Maintenance is being brought into increased focus in the engineering and manufacturing community, as advancements in technology – including AI and sensor solutions – enable businesses to predict issues and act more quickly should faults arise.
And key to expanding knowledge and understanding of maintenance in North East England is the North East Maintenance Forum (NEMF), which will be delivering the Powering Performance, Driving Innovation session at this year’s EMCON event at Sunderland Live on September 18.
Ahead of EMCON, Derek Dixon, Head of School Computer Science and Engineering at University of Sunderland, who is chairing the forum’s session at the show, shares his insights into the NEMF and the evolution of maintenance.
Why was the North East Maintenance Forum set up?
The NEMF was set up by colleagues in the school of engineering at the University of Sunderland, to provide a forum for maintenance practitioners in industry. These forums are about sharing best practice and the real-life experiences of maintenance engineers, managers or technicians in their organisation. All case studies are delivered by industry and provide the opportunity to connect and learn.
What are the key changes you have seen in approaches to maintenance during your career?
The emergence of technology within a production environment – and its ability to transfer to a maintenance environment.
What are the key maintenance challenges engineering and manufacturing companies are facing in 2025?
Access to assets for maintenance, investment and skills shortages. Moreover, adapting the maintenance function to new strategies and use of technology. Can the workforce change and incorporate a new way of working?
And what steps are being taken to address these challenges?
If recognised by the key stakeholders in an organisation, the maintenance function can play a prominent role in improving the sustainability of a manufacturing plant. If it is used in the strategy to improve plant efficiency, energy management and emission control then it can become a key player in contributing towards an organisation reaching legislative targets. In this way, maintenance can be recognised more widely as primary contributor to an organisation, instead of a secondary function.
What’s on the horizon for maintenance technology – and what role will AI play?
AI will play a crucial role in the development of predictive maintenance techniques, allowing technology and data analysis to be harnessed into being more effective, timely and accurate in decision making or fault diagnosis.
How important is EMCON to the North East’s engineering and manufacturing community?
EMCON is a fantastic event which provides hundreds of local engineering and manufacturing companies to meet, network and discover new initiatives, technology or solutions to their organisational needs.
It’s therefore very important for NEMF to be part of the EMCON show as we are always looking to expand our audience and introduce them to the importance of maintenance, including how it can improve any organisation.
This will help develop and enrich the discussions we have, thus making the time spent at the forum even more worthwhile!
What can we expect from the NEMF session at EMCON this year?
Two real life case studies which reflect the issues and organisation has experienced with a key asset and how the maintenance team overcame those issues. This will include a professional discussion on the techniques used within those case studies and the suitability of specific strategies for tackling critical faults.
Interested in learning more? Click here for info on EMCON’s speaker sessions.
EMCON is delivered by Engineering and Manufacturing Network – and we’ll be supporting the event as exhibitor and marketing partner this year.