Agristo is the Technical Team of the Year 2023, A&S Energie wins the Audience Award

Agristo Team Crowned as Winner

The technical team at Agristo emerged as the winner. The team implemented an EAM system across multiple sites and successfully engaged all technical departments in working in a standardized manner. The jury praised their strong team spirit, stating: "Multi-site transformation projects are undoubtedly challenging, but Agristo combines excellent maintenance excellence principles with practical common sense. Their transformation approach considers the pace at which local teams can adapt." Jury president Erwin Bovyn, Director O&M at Luminus, added: "As part of the improvement project, all warehouses were optimized, including layout, structured coding, and standardization across sites—a massive effort that quickly delivered results."

A&S Energie Wins Audience Award

The audience favorite was A&S Energie. Their technical team manages two green power plants and demonstrated outstanding availability of their installations. "It is clear that this high availability is due to the tight-knit team. It is also remarkable that management and leadership are actively involved. A well-deserved winner of the audience award!"

Lof voor Artiso en Parkwind

The other finalists were Artiso and Parkwind. Artiso specializes in maintaining professional artisanal bakery machines and industrial bakery production lines. As a service company in a reactive industry, they successfully transitioned to a proactive service organization, helping customers prevent issues. Jury president Erwin Bovyn commented: "They clearly focus on technicians' well-being, adding significant value to the company. Their transformation is value-driven, with employees actively engaged through regular ‘kitchen talks.’ A great example for other service companies!" 

Parkwind focused on extending the lifespan of wind turbines through advanced data analysis. "It is impressive how they use big data in an innovative way," said the jury. The Parkwind teams are working on a long-term sustainable solution, conducting in-depth analyses of natural frequency issues and power variations in offshore wind turbines, positioning themselves as pioneers in the sector.

In summary, the symposium was an afternoon full of inspiration for the 100 attendees.

The jury concluded: "Agristo is our well-deserved winner. The company serves as a model for change management. This case demonstrates the significant impact maintenance can have on a company’s overall performance."

A&S Energie

A strong team for predictive maintenance and optimal technical operations of a green energy plant.

Presented by: Steven Vandenbulcke, Plant Manager

A&S Energie has experienced steady growth over the past years, building a second green energy plant (A&U Energie). Their strong technical team is responsible for preventive and corrective mechanical and electrical maintenance. Their main goals are to maintain production and high availability of both installations while continuously optimizing safety, environmental impact, and production processes. They also focus on implementing optimization projects and new technologies.

Agristo

Growing Together: Standardized Work Across the Agristo Group

Presented by: Steven Volckaert, Group Maintenance Manager

When the Wielsbeke site was launched in 2017, it became clear that technical departments were not exchanging information between sites. Agristo set out to implement a group-wide EAM system, ensuring that all locations could operate in a uniform, standardized manner. Today, the company can easily share roles and information across sites, and has standardized spare parts management across the group.
 

Artiso

Supporting the Primary Food Chain Through a Digital Service Management System and Skilled Professionals

Presented by: Jim Smets, CEO & Miguel Sanchez, Technical Service Optimization (Maintenance & Spare Parts)

This technical service team is responsible for maintaining professional artisanal bakery machines and industrial bakery production lines. Their multi-skilled technicians contribute to the continuity of the primary food chain. Previously, technicians worked reactively, mainly firefighting problems. By shifting their mindset towards service as a core focus and implementing a digital service management system, they have expanded the team and increased their focus on preventive maintenance.
 

Parkwind

Extending Wind Turbine Lifespan Through Advanced Data Analysis

Presented by: Jef Van Valckenborgh, O&M WTG Asset Performance Engineer

New generations of offshore wind turbines are becoming increasingly dynamic. Not only is power demand changing more rapidly, but other setpoints in the turbine controller are also fluctuating. Previously, these micro-events (< 5 minutes) were undetected, and their negative impact was not incorporated into operational strategies. By establishing a long-term vision, the team implemented a future-proof data lake and created hands-on dashboards, enabling data-driven decision-making.