Engineering awards

The Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia (MESA) is calling for nominations for the 10th annual Australian Maintenance Engineering Excellence Awards (AMEEA) as industry and government increasingly acknowledge the benefits of asset maintenance.

According to MESA councillor and one of the architects of the awards, Peter Kohler, asset maintenance has arrived as an important discipline in many public and private sector organisations - from manufacturing to railways, from mining to local government.

But the profile of asset maintenance still needs to be lifted through industry. To do so, organisations should not undersell their skills and achievements in this area when they really should be finding out just how proficient they are.

Nominations for the 2006 Awards close soon and they look like being the biggest yet.

Followed sequentially, the four stages of asset maintenance are summarised as 'do, plan, check and act'. They begin with 'doing' asset maintenance very well and are recognised with a Bronze Award. A Silver Award recognises that an organisation also has the policies, procedures and leadership in place that reflect good asset management 'planning'.

In a further step towards continuous improvement, a Gold Award identifies organisations that 'check' their maintenance achievements against the 'planned' predetermined goals. A Platinum Award recognises that an organisation has 'acted' to change its plans to address any shortcoming between its asset management aspirations and its achievements.

MESA members are responsible for the maintenance of assets in industries like manufacturing, mining, transport, local government, energy and the defence forces. Assets include the equipment and machinery required to manufacture products, as well as vehicles, buildings, bridges and many other items used to make products or provide services.

For further information on AMEEA visit www.mesa.org.au