The maintenance management process is necessary for an effective and efficient production process in any organization. This process helps companies control their costs and time, optimizing the manufacturing process and utilities. It is effective because it also allows businesses to secure reliable and quality production, protect the environment, and ensure employees’ safety. Assuring these three contributes towards the success of any business. Whenever resources are poorly managed, it can lead to the instability of the production process. 

It can also partially or completely break down the entire process. Malfunctioning and broken machines can be very costly, which negatively affects your budget and operations. Before they can run again, there will be extra expenses resulting from different factors such as repairing costs and the increase in labor costs. These are only a snippet of what you will have to deal with over a long period. Luckily, having an efficient maintenance management system remedies this. This system’s importance cannot be overstated, and here are some of the reasons you need the CMMS tool.

1.Maintenance efforts are often misguided

When you conduct misguided maintenance activities, it can be counterproductive, which leads to unnecessary downtime. Often, maintenance professionals perform unproductive, unnecessary, or inefficient tasks. Carrying out maintenance on equipment and machinery that does not need it will ultimately lead to usage of parts, unnecessary downtime, and labor costs. 

It is not uncommon for technicians to sacrifice their wrench time to enter and retrieve data, write status reports, and process other types of paperwork. Furthermore, misaligning, incorrectly re-assembling, and carrying out other maintenance errors will end up reducing the reliability of your equipment. Utilizing CMMS best practices will be the best way to avoid this and only carry out maintenance when necessary.

2.Increasing complexity

As each day passes, equipment and buildings are becoming more and more automated, which was not the case a few years ago. Automation adds to this complexity. For instance, automated HVAC, auxiliary power, pneumatic systems, and other technologies are increasingly being used in commercial and industrial buildings. 

The costs that might be incurred in case these systems break down is a matter of concern to maintenance management professionals. More concerning is that these professionals are being asked and expected to do more using very little even though these systems continue growing in complexity.

3. The potential of incurring high costs for doing nothing

Sometimes maintenance costs can account for well over half of the total operating cost of a plant. When the maintenance team fails to follow up on scheduled preventative maintenance, premature breakdown of these machines is inevitable. If your plants and equipment are relatively older with substantial wear, their operation is risky, and repair and maintenance costs are much higher. 

Apart from these direct repair costs, there is also a risk of the workflow stops, missing business opportunities, and production of defective or damaged products. Your relationship with your clients may also be negatively impacted due to emergency inventory purchasing, employee overtime, and production downtime.

4.The old methods don’t work anymore

In the past, most managing maintenance systems have been manual and included things such as memo files, log boards, and index cards. Such methods are ineffective, cumbersome, and incomplete. Moreover, they are not used consistently, which further reduces the minimal benefits that they offer. Using a computerized maintenance management system will prove more profitable for your business.

5.Increasing competition

Competitive marketplace pressures are increasing, and business owners and maintenance managers strive to find new and innovative ways of containing and controlling the cost of running a business. Subsequently, asset management and equipment maintenance are now being seen as a management field that could potentially profit organizations.

In today’s world, having an efficient and organized management maintenance operations system is necessary for any organization’s success. CMMS offers you a range of valuable and practical tools needed by maintenance workers to carry out their tasks efficiently.

The post Why Is Maintenance Management Crucial for Your Organization? appeared first on Green Prophet.

The United Nations launched today a three-year Global Action for Fall Armyworm Control to scale up efforts to curb the growing spread of the invasive pest which is causing serious damage to food production and affecting millions of farmers across the world. 

Fall Armyworm (FAW), a crop pest native to the Americas, has rapidly spread through Africa, and to the Near East and Asia in the past four years.

The Fall Armyworm (FAW) is an insect pest, which causes considerable yield losses in cultivated maize, rice, sorghum, millet, and other crops as it is capable of attacking over 80 species of crops, if not under good management and control.

Based on 2018 estimates, every year up to 17.7 million tonnes of maize (corn) are lost to this pest in Africa alone. This amount of maize could feed tens of millions of people; and represents an economic loss of up to $4.6 billion.

“It  threatens food security of hundreds of millions of people and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers,” said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu. He made the remarks at the launch of the Global Action on the sidelines of the FAO’s Council, the Organization’s executive body.

In his address, Qu said that the FAO needs $500 million over the next three years to control Fall Armyworm. Solutions like biological control can stop the Fall Armyworm, if applied correctly. To this end, he proposed the establishment of a Global Action Fund – the first ever multi-partner trust fund aimed at addressing the Fall Armyworm threats, – and encouraged countries to contribute to this funding mechanism. 

Countries in the Middle East should consider investing in an insect radar. The idea was proposed more than 20 years and Israel installed its first insect radar in the Hula Valley in 2022.

The initiative also calls for increased partnerships to complement current FAO mechanisms such as Farmer Field Schools and South-South and Triangular Cooperation as well as to create new cooperation channels, Qu noted. In particular, he added, it will feed into FAO’s new data-driven Hand-in-Hand initiative to target interventions where most needed. 

“We must all work together, FAO, international organizations, governments, the private sectors, research centres, academia, and civil society. With the proposed Global Action, FAO commits to putting the knowledge, experience and lessons learned from stakeholders and partners at the service of farmers throughout the world to stem the global threat of this pest,” the FAO Director-General concluded.

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Google Glass is a wearable computer that is still being tested.

Worn like a pair of sunglasses, the computer of the future allows people to access information that is displayed “out of the corner of one’s eye” without completely obstructing the wearer’s vision.

It’s costly and not yet on the market, but Rusty Brick has put their faith so completely into this product, they have already begun to market their Google Glass app – JewGlass.

Designed to make observing Jewish traditions as convenient as possible, the app pulls up information about Shabbat times, nearby synagogues and kosher eating places. It provides translation services (find a menu in Hebrew, need it translated? JewGlass will even read the translation out loud.)

It provides directions, just like Google Maps, and warns wearers when the sun is about to set ahead of Shabbat.

Once in the synagogue to pray, or even at the office desk for those who can’t get away, the app will explain which is the appropriate prayer for that particular time of day (Shacharis), afternoon services (Mincha) or evening services (Maariv).

It’s a well-thought out design, but we have to wonder if it doesn’t detract from the religious experience. By relying too heavily on JewGlass or Google Glass, one is simply following the motions without putting in any real effort or thought.

Surely this is great for way-finding, but do we really want to geek out traditions to such an extent that we don’t have to put any thought into them? Surely the thought process that goes into observing traditions is part of the so-called “pay off” spiritually speaking?

Well, it’s a bit too early to say, since Google Glass is still a ways from being released onto the market, and when it gets there, it will be reserved for a select few – especially at first – since it’s going to cost about $1500!

:: Rusty Brick

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French Architect Guillaume Crédoz has founded the region’s first 3D printing shop in the Mar Mikhayel neighborhood of Beirut, a bustling hive of creative energy. Called Rapid Manufactory, the shop will allow anyone who works with 3D modeling to have their designs printed in just a matter of days. But we’re not convinced that’s something to celebrate.

3D vs. 2D

Comparing 3D printing to the first 2D printers that emerged 20 years ago, Crédoz enumerated the various advantages of being able to print at Rapid Manufactory.

“You can now, [sic] bring an object, 3D scan it, and have a copy made, at a different scale, with a different material,” he said.

“For many professionals, this process is an event that has the same impact as the apparition of the internet. Being able to produce locally and quickly complex parts will certainly redraw the map for many businesses.”

We have mixed minds about 3D printing. Like all things, it probably depends in whose hands the technology falls. For designers in the Middle East that currently have to ship their drawings abroad in order to have them realized, this could be a boon that will create more jobs.

More unnecessary junk

On the other hand, the current technology uses only metal, plastic and ceramics – none of which are readily recyclable; Crédoz has also developed a concrete and polyamide mix that he says is hard but brittle and ideal for architecture models, and concrete has one of the highest carbon footprints of all materials.

Supporters of 3D printing argue that eventually greener, recyclable materials will be developed, and that eventually we’ll be able to replace broken body parts or failed organs with 3D printed substitutes.

But we have to question the wisdom in this. Deviate too far from nature and suffer the consequences – like overpopulation, perhaps?

Also, giving just about anyone the ability to rapidly manufacture virtually anything will not only result in more unnecessary junk, but it could be used in sinister applications as well. Like making weapons that would then become virtually impossible to trace.

Like plastic when it was first developed, 3D printing may seem like a revolutionary idea now. But a few years down the road as even more trash overwhelms already overflowing landfills and oceans, we are probably going to wish we had proceeded more carefully.

::  Engineering

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With over 50 percent of the world’s oil and gas reserves the Middle East is not the likeliest place to be witnessing a green revolution, but with climate change running its course and oil prices rising through the roof, the region, and especially the Gulf countries, believe they can lead the charge to a greener and more sustainable future. Coming off a year that saw numerous gains for the renewable energy sector, including solar, wind and biogas, the region is ready to take on 2013 with a little bit more green in its focus. Masdar in Abu Dhabi is arguably the most prominent figure in this new revolution, which could easily be dubbed the Arab Green Spring.

According to Nawal al-Hosany, the director of sustainability at Masdar, their portfolio is expanding and the region is getting on board the movement away from traditional greenhouse gas emitters to push solar and wind energy to the forefront of development of energy.

Masdar has already erected the world’s first zero-emission city and hopes that this is simply the cusp of greater development of the alternative energy sector that already has experts pointing to the Gulf region as the world’s leader in renewable energy infrastructure development.

The question is, can these countries and companies follow through on their projects, which are slated to be operational by the end of 2013. If so, the region could easily see a large percentage of energy coming from non-traditional sources, and may well be a litmus test for the future of the global push towards greener technologies. It won’t mean a dramatic change from relying on fossil fuels in the immediate future, but it will put the region on track to show that green energy is not only possible, but profitable.

In an interview with Green Prophet earlier this month, Al-Hosany said that the Gulf region is prime for change, in both energy infrastructure from a governmental top-down aspect as well as societal. People are ready for solar and wind energy.

“The MENA region, and especially the Gulf States, has an opportunity to leverage its expertise in energy and move into new sectors, including wind and solar power,” she said.

“The future energy mix will include renewables, and we should embrace this transition. In addition, the region also has an abundant solar resource – an energy we should tap into to address energy security and our rising demands. Although the region’s renewable resources have been underexploited, technology advances and increased deployment are now making certain forms of clean energy economically viable across the region,” she added.

On top of the simple reality that the region is quickly catching the eyes of international companies to invest in their renewables sector, Al-Hosany believes that women can help lead the charge. She’s already showing it to be possible in her own capacity.

“When it comes to the region, women have an active voice in the climate change discussion. However, we can all do more, regionally and globally. The fact is climate change affects women differently, especially underprivileged, uneducated and un-empowered women. Women form the majority of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty in the world,” she said.

Bringing renewable energy to the forefront of a multiplicity of issues, both economic and cultural, could help bring change that reaches beyond our consumption to assist in dramatic societal changes that will only be a boost to the ongoing efforts of countries and corporations to be greener.

Image of mother and daughter from Shutterstock

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Currently in its third year, supported by the Sharjah Education Zone (SEZ) and various corporate partners, the BSOE will also offer an online school portal with new applications and an interactive forum for students and teachers.

The enhanced website will include a section where students can engage with their environmental lessons through social media, and use various interactive elements to express their perspectives and knowledge.

New media provides innumerable possibilities for innovation and environmental education from the Middle East. And as Europe and the U.S. plummet into economic chaos, partnerships with local entrepreneurs are quickly becoming the conduit of choice for environmental education in the MidEast.

::AMEinfo.com

Images of students and woman via Shutterstock

Read more about environmental education and entrepreneurship from the MidEast:
UAE Sustainability Conference Inspires Change
Could Phones Revolutionize Palestinian Agriculture?
Israeli Business Boosts Agriculture in Kenya

The post Green Education in the United Arab Emirates, Business is Booming appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem estimates that over half the households in Gaza are food insecure, and almost 80 percent of households in Gaza are reliant on relief support. The institute estimates there are up to 550,176 food insecure persons in the West Bank, 22 percent of the population, and 829,954 in the Gaza Strip, around 52 percent. In the West Bank, those living along the border and separation barrier experience higher levels of food insecurity. These dire circumstances need innovative, domestic solutions.

The conflict with Israel isolates Palestinians in countless ways, impeding movement, trade, and access to water. It further complicates the rising risk of food insecurity. But mobile technologies provide Palestinians greater access to employment and information. Today an estimated 90.6 percent of Palestinians use mobile phones. Businessman Murad Tahboub told The Guardian that the IT industry is resilient to political turmoil.

“Checkpoints and borders don’t matter,” he said. “As long as you have access to electricity and a phone line, the basics of your business are in place.”

Foreign investors are increasingly interested in developing Palestinian technology, natural resources and solar power. The IT industry in particular has seen a 64 percent increase in foreign business since 2009. And it is still growing. Such mobile technology and networks are intrinsically tied to food security in the Middle East.

A recent report by the World Bank found that mobile and digital technologies have immensely positive impacts on a developing community’s agricultural industry. Mobile phone technology was linked to increased entrepreneurship and proactive strategizing among Moroccan farmers. Another study cited in the World Bank report found that introducing mobile phones could reduce grain price dispersion by 6.4 percent and reduce price variation by 12 percent in just one year.

Palestinian companies and institutions are investing heavily in education, hoping to arm their text-happy youth with the knowledge needed to confront challenges like environmental degradation and food security. The Palestinian Authority and Ramallah City Hall are currently working together on an environmental education initiative that hopes to reach 4,000 students in 14 schools across the city.

“Our difficult circumstances over the past 100 years mean that education is now our only asset,” said Tahboub. “It was the one thing we could carry with us.”

::Wall Street Journal

Image of cell phone and window via Shutterstock

Read more about Palestine:

Gaza Man Makes Electric Car in a Day

Israel and Palestine Join Hands to Build Eco-Park

Get a Green Loan from the Green Palestine Investment Company

The post Could Phones Revolutionize Palestinian Agriculture? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Currently unavailable in the Middle East unfortunately, littleBits has literally taken the rest of the world by storm. Within two weeks of marketing her products for the first time, Bdeir sold 2,000 of her LEGO-like bits, and large companies are knocking down her doors.

Good for children and grownups

Albeit designed for children who receive an inadequate introduction to the inner workings of every day electronics while at school, these toys are equally instructive for adults like me.

Comprised of tiny circuit-boards with simple functions designed to snap together with magnets, littleBits require zero soldering, wiring, or programming. Each bit has its own function, such as lights, sounds, sensors, buttons or motors, and can be combined with others to create larger circuits.

They are almost exactly like LEGO bricks that snap together, only they are slightly more sophisticated and are not affiliated with the company.

Among the projects that have been published online or on the company’s Facebook page, we have seen piggy banks that light up and a mini coffee-brewing machine. Theoretically, the sky is the limit, since littleBits can be scaled up indefinitely.

Making electronics fun

“With a growing number of available modules, littleBits aims to move electronics from late stages of the design process to its earliest ones, and from the hands of experts, to those of artists, makers, students and designers,” according to the company’s online literature.

littleBits hosts various workshops and parties to encourage community engagement, which means the company makes building electronic circuits fun (gasp!), and sells the pieces in different sized kits.

And those who are deeply passionate about their littleBits can join an online community to share their latest electronic design project. But be warned: this wonderful educational toy doesn’t come cheap.

The dark side

A 10 piece starter kit sells for nearly $90, reflecting the true cost of materials. Also, as much as we love the concept of making electronics attainable to everyone, we worry that as littleBits grow in popularity, and indeed that is the goal, the planet has to cope with yet another hundreds of thousands of bits of plastic that will eventually enter the waste stream.

There, we said it. That’s our job. Nevertheless, science is cool, and the fact that littleBits was founded by someone from the Middle East makes it even cooler.

:: Wamda

All images via littleBits

The post littleBits LEGO-like Electronic Toys Designed by Lebanese Woman appeared first on Green Prophet.

Laid out along a deep, lush valley in Turkey’s Pontic Mountains, Kuşköy isn’t an easy village to traverse quickly. So some time ago — 400 years, according to some local estimates — its residents invented a whistled language based on Turkish. Although threatened by the arrival of cell phones and the emigration of village youth, bird language is still alive and well in Kuşköy.

Lending wings to human words

Bird language consists of approximately 20 whistled notes, each based on a syllable in Turkish. The sound can extend as far as about 3 miles, according to villagers interviewed.

Even when two people are too far apart for whistles to travel between them, other villagers in between will pass along the message to the intended recipient.

She’s the best whistler in her village.

The language is mainly used for basic everyday purposes: inviting neighbors over for tea, calling for help in the field to pick apples, announcing arrivals to the village, funerals, births, or weddings.

Some of the human bird language communication mimics actual birdsong, according to İbrahim Kodalak, a Kuşköy villager. A particularly poetic example is the morning song of the blackbird, which Kodalak says is the same as a famous Koran verse when whistled in bird language.

An endangered language? Not if they can help it.

Since electricity arrived in Kuşköy in 1986, followed by cell phones, the need for bird language has been dwindling and it has begun to fall out of common use. The village’s population is also shrinking as young people move to bigger cities for education and higher-paying employment, as they are doing all over Turkey. This story was written in 2012, but already by 2020, producers of the documentary clip below says that only about 50 people use the bird language today.

But for the past 15 years, the villagers have held an annual festival to promote the language and village culture. The festival features music, dancing, and a contest between the village’s best whistlers. This year’s festival occurred on July 8 and was attended by more than 2,000 people.

The governor of Kuşköy’s district said that he wants “to use tourism to turn this language into an economic source for the region.”

He’d like major Turkish corporations, such as telecommunications firm Türk Telekom, to sponsor the festival and improve the village infrastructure so that more visitors can come see the speakers of bird language. It’s definitely something I’d like to see.

Would turning bird language into a tourism draw also strip it of meaning and authenticity? Or is it worth commercializing a language to keep it from entirely falling out of use? The future of Kuşköy may reveal the answer.

:: Eurasianet

Read more about nature and wildlife news in Turkey:
Banded Israeli Bird Suspected of Espionage In Turkey
In Remotest Anatolia, Lone NGO Speaks Up On Nature’s Behalf
Helping Turkish Wildlife Cross The Road

Lowest image via bulancak.net

The post Black Sea Village Turks Use Bird Language Instead of Cell Phones appeared first on Green Prophet.

It’s impossible and rude to speak for the dead, but we find it hard to believe that Steve Jobs would have wanted anything he designed covered in gold. But this is the Gulf and we’ve seen stranger things, including a white gold Mercedes and water bottles covered in swarovski crystals. Gold and Co. London will display their 24 carat gold-plated iPad3 at Damas Jewelry at the Dubai Mall, after which it will be auctioned for charity.

A hot item

Damas Jewelry will be the exclusive dealer of these elitist iPad 3s worth a cool $5,500. We don’t have money like that to burn, but apparently a substantial number of Emiratis have already placed their orders.

Last year’s gold iPad 2s sold out within 6 months, according to The National. We wonder if they are as disposable to oil-rich Emiratis as regular electronics are to the average American, if these are the same customers fighting to get their hands on the next generation?

In case it isn’t obvious, gold is one of the most scarce natural resources on earth.

The website Gold and Precious Metals estimates that only between 120,000 and 140,000 tonnes of gold – equivalent to less than the length of a tennis court has ever been produced. That’s it. And rich folk dare to cover tablets that will be obsolete within the year in this precious resource?

A marketing campaign?

Gold’s rarity is precisely what makes it so valuable, but until recently it was less expensive than platinum. According to a recent Forbes report, gold prices have surpassed those of platinum – something they call “really scary.”

The first golden iPad3 will be auctioned off and the proceeds donated to charity. Although somewhat laudable, this smacks like a tasteless marketing campaign for an obscenely-priced product launched at the expense of less privileged individuals.

The charities that will benefit from the proceeds have not yet been announced, nor has the auction date, The National reports.

Amjad Ali, Gold and Co’s CEO, is hopeful that they will sell at least 250 of their latest product. Other gold-encrusted electronics in their repertoire include the Blackberry 9000 and iPhone 4s (the latter sold for $4,349.)

Sigh. Our elders are probably rolling in their graves. Except the Pharaohs, who are placing their orders from the underworld.

:: The National

More on gold and other absurd news in the Gulf:

Abu Dhabi Solid Gold “Biofuel” Mercedes

Blingh20’s Most Expensive Water Costs $2,600 for 750ml

Coin-Covered Car “Recycles” Nearly $6,000 in Dubai

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