To engineer and manufacture is human. Manufactured goods are subjected to severe international competitive forces. Consumers' perceptions towards total quality, reliable performance, health and safety, environmental issues, energy conservation and cost of ownership are changing day by day. Manufacturers have no alternative but to satisfy the consumer's increasing demands with maximum efficiency and profitability with minimum delay. Failure to meet such a challenge is clearly undesirable and will, no doubt, result in the closure of manufacturing activities, which is still regarded by many as the backbone of our national economy. Manufacturing for profitability should be the number one concern of all serious minded and responsible people. To help the industries to meet these challenges and to manage efficiently well into 1990s and beyond, the Technical Advisory Committee in their wisdom decided the appropriate theme, Profitable Condition Monitoring, for this year's International Conference, to coincide with the great European market to be opened in 1993. The benefits from condition monitoring are well documented. Condition monitoring is now an affordable technology which is waiting to be fully exploited by all sectors of industry, both big and small. Many companies have realised the following benefits from condition monitoring: optimisation of profits maximisation of production cost-effective maintenance minimisation of product liability maximisation of total quality. As the contents of this proceedings reveal, there have been a number of significant advances in condition monitoring of which companies ought to be taking full advantage.
