Maintworld Magazine 3-4/2022
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3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld.com<br />
maintenance & asset management<br />
The Future of<br />
Work - Yuval<br />
Noah Harari<br />
p 12<br />
Virtual Reality<br />
in Global<br />
Maintenance<br />
Training<br />
p 35<br />
Reducing<br />
Emissions<br />
from Source<br />
Points p 8
EDITORIAL<br />
NETWORKING IS GOOD<br />
After a long period of COVID-19 restrictions, the networking world is<br />
approaching a normal situation. This issue of <strong>Maintworld</strong> magazine is<br />
distributed at Ecomondo, the green technology expo in Italy. We have also<br />
seen several other events and fairs organized in almost normal circumstances<br />
all over Europe. The statistics from event organizers show that the number of visitors<br />
at fairs in <strong>2022</strong> has dropped about 30%-40% from the “normal” figures. Organizers<br />
assume that the event industry will be back to traditional business figures in five years.<br />
The big thing for EFNMS is the upcoming Euromaintenance event in Rotterdam,<br />
the Netherlands, which will take place between 17-19th of April 2023 (https://www.<br />
euromaintenance.net/). There has been a long break after Euromaintenance 2018,<br />
which was held in Antwerp, Belgium. Euromaintenance 2023 in Rotterdam will again<br />
bring the top players in the maintenance industry together – again with excellent<br />
conference content and combined with the Maintenance NEXT exhibition.<br />
As we know, there are dark clouds in the sky concerning the situation in Europe –<br />
we can all see the rising energy prices and the uncertainty of international business.<br />
The interest in improving energy efficiency is rising, and professional maintenance is<br />
an effective part of energy efficiency and a circular economy. Most probably during the<br />
coming winter, we will see and develop new, innovative ways to save energy and get the<br />
most out of the materials and tools we are using. To ensure and support this, we must<br />
further improve cooperation between countries and business organizations.<br />
On a personal level, this means that we must be patient and tolerate a few negative<br />
things. At the same time, we must get back on track with external activities. In Finland’s<br />
military history, we have a saying that goes “do not lie down under fire” – stand up and<br />
continue. We have seen that people and organizations are not very determined and<br />
focus-oriented in a new situation. Now more than ever, we need to be fast and focused<br />
on improving things, make new innovations, and be open to new ideas and contacts.<br />
Global and European-level networking is needed, and it is vital for companies and<br />
personal development. To get the most out of networking, we need to understand with<br />
whom and for what we need to connect. To help this kind of thinking, EFNMS has<br />
been working with an EFNMS-survey, which will be launched in mid-November <strong>2022</strong>.<br />
The results of this survey will be reported during the Euromaintenance 2023 event<br />
in Rotterdam. Those answering the survey will get a survey-report after the survey<br />
is finalized in mid-March 2023. More information is coming later via the EFNMS<br />
webpage and other media.<br />
Hope to see you at the latest in Rotterdam in April 2023!<br />
Now more than<br />
ever, we need<br />
to be focused<br />
on improving<br />
things and<br />
being open<br />
to new ideas<br />
and contacts.<br />
Jaakko Tennilä<br />
Executive Director / Board member<br />
Finnish maintenance society, Promaint / EFNMS, European Federation of National Maintenance Societies<br />
Issued by Promaint (Finnish Maintenance Society), Messuaukio 1, 00520 Helsinki, Finland, tel. +358 29 007 4570 Publisher Omnipress Oy, Väritehtaankatu 8,<br />
4. kerros, 01300 Vantaa, tel. +358 20 6100, omnipress.fi Editor-in-chief Juha Peltonen, tel. +358 50 554 6426, juha.peltonen@media.fi Producer Mia Heiskanen,<br />
tel. +358 40 615 5058, mia.heiskanen@media.fi Advertisements Tanja Lukkarinen, Customer Manager, tel. +358 40 529 3628, tanja.lukkarinen@media.fi<br />
Layout Menu Meedia, www.menuk.ee Subscriptions and change of address members toimisto@kunnossapito.fi, non-members tilaajapalvelu@media.fi<br />
Printed by Reusner, www.reusner.ee Frequency 4 issues per year, ISSN L 1798-7024, ISSN 1798-7024 (print), ISSN 1799-8670 (online).
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Automation is not<br />
a one-off event but<br />
a cascade of disuption.<br />
12<br />
AI<br />
and robotics will change<br />
almost every profession, says<br />
the best-selling author Yuval<br />
Noah Harari<br />
2 Editorial<br />
8<br />
Reducing emissions<br />
from source points<br />
12<br />
What Will the Future of Work<br />
Be Like?<br />
18<br />
22<br />
Condition monitoring<br />
secures transition to carbonneutral<br />
energy<br />
Avoid the Dangers of<br />
Failing Steam Traps<br />
24<br />
26<br />
28<br />
32<br />
35<br />
Why Is Industry 5.0<br />
A Good Thing<br />
For Manufacturing<br />
Testing through digital glasses<br />
Air Quality - a breathtaking<br />
challenge<br />
Steps to Create a Reliable<br />
Manufacturing Culture<br />
An elevator that transports<br />
to virtual reality<br />
28<br />
Monitoring air pollutant<br />
emissions is in sharp<br />
focus for a range of<br />
industries.<br />
4 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
In this<br />
issue<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong><br />
36<br />
=<br />
40<br />
42<br />
46<br />
49<br />
Energy Cyber Security in the Nordics<br />
EFNMS - Finnish Maintenance Society,<br />
Promaint<br />
Automation of Mobile Machines<br />
Call for Maintenance Development<br />
Work and safety development<br />
at the nuclear power plant<br />
46<br />
In<br />
the future, mobile machines<br />
will be electrified<br />
and highly automated.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 5
In Short<br />
World Economy Study predicts by 2025,<br />
digital technologies will create over<br />
12 million more jobs than they eliminate.<br />
New career pathways<br />
A study by MIT and Boston University found that the negative impact of automation on the job<br />
market can be offset by new tasks as “all technologies create productivity effects that contribute<br />
to labor demand.” This is corroborated by a World Economic Forum study that predicts by 2025,<br />
digital technologies will create at least 12 million more jobs than they eliminate, as people with<br />
the right skills will be needed to program, maintain and repair them.<br />
THESE EMERGING, specialized roles also provide<br />
workers with safer and more fulfilling career<br />
pathways as automation and robotics have not<br />
resulted in any mass workforce reductions among<br />
factory floor workers. Instead, these workers have<br />
been redeployed or transferred to serve other<br />
production needs or upskilled to perform specialized<br />
roles. It is not uncommon to convert assembly<br />
operators and testers to line-compliance auditors or<br />
robotics technicians. By filling the jobs created by<br />
automation, employers can level the playing field<br />
for people with disabilities and other disadvantages.<br />
For example, the use of robotics can eliminate the<br />
“ability to lift” requirement, making a job more<br />
accessible.<br />
DISCOVER<br />
The World Economic Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future<br />
of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning brings together<br />
global stakeholders to accelerate the adoption of transparent and<br />
inclusive AI, so the technology can be deployed in a safe, ethical and<br />
responsible way.<br />
• The Forum created a toolkit for human resources to promote<br />
positive and ethical human-centred use of AI for organizations,<br />
workers and society.<br />
• The Forum’s Empowering AI Leadership: AI C-Suite<br />
Toolkit provides practical tools to help companies better<br />
understand the ethical and business impact of their AI<br />
investment. The Model AI Governance Framework features<br />
responsible practices of leading companies from different<br />
sectors that organizations can adopt in a similar manner.<br />
www.weforum.org/platforms/shaping-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence-and-machine-learning<br />
www.weforum.org/projects/human-centred-artificial-intelligence-for-human-resources<br />
Swedish Steel Prize 2023 - Call for entries<br />
APPLICATIONS ARE BEING ACCEPTED for the<br />
Swedish Steel Prize 2023 – the steel industry’s<br />
most prestigious international award – now<br />
for the 21st time celebrating innovative steel<br />
solutions.<br />
The Swedish Steel Prize recognizes those who<br />
fully utilize the potential of steel to improve not<br />
only their business or industry, but also society.<br />
“The Swedish Steel Prize is a celebration of<br />
innovation and good engineering,” explains Eva<br />
Petursson, Chair of the Swedish Steel Prize Jury<br />
and Head of SSAB’s Research and Innovation. “We<br />
are looking for solutions that push the limits of<br />
steel and with a sustainable or digital twist.”<br />
The Swedish Steel Prize is open to any<br />
individual, company or institution and is awarded<br />
to the method or product that best displays how<br />
the properties of the chosen grade of steel has<br />
contributed to a significant innovation.<br />
For the full rules, to read about previous<br />
finalists and to apply, applicants can go to www.<br />
steelprize.com/apply. All applications must be<br />
received before the deadline of January 18, 2023<br />
for consideration.<br />
6 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
2027<br />
The<br />
Global Logistics Automation Market size was<br />
estimated at USD 54.57 billion in 2021, USD 59.91 billion<br />
in <strong>2022</strong>, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 9.95 % to reach<br />
USD 96.47 billion by 2027.<br />
Save<br />
the dates<br />
for 2023<br />
DATE DESIGN<br />
Automation and Test in Europe<br />
Conference and Exhibition<br />
Antwerpen, Belgium<br />
17. - 19.4.2023<br />
EUROMAINTENANCE<br />
CONGRESS AND EUROMAINTE-<br />
NANCE NEXT FAIR<br />
Industrial Maintenance and Asset<br />
Management European Congress<br />
Rotterdam, Netherlands<br />
17 - 19.4.2023<br />
ABB expands condition<br />
monitoring with<br />
Samotics partnership<br />
ABB AND SAMOTICS, a leading provider of electrical signature analysis technology,<br />
have entered a strategic partnership to provide enhanced condition monitoring services<br />
by delivering greater insight into machine health and energy efficiency.<br />
ABB will integrate Samotics’ plug-and-play monitoring solution known as SAM4 into<br />
its digital portfolio. The technology is complementary to the ABB Ability Condition<br />
Monitoring service for powertrains, a sensor-based solution that analyses the health<br />
and performance of rotating equipment. Samotics’ SAM4 technology will expand ABB’s<br />
application of asset health monitoring for motor-driven industrial equipment as it does<br />
not rely on mounting sensors in the field.<br />
ABB and Samotics say developing a system that uses both datasets will provide<br />
industrial operators with a more detailed view of asset health so that they can make<br />
better decisions to optimize maintenance, boost reliability and reduce downtime. ABB<br />
plans to roll out Samotics technology to customers before the end of <strong>2022</strong> as part of its<br />
growing service portfolio for rotating equipment.<br />
MAINTENANCE DORTMUND<br />
International Industrial<br />
Maintenance Exhibition<br />
Dortmund, Germany<br />
24. - 26.5.2023<br />
SIMIEX<br />
International Industrial<br />
Maintenance Exhibition<br />
Porto, Portugal 31.5 – 3.6.2023<br />
MAINTEC<br />
Maintec is the UK's premier event<br />
for the maintenance engineering<br />
and asset management community<br />
Birmingham, UK 6. - 8.7.2023<br />
MANUFACTURING<br />
EXPO ASEAN’S<br />
Leading Machinery and<br />
Technology Event for<br />
Manufacturing and<br />
Supporting Industries<br />
Bangkok, Thailand 21. - 24.6.2023<br />
We estimate the size of the Enterprise<br />
Automation market at just shy of $10<br />
billion in <strong>2022</strong>, with a forecast 5-year CAGR<br />
of approximately 14.8%.<br />
Enterprise Automation Market Analysis: <strong>2022</strong>-26 by Alan Pelz-Sharpe,<br />
Matt Mullen, and Dan Lucarini, Deep Analysis.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 7
OIL&GAS<br />
Reducing emissions<br />
from source points -<br />
necessary than ever<br />
The occurrence of unwanted<br />
emissions is a headache for the<br />
process industry because of the<br />
loss of raw materials, safety risks<br />
and environmental damage.<br />
TEXT: WOUTER OUDE GROOTHUIS<br />
IMAGES: COLIN ZEGERS ITIS BV, SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
8 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
OIL&GAS<br />
Examples of stem seal leakage - Source: ITIS<br />
In order to reduce such emissions, it is important<br />
to develop a valve testing system<br />
that allows the most common stem seals to<br />
be tested and compared.<br />
POTENTIAL LEAKS usually occur at so-called<br />
source points: seals either in or between pipes and/<br />
or vessels. Valves are an example of this. A valve<br />
consists of an upper part and a valve body with an<br />
orifice. By means of a spindle, a valve is manually or<br />
mechanically moved to position 'open' and 'position<br />
closed', respectively This means that the product<br />
flow is proportional to the size of the valve opening.<br />
An estimated 60% of unwanted emissions are<br />
due to valves, and are mainly caused by decreasing<br />
by loss of compression. A compressible stem seal<br />
seals when a certain surface pressure is applied<br />
to it by means of a gland bush. The stem seal is<br />
thereby pressed radially but deflects in an axial direction,<br />
and this movement causes it to seal.<br />
So the question is, why does this compression<br />
rate decrease?<br />
To answer this, endurance tests were carried<br />
out by ITIS in Goes The Netherlands. Director<br />
Colin Zegers explains the choice for that specific<br />
location.<br />
“We have test bunkers here in which, among<br />
other things, valves and sealing materials can be<br />
tested for leaks. This testing is done using the socalled<br />
sniffer-pressure method in accordance with<br />
internationally recognised standards.”<br />
A compression stem packing of the valve could<br />
contain five or six rings of gaskets, all of which are<br />
60%<br />
10% 15%<br />
normally fitted and pressed on at the same time.<br />
The top gasket ring then appears to perform its<br />
sealing role well, but the same is not true, or is less<br />
true, for the remaining rings.<br />
“The idea is that each ring is basically compressed<br />
by 30% before the next one is installed.<br />
That way you get an optimal distribution of forces<br />
across rings. If you only pre-compress some of the<br />
rings, which is obviously a lot faster, then they have<br />
to do all the work; the rest is just 'padding'. The less<br />
the precompression, the harder the packing rings<br />
5%<br />
10%<br />
Valves Tanks Relief Valves Flanges Pumps<br />
Figure: Sources of<br />
fugitive emissions in<br />
the process industry<br />
(source: European<br />
Sealing Association)<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 9
OIL&GAS<br />
have to be tightened, and then, due to deformation<br />
of the rings, at some point it has to stop”, Zegers<br />
explains.<br />
THE TESTS are always conducted under the<br />
same pressure and temperature conditions. The<br />
stem seals are assembled in the same way and<br />
tightened with the same force. By placing special<br />
pressure sensors on the valve, the force required<br />
to tighten gasket pusher bolts can be measured,<br />
ensuring optimal sealing action.<br />
“By mounting so-called smart positioners<br />
on the control valves, it becomes possible to<br />
measure the number and size of the valve movements,<br />
often in combination with the pressures<br />
and temperatures of the process. To make the<br />
whole thing even 'smarter', insofar as possible,<br />
sensors for measuring and predicting emissions<br />
are linked to the positioners already in place.”<br />
It has been established empirically that the<br />
force of tightening the gland bush, the type of<br />
stem seal and the number of turns are interrelated.<br />
Furthermore, a gasket is found to relax<br />
immediately after tightening - decrease in prepressure<br />
- resulting in loss of bolt tension. This<br />
has a negative impact on the leak proofing of the<br />
valve. Several factors influence this.<br />
“Consider the make and type of stem seal,<br />
alignment, tolerances, roughness and temperature.<br />
After relaxation, the axial force is too low,<br />
the upper ring is tightened, but cannot tolerate<br />
this and deforms, resulting in a (partial) drop in<br />
surface pressure and leakage reoccurs. The reason<br />
for this relaxation has not been established<br />
at this time; further research will have to be<br />
done into this.”<br />
WHEN CHOOSING a particular brand and type of<br />
stem seal, factors such as pressure, temperature,<br />
type of gasket material in relation to the product<br />
and the maximum allowable leakage value must<br />
all be considered. The tests carried out show that<br />
dynamic valve seals leak under certain conditions,<br />
despite the fact that the process conditions specified<br />
by the manufacturer are met.<br />
Often, such values are not or not sufficiently<br />
substantiated by independent tests. What also does<br />
not help is the fact that there is as yet no standard or<br />
regulation for stem seals. In his role as team leader<br />
of the project, Zegers is currently writing a standard<br />
procedure for the best stem seal testing method.<br />
The aim is to standardise as much as possible<br />
per stem seal type and material, the method of<br />
assembly and the required compression. It is also<br />
important to unambiguously standardise the<br />
relationship between the force of tightening the<br />
pusher, the type of gasket and the number of tightening<br />
torques, so that everyone starts working in a<br />
uniform way and the results of those findings are<br />
interchangeable.<br />
“Currently, the claims made by manufacturers<br />
of stem seals are uncommitted and not verified<br />
against a standard. Fortunately, the ESA and<br />
many other stakeholders agree we need standardisation.<br />
In this way test reports<br />
will lead into increased<br />
product responsibility,”<br />
Zegers says.<br />
FUGITIVE EMISSIONS are the totality<br />
of unwanted and often irregular<br />
emissions of gases and/or vapours from<br />
equipment operating at overpressure.<br />
This contributes to environmental<br />
pollution and climate change as a function<br />
of the "global warming potential" of the<br />
substances involved. Scientific sources<br />
estimate that in the United States alone,<br />
125,000 tonnes are unintentionally<br />
released into the atmosphere every year.<br />
Fugitive Emission is basically the loss of<br />
useful resources. Thus, it makes sense<br />
from both a circular and purely<br />
economic point of view to minimise<br />
these emissions. This is done through<br />
good plant installation and<br />
maintenance practices.<br />
10 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
OIL&GAS<br />
Interreg project Circular Maintenance<br />
IN THIS PROJECT, several public and private partners are working together, led by the (Dutch)<br />
Knowledge and Innovation Centre Maintenance Process Industry (KicMPi) and the Belgian Maintenance<br />
Association (BEMAS), to reduce the material footprint of the process industry in the<br />
south of the Netherlands and Flanders, while at the same time achieving economic benefits. The<br />
project is supported by Interreg Flanders-Netherlands, a European program that finances crossborder<br />
projects for smart, green and inclusive growth. It is funded from the European Regional<br />
Development Fund (ERDF).<br />
The project has been delayed because of corona but more significantly because of its complexity.<br />
"As the project ends at the end of this year, we are looking into whether we can continue<br />
the studies and if so, in what way. Given the many thousands of tonnes of fugitive emissions<br />
annually, this is by no means an unnecessary luxury," says Zegers.<br />
A scanning system that tracks on-site valves that start showing leakage behaviour in the<br />
near future would therefore be ideal. In that regard, Zegers has good news.<br />
"Currently, a prototype test system is being built and tested in-house at ITIS as a kind of<br />
spin-off from the Interreg project. Unfortunately, due to the patent applications, I cannot and<br />
may not say more about that at the moment."<br />
The Interreg project officially ends on 31 December <strong>2022</strong>. During the closing event on 15<br />
November, the results achieved will be shown and preliminary conclusions shared. To learn<br />
more visit www.circulaironderhoud.eu.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 11
MANAGEMENT<br />
What Will the<br />
Future of Work<br />
Be Like?<br />
12 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
MANAGEMENT<br />
TEXT: MIA HEISKANEN<br />
PHOTOS: NORDIC BUSINESS FORUM<br />
AI and robotics will change almost<br />
every profession, the historian,<br />
philosopher and best-selling author<br />
Yuval Noah Harari told the Nordic<br />
Business Forum audience in Helsinki.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 13
MANAGEMENT<br />
Harari was one of the most anticipated<br />
speakers in NBF Helsinki<br />
and he started his speech by reminding<br />
of one important fact<br />
about the job market in 2050—nobody<br />
knows what it’s going to be<br />
like. The only thing we can be certain of is that it will<br />
be completely different from what we know today.<br />
“Many jobs of today will disappear by 2050.<br />
The big question is, what will this do to the job<br />
market and human society?”<br />
PEOPLE ARE NERVOUS, BUT THE FEAR OF AUTO-<br />
MATION IS NOTHING NEW. Harari reminded the<br />
audience that automation has been around<br />
since the start of the industrial revolution. The<br />
challenge with it has never been the complete<br />
disappearance of jobs but rather adapting to<br />
the new jobs and the job market. Humans had<br />
a hard time learning how to adapt to the power<br />
of the steam engine and electricity. In the past,<br />
we’ve seen that when old jobs go, new jobs are<br />
created, and the same thing is likely to happen<br />
in the future. The fact is though that the technologies<br />
driving innovation today, such as AI,<br />
robotics, and bioengineering, are even more<br />
powerful.<br />
“We can not afford any more failed experiments.<br />
If we don’t get it right this time, the<br />
result will be a complete annihilation of humankind.”<br />
To get it right, the key question is what humans<br />
will be doing in 2050 and what kinds of<br />
jobs and tasks will be taken over by computers<br />
and robots? Harari reminded the audience<br />
that this question is not a theoretical question<br />
about the future but a very practical question<br />
about today. The key is to stay relevant.<br />
Harari told that<br />
nobody knows what<br />
the job market will be<br />
like in 2050.<br />
14 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
MANAGEMENT<br />
TO STAY RELEVANT IN THE 21ST CENTURY will<br />
require new skills and new attitudes like<br />
unlearning, relearning and processing information.<br />
According to Harari it means people<br />
need the ability to unlearn previous skills and<br />
approaches. The most important skill of the<br />
21st century will not be specific skills such as<br />
learning code, but the ability to master new<br />
skills and to move from one profession to another<br />
throughout our lives. We will also need<br />
to learn how to tell the difference between reliable<br />
and unreliable information.<br />
For thousands of years, the model was linear.<br />
First you learn, then you work. This model<br />
is now becoming irrelevant. As more and more<br />
activities move online, people in their sixties<br />
and seventies will still need to adapt. With<br />
virtual reality VR, they may even need to learn<br />
Automation has<br />
been around since<br />
the start of the industrial<br />
revolution.<br />
Yuval Noah Harari is a historian,<br />
philosopher, author, and lecturer<br />
at the Department of History<br />
at the Hebrew University of<br />
Jerusalem. As a writer, his bestknown<br />
works include Sapiens:<br />
A Brief History of Humankind,<br />
Homo Deus: A Brief History of<br />
Tomorrow, and 21 Lessons for<br />
the 21st Century.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 15
MANAGEMENT<br />
how to walk and talk again in the VR world. As<br />
more jobs move into VR, those who can’t learn<br />
these skills will be left behind.<br />
“We’ll have big changes by 2025, bigger<br />
changes by 2035 and an even bigger revolution<br />
in 2045. Old jobs will disappear, new jobs<br />
will emerge, but the new jobs too will quickly<br />
change and vanish. People will have to retrain<br />
and reinvent themselves not just once but<br />
again and again and this will create psychological<br />
pressure.”<br />
The jobs which will be done by computers<br />
will depend on what humans want them to do.<br />
Do we want them to be more intelligent than<br />
us? If that’s the case, is it enough for computers<br />
to gain intelligence to take on certain tasks<br />
– such as driverless cars? Or do we want empathy,<br />
relationship or friendship? If so, that’s<br />
not possible to automate. What we want is not<br />
someone who can solve problems for us, but<br />
someone who can feel things.<br />
Harari pointed out that AI does not have<br />
any emotions of its own, but it can learn to<br />
recognize these patterns in human beings.<br />
Computers may outperform people in recognizing<br />
human emotions because they don’t<br />
have any emotions of their own.<br />
AS COMPUTERS BECOME MORE INTELLIGENT,<br />
some people are naturally raising the question<br />
of consciousness. On this, he is skeptical.<br />
“We shouldn’t confuse intelligence with consciousness.<br />
Contrary to what we see in science fiction<br />
films, there is no reason to think that as computers<br />
gain intelligence they will gain consciousness.”<br />
Consciousness is the ability to feel emotions.<br />
Intelligence is the ability to solve problems.<br />
Over the past half-century, we have seen<br />
a dramatic increase in computer intelligence.<br />
At the same time, we’ve seen precisely zero<br />
change in computer consciousness. Harari<br />
reminded the audience that there might be<br />
Nordic Business Forum<br />
gathered over 7,000<br />
business leaders from<br />
50 countries to Helsinki<br />
in September.<br />
16 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
MANAGEMENT<br />
Challenge the assumptions of today<br />
When it comes to automation, society has made assumptions that can be<br />
shown to be untrue. Harari raised some interesting points.<br />
WE TEND TO APPRECIATE INTELLECTUAL SKILLS RATHER THAN<br />
MANUAL SKILLS. In reality, it is intellectual professions such as doctors<br />
that are better suited for automation than for example nurses.<br />
AI CAN’T REPLACE HUMANS IN JOBS THAT NEED EMOTIONAL INTEL-<br />
LIGENCE. When it comes to identifying human emotions, computers may<br />
be better than humans. Understanding if someone is angry is about processing<br />
information from e.g. body language and expression. At its heart,<br />
this is the process of data processing which is one thing that AI excels at.<br />
Automation is not<br />
a one-off event but<br />
a cascade of disuption.<br />
several different roads leading to super-intelligence,<br />
and only some of the roads lead to<br />
consciousness.<br />
HARARI CHALLENGED THE WAY WE PERCEIVE<br />
WORK ROLES IN RELATION TO AUTOMATION.<br />
Some of the skills that we cherish as unique human<br />
abilities may actually be automated rather<br />
easily, whereas other skills that we tend to look<br />
down on may be far more difficult to automate.<br />
Take weddings, for example. On a technical level,<br />
the job of a priest can be automated much easier<br />
than anything else. All that is needed is to repeat<br />
the text and print out a certificate. So why,<br />
Harari asked, do we think car drivers should be<br />
worried, but priests are safe?<br />
Another example comes from health care. According<br />
to Harari it is easier to automate the job of<br />
a doctor than the job of a nurse.<br />
“Doctors mainly gather medical data, analyze<br />
it, provide a diagnosis, and recommend a treatment.<br />
It means the work is mainly about gathering<br />
data and finding patterns in that data. Pattern<br />
recognition and finding patterns is exactly<br />
what AI is doing better than human beings. In<br />
contrast, it is much more difficult to automate<br />
the jobs of a nurse who place bandages on injured<br />
people or give injections to a crying child.<br />
AI is very far from gaining the motor and social<br />
skills necessary to perform such tasks.”<br />
According to Harari AI is nowhere near its<br />
full potential and that is also true for human<br />
beings. “For every euro and minute we spend<br />
developing AI, we should spend at least a euro<br />
and a minute on exploring and developing our<br />
own minds.”<br />
All this requires a lot of mental flexibility,<br />
but the big question is: do we have what it<br />
takes to survive in the 21st century? Coping<br />
with the future of work, Harari believes, will<br />
be difficult in many ways.<br />
“It is stressful to reinvent yourself. If you’re a<br />
truck driver who has been replaced by a computer,<br />
how do you reinvent yourself with any other<br />
job which has not been automated”, he asked.<br />
EVEN IF YOU CAN ADJUST, it might not be a<br />
long-term solution because the job market will<br />
continue to change. Harari pointed out that<br />
the automation is not a one-off event. It will<br />
be a ‘cascade of ever bigger disruption’.<br />
To thrive in the new world, Harari argued<br />
that we will have to unleash the untapped potential<br />
of humankind. Preparing for the future<br />
starts with education today.<br />
“Consider a six-year-old girl, who starts her<br />
first grade in school, she will be 34 in 2050.<br />
What should we teach her today that she will<br />
have the necessary skills for the future job<br />
market,” Harari concluded.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 17
ENERGY<br />
Reliable condition monitoring<br />
secures transition to carbonneutral<br />
energy at Oulun<br />
Energia's biopower plant<br />
Oulun Energia’s Laanila<br />
power plant relies on Valmet’s<br />
condition monitoring, which is<br />
an integral element of the DNA<br />
distributed control system.<br />
TEXT: JUKKA NORTIO IMAGES: VALMET<br />
The City of Oulu in Finland aims<br />
to become carbon neutral by<br />
2035. This is why the local energy<br />
company Oulun Energia<br />
shares the same goal. While<br />
relinquishing fossil fuels, the<br />
company will also gradually reduce the use of<br />
peat as a source of energy. It will be replaced<br />
with wood pulp and non-recyclable waste<br />
fractions.<br />
The collaboration with<br />
Valmet’s professionals<br />
is seamless”, says<br />
Tim Onnela (right),<br />
who is responsible<br />
for machine condition<br />
monitoring at Oulun<br />
Energia. Tommi<br />
Karsikas (left) is<br />
Valmet’s Senior<br />
application specialist.<br />
18 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
ENERGY<br />
THE LAANILA BIOPOWER PLANT, which was<br />
opened for commercial use in 2020, plays an important<br />
role on the path towards carbon neutrality.<br />
Its operations are characterized by optimal<br />
fuel flexibility and the utilization of various side<br />
streams.<br />
The plant serves the energy needs of the<br />
growing city of Oulu. The power plant’s production<br />
capacity is 75 megawatts of electricity<br />
and 175 megawatts of district heat. If necessary,<br />
process steam can be supplied to the industrial<br />
facilities in the nearby Laanila area.<br />
The Laanila plant utilizes a Valmet multifuel<br />
boiler, flue gas treatment plant and plantwide<br />
DNA automation system. A Valmet CFB<br />
Boiler system, which features circulating fluidized<br />
bed technology, is used as the boiler. The<br />
solution’s fuel flexibility is very high. The boiler<br />
at Laanila can burn wood residuals, wood<br />
chips, sawdust, stump chips and peat as well as<br />
solid recovery fuel (SRF) received from Oulun<br />
Our goal was to equip<br />
our modern power<br />
plant with a condition<br />
monitoring system that would<br />
be as functional, reliable and<br />
versatile as possible.<br />
VIBRATION CONDITION MONITORING is a key<br />
element of the safe and efficient operations of<br />
an energy plant. The maintenance of the Laanila<br />
plant is assisted by Valmet DNA condition<br />
monitoring, which is included in the Valmet<br />
DNA automation system.<br />
“In the procurement phase, our goal was to<br />
equip our modern power plant with a condition<br />
monitoring system that would be as functional,<br />
reliable and versatile as possible. Valmet’s<br />
condition monitoring was the best fit for us,<br />
since it is part of the plant’s automation system.<br />
It is important to ensure seamless information<br />
flow within the system,” says Tim Onnela, who<br />
is in charge of condition monitoring at Oulun<br />
Energia.<br />
One important criterion in the purchase<br />
was to ensure that plant operators can smoothly<br />
use the condition monitoring system alongside<br />
the automation system in day-to-day work<br />
activities. The condition monitoring notifies<br />
operators of any deviations and predicts failure<br />
situations so that problems can be addressed<br />
before they cause major damage.<br />
Valmet prepared for the commissioning of<br />
the condition monitoring system by drawing<br />
up a condition monitoring plan for Oulun<br />
Energia. This involved planning automatic online<br />
measurements, scheduling periodic route<br />
measurements and applying them to the full<br />
scope of the condition monitoring solution.<br />
The commissioning also entailed defining the<br />
alarm limits for the measurements.<br />
Machine condition<br />
information is displayed<br />
in the same<br />
user interface as the<br />
process automation.<br />
Energia’s Rusko waste sorting plant.<br />
In the commissioning phase, the fuel mixture<br />
comprised 70 percent biomass, 15 percent<br />
SRF and the same amount of peat. As the plant<br />
gradually phases out peat, the share of SRF will<br />
increase to 30 percent.<br />
Thanks to Valmet’s flue gas cleaning system,<br />
the plant meets even the strictest emission<br />
requirements. The flue gas condenser included<br />
in the cleaning system generates 55 megawatts<br />
of district heat, which improves that plant’s<br />
energy efficiency and district heat capacity.<br />
The plant’s operation is controlled and monitored<br />
by Valmet DNA. It is an automation,<br />
safety and information management system,<br />
which also includes applications for emission<br />
monitoring and calculating the power plant’s<br />
key figures. The automation system and Valmet<br />
Industrial Internet applications optimize<br />
the plant’s operations in real time.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 19
ENERGY<br />
“The more critical measurements are now covered<br />
by the online condition monitoring, and the<br />
less critical ones will be measured with a portable<br />
analyzer. Online measurements are carried out<br />
multiple times a day, while the interval between<br />
manual measurements can be as long as four<br />
weeks,” Onnela says.<br />
The commissioning of the extensive plantwide<br />
condition monitoring system surprised Onnela<br />
in a good way. One reason behind the success was<br />
Valmet’s expert staff. Some of them were already<br />
familiar to Onnela, so working with them was<br />
effortless.<br />
“The collaboration with Valmet’s professionals<br />
is seamless. If any changes have been needed, the issues<br />
have been addressed immediately. Having support<br />
close at hand is important to us,” Onnela says.<br />
“The cooperation with Oulun Energia has been<br />
a good experience for many reasons, such as the<br />
company’s in-depth condition monitoring expertise<br />
and equipment-related knowledge. Oulun Energia<br />
also sees condition monitoring as an important part<br />
of a modern power plant’s operations that serves<br />
both those maintaining and operating the plant.<br />
The staff are also enthusiastic and willing to develop<br />
new solutions for demanding locations with<br />
Valmet. The collaboration has been extremely<br />
fruitful,” Valmet Automation’s Senior Application<br />
Specialist Tommi Karsikas says.<br />
THE COOPERATION has been pushed forward by<br />
piloting new technologies. Among the most interesting<br />
ones was testing Valmet WVS-100 and<br />
WMM-100 wireless vibration sensors with the<br />
feed screws of the boilers. It would have been<br />
very difficult and costly to install fixed sensors.<br />
The wireless sensors were tested for a period<br />
of six months. Encouraged by the good experiences,<br />
their use was extended, bringing the<br />
plant’s total number of wireless sensors to more<br />
than 100, equaling the number of fixed sensors.<br />
“The quality of Valmet’s wireless sensors is<br />
excellent, and they are fast to deploy,” Onnela<br />
says in praise of the products.<br />
Wireless Valmet WVS-<br />
100 vibration sensors<br />
are used for moving<br />
machines such as silo<br />
discharger motors<br />
and gearboxes. Wired<br />
RVT-120 sensors are<br />
used for the feedwater<br />
pump and other stationary<br />
machines.<br />
20 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
ENERGY<br />
That being said, it is unwise to install wireless<br />
sensors in every location, since they have<br />
batteries that require periodic recharging.<br />
Fixed wired sensors are favored for more critical<br />
points, such as blowers and large pumps.<br />
THE COMMON TASKS of condition monitoring<br />
include entering bearing data in the system<br />
and tuning the alarm limits in the context<br />
of process change related to a change in the<br />
raw material mixture, for example. Valmet’s<br />
condition monitoring system makes these<br />
measures simple.<br />
“Valmet DNA condition monitoring saves<br />
a lot of effort since you do not need to carry<br />
out all measurements manually. Another<br />
benefit is the system’s ability to take the<br />
rotation speed of devices controlled with frequency<br />
converters into account. The system<br />
retrieves the speed data from the automation<br />
system before measurement,” Onnela explains.<br />
The condition monitoring system has<br />
already saved the Laanila plant from significant<br />
trouble by detecting a fault in the<br />
bearing of a district heating pump motor<br />
bearing. If allowed to exacerbate, the issue<br />
could have led to severe equipment failure<br />
and costly repairs. This, too, demonstrated<br />
the importance of daily automatic measurements.<br />
Since the Laanila plant has found the condition<br />
monitoring system to be an excellent<br />
tool, its deployment is also being planned at<br />
the Toppila power plant and Laanila eco power<br />
plant.<br />
Oulun Energia power<br />
plants in figures<br />
LAANILA BIOPOWER PLANT<br />
Completed in 2020<br />
Fuel power 215 megawatts<br />
Electrical power 70 megawatts<br />
District heat power 175 megawatts<br />
LAANILA ECO POWER PLANT<br />
Completed in 2012<br />
Fuel power 53 megawatts<br />
TOPPILA POWER PLANT<br />
Completed in 1995<br />
Fuel power 315 megawatts<br />
Electrical power 120 megawatts<br />
District heat power 170 megawatts<br />
TOPPILA SOLAR POWER PLANT<br />
Completed in 2016<br />
Power 270 kilowatts<br />
MERIKOSKI HYDROPOWER PLANT<br />
Completed in 1948<br />
Electrical power 40 megawatts<br />
Smooth<br />
commissioning<br />
through cooperation.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 21
MAINTENANCE TECHNIQUES<br />
TEXT: PETER BOON – PRODUCT SPECIALIST AT UE SYSTEMS EUROPE<br />
IMAGES: UE SYSTEMS EUROPE<br />
Avoid the Dangers of<br />
Failing Steam Traps<br />
Failing steam traps and valves can mean serious<br />
trouble for your machines and equipment.<br />
During water hammering,<br />
moving fluids experience<br />
a sudden and powerful<br />
change in momentum,<br />
either changing<br />
direction or completely<br />
stopping, causing a high-pressure shockwave<br />
that spreads through a piping system,<br />
wreaking havoc on subsequent systems.<br />
This shockwave produces a banging<br />
or knocking sound that can be heard immediately<br />
after the shutoff takes place.<br />
This sudden change in direction or<br />
complete stop occurs when an open steam<br />
trap or valve is abruptly closed. When the<br />
valve is closed, the water no longer has<br />
an open route to take, and it either slams<br />
mercilessly into the valve or reverses direction<br />
and flows back into the pump.<br />
The Effects<br />
While it may not seem like much of a<br />
threat on the surface, as the water travels<br />
through the piping, it continues to build<br />
up momentum, and when this force is<br />
suddenly halted, it creates pressure spikes<br />
that can reach an excess of 10 times the<br />
operating pressure of the system.<br />
Water hammer requires swift and immediate<br />
action to prevent damage; failing<br />
to take action can have serious repercussions,<br />
including:<br />
• Pump and flow system damage:<br />
Recurring water hammer and the<br />
resulting force that it generates can<br />
cause considerable damage to other<br />
parts of the entire system, including<br />
pumps, steam traps, and valves.<br />
• Leaks: Over time, water hammer can<br />
damage and degrade the integrity of<br />
parts such as fittings and joints, leading<br />
to leaks.<br />
• Risk of Accidents: The resulting<br />
ruptured pipelines caused by water<br />
hammer can pose a serious threat<br />
22 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong><br />
to the health and safety of your<br />
employees. Uncontrolled leaks<br />
increase the risk of slips, falls,<br />
and electrocution.<br />
• Unscheduled Downtime:<br />
Water hammer and<br />
its damaging effects can<br />
lead to costly repairs and<br />
equipment replacement.<br />
Prevention & Inspection<br />
Several other effective measures for<br />
preventing water hammer include:<br />
• Flushing old systems<br />
• Reducing the operating pressure<br />
• Adding pressure reducers and regulators<br />
in the supply line<br />
• Investing in air chambers for piping<br />
systems<br />
• Installing silent check valves to reduce<br />
the pressure<br />
Investments can also be made into acquiring<br />
inspection instruments: ultrasound<br />
is usually the most suited technology<br />
to inspect steam traps & valves, as<br />
these instruments can be used in any type<br />
of steam traps and inspection can be carried<br />
on while the system is in operation.<br />
Inspecting steam traps and valves with<br />
ultrasound is a simple method that can<br />
help quickly identify failing or defective<br />
steam traps and valves.
COLUMN<br />
Why Is Industry 5.0<br />
A Good Thing<br />
For Manufacturing<br />
Industry 5.0 is the term for the next step in the evolution of industrial processes.<br />
Industry 4.0 is poised to eke out the maximum efficiency and productivity possible<br />
for industries. The next stage is to introduce a human element to the production,<br />
which was not at all a factor in any of the previous industrial epochs.<br />
Industry 5.0 will put people at the center of operations. This includes customers,<br />
employees, and other individual stakeholders. In the drive for efficiency, the<br />
previous industrial epochs focused on production techniques and processes.<br />
People were not much of a concern in such a dynamic. With production efficiency<br />
peaking with Industry 4.0, the human element is pivotal in moving the<br />
industry forward.<br />
Customers did not have the luxury of purchasing personalized goods at affordable<br />
prices with standardized production. Industry 5.0 will change the paradigm<br />
by bringing affordable yet personalized products to customers. Improving<br />
customer experience in the product purchase journey and post-purchase will<br />
also be central for industry 5.0.<br />
The changes in industry 5.0 will create a space where manufacturing workers<br />
can be creative to better the customer experience. Industry 5.0 focuses on individuals<br />
by moving away from standardized products to custom solutions. Each<br />
item produced will differ from the previous one to accommodate individual<br />
preferences. Manufacturing and operations need to be dynamic to facilitate this<br />
change.<br />
Industry 3.0 and 4.0 dealt with the automation of production processes<br />
where the products and processes were standardized. With industry 5.0,<br />
manufacturers have to move to a whole new level of automation where neither<br />
products nor processes need not be standardized. These changes reflect a whole<br />
range of manufacturing processes from automating demand estimation to automating<br />
maintenance activities.<br />
Two technologies will be vital: 3D printing and collaborative robots. In due<br />
course of time, the cost of 3D printing technology will come down with technical<br />
improvements. This will make it accessible to a wide range of manufacturers<br />
and consumers.<br />
Collaborative robots or cobots are the other major technology critical for industry<br />
5.0. Most industrial robots of the current generation are geared towards<br />
automation and better efficiency. Collaborative robots have different purposes.<br />
They are designed to support human activities in manufacturing facilities. Cobots<br />
will take on the more physically intensive and mundane tasks. This gives<br />
employees the chance to indulge in more creative work to facilitate the custom<br />
requirements of consumers.<br />
Industry 5.0 will also place an increased focus on sustainability in manufacturing.<br />
The leaders in manufacturing realize the harm caused by the manufacturing<br />
industry to the environment. Sustainable manufacturing practices like<br />
the use of renewable sources of energy, carbon capture, use of sustainable materials<br />
will be increasingly relied on. The adoption of sustainable manufacturing<br />
is again putting humans and their well-being at the center of manufacturing<br />
activities.<br />
About the Author<br />
BRYAN CHRISTIANSEN is the<br />
founder and CEO of Limble CMMS.<br />
Limble is a mobile CMMS software<br />
that takes the stress and chaos<br />
out of maintenance by helping<br />
managers organize, automate,<br />
and streamline their maintenance<br />
operations.<br />
24 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
YOUR PARTNER IN<br />
ULTRASOUND<br />
INSTRUMENTS<br />
Leak Detection<br />
Bearing Condition Monitoring<br />
Bearing Lubrication<br />
Steam Traps & Valves<br />
Electrical Inspection<br />
TRAINING<br />
CAT & CAT II Ultrasound Training<br />
Onsite Implementation Training<br />
Application Specific Training<br />
CONTINUOUS SUPPORT<br />
Free support & license-free software<br />
Online Courses<br />
Free access to our Learning Center<br />
(webinars, articles, tutorials)<br />
UE SYSTEMS<br />
www.uesystems.com<br />
info@uesystems.com<br />
CONTACT US FOR AN<br />
ONSITE DEMONSTRATION
ADVERTORIAL<br />
Simon Lemin with<br />
VR-Glasses.<br />
On-site inspection of<br />
plants and components is a<br />
challenge in pandemic times.<br />
Smart glasses can make it<br />
easier to check plants and<br />
components remotely.<br />
Plant and component<br />
testing through<br />
digital glasses<br />
TEXT AND IMAGES: TÜV SÜD<br />
The global market for inspection,<br />
repair, and maintenance (IRM) will<br />
grow from nearly $43 billion in <strong>2022</strong><br />
to more than $73 billion by 2029. This<br />
is the conclusion of an analysis by Fortune<br />
Business Insights, a global market research<br />
and consulting services company. And this<br />
is despite pandemic-related restrictions. To<br />
meet this need, operators and manufacturers<br />
are increasingly using remote inspections and<br />
smart glasses.<br />
The intelligent data glasses are used in<br />
the development, maintenance, troubleshooting,<br />
and training of technical systems<br />
and equipment. In this process, an on-site inspector<br />
with smart glasses is in contact with<br />
remote experts via the Internet. They follow<br />
the inspection step by step on a computer<br />
screen and guide the inspector. This not only<br />
CHRISTOPH GATZEN<br />
Head of Instrumentation, Control and Electrical Division<br />
Head of Inspection Body “Energietechnik”<br />
TÜV SÜD Energietechnik GmbH Baden-Württemberg<br />
SIMON LEMIN<br />
Director of Industry Service Division<br />
TÜV SÜD Greater China<br />
ensures compliance with pandemic-related<br />
walk-through bans. Companies also save on<br />
travel time and costs, and it is easier to involve<br />
experts from a wide range of disciplines.<br />
They are available online at shorter notice, so<br />
downtimes are reduced. It is also a plus for climate<br />
protection.<br />
TÜV SÜD uses the technology for production<br />
monitoring, acceptance testing, site<br />
acceptance testing, and training and fur-<br />
26 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
ADVERTORIAL<br />
TÜV SÜD Inspector during visual inspection of the oil pressure<br />
adjustment of an emergency power generator.<br />
ther education. The HMT-1 model from the US<br />
manufacturer RealWear is used, equipped with<br />
the SHARE app from the German software<br />
manufacturer oculavis GmbH. In addition to the<br />
visual connection, all experts involved also exchange<br />
tutorials, manuals, or circuit diagrams.<br />
The wearer is guided via a movable screen on<br />
the edge of the glasses and forwards videos<br />
and photos in turn - in real time. If necessary,<br />
the experts review the material again.<br />
The data glasses are robust and durable<br />
and can also be used in noisy machine rooms<br />
or damp or dusty industrial halls - even under<br />
protective glasses and helmets or hearing protection.<br />
They can also be connected to a hearing<br />
protector. The microphone can be muted, or<br />
noise cancellation can be activated. To enable<br />
the wearer to use both hands for inspection, the<br />
glasses offer a voice-controlled user interface.<br />
All this reduces occupational risks for employees.<br />
Smart glasses require a fast and stable internet<br />
with a recommended bandwidth of 4Mbit/s<br />
(up/down). All inspection data must be stored<br />
under high security requirements in accordance<br />
with the General Data Protection Regulation<br />
(GDPR). TÜV SÜD uses its own servers for this<br />
“Operators and<br />
manufacturers are<br />
increasingly using remote<br />
inspections and smart<br />
glasses.”<br />
TÜV SÜD Inspector observing mechanical integrity of fastening bolts.<br />
TÜV SÜD<br />
Inspector<br />
using VR-<br />
Glasses in<br />
combination<br />
with PSA.<br />
purpose, which are certified in accordance with<br />
the international standard ISO/IEC 27001 - Information<br />
Security Management. Before a RI<br />
is initiated, the customer must allow video and<br />
audio transmission. On site, a data protection<br />
officer should be involved for approval, and privacy<br />
measures such as face blurring should be<br />
defined.<br />
TÜV SÜD was commissioned by a Chinese<br />
manufacturer to assess the quality of its valves<br />
for use in nuclear and thermal power plants.<br />
Due to travel restrictions, only employees of<br />
TÜV SÜD Greater China were present on site.<br />
Via smart glasses, they called in electrical engineers,<br />
mechanical engineering experts, and<br />
specialists in nondestructive testing and leak<br />
tightness as well as seam welding. The team<br />
succeeded in successfully assessing the valves<br />
within the tight time frame. This saved the company<br />
seven round-trip intercontinental flights of<br />
11 hours each, as well as 20 tons of CO2.<br />
Smart glasses make it easier to check plants<br />
and components remotely – on site, one expert<br />
is enough, remotely, a multidisciplinary team<br />
can easily be integrated. Prerequisites include a<br />
stable network connection and high data protection<br />
requirements.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 27
MONITORING<br />
Air quality -<br />
Nothing is more fundamental<br />
to life than air quality. In a<br />
lifetime, about 300 million<br />
liters of air pass through the<br />
average person’s lungs. If that person<br />
walks along a busy city street today, he<br />
will inhale around 20 million particles<br />
with each lungful.<br />
Scientists were aware of the impact<br />
of air pollution as far back as the seva<br />
breathtaking<br />
challenge<br />
TEXT: MARK NAPLES UMICORE COATINGS SERVICES<br />
IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
Air quality is in sharp<br />
focus for a range of<br />
industries. Monitoring<br />
air pollutant emissions<br />
is essential for many<br />
reasons.<br />
enteenth century. Now, as more of us<br />
live in cities, we are closer than ever to<br />
pollution sources, and their detrimental<br />
impact on the environment and our<br />
health has reached a crisis point.<br />
Toxic air is now a significant environmental<br />
risk for every sector. As its<br />
impact has seeped into everyday life,<br />
it is no longer just a concern for heavy<br />
industry. It affects commuters, vehicles,<br />
28 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
MONITORING<br />
and equipment too, so it is unsurprising<br />
that governments around the world are<br />
introducing increasingly strict legislation<br />
on tackling air pollution to protect<br />
their citizens.<br />
AIR QUALITY HAS BECOME A LEGISLA-<br />
TIVE CONCERN, bringing the issue into<br />
sharp focus for a range of industries.<br />
The most damaging but best-understood<br />
pollutants are tiny particles of<br />
black carbon, nitrates, sulfates, ammonia,<br />
or mineral dust. Often produced<br />
by power plants and heavy industries,<br />
these pollutants can, in effect, cannibalize<br />
the equipment and workers used in<br />
these industries.<br />
It is now generally understood that<br />
these particles will not only damage<br />
the lungs but enter the bloodstream.<br />
From there, they can increase the risk<br />
of a wide number of health conditions,<br />
meaning businesses have a moral imperative<br />
to monitor the air quality on<br />
their sites and protect the people who<br />
work there.<br />
Uncontrolled air quality can lead<br />
to other, more immediate health risks.<br />
Some environments may see high<br />
concentrations of toxic gases, such as<br />
carbon monoxide, in the air, which pose<br />
a more immediate risk to work safety.<br />
Other pollutants may present an explosion<br />
risk or cause corrosion to equipment<br />
which presents a significant risk<br />
of asset damage in addition to health<br />
and safety concerns.<br />
Between the increased risk to workers,<br />
machinery, and other assets, and<br />
the rapidly shifting legislative landscape,<br />
the business case for improving<br />
air quality is now open-and-shut.<br />
Before this can happen, however, the<br />
state of the air must be more closely<br />
monitored.<br />
MONITORING EMISSIONS from stationary<br />
sources of pollution, such as power<br />
stations, manufacturing plants, and<br />
other industrial facilities, is essential<br />
for a whole host of reasons. Industry<br />
accounts for over 24 % of global greenhouse<br />
gas emissions, so ascertaining the<br />
concentration of various gasses emitted<br />
and subsequently allowing relevant<br />
authorities to check whether the site<br />
is complying with its legal obligations<br />
remains essential. For example, efforts<br />
to reduce methane emissions could<br />
yield a rapid decline in the rate of global<br />
warming.<br />
Leakage and venting from the energy<br />
sector remain significant sources<br />
of harmful emissions, but our gas detection<br />
filters continue to contribute<br />
to a real-world solution. The science is<br />
unequivocal: we are going in the wrong<br />
direction.<br />
A considerable portion of climate<br />
change or global warming can be attributed<br />
to our reliance on industrial<br />
activities. It has been claimed that factories<br />
are to blame for up to two-thirds<br />
of the pollution that has caused climate<br />
change.<br />
24 % of global<br />
greenhouse gas<br />
emissions are caused<br />
by industry.<br />
Did you know?<br />
POINT GAS DETECTORS have a<br />
single detector location requiring the<br />
gas cloud to interact with the sensor.<br />
POINT DETECTOR TYPES include<br />
catalytic, electrochemical, solid state,<br />
and infrared (IR). An IR detector consists<br />
of one or more infrared sources.<br />
THE PROBLEM REQUIRES determined<br />
political engagement and action at a<br />
local and national level, but action is<br />
required to ensure it remains a priority.<br />
Thanks to campaigns, the growing<br />
availability of low-cost air-quality monitors<br />
and increased awareness of local<br />
air quality could help to change that.<br />
Proper communication with the<br />
business community has also been<br />
sorely lacking. Market leaders want information<br />
on how and what they can do<br />
about it. Any new air quality information<br />
system needs to be based on what<br />
people are exposed to in their localities,<br />
including real-time variations.<br />
Industrial plant owners who must<br />
abide by specific regulatory frameworks<br />
invest in measuring equipment to report<br />
what and how much is coming out<br />
of the stack.<br />
IN THE MARKET FOR MEASURING EMIS-<br />
SIONS, there are many measuring technologies.<br />
The logical first step toward<br />
resolving this air crisis would be to<br />
make much more real-time air quality<br />
data available to the public and increase<br />
air quality data transparency, as well<br />
as initiatives to educate people on the<br />
long-term consequences of breathing<br />
in polluted air. People can take various<br />
precautions to safeguard themselves<br />
and others if they know the severity of<br />
the pollution they are inhaling.<br />
THERE ARE TWO BROAD CATEGORIES<br />
OF GAS DETECTORS: point detectors and<br />
area detectors. IR gas detectors compare<br />
the amount of light at a specific<br />
wavelength where Hydrocarbon molecules<br />
absorb light (the sample) with<br />
light at a wavelength where no absorption<br />
occurs (the reference). When the<br />
light passes through a hydrocarbon gas,<br />
the intensity at the sample wavelength<br />
will drop, while the intensity at the reference<br />
wavelength will be unaffected.<br />
The ratio of the two signals is proportional<br />
to the gas concentration.<br />
An IR detector consists of one or<br />
more infrared sources, one or more<br />
infrared detectors and precision optical<br />
filters to separate the sample and reference<br />
wavelengths from the background<br />
light. It also requires a light path open<br />
to the atmosphere so gas can diffuse<br />
into the light beam.<br />
Due to the dependence of the absorbance<br />
on the wavenumber, different<br />
gas components can be distinguished<br />
using the absorption spectrum.<br />
Gas detection systems have been<br />
deployed extensively in the process<br />
industry to detect and mitigate gas<br />
releases and minimize their potential<br />
consequences. Detection mechanisms<br />
differ between chemicals, and consideration<br />
must be given to selecting the<br />
right technology for each application,<br />
along with practical installation, commissioning,<br />
and maintenance considerations.<br />
MOST CURRENT APPLICATIONS trigger<br />
an alarm for the operator based on high<br />
readings from gas detectors. However,<br />
with the industry push to incorporate<br />
safety gas sensors into shutdown systems,<br />
the need to design, calibrate and<br />
commission these sensors correctly to<br />
reduce nuisance trips is increasingly<br />
essential.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 29
TRAINING<br />
Steps to Create a Reliable<br />
Manufacturing Culture<br />
TEXT: CHRISTER IDHAMMAR IDCON INC<br />
IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
What is reliability and<br />
how to measure it? First<br />
you have to agree on what<br />
reliability is, the benefits<br />
of improving it, and how it<br />
will be measured.<br />
In highly automated manufacturing,<br />
the first focus is often on<br />
equipment reliability. This is<br />
because if equipment is operating<br />
without any problems, you are<br />
making your product. If it is not,<br />
you are not making any product.<br />
TO CREATE A RELIABLE MANUFACTUR-<br />
ING CULTURE, you must agree to work in<br />
a close partnership between Operations<br />
and Maintenance, including stores and<br />
engineering. This should start with a<br />
common manufacturing mission that<br />
clearly expresses this. Then you need to<br />
design and implement all work management<br />
processes with the agreed upon<br />
mission statement as a guideline.<br />
A manufacturing mission statement<br />
between Operations and Maintenance<br />
should be worked out between the parties<br />
and could be:<br />
“In an equal partnership between Operations<br />
and Maintenance we shall safely<br />
deliver continuously improved manufacturing<br />
reliability.”<br />
The maintenance organization’s mission<br />
statement would then be:<br />
“In an equal partnership between Operations<br />
and Maintenance we shall safely<br />
deliver continuously improved equipment<br />
reliability.”<br />
The operation organization’s mission<br />
statement would then be:<br />
“In an equal partnership between Operations<br />
and Maintenance we shall safely<br />
deliver continuously improved operating<br />
process reliability.”<br />
32 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong><br />
The product of<br />
maintenance<br />
is not service, it is<br />
reliable equipment.<br />
This will express a culture change from<br />
Operations and Maintenance working<br />
in silos to growing into equal partners.<br />
As a consequence, lost production shall<br />
not be recorded by each department<br />
because it often leads to a blame game.<br />
Instead, triggers are set to select what<br />
to do Root Cause Problem Elimination<br />
(RCPE) on. In this process you do not<br />
ask who; instead, you ask why. This is just<br />
one of many changes you need to make<br />
to accomplish a reliable manufacturing<br />
culture.<br />
It also changes the common view that<br />
the maintenance organization delivers<br />
service to the Operations organization.<br />
Instead, the maintenance organization<br />
delivers equipment reliability. That makes<br />
sense because the product of maintenance<br />
is not service, it is reliable equipment.<br />
YOU MUST AGREE on common lagging
TRAINING<br />
towards the common lagging indicators.<br />
For the Maintenance organization,<br />
these could include Average<br />
Vibration Level Trend, Preventive<br />
Maintenance Compliance, % Planned<br />
Work, % Schedule Compliance and<br />
more.<br />
THE MAJOR BENEFITS include safety<br />
and increased throughput of quality<br />
volume products. Studies by IDCON<br />
and other organizations including<br />
BEMAS in Belgium and University<br />
of Dayton show that there is a strong<br />
correlation between safety and reactive<br />
maintenance.<br />
The example below shows that<br />
companies that reported 64% reactive<br />
maintenance had an OSHA<br />
Recordable Incident Rate (RIR) of<br />
4.36 while companies reporting 9%<br />
reactive maintenance had an OSHA<br />
RIR of 0.11.<br />
Reactive Maintenance<br />
Causes More Safety<br />
Incidents<br />
IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND<br />
the value of improved OMR. In addition<br />
to being a safety and physical asset,<br />
it also benefits the revenue side<br />
of the Maintenance organization.<br />
Creating an OMR-driven organization<br />
does not require much capital<br />
work. Necessary investments include<br />
education, training, and outside support<br />
to help you do better with what<br />
you already have.<br />
Outside support is needed. Many<br />
organizations are in a gridlock and<br />
need an outside neutral coach to get it<br />
done within a reasonable time frame.<br />
You need to estimate the value of<br />
an improved OMR as an input to the<br />
business case you will develop and<br />
present it to decision makers. We advise<br />
to not estimate too much. Even<br />
if the potential to increase OMR is<br />
7%, instead show the value of 1% improved<br />
OMR.<br />
When you agree on the mission and<br />
the necessity to improve OMR, some<br />
suggested steps include:<br />
• Educate, train, and explain the<br />
benefits and what the future will<br />
look like.<br />
• Assess how good you are and how<br />
good you can become.<br />
• Develop an action plan for the<br />
next five years.<br />
• Appoint a coach that can not only<br />
teach, but who can also provide<br />
On-the-Job training/coaching<br />
with key people such as managers,<br />
Planners and Frontline Leaders.<br />
The solution is to develop a clear and<br />
simple priority guide. Keep it simple<br />
and use only two priorities: Job must<br />
be done now; latest date completed.<br />
Define together what constitutes<br />
emergencies and how long different<br />
situations can be in the backlog.<br />
or results indicators. Often, the Maintenance<br />
organization is measured by<br />
budget and costs while Operations is<br />
measured by produced quality volume.<br />
Instead, your common lagging indicators<br />
should be:<br />
1. SAFETY<br />
2. OVERALL MANUFACTURING<br />
RELIABILITY<br />
3. MANUFACTURING COST PER UNIT<br />
Reactive<br />
Maintenance<br />
OSHA Recordable<br />
Incident Rate<br />
(per 200,00 hrs)<br />
Top 25% Middle 50% Bottom 25%<br />
9% 30% 64%<br />
0.11 1.16 4.36<br />
Each department can have their own<br />
leading indicators to drive performance<br />
There is a correlation between safety and reactive maintenance.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 33
TRAINING<br />
How to get started<br />
Step 1. Educate and inform<br />
It is important to first agree on<br />
the right things to do, and after<br />
that decide how you are going<br />
to take each step on your journey<br />
towards a reliable culture.<br />
Therefore, you should focus on<br />
the right things to do and to get<br />
feedback and agreement on these<br />
things. It is easier to get agreement<br />
on the right things to do<br />
then how to do them in detail.<br />
Step 2. CBP Current<br />
Best Practices Assessment<br />
It is likely that many employees<br />
already know what to do, but you<br />
need to get an objective view to find<br />
the gaps between how good your<br />
organization is and how good it can<br />
become.<br />
Before you start a journey, it is<br />
necessary to know where you are<br />
when you start and where you are<br />
going. All of our successful initiatives<br />
have included a Current Best<br />
Practices (CBP) assessment followed<br />
by developing, documenting<br />
and communicating the implementation<br />
plan. This is done together<br />
with owners that are assigned to<br />
each improvement subject that has<br />
been identified during the CBP assessment.<br />
Step 3. Implement<br />
There are seldom any surprises<br />
as to what needs to be done. The<br />
CPB assessment serves as the<br />
tool to educate, increase awareness,<br />
and bring the organization<br />
together in a reliable culture. Improvements<br />
will not be sustainable<br />
unless the CBP assessment is<br />
repeated every 12 to 18 months.<br />
These reassessments drive the<br />
improvement work and keep it<br />
alive. If repeated safety assessments<br />
are not done, safety will<br />
not improve—it will decline.<br />
The most common reliability<br />
and maintenance processes that are<br />
identified to improve upon are:<br />
• Preventive Maintenance content<br />
and execution. Content is<br />
not right or up to date and consequently<br />
not executed.<br />
• Work Management, where prioritization,<br />
description of work,<br />
Planning and Scheduling are<br />
weak.<br />
• The Bill of Material is very incomplete<br />
causing difficulty to<br />
plan efficiently and makes inventory<br />
of spares impossible to do<br />
right.<br />
• Roles of Planners, Frontline<br />
Leaders, Operations-Maintenance<br />
Coordinators and Reliability<br />
Engineers are unclear and not<br />
followed.<br />
Success requires:<br />
• Long-term, consistent, visible, and<br />
caring leadership. Too many initiatives<br />
are started and not finished<br />
About the Author<br />
CHRISTER IDHAMMAR is an<br />
expert within Reliability and<br />
Maintenance. He started his<br />
career in the Swedish merchant<br />
marine where he started developing<br />
fundamentals of his Results<br />
Oriented Reliability and Maintenance<br />
Management concept. He<br />
founded IDCON INC in Raleigh<br />
North Carolina, USA 1985. IDCON<br />
is now a TRM company.<br />
before they are changed or<br />
replaced. Leadership needs to<br />
include the plant manager.<br />
• The right people to drive the<br />
change. Include the frontline<br />
organization.<br />
• Well-developed and documented<br />
and followed processes.<br />
• Repeated assessments to drive<br />
and sustain improvement. <br />
In this article, we define reliability<br />
as the ability of a manufacturing<br />
process line, or equipment, to perform<br />
up to its designed capacity.<br />
Overall Manufacturing Reliability<br />
(OMR) or Overall Production Reliability<br />
(OPR) means that it covers<br />
both Operations and Maintenance.<br />
34 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
TRAINING<br />
An elevator that<br />
transports to<br />
virtual reality<br />
TEXT: MATTI KERÄNEN<br />
IMAGES: KONE<br />
Kone has been training<br />
maintenance field workers<br />
in VR environments since<br />
2017. Now the company is<br />
transferring the product<br />
development of elevators<br />
and escalators to virtual<br />
environments.<br />
The elevator company Kone has<br />
started its transition to the<br />
metaverse. Kone has recently<br />
harnessed VR environments<br />
for the product development of<br />
elevators and escalators, as well as for the<br />
innovation of maintenance procedures,<br />
maintenance documentation, and risk<br />
management.<br />
The results are promising. “Almost<br />
100 Kone employees have participated<br />
in testing the applications before implementation.<br />
What is particularly gratifying<br />
is that, based on feedback, people feel<br />
that they are able to get their work done<br />
better with the help of VR applications,”<br />
says Kone's specialist Sanni Siltanen.<br />
Sanni Siltanen worked as Kone's<br />
product development specialist until<br />
September <strong>2022</strong>. She joined DIMECC<br />
Oy on October 5, <strong>2022</strong>.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 35
TRAINING<br />
There is cooperation in Kone’s maintenance<br />
development, especially between the branches<br />
in Finland, India, and China. The planning of<br />
product development, maintenance procedures,<br />
and maintenance documentation in a virtual<br />
environment enables a new kind of cooperation<br />
between Kone's branches in different parts of<br />
the world.<br />
“All parties get to see the real-scale model of<br />
the elevator or escalator in virtual reality. This<br />
adds enormous value. Previously, this would have<br />
required flying people to the physical prototype.”<br />
VR TECHNOLOGY HAS DEVELOPED rapidly in<br />
recent years. For example, the quality and price<br />
of VR glasses are starting to reach a reasonable<br />
level from an investment perspective.<br />
“VR glasses reached a sufficient technical<br />
level a few years ago. VR does not completely<br />
replace traditional teaching methods, but for<br />
example in the training of field workers, such as<br />
installation and maintenance, it has proved to be<br />
a good solution,” Siltanen says.<br />
Designing in a<br />
virtual environment<br />
considerably reduces the<br />
need for prototypes. It<br />
saves time and money.<br />
Siltanen emphasizes that, like all new technology,<br />
the introduction of VR applications must<br />
be carefully planned so that it genuinely generates<br />
added value.<br />
“It is important to remember that VR technology<br />
is used by people who have a job to do. The maintenance<br />
developer's goal is to think of the best possible<br />
maintenance procedure. The goal of technical documentation<br />
is to make instructions that serve the field<br />
worker. The job of risk management, on the other<br />
hand, is to check the documentation and consider its<br />
possible risks.”<br />
“So, it is necessary to consider whether the VR<br />
environment serves the task. There is the threat that<br />
introducing new technology will only increase work,<br />
Siltanen reminds.”<br />
When maintenance procedures for a new elevator<br />
model are in development, three to five experts participate<br />
in the VR environment.<br />
“Three people are already quite many when we<br />
are operating in a virtual elevator shaft. The spaces<br />
become cramped quickly. Not all workers should be<br />
in a VR environment, but rather, for example, the<br />
maintenance procedure will be reviewed in a VR environment<br />
in Hyvinkää and monitored through a video<br />
connection from India,” says Siltanen.<br />
Virtual cooperation between Kone's different<br />
branches has shown that VR environments make it<br />
The introduction of<br />
VR applications must<br />
be carefully planned<br />
so that it genuinely<br />
generates added<br />
value.<br />
easier to document maintenance instructions for<br />
Kone's elevators and escalators.<br />
The planning of maintenance instructions will be<br />
quicker when every expert has access to a shared environment<br />
regardless of time and place.<br />
“All kinds of communication become more effective<br />
when the work is done in a shared environment.<br />
There is no need for so many exchanged e-mails, cell<br />
phone photos, or notebook notes that are sent back<br />
and forth,” Siltanen says.<br />
At the same time, the person working on the final<br />
version of the maintenance documentation receives<br />
illustrative instructions, for example, on using pictures<br />
in instructions.<br />
“In a VR environment, we can record a video or<br />
picture of changing a component. We have experimented<br />
with a model in which the pictures taken in<br />
the VR environment serve as a model for the person<br />
who illustrates the documentation. In the future,<br />
images can be transferred from the VR environment<br />
directly to the eventual instructions,” Siltanen says.<br />
In product development, changes in the need for<br />
new elevators and escalators are noticed more easily<br />
in the virtual world than before. It speeds up product<br />
development and saves money.<br />
“Product design that is done in a virtual environment<br />
considerably reduces the need for prototypes.<br />
36 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
TRAINING<br />
It saves time and money and improves the installation<br />
and maintainability of elevators and escalators,” Siltanen<br />
says.<br />
In elevator product development and the planning<br />
of maintenance procedures, numerous factors related<br />
to spatial visualization and work positions need to be<br />
solved: will the hatch open in the space reserved for it,<br />
will the tool fit in the desired space, and can the maintenance<br />
worker’s hand reach to support the component<br />
that they are changing while turning the screw at the<br />
same time.<br />
In the past, it was only possible to prove this by<br />
building a real-scale prototype since the visualization<br />
of the space and dimensions may remain incomplete in<br />
the CAD model.<br />
DESIGNING IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT is a more<br />
experiential way of designing new products than traditional<br />
CAD modeling<br />
“Typically, in 3D model-based design, a certain space<br />
remains too tight, although the intention was for the<br />
tool and hand to fit through it. These have previously<br />
only been noticeable in the physical prototype. Now the<br />
VR environment makes it possible to take the user into<br />
consideration in a completely new way,” Siltanen says.<br />
“Instead of designers looking at 3D models on a<br />
computer screen, they get the real-scale experience of<br />
the device and the space reserved for it. So, VR increases<br />
the designer's certainty about the functionality of the<br />
solutions,” Siltanen continues.<br />
Kone developed ways of utilizing VR applications in<br />
cooperation with the University of Tampere in the HU-<br />
MOR project (HUMan Optimized x Reality).<br />
5 facts about VR<br />
observed by Kone<br />
1. RESEARCH, product development, and the<br />
development of maintenance documentation<br />
are quicker when cooperation between different<br />
branches of a globally operating company<br />
becomes easier in VR environments.<br />
2. WHEN THE WORK is done in a modeled and<br />
real-scale environment, needs for change are<br />
detected faster than in CAD design.<br />
3. SIGNIFICANTLY reduces the need for physical<br />
prototypes, which saves time and money.<br />
4. THE MAINTAINABILITY and installation of<br />
the elevators will improve<br />
5. MAINTENANCE DOCUMENTATION will be of<br />
higher quality. Instructions are produced faster<br />
than before.<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 37
TRAINING<br />
Interaction at the<br />
center of everything<br />
New technology-mediated<br />
cooperation is still based<br />
on human interaction.<br />
Whether it is an augmented<br />
reality (AR) or a virtual<br />
reality (VR) application, its benefits are<br />
only revealed when the digital environment<br />
enables better ways to work than<br />
the physical world.<br />
Human interaction is a key subject of<br />
study in the entire industrial metaverse.<br />
However, there is still plenty of work to<br />
be done in order to improve the interaction<br />
in the very basic features.<br />
“Many VR environments do not yet<br />
enable genuine collaboration and interaction<br />
or the modification of objects in<br />
that environment. In order to get the<br />
most out of a virtual environment, it<br />
must enable, for example, reading documents<br />
and text editing,” says Markku<br />
Turunen, professor of interactive technology<br />
at the University of Tampere.<br />
“We are researching, among others,<br />
different text input solutions based on<br />
speech recognition, and what kind of<br />
38 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong><br />
tools are needed for a VR environment<br />
to enable collaboration,” Turunen continues.<br />
VR environments are currently at<br />
their peak in development work in<br />
which the goal is, for example, to study<br />
how a person operates in a physical<br />
environment or with machines and devices.<br />
Research in virtual reality enables<br />
a new way of monitoring and analyzing<br />
a person performing various tasks.<br />
“The ability of the virtual environment<br />
to record people's activities is<br />
one of the most significant possibilities<br />
Many VR<br />
environments<br />
do not yet enable<br />
genuine collaboration<br />
and interaction or<br />
the modification<br />
of objects in that<br />
environment.<br />
of new technology. For example, human<br />
movements and the direction of<br />
their gazes can be recorded precisely<br />
and analyzed afterward in completely<br />
new ways,” Turunen estimates.<br />
Physiological measurements are also<br />
often combined with the research.<br />
“Typically, for example, heart rate<br />
variability is monitored, which can<br />
be used to deduce when a person was<br />
nervous and when they were calm. Information<br />
from virtual reality offers a<br />
rich source for data analysis,” Turunen<br />
estimates.<br />
Augmented reality and virtual reality<br />
applications are the first step toward<br />
the industrial metaverse. The next big<br />
leap will be the digital world’s seamless<br />
connection to the physical world.<br />
“This will happen through digital<br />
twins. That is, through genuine digital<br />
twins in which the physical world affects<br />
the digital one and vice versa. This<br />
is still very rare today, but it will be the<br />
next big leap in the development of the<br />
industrial metaverse,” Turunen says.
ENERGY<br />
Energy<br />
Cyber Security<br />
in the Nordics<br />
The Nordic countries<br />
provide a unique<br />
environment for research.<br />
TEXT: PETRA BERG I PETRA.BERG@UWASA.FI<br />
Impact<br />
Most of us have<br />
seen concepts<br />
such as trolling,<br />
blackouts and<br />
cyberattacks<br />
regularly pop<br />
up in the news. The digitalization of<br />
many key societal functions brings<br />
along new challenges, directly related<br />
to societal security. This requires new<br />
skills for governments, companies, as<br />
well as individuals on how to manage<br />
the technical, social and cyber dimensions.<br />
This makes the system vulnerable<br />
to new kinds of threats. Future grids<br />
will be more interactive with all levels<br />
of users, and even smart homes might<br />
be used for sabotaging the grid in such<br />
systems.<br />
This is why Nordic Energy Research,<br />
together with the Nordic<br />
Transmission System Operators<br />
(TSOs), developed the Nordgrid<br />
program initiative, calling for intersciences<br />
collaboration on a Nordic<br />
level on this topic.<br />
Thanks to mutual trust between<br />
the Nordic countries, the region<br />
provides a unique environment for<br />
research of critical areas of national<br />
security, such as critical infrastructure<br />
and national defence.<br />
R<br />
E<br />
D<br />
I<br />
S<br />
E<br />
T<br />
Prosumer<br />
EVs<br />
TSO<br />
DSO<br />
Industry<br />
Smart cities<br />
Attacks<br />
• ICT<br />
• Behaviour<br />
• Power grid<br />
Figure : Illustration of the REDISET project<br />
The REDISET-project (Resilient Digital Sustainable Energy Transition) is a newly started,<br />
inter-Nordic collaboration with partners from Finland, Sweden and Norway. Here, the<br />
aim is to provide social-cyber-technical knowledge to support the sustainable rollout of a<br />
future, digital electricity system. The specific focus is on providing more understanding of<br />
the variables and threats to the Nordic energy system to support the transmission system<br />
operators in constructing a secure and resilient future energy system.<br />
40 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
ENERGY<br />
THE REDISET CONSORTIUM ALLOWS<br />
FOR DIALOGUE and practices that would<br />
be difficult elsewhere in Europe. The<br />
total budget of the project is 1.6 million<br />
euros. Country-specific coordination<br />
takes place through Business Finland in<br />
Finland, where the project is also part of<br />
its Smart Energy program, the Swedish<br />
Energy Agency in Sweden, and Statnett<br />
in Norway.<br />
The REDISET consortium comprises<br />
TSOs (Fingrid, Svenska Kraftnät and<br />
Statnett), Distribution System Operators<br />
(DSOs) and research institutions in<br />
the Nordic countries. Together, they will<br />
be responsible for implementing new<br />
energy strategies that emphasise electrification,<br />
closer cooperation and digitalisation.<br />
A similar Nordic consortium<br />
hasn’t been formed before.<br />
FOUR RESEARCH INSTITUTES ARE<br />
RESPONSIBLE for the scientific contribution.<br />
The main coordinator is the KTH<br />
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) led<br />
by professor Sonja Berlijn. The VEBIC<br />
research and innovation platform of<br />
the University of Vaasa, led by Director<br />
Suvi Karirinne and Assistant Professor<br />
Petra Berg, heads the Finnish interdisciplinary<br />
research team. The Norwegian<br />
Defense Research Establishment (FFI)<br />
and The Norwegian SmartGrid Center,<br />
comprises the Norwegian research team<br />
and is coordinated by senior researcher<br />
Karina Barnholt Klepper (FFI).<br />
The project also includes business<br />
partners like Gambit Oy in Vaasa and<br />
other need owners, who will contribute<br />
to the project by participating in the scientific<br />
and technical reference group.<br />
THE PARTNER COMPOSITION and interdisciplinarity<br />
of the project introduces<br />
a “positive challenge” on how to<br />
bring together and synthesise different<br />
fields of expertise. Therefore, many<br />
interactive workshops and collaboration<br />
between the work packages are<br />
planned.<br />
The project introduces socio-cultural<br />
and socio-technical perspectives<br />
to a highly technology-focused topic.<br />
Understanding the social and cultural<br />
implications will be emphasised in<br />
the future as energy sources become<br />
increasingly multiplied and variable,<br />
energy systems complex, energy interdependencies<br />
and flexibility needs increase.<br />
Thus, it is expected that energy<br />
system decision-making must move<br />
from a national to transnational level,<br />
while it still needs to maintain regional<br />
and municipal interests.<br />
ONE IMPORTANT AIM is also to provide<br />
an understanding of the effects<br />
of future energy system solutions on<br />
gender equality and diversity. New<br />
solutions need to be considered and<br />
work for the entire population, being<br />
sustainable for humans, wildlife and<br />
environment. This baseline relates to<br />
the consortium's core group connection<br />
to the Nordic Energy Equality<br />
Network (NEEN), which promotes<br />
gender equality and diversity in the<br />
Nordic countries.<br />
The REDISET project output can<br />
help decision makers in identifying<br />
risks and taking a holistic approach<br />
to informed decisions.<br />
Interested? Go to uwasa.fi
EFNMS<br />
TEXT: TARJA RANNISTO<br />
IMAGES: JAAKKO TENNILÄ PHOTO ÄÄNEKOSKI PAPER MILL<br />
PHOTOS, PHOTO CREDIT: METSÄ GROUP<br />
Finnish Maintenance<br />
Society, Promaint<br />
aims to raise the image<br />
of the maintenance<br />
The Finnish Maintenance Society, Promaint<br />
works hard to bring maintenance into the<br />
minds of people and the society.<br />
42 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
EFNMS<br />
Jaakko Tennilä, Executive Director<br />
of Promaint, graduated with<br />
a Master's degree in electrical<br />
engineering. After graduating, Tennilä<br />
found his way into maintenance in the<br />
Veitsiluoto Paper Mill in the northern part<br />
of Finland in the mid 80’s. Since then, his<br />
career has been closely tight to the management<br />
level of industrial maintenance<br />
services and projects.<br />
– In the early stages of my career, maintenance<br />
was quite a traditional type of field.<br />
Factories had their own large maintenance<br />
departments, where the work was mainly<br />
reparation maintenance. Earlier on, in the<br />
70's, factories still had factory service departments<br />
with extensive responsibilities;<br />
from gate control to occupational health<br />
care and maintenance of the technical side,<br />
Tennilä recalls.<br />
During the following decade, the competitive<br />
situation began to intensify in the<br />
industry in general. In addition to that, society<br />
and economic<br />
markets were shaken<br />
more widely, which<br />
gradually led to the<br />
outsourcing of maintenance<br />
services.<br />
– The driving factor<br />
for outsourcing<br />
was the rationalization of the business. The<br />
process industry, for example, sought costeffectiveness<br />
by transferring the services<br />
of internal maintenance units to external<br />
service networks.<br />
In the 21st century the situation<br />
changed again and, according to Tennilä,<br />
the maintenance industry started to<br />
seek technical and production efficiency<br />
through different types of new operating<br />
models. The challenges faced by the<br />
service providers increased and new<br />
operators entered the paper industry, as<br />
in other sectors. At the same time, equipment<br />
suppliers started to produce their<br />
own maintenance service alongside service<br />
networks.<br />
THE MARKET CRASH that began in the US in<br />
2008 created an increasingly new need to<br />
develop efficiency. The field of the industry<br />
was fragmented and there were many different<br />
ways to operate. In the paper industry,<br />
for example, production had been driven<br />
down and uniform practices were still being<br />
sought after 2010.<br />
– In the energy industry, there is still a<br />
lot of outsourcing of maintenance work.<br />
Through service agreements, companies in<br />
various sectors acquired special expertise or<br />
resources for larger projects from external<br />
service providers. On the other hand, outsourced<br />
maintenance work has also been<br />
reclaimed in the process industry, and services<br />
are thus carried out through our own<br />
companies, Tennilä says.<br />
AT THE MOMENT, THE BIGGEST ISSUE in<br />
maintenance is technological advances –<br />
most of all the new digital solutions. There<br />
are many new and different types of software<br />
solutions and more are being developed all<br />
the time. Tennilä sees not only advantages<br />
but also challenges in the situation. Therefore,<br />
there is a is a strong need for Promaint<br />
to raise the awareness of the maintenance,<br />
as the digitalization and the transformation<br />
of work affect the attractiveness of the sector<br />
within the labor market.<br />
– Abundant supply and rapid development<br />
are not necessarily a good thing, as<br />
new systems may be incompatible with existing<br />
systems. Exploitation of new features<br />
may be incomplete<br />
and may cause uncertainty<br />
in use.<br />
According to<br />
Tennilä, another<br />
trend is the fact that<br />
maintenance tasks<br />
are transferred to<br />
production line operators.<br />
– For example, if the line stops at the factory,<br />
the personnel can take auxiliary maintenance<br />
measures, he says.<br />
The maintenance sector is a big employer<br />
in Finland. Promaint estimates that the<br />
sector employs close to 200,000 people in<br />
all industries in total.<br />
Digitalization<br />
amends the job<br />
description.<br />
PREVIOUSLY, THE MAINTENANCE SECTOR<br />
employed mainly mechanical workers,<br />
but now the work is increasingly automation<br />
and information technology. According<br />
to Tennilä, the number of employees in<br />
basic maintenance has therefore decreased<br />
clearly and there is no change of direction<br />
in sight. However, concerns are raised about<br />
the difficulty of acquiring new basic technology<br />
experts.<br />
– In Finland, the degree of automation<br />
in industry has traditionally been high,<br />
but basic technology does not disappear<br />
even though technology is developing.<br />
That's why the concern is starting to be<br />
about the new workforce, as the basics experts<br />
drop out.<br />
– Basic work is often perceived as dirty,<br />
heavy and challenging. As an industry,<br />
we are trying to emphasize that maintenance<br />
is a versatile activity and offers an<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 43
EFNMS<br />
opportunity to learn new things and develop<br />
within the field and advance careerwise.<br />
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH has been carried<br />
out that shows countries spend around 9 % of<br />
their GDP on various maintenance tasks. In Finland<br />
that amount is EUR 23-25 billion per year.<br />
According to Tennilä, the share of industrial<br />
maintenance is estimated at around 3.5-4 billion<br />
and the share of property maintenance is<br />
approximately 8 billion a year.<br />
The amount of money spent on maintenance<br />
is insufficient, as unfinished maintenance work<br />
is a major problem in the structures of society,<br />
both in Finland and elsewhere in Europe.<br />
– According to public assessment, there is<br />
approximately EUR 35-50 billion worth of maintenance<br />
work waiting to be done in roads, real<br />
estate and elsewhere. This is visible to consumers<br />
as mold in schools, buildings in demolition<br />
condition, and a poor road network, Tennilä<br />
points out.<br />
Most alarming is the old water supply<br />
network, which outside the major cities is<br />
repaired yearly by only a minor portion of<br />
installed network. For consumers, a network<br />
in such a poor condition may cause problems<br />
in the quality of water purity. In the case of<br />
industry, there are no precise estimates of the<br />
amount of maintenance debt. But it can be<br />
estimated that after 2008 the amount spent on<br />
industrial structures has been insufficient. It<br />
is also not reasonable to replace unperformed<br />
maintenance work with massive investments,<br />
but by developing technologies and skills.<br />
However, the challenge is to value the maintenance<br />
industry.<br />
– Someone has to keep the structures in order,<br />
even if it's not always a tempting job. When<br />
it comes to distributing public development<br />
money, it is difficult for the sector to come out.<br />
Looks like we are always at the end of the queue,<br />
says Tennilä, insisting that the maintenance sector<br />
should be given the value it deserves.<br />
THE FINNISH MAINTENANCE ASSOCIATION<br />
SPREADS the word about the field, for example<br />
through magazines and publications. Tennilä<br />
says that Promaint does cooperation with the<br />
educational institutions and aims to start school<br />
tours again to inform the students about the<br />
field and its employment possibilities. The association<br />
is also present on fairs.<br />
– We aim to influence in activities that<br />
touch the sector and connect people interested<br />
in the field. Our members are active in<br />
events and building networks through which<br />
we have the opportunity to influence the industry,<br />
Tennilä says.<br />
The most important task of the Finnish Maintenance<br />
Society is to keep the industry in the<br />
consciousness of people and decision makers.<br />
Promaint is also active internationally and a<br />
member of the European Federation of National<br />
Maintenance Societies (EFNMS). There is a lot<br />
of co-operation within the EFNMS member network,<br />
for example in the development of industry<br />
standards and training.<br />
Promaint celebrates its 50th<br />
anniversary during <strong>2022</strong><br />
The founding meeting of the factory service association was held on<br />
January 28, 1972. In the following 50 years, the association's name has<br />
been updated a couple of times.<br />
“The association has gone through many adventures and experiments<br />
over the decades, left a lasting mark on our industry and influenced<br />
the development of operations in the form of publications, training and<br />
events. However, as the most important achievement, we want to highlight<br />
the network of experts that we have been able to create nationally<br />
and internationally. We have gained the energy to carry out our own<br />
mission from this network, which has already grown up in part, and is<br />
even out of date in part. The festive year <strong>2022</strong> is packed full of different<br />
events”, says JAAKKO TENNILÄ, the Executive Director of Promaint.<br />
44 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
P<br />
The foundational elements of maintenance & reliability management<br />
will never change. But the way technology can deliver value to asset<br />
management programs is changing faster than ever.<br />
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and data science to enhance the performance and reliability of your<br />
assets by building customized, accessible and scalable AI solutions.<br />
F<br />
It is our mission to facilitate day-to-day work of maintenance<br />
practitioners, reliability engineers and operators.<br />
We embed the power of advanced analytics to accelerate the process<br />
of learning by combining signal data, maintenance logs or any other<br />
operating context information to predict the asset behavior, add<br />
new insights enabling you to prepare the right actions at the right<br />
time. We believe that blending artificial and human intelligence is<br />
key to exponential performance of your assets.<br />
Welcome to the age of prescriptive maintenance.<br />
Want to be part of it?<br />
Find out more on www.thegrain.pro/innovators or call +32 3 376 33 50<br />
Industrial AI applications
AUTOMATION<br />
TEXT: EETU HEIKKILÄ, HELENA KORTELAINEN AND JESSE TERVO, VTT TECHNICAL RESEARCH CENTRE OF FINLAND LTD. ,<br />
MATTI VILKKO, JOUKO LAITINEN AND KARI T. KOSKINEN, TAMPERE UNIVERSITY<br />
IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
Electrification and<br />
Automation of<br />
Mobile Machines<br />
Call for Maintenance<br />
Development<br />
Machine suppliers are<br />
looking for ways to replace<br />
fossil fuel power sources.<br />
In the future, mobile machines<br />
will be electrified<br />
and highly automated.<br />
Electrification is expected<br />
to reduce the need for<br />
maintenance. However,<br />
modelling and simulation<br />
are needed, as well as more<br />
information on field experience<br />
to avoid pitfalls and understand<br />
the benefits throughout the value chain.<br />
The value chains in modern society<br />
involve mobile work machines. Such<br />
value chains include, for instance,<br />
mining and construction, forestry,<br />
material handling, and port operations.<br />
These value chains also face the<br />
global demands for sustainability, and<br />
machinery suppliers are challenged to<br />
46 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
AUTOMATION<br />
contribute to their customers´ efforts to<br />
decarbonize their operations. Replacing<br />
fossil-fuel-based power sources with<br />
electrical ones seems to offer a solution<br />
for this. Further solutions are provided<br />
by digital technology and sensors that<br />
will enable automatic and autonomous<br />
functions and change work procedures<br />
and value creation mechanisms.<br />
Electrification<br />
and automation<br />
impact the maintenance<br />
domain.<br />
tonomous machinery. In some machine<br />
types, electrified machines have already<br />
been commonplace for years, but the increasing<br />
capabilities of battery-electric<br />
machines enable increased flexibility<br />
of operations when compared to cablesupplied<br />
electric machines or previous<br />
machine generations. The increased<br />
flexibility offers new opportunities for<br />
optimization of operations and provides<br />
the basis for developing autonomous<br />
operations.<br />
Finland aims to be the best place<br />
for developing mobile machines<br />
through efficient and effective collaboration<br />
between industry and research.<br />
The SIX cluster contributes to<br />
the achievement of company-specific<br />
and sector-wide ‘digital green’ goals.<br />
In our SIX cluster project the focus is<br />
in autonomous operations, electrifica-<br />
LIGHT VEHICLES LIKE CARS are the<br />
forerunners of electricity in mobility.<br />
Similar development is also expected to<br />
take place for mobile machines (MM).<br />
However, MMs can be configured for<br />
several purposes during the work cycle,<br />
and it carries a tool or an end effector<br />
which requires power at the same or<br />
even higher level than the drivetrain.<br />
MM is often a part of a work process,<br />
and its operation has to be adjusted to<br />
the workflow. An interesting question<br />
then is how to align the recharging and<br />
maintenance needs of the machinery<br />
with the operational and performance<br />
criteria.<br />
Electrification is also a key enabler<br />
in the transformation towards increasingly<br />
automated and eventually aution<br />
and in data-intensive lifecycle<br />
services.<br />
ELECTRIC VEHICLES in general have<br />
fewer moving parts, do not need oil and<br />
filter changes and have regenerative<br />
braking systems that reduce the wear<br />
and tear components. Grosso et al.<br />
(2021) have estimated that the maintenance<br />
cost for electric vehicles is at<br />
least 30% lower than that of conventional<br />
vehicles. However, the literature<br />
also provides examples on increasing<br />
maintenance costs of novel machine<br />
types that are often more complex to<br />
operate and maintain compared to the<br />
previous machine generations (Hane<br />
Hagström, 2021). There is limited<br />
literature on how electrification and<br />
automation will transform the maintenance<br />
of MM fleets. For example,<br />
there are optimal charging profiles for<br />
electric vehicles, which could affect<br />
maintenance planning if the owner<br />
wants to maximize battery life. A swappable<br />
battery structure would reduce<br />
the downtime caused by recharging,<br />
but the same outcome might also be<br />
achievable with more efficient batteries<br />
and faster recharging solutions.<br />
In addition to electrification, the<br />
development towards higher levels of<br />
automation changes the practices for<br />
how the machines will be maintained.<br />
Access of maintenance workers to areas<br />
where automated machines operate<br />
may be restricted, making it important<br />
to predictively optimize maintenance<br />
work to avoid disturbances to the operations.<br />
An increasing level of autonomy<br />
also requires the use of technology that<br />
enables sufficient situational awareness,<br />
including sensors, data processing<br />
and connectivity - all of which need to<br />
be considered in maintenance planning.<br />
These new technologies will also require<br />
new skills from the maintenance<br />
personnel. System level management of<br />
maintenance activities is needed to ensure<br />
that not only the machines but also<br />
the supporting infrastructure perform<br />
reliably.<br />
ELECTRIFICATION AND AUTOMATION<br />
will also impact the maintenance needs<br />
of MMs, and novel maintenance strategies<br />
have to be developed. The close<br />
collaboration with the partners in the<br />
SIX cluster offered the possibility to<br />
discuss the industrial state of the art<br />
as well as future needs and common<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 47
AUTOMATION<br />
Figure The roadmap towards efficient electrified and autonomous fleet maintenance.<br />
visions of participants. Participatory<br />
methods like World Café rely on collaborative<br />
action and one of its strengths<br />
is its creation of an opportunity to share<br />
lived experiences and to create dialogue.<br />
Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, remote<br />
collaboration tools were applied<br />
in our World Café workshop. In the<br />
workshop, views on life cycle service<br />
business, availability performance,<br />
scheduling of machine operation and<br />
traffic, and IT architecture to support<br />
the operation in the field were collected.<br />
The outcome was summarized<br />
in a roadmap (Figure 1).<br />
SOME COMPANIES HAVE ALREADY<br />
ELECTRIFIED their machines and implemented<br />
swappable battery technology<br />
in their MMs. Electrification<br />
introduces novel needs for real-time<br />
data collection (e.g. status and health<br />
of the battery) and for modelling and<br />
Autonomous<br />
operations<br />
require information<br />
sharing.<br />
forecasting (e.g. lifetime expectation<br />
of the batteries). Autonomous operations<br />
call for real-time location data<br />
and information on the environment,<br />
surroundings, and safety. Electrification<br />
is expected to reduce maintenance:<br />
the components are expected<br />
to be service free, but this expectation<br />
needs to be proven in the field.<br />
However, more information is needed<br />
to understand the failure modes and<br />
ageing behaviour.<br />
Autonomous operations also require<br />
efficient information sharing<br />
between different actors, e.g. in port<br />
terminal operations, and collaborative<br />
scheduling between the organisations<br />
responsible for operations,<br />
services and maintenance. In some<br />
cases, it could also be possible to carry<br />
out minor maintenance or service<br />
tasks during the recharging. The benefits<br />
arise on the system level - and<br />
success is possible only if the issues<br />
dealing with the data ownership can<br />
be solved.<br />
An autonomous mobile work<br />
machine needs an automated MROsystem<br />
(maintenance, repair, and<br />
operations) which will enable MM<br />
fleet to be managed automatically or<br />
autonomously and to be optimized<br />
to production process demands. This<br />
will include consumable and spare<br />
and wear part usage prediction and<br />
fleet maintenance, maintenance timing<br />
based on machine condition and<br />
production planning.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
Grosso, M. et al. (2021) How will vehicle automation and electrification affect the automotive maintenance, repair sector?,<br />
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Volume 12.<br />
Hane Hagström M. et al. (2020) Evaluating the effectiveness of machine acquisitions and design by the impact on maintenance cost – a case study,<br />
IFAC-PapersOnLine, Volume 53, Issue 3, pp. 25-30.<br />
48 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
SAFETY<br />
Nuclear power plant<br />
maintenance benefits from<br />
participatory development<br />
of work and safety<br />
TEXT: ANNA-MARIA TEPERI, ARJA ALA-LAURINAHO,<br />
ILKKA ASIKAINEN, VUOKKO PURO<br />
IMAGES: FINNISH INSTITUTE OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH<br />
How can work in nuclear power plants<br />
be developed so that human activity<br />
is a stronger part of safety work? The<br />
solution can be found in modeling and<br />
inclusive work development.<br />
The safe, smooth operation of nuclear power plants<br />
requires competent maintenance. Maintenance provides<br />
situational awareness; it enables the personnel<br />
responsible for the operation of the plant to see the<br />
“big picture” of the plant’s technical status. Maintenance<br />
ensures that the plant's numerous electrical, automation<br />
and mechanical systems and its components and equipment<br />
work as planned. It repairs faults, performs servicing tasks in<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 49
SAFETY<br />
accordance with the annual plan and<br />
larger tasks during annual outages.<br />
Maintenance also compiles the lessons<br />
learnt from previous maintenance<br />
shutdowns.<br />
NUCLEAR POWER OPERATIONS apply<br />
strict, systematic safety practices and<br />
methods and adhere to guidelines, all of<br />
which are the result of decades of work<br />
and lessons learnt. The functionality of<br />
safety management systems is regularly<br />
assessed, and safety culture evaluated.<br />
The nuclear power operations are<br />
highly technology oriented. In recent<br />
decades, the safety work in nuclear<br />
power plants has increasingly focused<br />
on the role of people in safety, too. The<br />
nuclear sector is facing changes such<br />
as aging personnel and technology, the<br />
modernization of equipment, and new<br />
ways of organizing work in its power<br />
plants. The technology-oriented, regulatory<br />
environment sets conditions for<br />
the development of work and safety. It<br />
also creates challenges for developing<br />
systematic ways of evaluating and developing<br />
work so that personnel can be<br />
considered part of safety improvement.<br />
Safety research and the experience of<br />
different industries has taught us that<br />
many decision-making situations are so<br />
complex that they cannot be solved by<br />
only one person. To resolve problematic<br />
situations, the views of many different<br />
entities and a wide range of experts are<br />
needed.<br />
Especially in large organizations, it is<br />
often the case that the ideas or plans of<br />
the neighboring unit are not known, or<br />
that views or operating methods differ.<br />
There may be challenges in terms of coordination<br />
and the flow of information,<br />
also between different levels of organization.<br />
Operational staff may feel that<br />
the middle or senior management do<br />
not understand their everyday activities,<br />
or top management may wonder<br />
why changes are not taken on. Views<br />
cannot always be verified in everyday<br />
situations, or procedures are not always<br />
sufficiently collaboratively refined.<br />
NEW WAYS OF ENGAGING AND MOTI-<br />
VATING STAFF and of developing skills<br />
and working practices are needed. Systematic<br />
practices and skills to develop<br />
work and safety in an inclusive manner<br />
are important. Participatory development<br />
is already used in the nuclear sector<br />
to jointly process the results of safety<br />
culture or job satisfaction surveys or to<br />
plan changes in work. However, sometimes<br />
the cooperation between different<br />
departments or hierarchical levels needs<br />
more in-depth development. It is particularly<br />
useful to access tacit knowledge,<br />
in-depth knowledge of processes brought<br />
about by experience, the various factors<br />
affecting operational events, and ways in<br />
which to solve disruptions or faults. Tacit<br />
knowledge is knowledge that is difficult<br />
to put into words. In decision-making<br />
situations, it is highly beneficial to exemplify<br />
this kind of information and make it<br />
more concrete and visible through joint<br />
discussions.<br />
THE FINNISH INSTITUTE OF OCCUPA-<br />
TIONAL HEALTH HAS EXAMINED whether<br />
modeling work processes is an effective<br />
way of improving maintenance work<br />
in a nuclear power plant in an inclusive<br />
manner. Its research project modeled<br />
three work processes: repair-<br />
ing faults, planning modifications, and<br />
component and system health reporting.<br />
This process involved people from different<br />
maintenance units and organizational<br />
levels. Operational personnel (assemblers),<br />
engineers, line management<br />
representatives, and occupational safety<br />
and health staff participated in a total of<br />
six workshops in 2019–2021. The workshops<br />
provided coaching in the method,<br />
and the groups were facilitated in using<br />
it. This joint work produced many development<br />
proposals, which were passed<br />
on for the organization to implement.<br />
They concerned increasing the common<br />
understanding through, for example,<br />
functioning guidelines, the physical work<br />
environment, and clarifying meeting<br />
practices.<br />
50 maintworld 3-4/<strong>2022</strong>
SAFETY<br />
The results were positive. Modeling<br />
the work processes strengthened the<br />
personnel's shared understanding of<br />
the everyday work tasks and what areas<br />
require improvement. People were able<br />
to voice their own intuitions and even<br />
weak doubts about the goals or arrangements<br />
of work. For example, it emerged<br />
that the objectives or importance of<br />
some key work processes had been<br />
obscured. It was important for the actors<br />
that the objectives were discussed<br />
openly. Addressing the strengths and<br />
successes of cooperation was particularly<br />
useful, which also made it easier to<br />
raise more controversial issues.<br />
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SAFETY requires<br />
openness, joint resolution of challenges,<br />
and clarification of complex or vague issues.<br />
The results show that participatory<br />
development methods can be a means of<br />
moving the culture of action in a more<br />
positive and solution-based direction.<br />
Participatory development methods<br />
can complement traditional safety<br />
practices and support the recognition<br />
and handling of weak signals to promote<br />
more proactive safety management.<br />
It is advisable to use participatory<br />
methods to reduce disruption,<br />
improve the quality and fluency of<br />
work, or promote cooperation and<br />
the flow of information. Especially in<br />
safety-critical areas, it is important<br />
to ensure that staff have a common<br />
understanding of work processes and<br />
their impacts on each other. This need<br />
is emphasized in change situations: for<br />
example, in organizational reforms /<br />
re-organization or when a new technical<br />
device is introduced.<br />
Joint development can be experienced<br />
as laborious and time-consuming,<br />
but its value is reflected in<br />
reduced friction in cooperation, and<br />
in being able to raise issues more constructively.<br />
Human Factors<br />
is embedded in<br />
nuclear industry<br />
safety management<br />
PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT<br />
is a key approach in the science<br />
and practice of human factors<br />
(HF). The application of HF<br />
in safety practices is mandatory<br />
in the nuclear power industry. It<br />
is required by both the International<br />
Atomic Energy Association<br />
(IAEA) and national authorities.<br />
HF strives to improve the performance<br />
and safety of the systems<br />
and the well-being of the<br />
personnel. The starting point is<br />
to understand people's capacity<br />
and limitations, the variety in<br />
human performance, and to utilize<br />
this knowledge in the design and<br />
development of work, equipment,<br />
and work environments, as well as<br />
in leadership and organizational<br />
development.<br />
THE AWARENESS OF HF’S<br />
IMPACT ON SAFETY has<br />
increased, and the use of the term<br />
has become clearer and more<br />
common. It is important to understand<br />
the topic in a holistic and<br />
solution-oriented manner. HF is a<br />
broader issue than mere individual<br />
performance or human activity<br />
under special observation or control.<br />
The goal is that organizational<br />
factors and technology create<br />
the conditions for people to succeed<br />
in their work. For this to be<br />
possible, we must first understand<br />
the characteristics associated with<br />
human activity, then find the best<br />
practices to support human activity<br />
at the workplace.<br />
An essential aim of HF is to understand<br />
the background factors that<br />
influence the realization of safety:<br />
How is work best organized,<br />
led, and managed?<br />
How is safety assured during<br />
changes? How are everyday<br />
operations understood?<br />
What helps people succeed in<br />
daily work? Are there specific<br />
concerns about work ability or<br />
safety?<br />
What hinders people from<br />
succeeding in everyday work<br />
tasks?<br />
3-4/<strong>2022</strong> maintworld 51
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