John Crane Asset Management Solutions has secured a three-year £3million contract to provide condition based maintenance services with a major operator in the UK North Sea.

The work covers rotating equipment across 12 assets and infrastructure sites and includes deployment of a specialist engineer to the operator’s UK offices to support reliability improvement.

The agreement, which follows a competitive re-tender, extends the contract which John Crane Asset Management Solutions has held for the past eight years.

In October 2015, John Crane announced it had acquired XPD8 Solutions, an Aberdeen independent asset management business. All employees from both firms who were based in Aberdeen have now transferred to one site, which includes offices and workshops, at Centurion Court on North Esplanade West.

The latest contract, which is for an initial three years plus two one-year options, will enable the strengthened John Crane Asset Management Solutions team to use their expertise to fully meet the customer needs and further increase asset performance.

Rod Mackenzie, UK Reliability Engineering Manager at John Crane Asset Management Solutions, said: “We will be supporting the client in transitioning from a mostly time-based maintenance programme to a condition based maintenance and reliability centred programme. This approach allows full ownership of each plant, with all data captured and used to ensure assets are working efficiently with any issues identified before they reach the stage of a breakdown.

“Key factors in securing the contract included our existing close business relationship and track record of success with the client, along with the experience in taking a holistic approach to maintenance.”

The contract involves John Crane Asset Management Solutions engineers mentoring their onshore and offshore compatriots with the client. This will include data collection training to minimise costs associated with sending specialists offshore.

Discussing the integration of XPD8 Solutions staff into John Crane Asset Management Solutions, John Morrison, Managing Director at John Crane Asset Management Solutions, said: “A lot of hard work has gone into integrating what were separate teams into one business stream. This joined up approach links the rapid response and nimble attitude XPD8 was recognised for with the experience and knowledge of John Crane’s staff and worldwide sales and service footprint.”

About John Crane

John Crane (www.johncrane.com) is a global leader in rotating equipment solutions, supplying engineered technologies and services to process industries. The company designs and manufactures a variety of products including mechanical seals and systems, couplings, bearings, filtration systems and predictive digital monitoring technologies. John Crane customer service is accessed through a global network of more than 200 sales and service facilities in over 50 countries. Fiscal year 2016 revenue was greater than 1 Billion USD (£830m). John Crane is part of Smiths Group (www.smiths.com), a global leader in applying advanced technologies for markets in threat and contraband detection, energy, medical devices, communications, and engineered components.

John Crane Asset Management Solutions (www.johncrane.com/services/asset-management) provide maintenance reliability and condition monitoring services to process industry customers. Services include Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) build and optimization, spare parts review and analysis and condition monitoring programme implementation. Following John Crane’s acquisition of XPD8 Solutions in October 2015, the team of experts in Aberdeen were combined into one business unit, under the John Crane Asset Management Solutions name.