“Valve World offers a good connection and interaction between the end users and the valve manufacturers,” Marc Simoëns, Inspector at Dow Benelux
Valve World is delighted that Marc Simoëns will again be playing a large role at the Valve World 2016 Conference later this year in Dusseldorf, Germany.
As a piping equipment inspector with over thirty years of experience at Dow Benelux, Marc has an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of valves used in chemical facilities.
In short, when he speaks it is with the polite authority of a real expert.
Talking about his work, he says: “the biggest challenge is to ensure we are very focussed on safety and reliability. I think this is normal in the chemical industry because we have to be in compliance with a lot of safety and governmental rules. We also have a big responsibility towards the community and of course to my colleagues working in the plant.”
When it comes to accepting or rejecting valves, Marc therefore never puts his signature to an incoming batch of valves unless he is 100% certain the customer will be receiving the exact valve he has ordered.
“This means the valve has to function correctly and is in compliance with the specifications and leakage rates.”
In short, Marc has a total focus on quality.
In that light he notes that despite the introduction of quality systems such as ISO 9000, many end users are still being confronted with a lot of quality issues, of which some are very critical.
His guiding motto, therefore, is “you get what you inspect, not what you expect”.
“By performing inspections you can give objective feedback to your organisation and to the manufacturer. Hopefully the manufacturer will pick up the messages and improve his production and control systems. I have seen manufacturers who did and it is worth it”.
Marc will be bringing his honest and impartial viewpoints to the Valve World Conference, where he will be taking a very active role.
To start with, he will be delivering one of the opening plenary lectures (10:00 on Tuesday, 29th November) entitled:
Certification of Valves – An end-user’s perspective.
Later in the day he will be taking part in the free-flowing debate at the speaker’s corner with other experts on the topic of field experiences with valves.
And finally on the Thursday morning he will be chairing a session on castings and materials.
If you wish to listen to Marc and to join in with the debate, please note that the Valve World Conference will run from Tuesday, 29 November to Thursday, 1 December. For more information, please
visit the Valve World Conference pages.
