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Q: Could you briefly explain your role, involvement and experience with regards to this seminar?
Tim Ingram (TI): I have spent a great deal of my career understanding what value organisations need from equipment, and how equipment is likely to perform in-service. We all know that changing a design is orders of magnitude more cost effective than modifying physical assets, but are we doing enough? This is a topic I am really passionate about, and I want to try and convey that passion and how we can improve and do things differently.
Q: What are the main engineering challenges facing the industry at the moment and what are the most common issues you hear from colleagues?
TI: Waiting until it’s designed. Design optimisation and innovation can start way before the design is solidified, failure studies can even be undertaken on a list of functions which can help inform design. There is a misconception that this can only be undertaken when the equipment design is locked down, by which point it’s too late.
Predicting failures. We still rely in design on data books with data from the 1960’s & 70’s. When we get in-service we are flooded with data, but we need a mechanism to leverage this information to influence and inform designs, and view this data as an asset rather than a demonstration of vulnerability/weakness.
Internet of Things (IoT). We all want to move to a more digitised future, however for highly regulated industries or critical national infrastructure the use of the IoT provides fear and trepidation. The more we can do to understand this, and progress the domain the better.
Q: What key topics are you excited to speak about?
TI: The breadth of the problem, and how we can connect the different strands of work such as BIM, Design and Asset Management etc. to make informed strategies prior to the design commencing, and creating a true platform for innovation.
Q: Who else are you most interested in hearing from on the programme, and why?
TI: Andy Parsley, as the main tool we utilise to make decisions is data, the robust management of this data is of critical importance to the success of a decision.
Q: What is your top tip in terms of designing for reliability?
TI: It’s never too early! It all starts at the beginning, by using tools like Systems Engineering & Asset Management we can focus on the value we need for the programme. This can then be used as a basis to focus efforts and improvements in a true innovative platform.
Q: Why is it important for engineers to join this seminar?
TI: We all need to learn, if not you are doing yourself and your community a disservice as this domain is continually evolving.
Q: What developments are you most interested in for the future and why?
TI: Sharing of reliability data from OEM to user, freely for the betterment of all domains using free to use services such as www.reliabilityblockchain.com.
Asset Management: Designing for Reliability takes place on 26 March 2019 at One Birdcage Walk in London.
Join this seminar to:
- Hear from asset management, design and reliability specialists from organisations across engineering sectors including ROSEN Group, Sellafield Ltd, Caterpillar Defense, Dyson, Rolls-Royce, Network Rail and more
- Learn how achieving clear definitions of life cycle conditions, loads and costs, can assist in saving costs and man-hours, reduce maintenance needs and guarantee safety
- Address challenges in capturing data in context, and using trending data to measure design robustness
- Build upon and improve existing design and strategies for whole life cycle costs
- Take part in interactive discussions during our roundtable sessions focusing in on key challenges relating to designing for reliability.
To book your place, please visit www.imeche.org/assetmanagement.