Risk-based validation – knowing what and how much to validate

In times of increased competitiveness and ever more stringent regulatory directives and norms, pharmaceutical companies have to continually optimize their operations; reduce operating costs and increase efficiency. An effective risk-based validation approach saves time and effort spent on validation and can assist organizations to achieve these optimization goals.

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Modern tools ease environmental retrofits and reduce risks

In the autumn of 2014 several more states have ratified the International Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention. As a result the 35% world fleet tonnage requirement for the convention to enter into force is closer than ever. Once ratified, shipowners that have delayed making BWM preparations and a decision may face a shortage of service and equipment suppliers. Making a timely decision will be key in ensuring compliance. Modern tools such as laser scanning and computational fluid dynamics can be employed to expedite and ease BWM retrofits while also reducing associated risks.

In addition to the impending ratification of the BWM Convention the requirements of the EU sulphur directive also enter into force on 1.1.2015. The sulphur directive sets, among others, requirements for the pH value of wash water from open loop scrubbers.

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Remote monitoring in oil fields

Remote monitoring has been used in oil fields for decades already, but has nevertheless remained a hot talking point. Ideally monitoring should cover the entire oil field from the well all the way to the treatment facility. It should allow the operator to optimize production and minimize costs. The increasing remoteness of oil fields and ever stringent environmental regulations place increasing demands on monitoring systems.

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Ship operability analysis – ensuring passenger safety and comfort

Passenger and crew safety are primary concerns in modern shipbuilding. In addition to continued strong cruise industry growth, shipowners pay special attention to passenger and crew comfort, enjoyment on-board and smooth operation. This places limits on ship behaviour at sea and on permissible vibration and acceleration levels in the most critical parts of the ship. Sophisticated operability studies for specific routes and navigational parameters can provide a good picture of the expected level of passenger/crew comfort in specific operational conditions.

Ship operability analysis should be performed to estimate seakeeping performance as an essential criterion for overall passenger comfort and/or crew operability in specific weather conditions.

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Jet pump technology for artificial lift in oil and gas production

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Towards more environmentally friendly products

According to a recent responsibility survey conducted by communications agency Miltton in Finland, three out of four Finns are willing to pay higher prices for responsibly produced products or services.    

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Sustainability by Design

An increasing number of businesses are being challenged by their stakeholders regarding sustainability. In a world where businesses are facing intense challenges driven by growing complexities in their operations and compliances, demand is growing for total quality assurance solutions; solutions that extend beyond the quality and safety of products, to those that deliver sustainable solutions in the development of products and services for the present and future.    

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Creativity and Method – the cornerstones of success

When offering product and service solutions, many details need to be taken into consideration from customer needs and ideas to production and launch on the market. The core competence of product design and development needs to be supplemented by expertise in the strategic development of services and business operations. Motivated multi-industrial professional teams produce the best results. The will to create solutions that are sustainable and purposeful is of particular importance, while the time spent on and the risks associated with development must be minimised to create new space for new innovation. The innovative capacity of new products is what puts you ahead of your competitors.

Management and leadership of creativity and innovative capacity is the responsibility of business management, but every employee can play a part. Innovation can be defined as the organisation’s ability to build new features that improve competitiveness (products, production processes, business ideas, services, etc.). This requires specific working methods.

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Sustainability-driven engineering – A paradigm shift

Challenges regarding the sustainability of technologies and consumption are reported on a daily basis in the press. These challenges act as drivers for change and include, among others, climate change, plastic pollution in the oceans and collapsing bird populations. They have forced us to completely rethink the roadmap to sustainable life on earth. We are witnessing a paradigm shift to sustainability in engineering and all other aspects of life.    

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