Ahmed Mostafa is a global business development consultant and a maverick on transformer condition monitoring. He holds a degree in mechatronics, robotics and automation engineering. He started his career as a young R&D engineer providing technical support and managing key projects on oil, gas, and energy in the Gulf region. In 2019, he founded Servkon Industrial Services as a high value organization to provide at design and technical support on industrial products. Today, he is a business leader with certified skills on IIoT, industry 4.0, and digital transformation solutions.
Let’s start the interview!
Q. Tell us about yourself
Ahmed: Hi, my name is Ahmed Mostafa and I’m from Egypt. I have a bachelor’s degree in mechatronics, robotics and automation engineering, and a masters’ in business administration. My professional interests are industry 4.0. IIoT, and condition monitoring solutions of industrial products. I am currently involved in power transformer life assessment, deploying predictive maintenance programs, and helping the industrial sector prevent electrical and mechanical failures and maximize the return on assets.
Q. What inspired you to join this sector?
Ahmed: One of the things that inspired me the most, and I wanted to make sure that we promote, is transformer reliability. I realized that transformer industry is a perfect combination of mechanical, electrical, electronics, and instrumentation engineering. A transformer is the main part of any industry, factory, and/or development infrastructure. In my experience, every transformer failure takes a lot of time for addressal most of which is due to a disruptive supply chain. At this point, I realized that proper transformer condition monitoring and predictive analysis can completely change the workflow. In short, this is my inspiration to join this sector.
Q. What trends do you think will rule in the next 5 years in this sector?
Ahmed: Digital condition monitoring for smart transformers using IoT and machine learning particularly for old business and industries that are looking for sustainable alternatives towards smart grid solutions. I also think that digital twins will play a key role in the next 5 years in this sector.
Q. Can you elaborate why?
Ahmed: We are now in the era of industry 4.0. After the pandemic of Covid19, we have a shortage of manpower and supply chain problems. So digital transformation will lead us in to process automation, minimize unwanted human interactions on every stage, and make the entire process quite proactive.
Q. Most of the people think maintenance and reliability are the same thing. What are your thoughts about it?
Ahmed: Maintenance is somewhere linked with reliability, but they are not the same thing. By definition, maintenance is a one-to-one transitional function. But, reliability is a culture. It is related to the organization in question on all aspects such as man power, supply chain, design etc. And, maintenance is a part of this reliability culture. If we have a very good reliability strategy, of course maintenance is key part of it.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you would give to a junior professional to succeed in your sector?
Ahmed: Always ask questions. Work on soft skills. We are engineers trained to talk to machines. We have to learn how to transfer that to humans in simpler ways.
Q. Can you recommend any books or media?
Ahmed: I would highly recommend our audience to look in the articles published in various transformer magazines and contents from IIoT university.
Maintenance is a one-to-one transitional function. Reliability is a culture.
Ahmed mostafa