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To achieve reliability and operational efficiency, organisations must assess the tools used to manage maintenance. A key decision is whether to rely on a homegrown system or invest in a purpose-built Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS).

Homegrown solutions can seem attractive, familiar, low cost, and easy to control. However, these benefits often fade as the organisation grows. A professional CMMS is designed for complex, large-scale asset environments and supports proactive, data-driven maintenance.

Here are five reasons to move beyond in-house systems.

1. Scalability and Adaptability

Homegrown systems often begin as spreadsheets or small databases. They may work initially but rarely scale. As assets or sites increase, these systems become unstable, difficult to modify, and reliant on a few individuals.

Adding locations, integrating equipment, or producing centralised reports soon becomes impractical. A short-term fix becomes a long-term obstacle.

Modern CMMS platforms such as PEMAC ASSETS support growth through open APIs, cloud infrastructure, mobile apps, and integration with IoT sensors and ERPs. They evolve with your organisation.

2. Data Integrity and Insights

Good maintenance depends on clean, consistent data. In-house systems often suffer from manual errors, inconsistent naming, and scattered information. This makes accurate reporting, such as MTBF or PM compliance, extremely difficult.

A CMMS enforces standardisation and consolidates data into one reliable source. Over time, organisations gain clear insights into performance, labour productivity, inventory accuracy, and failure trends, enabling proactive decisions.

3. Integrated Functionality

Homegrown tools usually cover only basic tasks. A CMMS manages the full asset lifecycle, including:

• Work order histories
• Parts and supplier data
• Technical documentation
• Cost trackingCondition-based monitoring

• Mobile access allows technicians to update jobs in real time, improving accuracy and productivity. Professional systems also integrate with inventory, procurement, and planning tools, a capability most in-house solutions lack.

  4. True Cost of Ownership

  Although in-house systems may appear cheaper, hidden costs accumulate, including development time, fixes, and limited support.

  Every hour spent maintaining an internal system is time not spent improving operations. CMMS vendors continually refine their platforms. With PEMAC ASSETS, organisations gain predictable costs that include hosting, updates, backups, and support.

  5. Security, Compliance, and Risk Reduction

  Cybersecurity threats and regulations require secure, auditable records. Homegrown tools often lack encryption, access controls, backups, and audit trails.

  Professional CMMS platforms provide secure storage, disaster recovery, controlled access, and full activity logs, supporting compliance with standards such as ISO 55000 and 21 CFR Part 11.

  Conclusion

  Choosing a professional CMMS is a strategic step towards maintenance maturity. Homegrown systems restrict scalability, visibility, and improvement. A purpose-built solution such as PEMAC ASSETS enables organisations to scale confidently, improve data quality, strengthen preventive strategies, enhance productivity, and meet compliance requirements.

  www.pemac.com

A Borger Rotary Lobe Pump has completed more than 20 years of service for a food manufacturer that produces syrups, concentrate, vitamin combinations and emulsions for a range of alcohol-free beverages.

Recording over two decades of reliability with very low wear, and still going strong, the Borger pump is managed by a control unit (combined with a frequency converter) that regulates speed, so that the liquid sugar is transferred out of the storage tank into the mixing tank in doses.

In a system that also sees varying levels of liquid sugar added to the process to suit each type of drink, the Borger Rotary Lobe Pump, with its Maintenance-In-Place design, has kept service time and costs to a minimum.

Borger already has considerable experience in similar installations, including at a sugar refinery, where its pumps handle white mass (sugar syrup with crystals). These proven units manage a highly viscous solution (around 50% solids) during the final processing stage, where syrup is spun to produce fine white sugar crystals.

I’m thrilled to announce that Ultimo picked up the prestigious Innovation Impact Award at the International Maintenance Conference (IMC) gala ceremony last week. This recognition reflects our relentless commitment to transforming enterprise asset management (EAM) through innovation.

IMC provides a fresh, positive community-based curated experience to gain knowledge and perspective for advancing reliability and asset management through people, their managers, the processes, the data and the technology. The awards are presented during the event, where the most prestigious firms and most awarded asset management professionals in the world are in attendance.

AI-Augmented EAM: Pioneering the Future of Asset Management

Ultimo’s artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented EAM platform represents a bold leap forward in asset management technology, redefining how organizations manage maintenance, operations, and asset lifecycles. With our award-winning Agentic AI strategy, Ultimo delivers intelligent, actionable insights that have already transformed operations for over 2,500 industrial organizations worldwide.

Digital Coworkers and Agentic AI

In July 2025, Ultimo introduced its first agentic AI use case focused on environmental, health, and safety (EHS) incident reporting. This “digital coworker” operates as an expert embedded within organizational workflows, continuously monitoring work requests to autonomously capture incidents, near-misses, and unsafe conditions that might otherwise go undocumented.

By automatically generating detailed reports - including event descriptions, damage assessments, and injury details - the system provides unprecedented visibility into workplace safety risks for EHS officers, enabling proactive risk mitigation and regulatory compliance. This technology exemplifies Ultimo’s broader agentic strategy, where AI augments human teams, predicts maintenance needs, prevents failures, and balances uptime with costs.

Digital labor isn’t just an incremental improvement - it’s a fundamental transformation.

Ultimo’s AI-augmented EAM is also tackling maintenance downtime. It’s estimated that 80 percent of mean time to repair (MTTR) is spent diagnosing problems, often slowed by incomplete failure reports and communication gaps. Ultimo dramatically reduces this wasted time, directly impacting the bottom line. In manufacturing alone, unplanned downtime can exceed $100,000 per hour. By improving diagnostic speed, organizations not only reduce costs but also enhance productivity, employee satisfaction, and overall asset reliability.

Ultimo’s intuitive AI capabilities empower frontline employees to create accurate, comprehensive failure reports with minimal effort. By capturing all sensory observations - what they see, hear, smell, and feel - Ultimo ensures maintenance teams receive the complete picture needed for rapid troubleshooting. This approach accelerates issue resolution, increases asset availability, and frees skilled staff to spend more time on hands-on work, rather than administrative tasks.

The platform also enhances user experience with AI-augmented features such as photo-based meter readings, auto-generated image and document captions, and auto-translated multilingual data. The result is reduced admin time, improved collaboration, and consistently higher data quality across the organization.

Industry-First EAM Maturity Model and Circle of Collaboration

Ultimo has also pioneered the industry’s first EAM Maturity Model, offering a clear roadmap from reactive maintenance to fully autonomous asset ecosystems. The model identifies five stages of EAM evolution, helping organizations benchmark performance, plan their transformation, and maximize operational value.

Complementing this, our Circle of Collaboration framework ensures seamless communication across departments, breaking down silos and aligning teams around a single source of truth. By connecting maintenance, operations, safety, and reliability personnel, organizations achieve faster deployment times, enhanced coordination, and sustained operational improvements.

Proven Global Impact

Supporting over 134,000 active monthly users, Ultimo’s platform demonstrates reliability, scalability, and measurable value. Our record of zero major support escalations highlights the platform’s dependability, while our rapid deployment and time-to-value set a new standard in enterprise software.

Strategic partnerships and industry recognition further validate our innovation leadership. Collaborations with industry leaders such as ABS Consulting and TwinThread ensure our AI solutions address real-world challenges, while awards like the Innovation Impact Award underscore our commitment to shaping the future of asset management.

Delivering Measurable Benefits

Ultimo’s AI-augmented EAM platform delivers tangible advantages, including:

• Preventing unexpected disruptions and significantly extending asset lifecycles
• Reducing data silos and improving collaboration for efficient work
• Enhancing asset utilization while reducing operational costs and improving uptime

Looking Ahead

Ultimo continues to lead the industry by expanding agentic AI capabilities, driving autonomous operations, and empowering organizations to predict, prevent, and optimize maintenance at unprecedented levels. Our vision extends to self-diagnosing and self-optimizing assets, creating the foundation for the next generation of enterprise asset management.

Being awarded the Innovation Impact Award is more than a personal achievement - it’s a recognition of Ultimo’s ongoing mission: to transform asset management, drive operational excellence, and redefine what’s possible for organizations around the globe.

Read more about our agentic AI approach here.

Like the VSRT, Fulton’s VSRT-E hybrid boiler is a revolutionary innovation in steam boilers, combining cutting-edge design with sustainability to redefine efficiency in the sector.

The ultra-low NOx, high-efficiency VSRT-E seamlessly integrates a traditional gas-fired system (inc. Hydrogen blend) with electric steam raising capability, allowing operators to optimise energy use, reduce emissions, and offers an alternative to traditional dual fuel solutions.

Engineered for easy installation and operation, the VSRT-E features an intuitive control system and compact footprint. With thermal efficiencies of 82.5% (Gas) and 99% (Electric) and a steam dryness of 99.75%, it significantly lowers fuel consumption and operating costs.

Its hybrid capability enables users to switch between gas and electricity, balancing energy sources to minimise carbon impact and take advantage of off-peak tariffs, further enhancing cost-effectiveness. By reducing CO₂ emissions and promoting cleaner energy use, the VSRT-E actively supports national decarbonisation goals.

Designed with safety in mind, the VSRT-E incorporates advanced monitoring and diagnostic features, reducing operating risks whilst ensuring reliable performance. Its unique design reduces maintenance requirements, minimising breakdowns, and downtime.

As the industry navigates towards a sustainable future, the VSRT-E sets a new benchmark in innovation, offering efficiency, reliability, and environmental responsibility in a single, future-proof solution.

And talking of the future, Fulton plans to expand the VSRT-E range with 100HP (1,000kW) and 125HP (1,200kW) models, responding to industrial users requiring higher steam outputs. These additions will complement the 60HP (600kW) model currently available in the UK, creating a comprehensive portfolio for commercial and light industrial applications.

The company is also exploring advanced control integrations, including AI-driven load prediction algorithms and blockchain-enabled energy trading compatibility, developments aiming to position the VSRT-E as a grid-interactive asset capable of autonomously optimising fuel selection based on real-time carbon intensity data and energy market signals.

www.fulton.co.uk

Hart Door System’s wind-resistant, high-speed, industrial rolling door, Speedor Storm, is ready for business be it a factory, warehouse, storage facility or any kind of plant operation writes Chris Dobson.

The ability to withstand substantial wind pressure with wind resistance available up to ‘wind class 5’, as defined by DIN EN 12424, in the closed position this high-speed door is ready for openings to a maximum 8 metres width or height subject to 48 square metres.

Major entrances open/close automatically so avoiding the escape of expensively heated air into the environment.

Speedor Storm helps industry specifically by;

·         Aiding productivity – because entering and leaving a building can be done more rapidly.

·         Helping to create a better working environment through its high-speed operation which means there are no unnecessary open periods.

·         By saving on the substantial cost of heating.

Designed and made in the UK at Hart’s Newcastle upon Tyne headquarters from where its teams of engineers are available throughout the UK for installation of Speedor Storms and subsequent servicing and maintenance thereafter.

Speedor Storm’s strength and wind resistance comes from its multi-layer PVC and textile, both long-lasting and tear-resistant and its inbuilt horizontal curtain braces and no external cumbersome and noisy external wind bars.

There is a colour choice as well as ‘a with or without vision panel ’ which combine to deliver a good appearance, operational effectiveness and a performance product.

Safety features are of course paramount, and here they include a state of the art safety light curtain, anti-fall protection and sensors to activate the door, all compliant to the Health and safety standards. There is a range of operating methods that include hands free sensors, floor induction loops, radar, photo beam, radio operation, movement and presence sensors, handheld or vehicle-mounted radio transmitters,  or simple push button and or pull cords.

The automatic operation can be set to include or exclude pedestrians as desired. If warning lights or klaxons are required, these can be incorporated in a complete door system and control panel which are designed for any conceivable need including integration into a Building Management System if necessary. This is delivered via its unique guide system in combination with other carefully designed features.

www.hartdoors.com

Pourable shimming and chocking systems are used worldwide in marine, offshore, and many other industrial environments. They provide reliable alignment, reduced vibration, and long-term corrosion protection.

Shimming system, Belzona 7111, flows easily into the application area. Photo credit: Rezitech.com.au

Avoid Asset Failures with Effective Precision Alignment

Within heavy-duty industries, precision alignment is essential for ensuring safe and efficient operation. Shimming provides fine adjustments to correct uneven interfaces and achieve

precise alignment; while chocking fills larger gaps and creates a continuous, load-bearing contact surface capable of supporting engines, propulsion systems, compressors, generators, gearboxes, and other critical assets. When executed correctly, these processes help prevent costly failures caused by mechanical stress, misalignment, and vibration.

Drawbacks of Conventional Solutions

Conventional solutions such as steel plates, metal wedges, or cementitious grouts have their limitations. Metallic bearing shims and load bearing shims are vulnerable to corrosion and distortion, while cement-based products can shrink, crack or degrade under repeated thermal or dynamic loads. Over time, these weaknesses can lead to compromised structural integrity, vibration issues, or accelerated wear.

Benefits of Polymeric Technology

Polymeric alternatives have proven to be highly effective in overcoming these challenges. Designed for resilience in demanding industrial environments, they offer excellent dimensional stability, high compressive strength, and long-term protection against corrosion. 

Shimming System for Demanding Conditions

The shimming material, Belzona 7111, is widely used across the marine and industrial sectors. This 100% solids, two-component system is formulated for high-load, precision chocking applications. Its self-levelling, pourable properties allow it to flow easily into complex geometries, ensuring uniform contact between equipment and its foundation.

Once cured, Belzona 7111 forms a solid, monolithic block that resists deformation under static and dynamic loads alike. Because it is non-metallic and corrosion-resistant, it avoids the long-term deterioration seen with metal-based shims and wedges. This stability helps maintain proper alignment, reduce vibration and protect mounting hardware throughout the life of the equipment.

Fully cured shimming system provides long-term corrosion protection. Photo credit: Rezitech.com.au

Belzona 7111 is approved by:
- American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)
- Bureau Veritas (BV)
- Det Norske Veritas (DNV)
- Lloyd’s Register (LR)

Deep-Pour Capabilities for Complex Shimming Scenarios

For installations that require large-volume pours or deep fills, Belzona 7211 can be used to create strong, void-free chocks in demanding applications. This system is frequently used when traditional load bearing shims or high impact load bearing shims cannot provide the continuous support required for heavy-duty equipment.

With its self-levelling characteristics and excellent performance in uneven or irregular foundations, Belzona 7211 ensures consistent load distribution - reducing the risk of mechanical fatigue, vibration-related failures, and alignment drift.

Equipment support created with Belzona 7211

Long-Term Corrosion Protection and Dimensional Stability

A key advantage of polymeric shimming and chocking solutions lies in their ability to prevent corrosion at the equipment interface. Metal-based bearing shims and cementitious grouts can trap moisture, leading to crevice corrosion or cracking. Polymeric materials eliminate these vulnerabilities. They are non-porous and remain dimensionally stable in aggressive environments, including marine atmospheres, offshore platforms, and high-moisture industrial settings.

By maintaining stable geometry and resisting corrosion, polymeric systems, such as Belzona 7111 and Belzona 7211, help to extend equipment life, reduce maintenance frequency, and prevent costly unplanned downtime.

For more information, please visit: www.Belzona.com

Author
Chloe Hirst Senior Copywriter at Belzona Limited

 BETE announces the launch of the new FlexiSan Modular Spray System, an innovative solution designed to simplify cleaning and sanitizing processes, reduce downtime, and enhance operational efficiency in the food and beverage industry and beyond. 

Including a durable, mobile cart with integrated chemical handling and at least one Clean-in-Place (CIP) spray header, the system optimizes Open Plant Cleaning (OPC) and produces effective, consistent results for various applications, from everyday washdowns to tackling tough soils. Processing facilities can apply cleaning and sanitizing agents to a wide range of equipment, including conveyors, hoppers, bins, mixers, and other critical process areas.  

For more info, visit https://exair.co/190-flexisan

In the figure, a power supply system with a conductor bar can be seen, where a motor-driven cable reel for hazardous areas is installed for medium-voltage tunnel applications.

The system supplies a tunnel boring machine (TBM) with an approximate power of 3 MW, using explosion-proof junction boxes with Ex db protection.The EX protection type of the system is Ex h – ATEX category I M2, and the same design can also be developed according to the IECEx scheme.

The special motor-driven cable reel consists of a painted steel drum, on which a robust, flexible medium-voltage cable (12/20 kV) is wound.

The drive system is powered by a motor-gearbox assembly and the cable winding and unwinding operations are controlled by a dedicated electrical control panel.

The core component of the motor cable reel is the slip ring, which is housed inside an Ex db flameproof enclosure.

This high-performance slip ring is designed for heavy-duty environments and is significantly more compact than competing products.Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the active parts are not air-insulated, but instead isolated through a multi-layer insulation system, enabling the slip ring to reliably withstand high voltages up to 24 kV and maximum currents of approximately 680 A.

This high-voltage slip ring with insulated active parts is a patented technology of SPM Special Machine, allowing the company to meet new challenges in markets requiring extreme engineering solutions..

SPM Special Machine Srl – Collettori rotanti elettrici e avvolgicavo