Letter from the SFG Chair
Without a doubt, this is a difficult time focus on our business. My state (Massachusetts) is locked down, with everyone working from home and students continuing their courses on-line. Conferences and travel are cancelled for the foreseeable future, and no doubt like me, everyone you know is just a bit pre-occupied figuring out how to navigate this new reality while taking care of your loved ones. How can I make this invitation in a way that doesn't sound trite or insensitive? To start, for me part of coping is, while adjusting daily life and shuffling my priorities, to carry on as best I can. Maybe you're also planning for the time when we emerge from the other side of this turbulence (this too shall certainly pass!) - and praying that time comes sooner rather than later.
Just prior to the emergence of COVID-19, I was invited to join the board of the Society for Manufacturing Failure Prevention Technology (MFPT). At that time, I'd said that this was an exciting time to be in the business of keeping machines running, as the tools available to the maintenance and reliability professional continue to deliver new capabilities, expanding our toolkit. As new chair of the MFPT Sensors Working Group, I'd also asserted that sensor technologies are a key component in the expansion of the condition monitoring landscape. Today, new sensor technologies continue to push the performance boundaries, particularly with respect to size and power. Digital interfaces expand connectivity options and facilitate access to data by more users and subject matter experts, enabling the development of health indicators with data driven approaches, providing early warning of emerging problems. The charter of the Sensor Focus Group at is to educate and equip our members to better understand, select and apply the latest in sensor technology to the practice of machine health prognostics, enabling and expanding our goal of reducing unplanned machine downtime.
Despite the developments of the last few weeks, all of this is still relevant. Indeed, it may be more important than ever in the 'new normal' to continue our efforts to maximize our machine uptime, helping to optimize factory efficiency.
With that in mind, we're still planning to hold our MFPT Annual Conference August 4-7 in Savannah, Georgia, in association with the Vibration Institute Annual Training Conference.
Is it too optimistic to make this conference part of your post-virus plans for this year? We don’t think so. I invite you to submit abstracts and join us in historic @Savannah later this summer. I hope to see you there!
Ed Spence
MFPT's SFG Chair
