I am happy to introduce this 2nd issue of Testiaā€™s quarterly newsletter, with a topic I have been dedicated to for the last 2 years.
Picture this: You are on the shopfloor, ready to perform a critical ultrasonic inspection. You reach for your inspection device and notice that the verification certificate is outdated.
Do not get me wrong, this is not a hypothetical scenario. Customers regularly ask us to carry out urgent periodic checks. In most cases, we are able to adjust our schedule to help them, but we cannot always accommodate unplanned periodic checks over scheduled ones. The result? A complete standstill on specific inspection lines, frantic rescheduling and a significant hit to their operational efficiency.
In the current industrial climate, this story is becoming all too common. As structural integrity and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) professionals, we often focus intensely on the method ā€“ the physics of the test, the qualification of the inspector and the integrity of the data. But operational reality is teaching us a hard lesson: the best inspector in the world is grounded if his equipment is not operational.
That is why we have dedicated this issue to a topic that is often viewed as "back-office" administration but is actually a frontline strategic necessity: Maintenance in Operational Conditions (MOC).
So, what do we mean by MOC? It is obviously more than just fixing a flaw detector when the screen goes black but the real scope is often underestimated. The primary goal of MOC is to ensure that inspection tools comply with strict specifications from a metrology standpoint, which is essential for full operational readiness but not the only factor.
Our vision for MOC is a holistic approach to the entire lifecycle of your inspection tools inventory. It covers the sourcing of the right tools, the management of calibration schedules to prevent bottlenecks as well as all the logistical aspects that it implies and, perhaps most critically in todayā€™s market, the management of obsolescence.
With global supply chains under constant pressure and sometimes increasingly long lead times for spare parts, the risk of having a "healthy" tool sidelined because of a single unavailable component or due to negligence in the maintenance schedule is real.
At Testia, we learned this through experience. Managing our own internal inspection tools inventory of over 2,000 inspection equipment across 18 sites taught us that reactive maintenance is a luxury we cannot afford. We also realized that if we have encountered these logistical challenges, it is likely that you have too.
In this issue, we want to shift the conversation from "repair" to "availability." We will explore how other industries handle these asset challenges, hear directly from an inspector on how equipment readiness impacts their daily stress levels and dive into the technical details of keeping inspection tools inventories operational.
We believe that your core business should be detecting anomalies and ensuring safety, not chasing down logistics or worrying about calibration certificates. As you read through these articles, I invite you to audit your own readiness. Are your inspection tools reliable, or could they be a potential bottleneck?
Enjoy the read!
Romain Raimbault,
Maintenance in Operational Condition (MOC) Manager at Testia France