where they 

are often used at periodic time intervals. 

However, manual thermography 

inspections limit the practicality and 

scalability of applying CBM. There is a significant 

cost related to the inspections and 

the data gathered tends to be imprecise. 

Finally, even if good data is collected, there 

is a shortage of effective tools and resources 

required to analyze the data. Advancements 

in thermography allow this proven 

CBM tool to be automated thus enabling 

utilities to better realize CBM. 


Detecting Equipment 

Problems before Failure 

With a great deal of equipment at electrical 

power substations nearing the end of 

its useful life, the potential for faults or 

the complete failure of these devices due 

to their age increases. The use of thermal 

imaging in the detection of equipment 

problems is attractive because the noncontact 

nature of the technique allows 

assessments to be done safely while 

equipment is kept in operation. 

However, manual and periodic inspections 

have their limitations. First 

of all, they are expensive since workers 

need to travel and haul equipment, 

which takes them away from other important 

work. Manual inspections are 

also prone to error and the results are 

highly variable depending on load and 

weather conditions. In addition, due to 

limited resources, the biggest difficulty 

may be finding time or the right people 

Figure 2 System Network 

to interpret the results of the manual 

inspections. 

Optimized maintenance concepts in 

this industry call for automated methods 

that are data driven. New advancements 

in data anomaly analysis and continuous 

monitoring of critical substation connections 

and assets, such as transformers, 

bushings, disconnects, and capacitor 

banks, provide an automated earlywarning 

detection of developing failures. 

Electric utilities need an automated, 

data-driven method to analyze electrical 

equipment.


Replacing manual inspections that 

may be erroneous or periodic with a 

more rigorous and continuous automated 

monitoring method allows operators 

to identify transient thermal events 

that were not detectable with manual 

inspections. By deploying thermal imaging 

systems at critical locations throughout 

the electrical power distribution 

system, electric utilities have access to 

continuous, online monitoring without 

the personnel constraints and limited 

resources. The end result is the decrease 

in maintenance activity and the procurement 

of replacement devices becomes a 

viable strategy. Furthermore, the safety 

and reliability of the substation equipment 

is increased and the loss of the 

distribution of electrical power from a 

major asset failure can be prevented. 

Automated & Remote Thermal 

Imaging Monitoring 

Designed with advanced maintenancefree 

electronics, the ThermalSpection 

724 system offers a high degree of accuracy 

for demanding electric power utilities 

while accurately measuring asset temperature 

without contact in even the most 

adverse environments. This system allows 

utilities to continuously monitor the temperature 

profile and long-term thermal 

trends of assets within an electrical power 

substation remotely. This allows for incredible 

condition-based maintenance by 

allowing operators to automatically detect 

temperature deviations from normal 

operating conditions in real-time. 

The ThermalSpection 724 Dual 

Vision – Pan Tilt (TS724 DV-PT) system 

includes both thermal and visual 

imagers in a hardened enclosure on a 

positioner with a continuous 360° pan 

range and tilt range of ±45°. The enclosure 

protects the cameras from weather 

and temperature changes and uses a 

solid state cooling system for reliable, 

long-term installation. The solution can 

combine multiple devices, including 

optional fixed thermal imagers and fixed 

single point infrared pyrometers, for the 

most comprehensive system solution for 

monitoring electric power substations. 

Figure 4 Substation Thermal Image 

serves as the communication link from 

the camera to the controller and allows 

for quick access to the camera’s thermal 

readings and configuration options. 

The local controller can be a utilityapproved 

computer or a server from 

LumaSense, which will run the included 

LumaSpec RT software. This software 

allows the user to define automated 

“inspection tours” of the substation or 

industrial setting to monitor multiple areas. 

Operators can also use the software 

pan and tilt controls for manual positioning. 

Data from the controller is also 

published to existing data historians, for 

example PI from OSIsoft, using Modbus 

or OPC protocols. 

In parallel, data can optionally be 

published to a Microsoft SQL database 

using LumaTrend server. This provides 

a central repository for data and images 

from substation and plants throughout 

a user’s enterprise. With such a system, 

centralized engineering and operations 

staff can easily review data and images 

from all cameras from anywhere on the 

corporate network. The data collected 

by the cameras can be put in the hands 

of experts, wherever they may be. The 

thermal images and temperature data 

can also be setup to trigger alarms, automatically 

publish reports, and perform 

retrospective analysis. 

LumaTrend analyzes that data over 

time using built-in industry standard analytics 

to help provide early detection of 

problems and can use the images to create 

time-elapsed video (both infrared and 

visual) of the equipment monitored. Because 

of this technology, this software can 

help identify transient thermal events 

not detectable with manual inspections. 

Since this software uses authenticated 

web browser access, users can capture, 

access, and analyze data on managed 

assets remotely. Users can set up 

email notifications for reports, alarms, 

and warnings. Real-time notifications 

can be sent to experts who then review 

the data, suggest additional investigative 

action, and schedule conditioned-based 

maintenance. 

Realizing CBM Using Fully 

Automated Data Collection 

and Analysis 

By replacing periodic, error-prone 

manual inspections with a more rigorous 

and continuous automated monitoring 

system, utilities can gain a more 

accurate picture of the actual condition 

of ageing assets and high voltage equipment 

in their substations and grid. The 

end result is a sustainable, effective conditioned-based 

maintenance program 

for utilities. 

While the Thermalspection 724 

system is a very accurate and reliable 

solution especially for substations and 

electrical switchgear monitoring of 

bushings, isolators, breakers, capacitor 

banks, busbars, and transformers, it is 

also used in industrial settings such as 

detecting hot spots in fuel storage facilities 

or monitoring for degradation of 

refractory in high temperature furnaces 

and vessels. 

Data Automation and 

Informing Users 

Each TS724DV-PT system also includes 

a stainless steel junction box with all of 

the necessary hardware for power and 

data transfer, including a hardened umbilical 

cable to easily connect the camera 

to the junction box. The umbilical cable 

Figure 5 System Communication / data exchange 



Remote 

Monitoring 

with 

Ultrasound 

Airborne and structure-borne ultrasound 

has been around for more than 50 years. 

In the technology’s early days, the main application 

was compressed air leak detection. 

Today more maintenance and reliability personnel 

have begun to use ultrasound technology 

for more than just compressed air leak detection. 

8 channel switch box – an 

inspector can quickly monitor 

up to 8 testing points. 

ADRIAN MESSER, 

CMRP, 

adrianm@uesystems.com 

THREE APPLICATIONS in particular have 

seen a large increase in usage: condition 

monitoring of bearings and rotating 

equipment, condition-based lubrication, 

and electrical inspection of energized 

electrical equipment. 

the I-P-F Curve. 

Ultrasound plays a critical role in 

helping to extend the life of bearings in 

the I-P interval by condition lubrication 

of bearings. Studies have shown 

that the majority of premature bearing 

failures can be attributed to lubrication. 

Ultrasound can prevent over- and underlubrication, 

thus potentially eliminating 

a large number of bearing failures. 

When a bearing lacks lubrication, 

there is an increase in friction. The 

higher friction also increases how much 

ultrasonic noise the bearing produces, 

indicated by a rise in the decibel (dB) 

level. While greasing a bearing that 

needs lubrication, one should see a 

gradual decrease in the dB level. Once 

the dB level has fallen back to a normal 

or baseline level, greasing can be ceased. 

If the bearing already has a sufficient 

amount of grease when greasing, then 

Why Remote Monitoring with 

Ultrasound? 

Remote monitoring with vibration 

analysis and temperature has been available 

for many years. For ultrasound, it’s 

a fairly new addition to the technology’s 

repertoire of capabilities. 

Ultrasound is a proven technology 

that can detect certain mechanical and 

electrical faults much sooner than other 

technologies. By sensing subtle changes 

in ultrasonic amplitude, ultrasound is 

adept at finding early stage premature 

bearing faults. This is demonstrated by 

I-P-F Curve showing ultrasound as an early indicator of a potential problem in bearings 

and rotating equipment. 


MECHANICAL INSPECTION 

the dB level will slowly begin to rise as 

more grease is applied. That’s because 

over-lubrication also increases friction 

in the bearing housing, thus producing a 

higher dB level. 

In the P-F interval once a failure has 

begun, ultrasound is excellent at finding 

it. These are bearing failures that can be 

detected even before changes in vibration. 

If you are monitoring critical assets, 

ultrasound and vibration should be 

used together in an effort to potentially 

detect multiple failure modes that may 

be missed when only using one technology 

alone. 

Remote Monitoring – 

Mechanical Inspection 

Remote monitoring of bearings and other 

rotating equipment with ultrasound 

can be done in one of two ways: 

The first is to use wired remote access 

sensors (RAS), which are mounted 

to the assets when it is safe to do so, and 

the cables brought out to a safe area 

(outside of guarding) where they can be 

connected directly to a portable handheld 

ultrasound instrument. The cable 

lengths for the ultrasound remote access 

sensors can be made to lengths of up to 

30 meters. 

The ultrasound remote access sensors 

can also be connected to a junction 

box or switch box. As many as eight 

ultrasound RAS’s can be connected to 

one switch box. Similar to the way vibration 

analysis switch boxes work, the 

ultrasound sensors are connected to the 

switch box, along with the hand-held 

ultrasound instrument. During analysis, 

the inspector turns the dial to the next 

point to collect a reading. 

ULTRASOUND PLAYS A CRITICAL ROLE IN HELPING TO 

EXTEND THE LIFE OF BEARINGS. 

UE Systems RAS – Remote Access 

Sensor – can be permanently attached 

to a hard-to-reach bearing and 

connected to a switch box for easy 

inspection. 

ULTRAPROBE 15000 IS ® 

The perfect solution for a complete inspection in the Oil & Gas industry 

For refineries and off-shore platforms 

Complete kit for full inspection: 

Access to EX zones? No Problem! 

With the Ultraprobe 15000 IS you can test anywhere 

• Compressed air / Special gases leak detection 

(during commissioning and operation phase) 

• Pump Inspection 

• Valves & Steam Traps 

• Bearings condition monitoring 

• Electrical Inspection on switchgear and transformers 

• Monitor your equipment’s condition 

• Improve asset availability 

• Reduce energy waste 

Two Powerful Inspection Tools in One Package 

The Ultraprobe ® 15000 Touch 

for advanced in-field diagnostics 

The Ultraprobe ® 9000ATEX 

to test in hazardous areas! 

UE Systems Europe 

Windmolen 20, 7609 NN Almelo, The Netherlands 

Tel. +31 546 725 125 • info@uesystems.eu • www.uesystems.eu

XXXXXX REMOTE MONITORING 

Arcing as seen in the Time Wave Form view. 

Ultra Trak 750 is designed for 

continuous remote monitoring. 

ULTRASOUND CAN PREVENT OVER- AND UNDER- 

LUBRICATION, THUS POTENTIALLY ELIMINATE 

BEARING FAILURES. 

Remote monitoring with ultrasound 

can also be done continuously. For continuous 

monitoring with ultrasound, UE 

Systems offers a sensor called the Ultra- 

Trak 750. This is another stud-mounted 

sensor, but instead of connecting directly 

to a hand-held ultrasound instrument, 

this sensor has a 4-20mA output 

that allows for easy connection to existing 

plant process monitoring systems. 

An audio output also allows for sound 

recording for further diagnostics or 

comparing baseline sound files to alarm 

level sound files. Ideal applications for 

this sensor could include: high-pressure 

safety relief valves, robotic applications, 

early warning of failure for a mechanical 

asset, flow disruption, and prompting a 

lubrication PM. 

Remote Monitoring – 

Electrical Inspection 

Ultrasound can be used to inspect 

almost any energized electrical equipment. 

This equipment may include metal-clad 

switchgear, transformers, substations, 

relays, and motor control centre, 

along with many others. Ultrasound can 

be used to measure equipment voltages 

UE Systems UWC – Ultrasonic Waveform 

Concentrator increases the detection range 

up to 4x. 

from the low end (110 volts) to well over 

12000 volts (12kV). 

Traditionally, inspection of energized 

electrical equipment has been 

performed using noncontact infrared 

cameras. However, in recent years, 

ultrasound has been added to these inspections 

for various reasons. One of the 

main reasons has been for safety: An ultrasound 

inspection of electrical equipment 

can be done without the need to 

open the energized cabinet or enclosure. 

The high frequency sound produced by 

corona, tracking, and arcing from inside 

of the enclosure will exit through any of 

the openings. The inspector will hear the 

sound via the headset, and know that an 

anomaly is present. The sound can then 

be recorded to determine if the condition 

is corona, tracking, arcing, or some 

type of mechanical looseness. 

Corona, by nature, does not produce 

significant heat that would be detected 

by an infrared camera. However, it does 

produce high frequency sound that can 

be detected by the ultrasound instrument. 

If corona discharge continues to 

occur, it can lead to a more severe problem 

such as tracking or arcing. 

When the sound file of corona is 

recorded, there are signature characteristics 

visible in the FFT and Time Wave 

Form (TWF) that will help to diagnose 

the condition. For corona, the discharge 

points only occur at the highest voltage 

point on the sine wave. This means 

that the amplitude peaks in the TWF 

are somewhat equally spaced as the 

discharges are only at the positive peak 

of the sine wave. The result will be welldefined 

60Hz or 50Hz harmonics. 

For tracking and arcing there are also 

certain characteristics to look for. With 

tracking, the discharge does not have to 

take place at the peak of the waveform. 

Instead, it can happen anywhere on the 

positive portion of the cycle. The spacing 

of the peaks in the TWF would be 

similar, but not uniform. As tracking 

becomes more severe, there are more 

discharge events and therefore more 

non-uniformly spaced narrow peaks. 

Arcing has the most non-uniform 

“look” in the FFT and TWF. Only the 

bursts of the discharge can be heard and 

these will be seen as wide peaks in the 

TWF view. 

To inspect electrical equipment that 

can’t be easily reachable, one can attach 

a parabolic disc to an Ultrasound instrument 

and increase the detection range 

by 4 times, making it possible to detect 

electrical failures at a distance of approximately 

50 meters. 

Remote Monitoring with 

Ultrasound – Conclusions 

Remote monitoring with ultrasound is a 

viable option for maintenance and reliability 

programs that are already monitoring 

assets traditionally with handheld 

devices, and for programs where 

ultrasound is currently not a technology 

that is being used. Because it is very 

complimentary to vibration analysis 

for mechanical inspection and infrared 

thermography for electrical inspection, 

ultrasound will only enhance conditionmonitoring 

efforts already in use. 


There are actually three 

certainties in life: death, 

taxes and the need for 

good maintenance. 

We can’t help you with the first two. 

www.marshallinstitute.com 

001 919-834-3722 

Marshall 

Institute 

...making good companies better

XXXXXX INDUSTRIAL INTERNET 

From Data 

to Decisions and 

Improved business 

EMIL ACKERMAN, 

Quva Oy, 

emil.ackerman@quva.fi 

In order to succeed, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) 

solutions need several technological layers. More 

importantly, IIoT needs to be closely knit to the actual 

business needs. Only then can new technologies 

improve company business. 

THERE ARE four important technological 

layers which constitute the concept of 

Industrial Internet of Things: (1) Sensors 

that collect data from products and 

operations, (2) reliable, real-time data 

transmission, (3) data warehouse, which 

combines data from multiple sources, 

and (4) analytics that refines data into 

meaningful information for decision 

support. When these layers are working 

seamlessly, it is possible to build new 

digital services and business models on 

top of them, which enhance old ways of 

working and take them to the next level. 

In the past few decades, technological 

advancements related to sensors, data 

transmission, warehousing, and analytics 

have been profound. Modern products 

and services can produce various 

kinds of data from themselves and their 

surroundings, which through the IIoT 

pipeline end up as meaningful information 

for the use of decision support in 

near real-time. 

Due to technological advancements, 

the concept of IIoT is more than the sum 

of its parts. Meaningful information is 

available more reliably, comprehensively, 

and systematically than ever before 

and at the right time for the actual need. 

This is what IIoT is all about. 

IIoT in itself does not make company 

success. Instead, it enables companies 

to increase productivity and create 

new business. The new 

technology concept 

challenges companies 

to renew 

traditional 

ways of working 

and doing 

business. 

However, the 

fundamentals 

of conducting business do not change. 

It is still crucial to work on defining 

the essential questions related to pain 

points of business and areas of development. 

Many areas benefit from real-time 

meaningful information and that is why 

IIoT can be taken advantage of in a variety 

of ways in companies. 

Concrete Benefits of IIoT 

Companies can improve their operations 

through better utilization of their 

own data. IIoT can help companies to 

utilize data at least in five different 

approaches. First, collecting and 

combining data from various 

sources and refining it into 

meaningful information leads 

to a better understanding of 

the big picture. It is important 

to know exactly what is happening 

in company operations 

IIOT IN ITSELF DOES NOT MAKE 

COMPANY SUCCESS. 



Electric Automation 

Systems and Components 

International Exhibition 

Nuremberg, Germany, 24 – 26 November 2015 

Answers for automation 

Visit SPS IPC Drives and experience the unique 

working atmosphere at Europe’s leading exhibition 

in the field of electric automation: 

• a comprehensive market overview 

• more than 1,600 exhibitors including all key players 

• products and solutions 

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Your free entry ticket 

www.sps-exhibition.com/tickets 

sps@mesago.com 

www.sps-exhibition.com 

3/2016 maintworld XX


and how different factors and phenomena 

have an impact on each other. Due 

to the constrained nature of human 

perception, it is beneficial to use IIoT 

related tools such as advanced analytics 

to see the big picture. 

Second, one of the key characteristics 

of IIoT, automating the refinement of 

data, brings more speed and accuracy 

during e.g. troubleshooting in manufacturing. 

Certain routine tasks such as 

gathering data from several sources and 

testing of hypotheses can be automated. 

This way, experts can focus more on 

making decisions based on refined data 

Case Zellstoff Pöls AG 

CONDITION MONITORING THROUGH IIOT 

Seppo Silenius, ANDRITZ OY, seppo.silenius@andritz.com 

WITH IIOT A COMPANY CAN TAKE A SIGNIFICANT LEAP FROM 

REACTIVE OPERATIONS INTO PROACTIVE WAYS OF WORKING. 

ANDRITZ Oy’s Wood Processing and Service units deliver wood, wood chips, bark and 

biomass processing technologies and services to the pulp and power plant industries. In 

the pulp mill’s wood room, chippers cut wood into chips for cooking pulp. 

ChipperEKG real-time operation and condition monitoring of chippers ensures high 

availability and chip quality and provides key figures for the wood room’s operating 

and condition-monitoring personnel, as well as the supplier’s various interest groups. 

Advanced analytics while running the chipper makes it possible to find out, for 

example, if one of the chipper knives is damaged. The amount of data received from 

the sensors is so large that the key figures relating to condition and operation are calculated 

immediately when the data is read. 

It is important to inform the operator immediately of knife breakage or a badly 

mounted knife, so that the chipper can be stopped. Detecting faults in time can prevent 

expensive damage. 

For the process and equipment supplier, the availability of key figures of the equipment 

is essential. Consequently, technical support can make use of real-time data, and 

the current operation of the equipment can also be compared with planned operation. 

Case LKAB 

ENERGY EFFICIENCY THROUGH IIOT 

Jukka Kostiainen, ABB Oy, jukka.kostiainen@fi.abb.com 

In 2012 EU’s biggest iron ore manufacturer and ABB, a global leader in power and 

automation, decided to join forces to improve LKAB’s energy efficiency. 

LKAB initiated an ambitious project in 2011 to improve energy efficiency by 20 

percent by 2020. ABB’s cpmPlus Energy Monitoring and Targeting energy management 

system was commissioned in 2012 and has proven to be a key element in managing 

the process. 

The system collects and reports data collected from more than 1200 measurements 

from three locations and 12 facilities. In addition, data is collected from real estate and 

transportation. The system covers the energy measurement and reporting requirements 

set by the ISO 50001 standard. 

The reporting and analytics functionalities give LKAB in real time, a holistic view of 

the actual energy efficiency compared to targets and actual achievable potential. Problem 

areas needing attention are quickly detected and prioritized. The effects of corrective 

actions are easy to follow and monitor. 


instead of spending time on doing the 

actual data refinement. 

The third approach in utilizing data is 

proactive operations. Real-time collection 

and analysis of data enables companies 

to better predict and prevent e.g. 

quality defects and unplanned production 

stoppages. With IIoT a company can 

take a significant leap from reactive operations 

into proactive ways of working. 

Preventative maintenance, especially, 

benefits considerably from new information 

and multivariable predictions 

brought by IIoT. 

Fourth, data can also be utilized in 

order to better understand customer 

behaviour, which can ultimately lead 

to increased revenue. When machine 

manufacturers know exactly, how their 

customers are using their machines, 

it is possible to offer e.g. maintenance 

services with better quality than what 

customers could do by themselves. In 

addition to machine hours, many other 

factors affect the timing of the next service 

break, such as how the machine has 

been operated and in what conditions. 

More comprehensive information about 

machines and their environment leads 

to better business opportunities for machine 

manufacturers. 

Finally, the fifth way to utilize data is 

related to organizations’ tacit knowledge 

and its transformation from individual 

employees’ minds into the knowledge of 

the whole organization. In a company, 

employees from different backgrounds 

and of varying experience work in the 

same tasks such as operating a production 

line in multiple shifts. Employees might 

adjust production, based on their subjective 

perception of what should be done. 

With the help of IIoT, data from the production 

line can be refined into objective 

information to support decisions made by 

operators and in a way, standardize operations 

throughout the organization. 

How to get started? 

Accurate and meaningful on-time information 

is one of the most important 

things in enabling successful business. 

Industrial Internet of Things is, no more 

and no less, a technology concept, which 

makes this type of information available 

better than ever before. However, valuable 

information for someone might be 

useless information for others. Therefore, 

it is every company’s and their customers’ 

own needs, challenges, and goals 

that need to be at the centre of any IIoT 

solutions. Only this way, IIoT can bring 

a company valuable information and 

hence improve business.

Vibrio, Vibrio Ex 

VA3 Pro 

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a Proactive a Proactive 

Maintenance 

Strategy Strategy 

Developing Developing 

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Procedures 

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Equipment Equipment 

Reliability Reliability 

Availability 

THE BRIDGE TO BETTER… 

Condition Monitoring 

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Allied Reliability Allied Reliability Group Group EMEA EMEA NV | NV +32.16.400.136 | | | info_emea@alliedreliability.com | | eu.AlliedReliability.com

Maintworld Issue3 2016

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