WCM Summer School 2019 – open for application! – case Rijkswaterstaat (RWS)

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Jan Braaksma

Are you a technical Master/PhD student or young professional (within 10 years after graduation), with a special interest in Maintenance Management & Engineering, then apply to the seventh edition (before June 1st) of our WCM Summer School 2019 (July 29th – August 2nd, 2019) and challenge yourself in our exciting program.

“Challenge yourself in our multi-disciplinary Summer School on Maintenance Management & Engineering. Satisfy intellectual curiosity, gain new professional skills in the area of Maintenance and extend your professional network by joining the WCM Summer School″ (prof. dr. H. Akkermans, and director World Class Maintenance)

Please click here for a short movie about the WCM Summer School (Dutch)

You will learn about the exciting world of maintenance with all its aspects through our workshops on state of the art maintenance tools and approaches. Knowledge gained will be applied immediately as your analytical skills and creativity will be tested to its limits when you are solving the problems presented in our real life case study.

You will cooperate with other participants and you will be guided by our team of top professors in maintenance. On the last day your group will present will present solutions to the problems posed in the case study and a winner will be selected by a jury of representatives from industry and academia.

Besides lectures and work, we have also planned a company visit, a leadership training and a couple of social events; you are guaranteed to meet interesting people and have a lot of fun as well!

Please click here for the application form and more information about the application procedure.

Rijkswaterstaat – Smart Maintenance at the pumping stations and sluice of Eefde – About the case

Rijkswaterstaat part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management will be providing a real business case regarding Maintenance Engineering & Management.

Rijkswaterstaat is responsible for the design, construction, management and maintenance of the main infrastructure facilities in the Netherlands. This includes the main road network, the main waterway network and watersystems. Dry feet, sufficient clean water and reliable and useful information. That is what integrated water management means to Rijkswaterstaat. Smooth and safe transport by water are other ways of using water.

The Dutch waterway network is the densest in Europe. About 6000 kilometers of rivers and canals, many of the latter serving drainage as well as navigation, form a complex system serving all parts of the country.

The case for this year’s summer school will evolve around the sluice of Eefde and will be concentrated on the maintenance of the pumping stations. The recent update of sensoring and process control systems offer interesting opportunities and challenges towards smart maintenance.

The main question for you as a participant during the Summer School is to think about how RWS together with her stakeholders can use some of the available maintenance innovations to improve the performance of the pumping stations and the sluice.

46 young maintenance professionals obtained the WCM Summer School certificate with ASML case

Posted on August 16, 2018 by World Class Maintenance

On Friday the 10th of August 46 young maintenance professionals obtained the certificate for Smart Maintenance & Engineering Management. Awarding the certificates was the festive conclusion of the WCM Summer School 2018. In the previous week, the students attended lectures by professors from seven Dutch universities in the field of smart maintenance. The students could immediately use this theoretical knowledge for the practical case contributed by ASML: improving the maintenance & support planning processes.

Robert Dellemijn (ASML Customer Support):“In the operational planning of Customer Support safety and quality are our main priorities. The newest generation EUV machines leads to more complex repairs and maintenance. This demands process-improvements of the maintenance and service planning.”

The group of young professionals was composed of participants from ABB, Akzo Nobel Center, AVANS Hogeschool Breda, Fuji Film Manufacturing Europe, Generaal-Majoor de Ruyter van Steveninck Kazerne, Koninklijke Luchtmacht, MaxGrip, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Schiphol Nederland, Shell Moerdijk, Shell Nederland Raffinaderij, SPIE Nederland, Stork Belgium, Tata Steel Europe, Technische Universiteit Delft, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Thales Nederland, Universiteit Twente and Vitens Industriewater.

Winning team
Visitors of the WCM Summer School presentations could vote for the winning group. Congratulations to the winning team of this year: Emilio Cervantes Pecheco (Universiteit Twente), Ingmar Bruinenberg (Koninklijke Luchtmacht), Laura Eggink (Tata Steel Europe), Daan Jenken (SPIE Nederland) and Stijn Dierikx (Shell Nederland Raffinaderij).

Joseph Whelan, directeur EUV Service Engineering ASML: “We are really impressed by all the major challenges you have recognized and explained. The participants provide a lot of interesting new ideas and perspectives.”

The WCM Summer School is planned again for 2019.

Photos of the WCM Summer School 2018

35 young maintenance professionals obtain WCM Summer School certificate with marine case

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Moniek Schoofs

On Friday 4 August, 35 young maintenance professionals obtained the certificate for Smart Maintenance & Engineering Management. In the previous week, the students had attended classes by a range of professors from seven Dutch universities in the area of smart maintenance. The students were immediately able to apply this theoretical knowledge to the practical case contributed by the Directorate of Material Sustainment (DMI) of the Royal Netherlands Navy: maintenance of the new M-series of frigates.

The group of young professionals was composed of participants from Alliander, MaxGrip, the Ministry of Defence, NS Techniek, Schiphol Group, Shell, Sitech Services, SPIE, Stork, Strukton Rail, Tata Steel, Thales, the University of Tilburg, the University of Pisa, the University of Twente and Utilities Support Group.

New programme

This was the sixth edition of the WCM summer school, with a brand new programme. Based on the insight from the report on the study ‘Smart Moves for Smart Maintenance’, subjects such as big data, human factors, performance-based contracting and life-cycle costing were added. Maintenance Management & Engineering remains the main subject.

Practical case: maintenance of M-frigates

The Royal Netherlands Navy has a considerable fleet of very complex vessels (including frigates, patrol boats, submarines and diving craft), which is managed and maintained all over the world. The students of the WCM Summer School got the unique opportunity to spend a whole week working on the new series of M-frigates. These multipurpose vessels are primarily used for anti-submarine defence. Helicopters can land on them and they are equipped with ultra-modern sensor, weapon and command systems. The main assignment and challenge for the students was to think about how DMI could optimise the maintenance of vessels by introducing maintenance innovations such as predictive maintenance, life-cycle management, and design for maintenance.

Arnold Boomstra, head of sensors and weapon technology, showed what the groups had to bear in mind in the future for the maintenance of marine vessels: “We are caught in the middle of a technology shift in which we as the Navy are leading the way. We also manage a state-of-the-art fleet. It is a challenge to find qualified people for maintenance. We also want to use our equipment more flexibly and in the future we would like to work more closely with the private sector”.

Modular frigates

The group presented their findings on Friday 4 August during an info market. The public in attendance chose the winner, the group composed of Francesco Castaldi Cuppari (University of Pisa), Bas Pelssers (SPIE), Sander Cords (Tata Steel) and Arjan van der Palen (Schiphol Group). The winning group came up with a new name for the multi-purpose frigates, namely the ‘modular frigates’. In their design, all on-board equipment is set up modularly making both the vessel’s operation and its maintenance flexible. With condition-based maintenance and augmented reality, each module would then itself need to be able to show if, when and what maintenance is needed. The winning group says: “The concept is bold, but if you want to be future-ready, this is the direction the Navy needs to go in”.

Refreshing

Other groups also came up with original ideas for more efficient maintenance of complex vessels: from organisational ideas, such as merging together the DMI and DMO (Defence Material Organisation) and the set-up of a virtual warehouse, all the way to technical ideas such as the use of hydrogen at room temperature (as a result of which cooling installations are no longer needed on-board) and even campaign ideas to increase the capacity of qualified staff. “It is buzzing here. It is impressive that the input we gave resulted in this output of such practical and refreshing ideas”, says Pieter van Noort, head of the Maritime Technology Department of DMI. “The power of this type of initiative is that people are working on common challenges, from the point-of-view of multiple disciplines”.

Why?

Rob Kramer, deputy commander and present at the presentations: “It is unbelievably positive to see that there are so many young people who can teach us something. Their ideas and spot-on solutions are of course interesting, but much more interesting is the fact that they keep asking us ‘why?’”. Kramer provides an example: “In our case, a vessel has a five-year cycle. This means that it is used for four years and then goes in for maintenance for one year. “Can maintenance not be done in much less time than a year?” is therefore a very valid question. We were also made to take a look at the marketing of defence activities. This is also something we are going to concentrate on because working with the private sector is a prime focus of ours for the future. This will contribute to greater command out at sea, which is what we are doing it for”.

About the WCM Summer School

This was the sixth edition of the WCM summer school, and this year it took place for the first time at the KIM, the Royal Naval College. In one week, young maintenance professionals get the chance to expand their knowledge and experience in the area of Maintenance Management & Engineering. Alongside the case for which students compete, professors from all Dutch universities that count maintenance among their subjects (Delft University of Technology, University of Twente, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Groningen, NLDA, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tilburg University) give a masterclass. The WCM Summer School is planned again for 2018.

Please click here to find pictures of the week.

WCM Summer School 2017 – open for last applications – until June 9th!

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Jan Braaksma

Are you a technical Master/PhD student or young professional (within 10 years after graduation), with a special interest in Maintenance Management & Engineering, then apply to the fifth edition (before the June 9th) of our WCM Summer School 2017 (July 31st – August 4th, 2017) and challenge yourself in our exciting program.

Please click here for a short movie about last years WCM Summer School

The maintenance organisation of the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) in Den Helder DMI (Directie Materiële Instandhouding) will be providing a real business case regarding Maintenance Engineering & Management. The Navy has a significant fleet of highly complex ships that are operated all around the world and DMI has to maintain this fleet for both peacetime and peacekeeping missions.

The main question and challenge for you during the Summer School is to think about how DMI can optimize the maintenance of their assets by introducing some of the available maintenance innovations, e.g. predictive maintenance, asset life cycle management, design for maintenance. The case has both technical and organizational aspects.

The solutions will be projected on real assets maintained by DMI. The results of your work will help DMI create maximum value for their stakeholders.

Besides lectures and work, we have also planned a company visit, a leadership training and a couple of social events; you are guaranteed to meet interesting people and have a lot of fun as well!

Please click here for the application form and more information about the application procedure.

“Passenger Experience was the aim for new maintenance solutions”

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Moniek Schoofs

For the fifth time in a row, a group of over 50 young professionals participated to the WCM Summer School, which took place from August 1-5. The program consisted of theoretical lessons compiled by professors from seven Dutch universities, a leadership training given by the Dutch Ministry of Defense and a case study, provided by Schiphol Airport. “I was genuinely surprised by the approach during the week; not the traditional maintenance solutions were central, but rather the passenger experience as a whole,” says Lars Wouters, manager client projects of Schiphol Airport.

Renovation of Pier C Schiphol

Schiphol Group is the company that offered the business case to WCM Summer School. The topic was focused on asset management, regarding a wide range of renovations, new constructions and maintenance of departure halls, piers, airstrips and offices. The main question and challenge for the participants of the Summer School WCM was how Schiphol can face the asset life cycle of its buildings and installations and how to optimize the process adopting a design phase approach?

The winning group had a number of unique features: an integrated approach where the land area is used optimally and even increased by adding an element on the sides of the pier. This feature ensures that sunlight can be better utilized or kept out. Wouters about this: “Climate is an important topic within the airport. Besides, we urgently need additional space at the gates, so therefore I voted for the winning group myself.”

Maintenance as a multidisciplinary subject

Henk Akkermans, WCM director, discussed the multidisciplinary aspect of maintenance which was presented by all groups: “It is hopeful to see groups of young professionals who are not dissuaded by the old ‘parochialism’. This case study provided by Schiphol contained several components, but instead of thinking from the different departments, such as finance, HR, operations, maintenance, marketing, energy or IT, the groups one by one have chosen to look at the case-assignment from an integrated approach. With the passenger and other Schiphol stakeholders Schiphol central.” Wouters adds to Akkermans: “Engineers are usually accustomed to look at the Schiphol passengers from a technical perspective, at the WCM Summer School the opposite happened: the young professionals started with the passenger experience, that was the aim for new maintenance solutions.”

Some innovative solutions

The groups presented various and innovative solutions: maintenance based on the user intensity by measuring crowds with heat sensors, physical stores exchanged for shopping systems with large screens and an innovative logistics approache, personal routing through using user data from the existing Schiphol app, specific floor lighting and floor games in the terminal that are able to generate energy by movement.

WCM Summer School

The WCM Summer School is jointly organized by the chair of maintenance and engineering of the University of Twente and World Class Maintenance, the case was provided by Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. This year the WCM Summer School took place this year from August 1-5. Knowledge about smart maintenance acquired through the seven major technical universities is made applicable to business young professionals in the WCM Summer School. That is important because smart maintenance ensures that assets are readily available and reliable: they last longer, investments are being prevented, safety and durability are ensured and yields increased. Moreover, with intelligent maintenance solutions we develop a new export product where the whole world is waiting for: Dutch World Class Maintenance.

Please click here to see the pictures.

51 highly motivated participants made fourth edition WCM Summer School a great success

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Moniek Schoofs

Early august 2015, a group of over 50 young professionals followed the five-day program of the fourth edition of the WCM Summer School of which the program is composed by professors from seven Dutch universities. Glenn Ackermans, maintenance engineer at Sabic, looks back on an inspiring edition: “Participating in this summer school has taught me that maintenance is needed everywhere and is becoming increasingly important. Dutch installations are generally quite old and should last longer. Innovative maintenance involving multiple disciplines that work together is therefore a must.”

Multidisciplinary character of maintenance

Ackermans says: “The first two days I thought I was in the wrong place. There were colleagues from different technical disciplines present, not all maintenance engineers. From the second day I worked with my group on the business case NedTrain had provided. I found out that we actually all had the same issues at work and that we could all make a valuable contribution to the solution. That was the moment I realized the value of the Summer School.” NedTrain provided a case on a smooth introduction of new trains. NS is working on large-scale modernization of the existing fleet. In the coming years the double-decker will be fully modernized, 118 new Sprinters will be introduced and also NS is working on new intercity trains. Cock Liefting, NedTrain: “We want to smoothly introduce all the new trains. So all phases of the journey between purchases until delivery and drive trains are to be seamlessly connected. We call this a smooth introduction.”

Mix of maintainability, data monitoring and communication

The group Ackermans wins the prize for the best case solution with an approach in which three teams are needed: a maintainability team, a data-monitoring team and a communications team. All three are evenly important for a smooth introduction of new trains according Ackermans. “When dealing with these three teams we see three important key points: communication and training, data management and the dedication and commitment of all levels within an organization. We were trying to look a lot broader than the technologic aspects such as having your spares in place. That makes maintenance as a profession really interesting, maintenance is always part of a greater whole. But very important, after all, an investment in an installation that cannot be maintained, it is a lost investment.” Leo van Dongen, NedTrain, adds to this: “In several cases solutions I see maintenance is not just about technology but also about processes, human factors and communications. That made the solutions very valuable to us. “

New Challenge for a next edition?

Young professional Ackermans thinks the aging of assets is the biggest challenge for the maintenance sector in the coming years. He is not talking about the knowledge in education, but “I mean the experience, the common sense that evolves in working years, I see this experience leaking away. There is not automatically room within organizations to handle this. While we as youths can learn a lot from experienced maintenance engineers. Maybe this is a good idea for the WCM Summer school next year?

Vierde editie WCM Summer School zeer geslaagd met 51 gedreven deelnemers

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Jan Braaksma

“Een investering in een installatie die je niet kunt onderhouden,is een verloren investering”

Een groep van wederom ruim 50 young professionals heeft begin augustus 2015 het vijfdaagse programma van de vierde editie van de WCM Summer School gevolgd dat samengesteld is door hoogleraren van zeven Nederlandse universiteiten. Glenn Ackermans, maintenance engineer bij Sabic, blikt terug op een inspirerende editie: “Meedoen met deze Summer School heeft mij geleerd dat onderhoud overal nodig is en ook steeds belangrijker wordt. Nederlandse installaties zijn over het algemeen vrij oud en moeten nog even mee. Innovatief onderhoud waarbij meerdere disciplines samenwerken is hierbij een must.”

Multidisciplinair karakter van maintenance
Ackermans geeft aan: “De eerste twee dagen dacht ik dat op de verkeerde plek zat. Er waren collega’s van diverse technische disciplines aanwezig, lang niet allemaal maintenance engineers. Toen ik vanaf de tweede dag met mijn groepje ging werken aan de bedrijfscasus van NedTrain kwam ik erachter dat we eigenlijk allemaal dezelfde issues op het werk hadden en dat we allemaal een waardevolle bijdrage aan de oplossing konden leveren. Pas toen zag ik de meerwaarde van deze Summer School.” De casus van NedTrain, onderhoudsbedrijf van treinstellen, ging over een ‘smooth introduction’ van nieuwe treinstellen. NS is grootschalig bezig de bestaande vloot te moderniseren voor de reizigers. Zo wordt de komende jaren een deel van de dubbeldekkers volledig gemoderniseerd, is er een contract getekend voor 118 nieuwe Sprinters en loopt er op het moment ook een grote aanbesteding voor nieuwe Intercity’s. Cock Liefting, NedTrain: “Wij willen alle nieuwe treinen soepel introduceren. Dus alle fasen van het traject tussen aankopen tot en met het afleveren en rijden van treinen moeten naadloos op elkaar zijn aangesloten. We noemen dat een smooth introduction. Kernvraag voor de deelnemers is: hoe bereik je een smooth introduction?”

Mix van maintainability, data-monitoring en communicatie
De groep van Ackermans wint de prijs voor de beste casusoplossing met een aanpak waarbij drie teams nodig zijn: een maintainability team, een data-monitoring team en een communicatieteam. Alle drie evenredig van belang voor een smooth introduction van nieuwe treinen volgens Ackermans. “Bij de aanpak met deze drie teams zien wij drie belangrijke sleutelpunten: communicatie en opleiding, databeheer en de inzet en betrokkenheid van alle niveaus binnen een organisatie. Veel meer dus dan alleen de inzet van het juiste gereedschap en het op orde hebben van je reserveonderdelen. En dat maakt maintenance als vakgebied zo interessant, onderhoud is altijd een onderdeel van een groter geheel. Maar wel heel belangrijk, immers, een investering in een installatie die je niet kunt onderhouden, is een verloren investering.” Ook Leo van Dongen, NedTrain, sluit hierbij aan: “In meerdere casusoplossingen zie ik terugkomen dat maintenance niet alleen gaat over technologie maar zeker ook over processen, human factors en communicatie. De aangereikte oplossingen zijn voor ons dan ook zeer waardevol.”

Nieuwe uitdaging voor een volgende editie?
De young professional Ackermans ziet vergrijzing als grootste uitdaging voor de maintenance sector in de komende jaren. En dan heeft hij het niet over het kennisniveau, “want het kennisniveau is op de huidige technische opleidingen goed voor elkaar als het gaat om onderhoud, maar ik bedoel de ervaring, het boerenverstand dat moet groeien met de jaren, dat lekt zo langzaamaan weg. Dit zie ik om me heen gebeuren. Binnen bedrijven is niet altijd meer ruimte om met een ‘oude rot uit het vak’ mee te lopen. Terwijl we daar als jongelingen ontzettend veel van kunnen leren. Misschien is dit een mooi idee voor de WCM Summer School van volgend jaar?”

Over de WCM Summerschool
De WCM Summerschool is een initiatief van DI-WCM dat dit jaar plaatsvond van 3-7 augustus. Kennis over slim onderhoud opgedaan door de zeven grote technische universiteiten wordt tijdens de WCM Summer School concreet toepasbaar gemaakt voor het bedrijfsleven. En dat is van groot belang want slim onderhoud zorgt ervoor dat installaties beter beschikbaar én betrouwbaar zijn: ze gaan langer mee, investeringen worden voorkomen, veiligheid en duurzaamheid worden gewaarborgd, opbrengsten vergroot. Bovendien ontwikkelen we met slimme onderhoudsoplossingen een nieuw exportproduct waar de hele wereld op zit te wachten: Nederlands onderhoud van wereldklasse.

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Informatie voor de pers (niet voor publicatie)

Contactpersoon: Moniek Schoofs, communicatie World Class Maintenance
mschoofs@worldclassmaintenance.com
06 21 36 29 41

Young maintenance professionals become socially justified maintenance practitioners

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Jan Braaksma

As a participant of the WCM Summer School you are not only investing a week of your time in yourself or your company but also in society by learning how to conduct socially justifiable maintenance. More than 50 participants from different backgrounds (academia, companies and military) were trained during the workshops, practical case study and leadership program held at the Castle of Breda (KMA). This year it was Liander, the biggest network provider in the Netherlands that provided the real life case study.

The practical case presented by Liander raised an interesting question that many technical asset owners are trying to answer. The participants have focused on how to make maintenance more sustainable. In this case specifically, the key issue was to improve and make the maintenance of transformers more sustainable. Crucial as Liander has thousands of such transformers all over the country. The key question the participants faced was the following: Is it more interesting to invest in new types of transformers that are more sustainable to maintain, or is working longer with the current transformers indeed more sustainable? It goes without saying that a broad array of different options were located between these extremes.
The participants were challenged to think out of the box, yet without losing touch with the reality of the industry. The aim of the case was to come to a win-win situation: challenged participants on the one hand and on the other, a company that gains several new insights into tackling the question.

The winning team energetically presented a future scenario which showed that Liander took the right steps to invest in more sustainable transformers using innovative (amorphous) materials. To demonstrate the business case for this solution, they smartly incorporated the theoretic models on life-cycle management discussed during the workshops of the WCM Summer School.

Today’s young professionals are tomorrow’s leaders
The young professionals who participate in the WCM Summer School are still studying or have been working no more than five years in a maintenance job. The topic of sustainable maintenance is one they face on a daily basis. That is exactly what makes this year’s edition even more interesting and challenging. The aim of the program of the WCM Summer School is therefore not merely to give further training to the group of young professionals, but rather to present future-safe knowledge and skills. Indeed: today’s young professionals, tomorrow’s leaders!

About the WCM Summer School
The WCM Summer School is an WCM initiative and is organized by the Maintenance Education Consortium together with the University of Twente. Insights on smart maintenance gained by seven Dutch universities and competence centers are made tangible to the industry during the WCM Summer School. And that is of great importance because smart maintenance results in installations that are better available, more trustworthy, hence they have a longer life cycle, unnecessary investments are avoided, the safety and sustainability are guaranteed, in short the gains increase.
And what is more: by developing smart maintenance solutions, we are developing a new export product the whole world is waiting for: Dutch maintenance of world class.