IDCON News: Upcoming Events, ‘Workshop Worship’, and Shut Down Drivers

He found that a number of other European consultants tended to provide technical services or hold workshops in order to receive results some organisations think that workshops and two-day training seminars automatically transfer into improvements in the plant.

At IDCON we understand that, while it is important to hold workshops, the workshops must be combined with on-the-job training and execution in the field to achieve long-term results.

However this is not always possible, most managers don’t have time to educate and train every planner, supervisor, and operations coordinator. This is where consultants and internal resources can be utilised to coach and train members the organisation to achieve real change.

We start by educating in class format or through discussions with the client, and then we go into the field and show the client how to execute the theoretical concept, and finish up by letting the client show us what he or she has learned with our hands-on support.

Special events

IDCON takes part in international conferences, as well as co-sponsoring events. In the coming months IDCON will be attending a number of conferences in the coming months, including:

• IDCON Training Classes Planning and Scheduling, Longview, WA June 1 to 2, 2015. A fundamental course for planners, schedulers, maintenance and operations supervisors and maintenance managers all wanting to learn the best practices in managing the planning and scheduling process
• Pulp and Paper Industry Reliability and Maintenance Conference 11 to 14 May 2015 – You must register using your credit card or bring a company check to the conference and register at the door
• Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) annual conference, 12 to 15 October 2015 at Duke Energy Centre, Cincinnati, Ohio
• Mainstream 7 to 10 June, Christer Idhammar will Jumpstart the conference at 5:30pm on Sunday 7 June. He will also co-present with John Crowe at 12pm on 8 June. Tor Idhammar will present a half-day Root Cause workshop on 10 June. You can also visit Tor, Christer and Ryan at the IDCON booth #1.

Maintenance tip: What are shutdown drivers?

One of the main factors affecting major and minor shutdown schedules is to understand why you are shutting down. We call this the ‘shutdown drivers’.

Shutdown driver’s fit into the following categories:

• Safety – installing new isolation valves or emergency shutdown devices
• Environmental / regulatory – state air emissions mitigation requirements for sewers, seals
• Mechanical integrity – coded vessel internal inspection, piping corrosion and remaining life
• Operational – equipment plugging and fouling
• Revenue generation – dryer replacement for increased speed on a paper machine.