Q: Could you briefly explain your role, involvement, and experience related to the focus of this event?
Joe MacEnri, The Woodhouse Partnership (JM): I have been involved in AM decision making for many years, both as a utility senior manager making investment decisions in planning and projects as well as a consultant advising companies on the SALVO DM process and the accompanying DST tools to make better decisions that optimise value for a company.
Richard Jeffers, Two6 Services Ltd (RJ): I have spent 30+ years in manufacturing and have always been intrigued by how better data from machines can improve decision-making. After a career that's involved running, maintaining and building breweries as well as leading a corporate startup focused on the Industrial Internet of Things, I'm now a freelance advisor working with startups and corporates on all areas of the digitisation of manufacturing.
Christopher Genin, DP World (CG): I am the Global VP for Asset Management in the Ports & Terminals divsion in DP World. As part of my role I am accountable for our Asset Information Strategy and the applications we use to manage our assets and asset data.
Mohiuddin Abdullah Shaikh, RWE (CL): Working as a reliability and process engineer in the information and analytics team under the gas asset management department of RWE, my role is to provide asset management support for our portfolio of combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants’ operations and maintenance teams across the UK. This involves reviewing plant reliability databases, creating failure models, conducting data analysis on emerging defects and liaising with stations to discuss results, recommendations and solutions.
Luke Tooze, Mills Engineering Ltd (LT): Whilst carrying out my previous role at Wessex Water as Bioresources Asset Maintenance Manager I spent most of my time planning and reacting to the every changing needs of the assets across the Bioresources business.
My main responsibilities were to carry out Safety critical maintenance and inspections, these were responsibilities that previously we had not looked at in this way and this led to a number of challenges in delivery.
I have worked in the operational side of mechanical engineering and in the water industry for the past 16 years, working across different areas of the business from pumping stations to standby power and the last 6 years in the bioresources area predominantly on Biogas productions sites.
Chris Steele, Binnies (CS): I am the Director of Asset Management Services at Binnies, bringing over 20 years of qualified experience in asset management across both regulated and non-regulated water and energy sectors. My experience spans the entire asset lifecycle, with a strong emphasis on driving efficiency and maximising sustainable value through the application of innovative tools and technologies.
Q: What, in your experience, has been the biggest roadblock for the industry over the past 2-3 years?
JM: The biggest roadblock to change is one of the few constants in business: people are so busy with their day jobs they don't have time to take on some new initiative or another that may improve their work outcomes (such as better optimized value-based decision making!)
RJ: A lack of skills within the operational and site engineering teams exacerbated by a lack of bandwidth from leaders to explore the art of the possible and be willing to take a few low impact risks.
CG: Really successful implementations that really deliver the value that was expected.
MAS: In order to achieve net zero, the government is encouraging energy transition companies to invest in projects such as carbon capture, bio energy and green H2 production. These projects are large commitments that are technically and economically challenging, have complex regulatory frameworks and come with a lot of market uncertainty. However, with the government playing a larger role in improving the incentive mechanisms to reduce such project’s CAPEX burdens, this could encourage more companies to consider executing them.
LT: The biggest roadblock for the water industry in my experience is not having sufficient historical data to make effective decisions on asset management. This is for a number of reasons such as; lack of original information in O+M's, lack of design information. This makes replacement of assets incredibly challenging and time consuming as you are unable to accurately understand the new products requirements.
CS: We primarily operate in the UK regulated water industry, where the greatest challenge is the lack of a structured approach to change. With significant improvements needed to secure the delivery of this critical resource amidst intense public scrutiny, the industry needs to adopt more innovative and effective methods of service delivery.
Q: What key topics are you excited to discuss at this year's conference?
JM: Demonstrating through case studies and outlining the SALVO Decision Making Process and accompanying Decision Support Tools, how better DM isn't a pipe dream but something that companies can implement through proven schemes in a quick way and immediately start realising measurable benefits to their organisation.
RJ: Generally interested in all the topics exploring how asset management will develop in the coming years.
CG: Signs that finally technology is going to deliver the dramatic gains that we keep on being promised by the sector and digitisation cheerleaders.
MAS: We are excited to discuss value based maintenance - a concept that integrates digital technologies and conventional operation and maintenance practices into one platform from which we can make better asset management decisions in the short and long term. Key items of which are features of the in-house integrated tool called MARA: Maintenance Asset Reliability Assistant, failure detection through analytical modelling and condition monitoring, and the RIEO concept: a team dedicated to improving the portfolio's Reliability, Integrity, Efficiency and Optimisation.
LT: How other industries are effectively managing their data and how effective they are at pro active intervention to extend asset lifecycles.
CS: Given the challenges facing the water sector, I look forward to discussing how innovative ways of working and emerging technologies have been successfully implemented in other industries.
I am also keen to share best practice on asset health management given the focus on sustainably improving it with targeted investment.
Q: What do you consider to be the key areas of innovation in this industry, both in the UK and internationally?
JM: The key innovation is around the DS tools and how they can very quickly come to a conclusion on the better investment option even in the absence of good data which is really the norm. The tools even provide a value to the data uncertainty and whether chasing better data is worthwhile!
RJ: There's so much potential innovation around data, machine learning and all types of AI in industry. The key will be creating the space for adoption.
CG: No doubt Generative AI is generating the most noise, and could lead to fundamental change, but I also like the increasing democratisation of data and technology as frontline teams have access to the bigger picture and are given more autonomy than ever before.
MAS: With the UK and the world’s drive for carbon neutrality, I think the key areas of innovation within the energy industry are in evaluating the technical and economic feasibility of integrating emerging technologies (such as carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS)) with the power and heavy industries, but also exploring energy storage ideas such as battery storage solutions and green H2 production and storage, which will help derive more value from renewable power generation.
LT: The water industry is at a really exciting point, the future of how we deal with our solids recycling is an area full of innovation. Many countries are running different types of plants and as this change is so recent many of this technology is new. This is really exciting because many treatment processes in the water industry have been unchanged for many years especially in the UK.
CS: Increasing levels of automated decision making or support using Generative AI and Scientific Machine Learning is a key area of innovation within the industries I work within.
Applications I see being piloted include risk based predictive maintenance and investment planning through to water treatment process optimisation.
Q: Who else are you most interested in hearing from on the programme?
JM: I'm most interested to hear the session on the impact of AI on asset management given how topical and fast changing this field is. How companies like Shell are using AI in their day-to-day operations and planning will be very interesting.
RJ: Harry Shaw and I used to work together in a previous life, so definitely interested in catching up and hearing how he's been using motion amplification.
CG: I am very interested in hearing more about Value Based Maintenance and the approach EDF is taking at Hinckley Point.
MAS: Having involvement in digitalisation projects such as value based maintenance, I am keen to learn more about "Digital AI and industrial assets" and also "Innovation to enhance Asset Intelligence".
LT: I am really looking forward to hearing from Paul Nicholson about their approach to asset lifecycle management at Hinkley Point C. Not only is this not far away from home for me...it is a new build site and this opens itself to innovative approaches and of course its shear scale is very interesting.
CS: Luke Tooze given the topic of effective change management and Graham Wells/Mohiuddin Abdullah Shaikh to learn more on the types and value achieved from integrating critical information.
Q: Why is it important for engineers to join this conference?
JM: It is important for engineers to join this conference because the conference will provide them with a lot of good material to ponder over in relation to their daily jobs as well as providing them the networking opportunities with other like-minded professionals.
RJ: It's always important to bring the outside in and see what others in a similar space are doing to see the art of the possible.
CG: We really need to getter better value from our assets. The productivity of our capital investments is just not good enough. Technology has the potential to be transformational, and everyone involved in managing assets and asset management needs to be aware and on board.
MAS: In a world where change is the new constant, the management of our assets is frequently subjected to new ideas, technologies and practices. Hence, it's vital for engineers and in general, employees from the industry to attend such conferences to 1) stay up to date on the regulations and legal framework, 2) discuss industry best practices, 3) gain exposure to deployment of new technologies (such as AI) in the industry, and 4) network with fellow individuals from similar industries!
LT: Asset management is so key to many of our industries, People and Process are key to operating plants however without effective operating assets there is no plant to run. As engineers it is our responsibility to ensure these assets are designed, installed and operated well to deliver all the many different end products and services across our discipline. This conference gives such a fantastic forum to hear from all different walks of industry on how they deal with asset management.
CS: Engineers are the driving force behind turning ideas into reality, providing essential expertise on the feasibility and practicality of new designs and technologies.
Q: If you could ask the audience a question, what would it be?
JM: In relation to my own area I will be speaking on: what currently prevents you from making good or better asset investment decisions consistently in your organisation?
RJ: What's stopping you taking simple, small steps to apply digital technologies in your sites?
CG: Tell me a use case where technology massively over delivered on expectations?
MAS: We are gathering operational data in unprecedented volumes in the 21st century, but how much value are we really deriving from it?
LT: How do we to inspire future generations to start careers in the exciting world of managing assets.
CS: If you could adopt the technology from any industry into your own which one would it be and why?
The Asset Management 2025: Digitisation for Lifecycle Management conference will be taking place on 2-3 April at the Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester. Key reasons to attend:
- Grasp how leveraged GenAI tools can improve maintenance processes throughout the product lifecycle and extend longevity
- Establish a direct line of sight between improvement of service with investment
- Incorporate reliability engineering principles to optimise asset performance, minimise downtime, and extend asset life
- Hear case studies from sectors including defence, oil and gas, nuclear, renewables, utilities, chemicals, food manufacturing, regulators, industrial services, ports and infrastructure
- Join 25+ speakers, choose from 6 roundtables to take part in, engage in 2 panel discussions and 6 Q&A sessions
- Learn from 18+ hours of content and take part in 7+ hours of networking and peer to peer exchange
- Benefit from engineer led, improvement focused, unbiased content
To book your place, please visit www.imeche.org/assetmanagement.