PlantSuccess Newsletter
Volume I, Issue 10
9/12/01
Like everyone else who woke
this morning in this great country, I hoped yesterday was just a bad dream. It
wasn’t. It was the worst nightmare for all of us, the ultimate sacrifice for
many and a frightening day, one of the world’s worst. The freedoms we enjoy can
no longer be taken for granted. We’ve done it before; we’ll have to fight for
them once again. The enemy has reached our shores; he killed thousands in a
single coordinated attack, perhaps ten times the death toll from the last major
attack – on Pearl Harbor.
That event unleashed an
industrial might from a determined country and freedom for people throughout
the world was eventually restored. The consequences of yesterday’s event can be
no different. The world is fundamentally weaker when the US is held hostage by
terrorists and the fear they push. A major symbol of capitalism has been
toppled; capitalism – practiced by all of us – has not. If anything, we need to
redouble our efforts in the wake of this dastardly deed.
PlantSuccess will continue.
We have recruited many of our industry’s most successful capitalists as
speakers, moderators and sponsors of this unique event. PlantSuccess is about
the will of a lot of hard working people. We need to focus all the more on what
we have accomplished and what we need to do to influence the success of others.
Welcome to the PlantSuccess
Newsletter and to information on PlantSuccess -- a conference made unique
because of its focus on the process industry, on innovative managers from
leading owner/operators, and on their stories of success with current
information technologies. Industry experts moderate all sessions, the
audience of industry leaders becomes involved, and the event becomes a discussion
on business drivers, the impact on work practices and even the effect on
company culture.
Visit www.PlantSuccess.com to view the
current agenda and to register on-line to attend PlantSuccess 2001.
Take advantage of discounts
and special room rates (use PlantSuccess Group #PLAPLAA) at the Philadelphia
Marriott Hotel.
Every week, the Newsletter
generates a substantial number of visits to our website, we welcome the
interest and the access to previous issues of the Newsletter which are
available there. If you'd like to share this newsletter with a colleague, just
forward a copy. Subscriptions and cancellations can be made by sending a
request to Carl.Howk@PlantSuccess.com
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This Week's Links
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I watched a month’s worth of
television yesterday and just today realized the absence of the voice of
academia. I guess, terrorists and retribution are not in their world; I’ve
found something that is. Although degreed by a rival, I must give credit to
Harvard Business School for the presentation of Information Technology @ HBS as
one of the best I have ever seen.
Harvard Business School’s
information technology (IT) strategy is simple: leadership in the use of IT in
business education.
Judy Stahl (HBS’96)
Executive Director HBS IT Group, is responsible for a fast, significant, recent
transformation vis-à-vis HBS and IT. Read the extract below and follow its
links or click above for a website that is very well done. Stahl addresses all
of the issues we face in the commercial world and presents it in a way we don’t
see often enough.
All business schools use
technology. To truly lead in the use of technology, we strive to develop
products and services that transform how the School uses information to teach,
learn and lead. Everything we do supports the School's mission of educating
leaders. Specific initiatives
include:
·
Creating and
sharing knowledge
·
Deepening the
learning experience
·
Providing
exceptional resources and support
Lisa Anderson,
economist/writer with Economy.com presents an interesting analysis after the US Commerce Department released its annual
revisions to the national accounts. “While changes to estimates of national
income and output are a normal occurrence,” she says, “it is the size of the
revisions that is notable this time.” The revisions resulted in substantial
downward adjustments in productivity
gains and corporate profits over the past three years, as well as overall
economic growth in 2000.
The revised numbers may make recent economic
performance easier to understand because it wasn’t as good as we were lead to
believe. As an example, “Corporate profit growth was cut nearly in half for
2000, from just over 10 percent to just below 6 percent, making it clearer that
the financial health of many small companies was simply not as strong as
previously assumed.”
Use a comprehensive database
to better manage process safety, says a recent article in Chemical Engineering
Process magazine. Recent terrorist attacks, predictions of more and obvious
vulnerabilities, mean we need to be heighten our sense of vigilance.
A strong argument can be
made for companies to look at their technology investments as strategic
partnerships with their technology providers. But to make this partnership
approach work, it's imperative to keep three principles in mind:
·
Build a partnership
that provides flexibility for creativity and innovation.
·
Share the wealth.
·
Consider IT spending to
be a strategic investment, not just a cost.
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Sponsor Insight: Cyra Technologies
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Like many companies, Cyra
Technologies, founded in 1993, is the product of the experience and passion of
its founder, Ben Kacyra, who went from the helm of Cygna Corporation, a major
engineering firm, to a start-up.
Kacyra’s technology, called
Cyrax, is a portable, 3D laser scanning system that captures, visualizes
and models complex structures and sites with an unprecedented combination of
completeness, speed, accuracy and safety. The operator orients the scanner
toward the scene, selects the desired measurement area and measurement
resolution, and then auto-scan. Complete surface geometry of exposed surfaces
is remotely captured in minutes in the form of dense, accurate “3D point
clouds”.
Cyrax is primarily used for
engineering, construction, and operations & maintenance activities in
manufacturing plants and in civil/survey markets. Cyrax also has been used for
architectural, virtual reality, heritage preservation and forensic applications.
Cyra recently attracted the
investment capital of Leica Geosystems AG (Switzerland) and was acquired as a
wholly-owned subsidiary in February 2001. The company has seen great success in
a challenging market; learn about the successful application of Cyrax at PlantSuccess.
Participate in a panel discussion and visit Cyra Technologies in the Solutions
Marketplace.
Learn more from a couple of case studies:
In a PSM application, Chevron's Richmond, Calif
refinery used Cyrax to achieve two-for-the-cost-of-one results.
For
several Detroit Edison retrofit projects, Washington Group International saw a
$10 million savings by using Cyrax. Better as-built models allowed better
design and construction planning. Savings came from reduced field change orders
and from direct savings in capturing and creating as-built documentation.
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Visit www.PlantSuccess.com and register
online. Take advantage of a $100 discount if your company is one of 120
companies listed as a member of FIATECH, PIP or CII. Take advantage of
discounts for multiple attendees from the same organization and call Carl Howk
at 770-565-3282 if you have any questions or need additional information.
Full
links to Volume I, Issue 10 Newsletter articles:
1.
http://www.hbs.edu/it/main/strategy.htm
2.
http://www.dismal.com/thoughts/article.asp?aid=1342
3.
http://www.cepmagazine.org/pdf/080167.pdf