In April, ICML executive director Suzy Jamieson participated in the Euromaintenance 2008 Conference on Asset Management and Production Reliability in Brussels, Belgium. The conference was organized in conjunction with EasyFairs Maintenance exposition and together attracted more than 700 maintenance professionals from 48 countries.
Jamieson was one of 156 speakers who took part in both the conference and exposition. She presented a paper on behalf of the council on the subject of the upcoming ISO standards in condition monitoring, particularly tribology-based condition monitoring, outlining the efforts presently underway at ISO TC108/SC5/WG4.
ICML personnel volunteer in WG4 as working group members, project leaders and conveners. Jamieson was one of four female speakers participating, being the only representative from a nonacademic sector of industry.
The other three female speakers represented two universities and a research center. It is encouraging to see increased participation of female maintenance professionals in such international events, and even more female practitioners are expected to participate in the next edition of the conference in 2010.
The council was also represented at the exposition as a co-exhibitor, alongside the Belgium Maintenance Association (BEMAS), the organizer of the event. ICML is grateful for its support and hospitality, which made it possible for the council to inform practitioners in Europe about its activities, such as the ICML personnel certification programs and awards programs.
Euromaintenance 2008 covered many topics of interest for maintenance and operations managers, reliability engineers and other maintenance experts. Special attention was given to the subject of availability of skilled maintenance workers in the labor market and the impending labor crisis.
It is a consensus that there is an impending crisis in the labor market in maintenance, and because a majority of experienced practitioners approach retirement, something must be done to encourage the new generation to embrace maintenance as a profession. Leonard's message resonated with the council's belief in the necessity to dignify the profession of maintenance technicians, in particular of lubrication technicians and oil analysts.
The European Federation of National Maintenance Societies (EFNMS) and the Brazilian Association of Maintenance (ABRAMAN) discussed their ongoing programs. Rick Baldridge of Cargill, a board member for both the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP) and ICML, presented on North America's efforts, highlighting the certification program of the two cooperating organizations and how each fits within Cargill's maintenance and reliability group and philosophy.
Cargill is a founding member of the council and advocates training and certification of its maintenance personnel. Other members of the council represented at the conference included Allied Services, the Italian Association of Maintenance (AIMAN), Copiman, Dow Corning, Pall, PdMA, SKF, UE Systems and others.
This was the 19th edition of Euromaintenance. The next edition is planned for 2010 in Verona, Italy, and is organized by AIMAN. AIMAN and ICML are allied organizations and AIMAN recently sponsored the council's first Italian MLT I exam session in Florence.
For more information on the 2010 conference, visit www.euromaintenance.org.
The conference opened with a keynote address by Joel Leonard, the "Maintenance Evangelist" and founder of SkillTV.net, followed by a debate focused on the issues regarding the impending maintenance labor crisis. The debate was moderated by Alex Puissant, Belgian TV commentator. Participants included Leonard; Max Bataille, vice president of European manufacturing, Baxter Healthcare; Volker Knabe, corporate director of engineering and maintenance, BASF Worldwide; and Patrick De Groote, CEO, Koramic Industries, and president, BEMAS.
ICML also strives to educate industry that lubrication is a valid field of endeavor where professionals with the appropriate education and training, demonstrated by independent assessment of their knowledge and skills, are in charge of increasingly sophisticated pieces of machinery. This is why the council has created a career path for both lubrication technicians and oil analysts through its certification programs.
A section of the conference dealt specifically with education and certification of maintenance professionals, and offered insights from different organizations participating in the training and/or certification of maintenance personnel in various parts of the world.
