Štrbské Pleso was the venue from May 31 to June 1 for the 16th edition of the international conference entitled National Maintenance Forum 2016. The organizer of this annual event is the Slovakian Maintenance Society, which associates schools and companies supporting development in the field of technology, quality and safety in maintenance activities. U. S. Steel Košice has been a founder member of this Society since the year 2000.

The conference was attended by 226 participants from more than 40 firms in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Austria. Discussions were held in five sections: Best practice and management of maintenance, Safety in maintenance, Information systems and support for maintenance, Progressive technologies in maintenance, and Predictive maintenance and diagnostics. Especial interest was stimulated by the practical account given by Director Equipment Reliability Production Support Rastislav Milan of the joint project implemented by the Procurement and Equipment Reliability sections at U. S. Steel Košice, focusing on changing the criteria in the process of selecting replacement parts for critical production lines.