NMEC roundup

ENGINEERS FROM AROUND NEW ZEALAND DESCENDED ON CLAUDELANDS EVENT CENTRE LAST WEEK FOR THE ANNUAL NATIONAL MAINTENANCE ENGINEERING CONFERENCE ( NMEC)

‘We had a record number of over 200 engineering practitioners, reliability engineers, project managers and engineering students attending,” said Chairman, Barry Robinson, at the NMEC opening on Wednesday 15th November.

The conference was officially opened by SKF New Zealand’s general manager, Darin Samuel and what followed was a packed two-day programme of conference sessions covering oil rigs to robotic prosthetics. The conference highlights included many inspirational speakers from the innovation specialists such as entrepreneur and designer Bill Buckley from Buckley Systems to Callaghan Innovation top scientist, Dr Ian Brown.

Papers were presented on a wide range of technical and management topics. These included keynote speaker Craig Moles from WorleyParsons who presented a challenging paper based on his wide experiences as a Shut Down Planning and Management expert.

Other learning opportunities covered Counterfeit materials, maintenance management and a very though provoking paper about Women in engineering.

One of the most highly anticipated presentations was the eye-opening look at what many health and safety staff are doing wrong in implementing the new laws in operations and processing plants, along with a preview of the Future of Safety Reporting on the shop floor.

NMEC is run by the Maintenance Engineering Society of NZ a nonprofit, volunteer organisation that encompasses virtually every type of manufacturing and processing industry in NZ. It’s members are professional practical Maintenance Engineers that literally keep the machinery of our country working.

Robinson quite rightly claims, “NMEC is without exception the very best practical and real learning experience for engineers in NZ.”