July

IMEC: Not Your Typical Maintenance Conference

EP Editorial Staff | July 1, 2009

imec_event-previewSet your sights on Toronto this fall. The International Maintenance Excellence Conference is sure to deliver new perspectives to help your organization grow and profit.

Few professional conferences can match the resources and diverse learning opportunities offered at the upcoming International Maintenance Excellence Conference (IMEC). Scheduled for September 9-11 in Toronto, Canada, it will be the fifth annual edition of this premiere event-and the best to date!

Created and organized by the University of Toronto’s Centre for Maintenance Optimization & Reliability Engineering (C-MORE), IMEC is being co-organized this year with Applied Technology Publications, publisher of Maintenance Technology and Lubrication Management & Technology magazines. This partnership strengthens IMEC’s goal to expose attendees to noted industry and academic experts who present conference themes from two perspectives: professional maintenance practice and maintenance science research. The conference is structured to encourage dialogue and collaboration between these two communities, enhancing the performance of both.

Such an approach allows IMEC to offer substantial value to maintenance professionals seeking guidance in the changing—and challenging—industrial environment. “Maintenance and reliability specialists, and asset managers in particular, are faced with numerous management decisions,” says Andrew Jardine, Ph.D, C-MORE director, and respected author of economic-life software (AGE/CON, PERDEC and OREST) and numerous books on maintenance and reliability. He stresses that these decisions are “not just because of the present economic situation. Common sense and expert judgment play a role in such decisions,” he says, “but the underlying assumptions should be tested with data that has been properly collected and analyzed.”

Dr. Jardine terms this approach “evidence-based asset management,” or EBAM, which is a major theme of many IMEC presentations. “With so much information available, we often find ourselves in the bewildering position of being data-rich but information-poor,” he says. “We may have all the raw data we’ll ever need at our fingertips, but unless we can interpret and integrate it properly, it is of little use. To refine this data into useful information, we need the appropriate tools. This is what EBAM is all about.”

Strong international support for IMEC reinforces EBAM concepts with diverse perspectives. This year’s conference features speakers from Chile (European Southern Observatory), The Netherlands (Mainnovation), Australia (Covaris), United Kingdom (The Woodhouse Partnership) and Sweden (IFS), among others. In addition, there are four presentations from Canada, including Rio Tinto Alcan, and six from U.S.-based organizations, including NASA. (Editor’s Note: Bob Williamson and Ken Bannister, contributing editors on the Applied Technology Publications team, will be among the featured presenters. You read these world-class maintenance experts regularly on this Website. IMEC is a great opportunity to meet—and learn from—them in person.)

After attending IMEC, “speakers and delegates should return to their organizations with new knowledge,” Jardine notes, “both methodologies and EBAM tools they can use to ensure asset-management excellence in their business.” He adds with certainty that “there will also be significant knowledge-sharing of asset-management methods and tools among the participants from around the world.”

The full IMEC schedule includes 19 sessions and four workshops over three days. For details and to register, please visit www.imec.ca.

 

Is IMEC For You?

IMEC is directed at engineers, managers of plant operations and facility managers or maintenance professionals who are responsible for maintaining and managing the physical equipment assets of an organization. These professionals tend to represent large facilities and plants from industries such as mining, oil and gas, pulp and paper, utilities, primary metals and heavy manufacturing.
All IMEC attendees will receive a certificate of attendance from the Centre for Maintenance Optimization & Reliability Engineering (C-MORE) at the University of Toronto. Learn more about C-MORE at www.mie.utoronto.ca/cmore.

 

IMEC Registration Info

For a fee schedule and to register, please visit www.imec.ca or contact Bill Kiesel at bill@imec.ca or (847) 382-8100 ext. 116. A discount is offered for registrations completed prior to August 26, 2009.

Regular registration includes:

  • Two days of keynote presentations, panel discussions and parallel sessions
  • Industry exhibitions
  • Dinner at the CN Tower

Workshop and specially priced student packages also are available. All presentations and workshops take place in Toronto, Canada, near the University of Toronto campus. For a list of nearby hotel accommodations and attractions, see www.imec.ca.

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