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In the coming years, efforts should be made to increase the inflow of new personnel. One way to achieve this is by attracting more women (current share 8,4%) and more people with a migrant background into Maintenance. Furthermore, efforts should be made to retain these groups within the maintenance organisation.

Questions need Answers

– These and many more questions cry out for an answer, says Ellen den Broeder, General Manager NVDO and leader of the EuroMaintenance project team.

– With many hundreds of professionals attending EuroMaintenance in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, we may be able to find a solution. And besides, we also like to share the rosy picture: within the sector there is increasing confidence in recruiting enough staff. 60% of companies say they are confident about attracting enough technical staff and 71% say they are confident about attracting enough technological staff.

The outflow due to dissatisfaction has decreased (35.5%), which means that Management and Maintenance is an attractive sector to work in. These and many more figures are the outcome of the yearly Maintenance Benchmark in the Netherlands.

Asset Management at its Best

The NVDO Maintenance Compass is an annual publication and provides insight in the status of, and trend in the Asset Management industry. Based on key figures, trends and vision documents, the NVDO aims to help the Asset Management industry deal with developments, challenges and opportunities in the Asset Management field.

– Our maintenance market amounts to roughly 36 billion Euros, equivalent to roughly 4.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP). The maintenance market as a whole employs approximately 300,000 professionals, this means that 3.0 to 3.5% of the Dutch working population is employed in the maintenance sector, Den Broeder says.

Diversity will deliver a high-level conference Keynotes, Workshops and Inspiring Tables

– Since there are a couple of changes in the total employee base that catch the eye, we decided to give the Huma Factor prominent place at EuroMaintenance. Not only will the keynotes cover the theme, but some of the workshops will also give an answer to the problems we all deal with, Den Broeder says. Besides the workshops and the keynotes, there is an Inspiring Table at the end of the second conference day to inspire the audience. EuroMaintenance welcomes 36 workshops, 11 keynotes and 3 Inspiring Tables. All of them are of the highest quality and of international stature.

Increasing focus on innovations and big data

Besides the Human Factor, there are four more themes to learn from at EuroMaintenance: Asset Performance, Safety, Smart Industry, Sustainability.

– The opportunities offered by innovations and big data are being embraced more and more. A solid 70% of the organisations holds the opinion that their own industry is either ahead of, or on-par with other industries. A vast majority is convinced that they adopt a sufficient amount of innovations and technology in order to at least keep up. However, the most important barriers to the adoption of innovations are a lack of capital and a lack of knowledge.

Den Broeder refers to the Maintenance Compass again. Data driven working is becoming ever more common according to her. It is evident that all these issues are of the attention of EuroMaintenance.

– We all look forward to welcoming hundreds of professionals from all over Europe. NVDO, EFNMS and Ahoy Rotterdam ensure that Rotterdam, the Netherlands, will be the Maintenance Capital of Europe during 17,18,19 April. See, Hear, Learn!

EuroMaintenance Team Member

Ian van den Brink (NVDO):

Some one-and-a-half years ago I joined the NVDO-team and EuroMaintenance has been one of our focusses from when I first started. It feels as if we have been working together for many more years than we actually have, and I am incredibly proud that we are accomplishing such a strong, high calibre and international event with our small team! In the past months we have been hard at work, and it has all paid off with the incredible enthusiastic responses we are receiving from everyone involved. The Global Maintenance Professionals are waiting eagerly to once again meet each other at EuroMaintenance and I am very excited to speak to all of them in the European Maintenance Capital, Rotterdam!

EuroMaintenance, the largest European conference on maintenance has existed since 1972 and is an initiative of the EFNMS (European Federation of National Maintenance Societies) and organized by the Dutch Maintenance Society NVDO in April 2023. Maintenance NEXT is the most important platform for industrial maintenance in the Benelux and will be held next-door. The largest European maintenance conference will be held in Rotterdam from 17 to 19 April.