Editorial
Holidays are over, business as usual?
The EuroMaintenance Congress has closed its doors and meanwhile most of us have returned from holiday. Business as usual!
I don’t think so because maintenance and asset management means not only breakdowns, repairs, failures, bad actors, etc. Nowadays maintenance personnel is confronted with continuous improvement, energy consumption, Clean Tech, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and therefore with continuous improvement.
During EuroMaintenance I had an interesting discussion about energy. One visitor mentioned that we won’t need any maintenance in the future if we keep using energy the way we did in the past and the way we are still using it.
“Energy is a physical quantity that describes the amount of work that can be performed by a force. The total energy contained in an object is identified with its mass, and energy cannot be created or destroyed. Energy can only be transformed from one state into another.” (Source: Wikipedia.org)
Just before the coffee break was over we agreed that we transform too much energy into a state where we cannot use it anymore. That means we need to be much more effective and efficient.
To use energy effectively means that we use the right form of energy, e.g. not transforming food into kinetic energy.
To use energy efficiently means that as much energy will be transformed into the product as possible and not wasted, e.g. into heat, because most of the time heat losses cannot be used any further.
To use the right energy is the responsibility of asset management. Because at the beginning of the planning we have to consider: energy consumption, Clean Tech, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.
To use energy efficiently is the responsibility of maintenance because during operation we have to consider: bad actors, breakdowns, potential failures and last but not least continuous improvement.
In this issue you will find articles discussing Energy, New Technologies and Industrial Services. These subjects deal all in one way or another with energy, effectiveness and efficiency.
I wish all maintenance and asset management professionals a good start after the summer holiday and hope you will be successful in improving effectiveness and efficiency within your company.
Alex Stuber
Dipl. Ing.
Chairman
EFNMS vzw
