Meat of maintenance to be revealed

The second annual Creating a 21st Century Maintenance Organization conference has been scheduled for Nov, 24-26, 2003 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Toronto. The event is organized by Federated Press of Montreal and endorsed by the Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada (PEMAC).

“Maintenance has a far greater impact on corporate profitability than senior management is often willing to consider, much less admit,” says Lise Ponton, conference director. “Indeed, maintenance managers can control up to 40 per cent of a company’s costs and often have a direct effect on production output.

“Today, maintenance must add value to the business in terms of quality, capacity and availability, thereby leveraging the company in the marketplace. To play this role, the maintenance manager must develop best practices and achieve higher operational equipment effectiveness (OEE), improved reliability and increased throughput — and they must do it with significantly less manpower,” notes Ponton.

Federated Press’ November conference will present practical, hands-on information on best practices in the following areas:

Leveraging RCM for maximum payback

Implementing total productive maintenance

Reliability testing and predictive technologies

Latest lean maintenance strategies

Best practices in predictive maintenance

Benchmarking asset management

Maximizing the effectiveness of CMMS systems.

Participants will be able to benefit from the experience of maintenance experts from companies such as Hydro-Qubec, Siemens Westinghouse Inc., Molson Canada, Goodrich Corporation, Atomic Energy Canada, HJ Heinz/Omstead Foods Ltd., Aventis Pasteur Limited, Ontario Power Generation, IOGEN and others.

Workshops

Two optional workshops also are available: 1. Keys to the successful implementation of reliability-centred maintenance (RCM II), presented by Normand Champigny, Asset Management Practice, IBM Business Consulting Services; and 2. Developing meaningful performance indicators — determining and prioritizing what to measure, presented by Leonard G. Middleton, Asset Management Solutions.

The conference fee is $1,695 plus GST, and workshops are $495. A Proceedings CD-ROM, which includes a full video of the conference as well as the papers and overhead slides presented, will be available for $160.50 for conference participants, or $499 for non-participants.

Registration details can be obtained by calling 416-665-6868 or 1-800-363-0722, or by e-mail at info@federatedpress.com, or by visiting www.federatedpress.com.

LEAN MANUFACTURING EVENT COMES TO TORONTO IN OCTOBER

The organizer of the largest Lean Manufacturing conference ever to be held in North America has selected Toronto as the site for its international conference Oct 6-10, 2003. The Sheraton Conference and Convention Centre is the venue.

Conference organizers include the Wheeling, Ill.,-based Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME), the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) of Toronto, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) of Dearborn, Mich.

“We gave significant consideration to the situation in Toronto as many of our members had raised concerns about travelling to Toronto,” said Basem Hishmeh, AME president. “Having heard from the experts, we understand that the risks associated with travel to Toronto are minimal and we are very excited about coming to this world-class city.”

“This conference truly will be a world-leader and a must-attend for all manufacturing and process leaders,” commented Perrin Beatty, president & CEO of CME. “With more than 60 best practice presentations, 40 plant tours and a line-up of 14 top keynoters, I can think of no better value than attending this event.”

The conference is being presented jointly by AME and CME in collaboration with SME. For more information, visit www.measureupforsuccess.com.

CSA TO HOLD WORKSHOPS ON POWER PRESS STANDARD

The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has planned a series of two-day technical seminars that will examine the requirements contained within CSA standard, CAN/CSA Z142-02, the Code for Power Press Operations, that specifies the requirements for the design, manufacturing, installation, maintenance, operation and safeguarding of power presses.

The presenter will be John A. Ford, president of Training Services, a training consulting and development firm, which advises numerous employers and safety associations throughout Canada with respect to occupational health and safety concerns.

Ford is a member of the CSA Z142 development committee, so is able to offer an insider’s view on the changes to this standard.

The workshops will take place from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the following dates:

Oct. 16-17, 2003, Ottawa, Ont.

Nov. 3-4, 2003, Oshawa, Ont.

Nov. 24-25, 2003, Mississauga, Ont.

For more information, call 1-800-463-6727, e-mail: seminars@csa.ca, or visit http://learningcentre.csa.ca.

Firm fined $100,000 for press accident

In related news that may encourage companies to attend power press training, Stanley Canada Inc., carrying on business as Stanley Mechanics Tools, a Burlington-based company that operates a plant in Smiths Falls, Ont., was fined $100,000 on July 15, 2003. The fine was for a violation of Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act that resulted in serious hand injuries to an employee.

The plant manufactures tool boxes and tool chests. On January 15, 2002, a press set-up operator was making adjustments to a press and had switched off the motor when the press unexpectedly cycled and closed on the worker’s left hand. The worker lost part of the hand.

An Ontario Ministry of Labour investigation found the press was not stopped and blocked to prevent movement prior to the adjustments being made.

Stanley Canada Inc. pleaded guilty, as an employer, to failing to ensure that motion that may endanger a worker was stopped and blocked to prevent subsequent movement before adjustments were made to the backstops in the die area of the press, as required by Section 75 of the Regulations for Industrial Establishments. This was contrary to Section 25(1)(c) of the act.

The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Rene Proulx of the Ontario Court of Justice in Perth. In addition, the court imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act.

Bill Roebuck