PlantSuccess Newsletter

Volume II, Issue 23

18 September 2002

Dear Subscriber:

The very appropriate focus on the 1^st anniversary of the terrorist attacks gave all of us reason to reflect on common, ordinary people who performed heroically and, gave many reason to say “thanks” for saving their lives.

A couple of days later, I found myself thinking about earlier heroes – the founders of our country and framers of our republic – when I read the announcement that life expectancy for Americans has reached 76.9 years. What do those items have to do with each other, you ask?

In 1862, John Tyler, the 10^th president of the US died at the age of 72 and the average age at death of our country’s first ten presidents became 77.85 years -- almost a year more than our country's average 140 years later. These were very special men. George Washington died at the youngest age of 67, John Adams the oldest -- almost 91. Adams and Thomas Jefferson, once bitter enemies, died the same day – July 4^th 1826. James Monroe died July 4^th 1831; he was 73. Appropriately, for this group, the cause of death was almost always listed as old age.

We are living longer and the recent stock market performance has put many of us into the position of working longer than intended. We may not work into our seventies but we may slow the rate at which experience and knowledge is leaving our process plants. This may give us a slight reprieve but the better bet is to have more of our people understand more about the “best practices” improving plant performance within the process industry.

Join us at PlantSuccess 2002. The very appropriate theme is: Best Practices Driving Plant Performance. Keynoter, Hermann Ortega, VP of Engineering and Manufacturing for the Chemicals Group of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., will share his experience and international success in Productivity: A Model for Success. Ortega will be introduced by inaugural PlantSuccess keynoter, Jim Porter, DuPont’s VP of Engineering and Operations.

PlantSuccess is fortunate to attract top-level speakers from leaders in a variety of industries – chemical, petrochemical, refining, pharmaceutical, life sciences, utility, steel, pulp and paper and others. Rather than speaking just to technology, these presenters discuss issues important in all industries -- business drivers, impact on work processes and integration requirements from the perspective of the owner/operator. PlantSuccess 2002 will continue this trend of outstanding content with Mick Heim, Staff Project Specialist, Shell Global Services US, sharing his experience with some of the technologies intended to make the process of plant design, construction and operation easier and more productive.

The abstract: The Magic Plant Model: Dynamically Linking Work Process with Plant “DNA”

For many years, plastic, to-scale models contributed significantly to the understanding of the construction and operation of large, complex and congested industrial plants. They were familiar, easy to visualize and the model makers were anxious to please. Models were used to test the access requirements of a crane on site, orientation of operations and maintenance personnel, and even the early stages of planning and training.

Perhaps the best feature – size -- also was the demise of the model. They were big, bulky, expensive, limited to the design office, not easily repaired nor kept current. Regardless, they remained popular when the “D” in CAD stood only for drafting and CAD workstations were very expensive. When CAD became a legitimate design tool and the PC became the CAD platform, even the smell of glue was soon to disappear from the design offices. However, meeting the visualization needs of plant operators and maintenance personnel was a long way off.

What has been lost can now be more than replaced. Since the industry’s beginning in the late 1980’s, Virtual Reality has matured; integration and information modeling technologies are more sophisticated; design and build is beginning to occur in 3D and, in so doing, we are creating the “DNA” of a plant. Knowing that nothing will amount to much unless it can model actual work (that is, the real value deriving work of operations and maintenance) inside of this “DNA”, I asked the question: “Can’t we just use the model we created in design and construction with all of its intelligence and make it useful for operations?”

Until I got together with Reality Capture Technologies (RCT), I had too many vendors trying to sell me more tools for engineers that added little value to plant operations. RCT proposed using their visualization and informational modeling technologies to create an intelligent and easy-to-use Virtual Plant model and use that to simulate and integrate work processes. In so doing they created an operations simulator capable of modeling and optimizing all plant work processes. With that, the plant model was truly reborn. Goodbye plastic model; hello magic plant model on steroids.

Join Ortega, Heim and other outstanding speakers, all experienced with the successful implementation of engineering IT and business drivers.

Visit http://www.plantsuccess.com/ to review the progress with PlantSuccess 2002 and previous program agendas and the many outstanding presentations from experienced and successful industry leaders.

Click HERE for online registration. For room reservations, call the PHL Airport Marriott at 1-215-492-9000 or 1-800- 800-228-9290 and specify PlantSuccess for the special daily conference rate of $159.00 plus taxes. This is a limited offer; call soon.

Regards, Carl Howk.

Chairman

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Featured Sponsors

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AIChE – Delaware Valley Section

AVEVA/Cadcentre

Bentley Systems Inc,

FIATECH

OSI Software Inc.

PDAC/pdXML

Process Industry Practices (PIP)

The Center for Innovation in Project and Production Management (CFI)

Trinity Technologies Corp.

Verticore Technologies Inc.

Visit our leading sponsors online and join them in the Solutions Marketplace at PlantSuccess 2002. Register Now.

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Collaborative Event

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Project Management Workshop

On Tuesday, 8 October, Greg Howell, co-founder and managing director of The Center for Innovation in Project and Production Management (CFI) is collaborating with PlantSuccess and conducting a workshop in his area of specialty – Project Management; the topic – The Theory of Project Management: Is It Obsolete?

The Abstract:

This Project Management Workshop redefines the problem facing project managers and presents a new solution.

Current project management proposes that managing activities on the critical path to assure they are done quickly and for low cost is the problem to be solved. Current project management attempts to solve this problem through a centralized planning system that notifies each activity when it is to start and controls by tracking. Commitment to action is low because those responsible for planning and control are separated from those who do the work. Delays compound as each activity strives to best solve the time/cost/quality/safety tradeoff for itself. Unfortunately, optimizing performance of each activity reduces total project performance. Improving project performance against all four dimensions requires that workflow through the project be reliable.

This workshop will show how unreliable workflow within and between activities causes poor performance at the project level. A new approach to planning and control will be explained that solves this problem. Results from adopting this approach show improvement against all four dimensions of project performance.

Don’t miss this. Registration fee is $195. Register Now. Discounts for multiple attendees from the same company are available, for information, please call PlantSuccess at 770-565-3282.

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Agenda

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	PlantSuccess 2002
	Best Practices Driving Plant Performance
	October 9 - 10, 2002
	Philadelphia Airport Marriott

Wed; 10/9/01
7:30 – 9:00am	PlantSuccess Registration - Grand Ballroom Foyer
7:30 – 9:00	Continental Breakfast – Solutions Marketplace
9:00 – 10:00	Welcome, Carl Howk, Chairman
	Introduction: Jim Porter, VP of Engineering & Operations, DuPont
	Keynote Address -- Productivity: A Model for Success
	Hermann Ortega, VP of Engineering & Manufacturing, Air Products and Chemicals Inc
	Moderator: Joe Morray, President, Trinity Technologies Corp.
10:00 – 10:30	Beverage Break – Solutions Marketplace
10:00 – 10:30	Press Conference: Hermann Ortega and Jim Porter
10:30 – 11:15	Tackling Title V: A Solution for Compliance Assurance
	Clinton Whitehead, Project Services & Systems Manager, Rohm and Haas Company
	Moderator: Alan Brown, Principal, Insight Communications, Inc.
11:15 – 12:00	Continuous Improvement with Lean: A Success Story
	Jeff Niesen, Senior Project Executive, The Boldt Company
	Moderator: Ric Jackson, Director, FIATECH
12:00 – 1:00	Buffet Lunch -- Solutions Marketplace
1:00 – 1:45	The Magic Plant Model: Dynamically Linking Work Process with Plant "DNA"
	Mick Heim, Staff Project Specialist, Shell Global Solutions US
	Moderator: Kristine Chin, editor in chief, Chemical Engineering Progress
1:45 – 2:30	From "Manumatic" to 21st Century Manufacturing
	Mike Templeton, Director of Manufacturing & GM, Millennium Specialty Chemicals
	Moderator: Bill Moore, VP of Strategic Consulting, ARC Advisory Group
2:30 – 3:15	Randy Grant, Maintenance Reliability Specialist, Molson Canada
	Bob Baldwin, Editor, Maintenance Technology
3:15 – 3:45	Beverage Break – Solutions Marketplace
3:45 – 5:00	Panel Discussion -- to be announced
5:00 – 7:00	PlantSuccess Sponsors Contribute to the Solution -- Solutions Marketplace
5:00 – 6:00	Speaker's Tour of the Solutions Marketplace
5:00 – 6:00	Press/Analyst's Tour of the Solutions Marketplace
5:00 – 7:00	Cocktail Reception -- Solutions Marketplace

Thu; 10/10/01	Registration - Grand Ballroom Foyer
7:30 – 9:00am	Continental Breakfast - Solutions Marketplace
9:00 – 10:30	Panel Discussion -- Integrating SAP with the Plant Floor
	John Voeller, SVP, Chief Knowledge Officer and CTO, Black & Veatch
	Carmen DeVito, Manufacturing Process Owner, DuPont
	Bill Wight, Principal Architect of Shop Floor Automation Project, Eastman Chemical Co.
	Moderator: Carl Howk, Chairman, PlantSuccess, LLC
10:30 – 11:00	Beverage Break – Solutions Marketplace
11:00 – 12:30	Panel Discussion -- Web-Based Technology: What's the Skinny on Thin Client?
	Moderator: Joe Morray, President, Trinity Technologies Corp.
	Panelists: Tony Christian, Director of Managed Services, AVEVA; Bhupinder Singh,
	VP, Bentley Systems; Rob Eisele, Chemicals Industry Manager, OSI Software;
	Mike Slatter, CEO, Verticore Technologies
12:30 – 2:00	Buffet Lunch and Wrap-up -- Solutions Marketplace

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Current Links

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· The Economy: It’s a Drag

An excellent piece on the economy from Knowledge@Wharton … “Since March 2000 when the stock market hit its peak, the S&P 500 index has fallen more than 40 percent. Some $7 trillion in wealth has evaporated from investors’ portfolios. The magnitude of the drop, and the preceding boom in growth stocks, is similar to the bear market of 1973-75.

“Let’s keep things in perspective. The 1970s were a decade of disastrous government policy and high inflation. Our economy this decade is so much stronger. Look at the key factors – inflation, growth, productivity growth, and unemployment. No sensible observer believes we are back in the 1970s. If the economy continues recovering, this will lead to corporate profit growth. Employment growth will soon follow.” READ MORE.

· Global Computer Security Survey—Results Analysis

The survey asked respondents to compare their companies’ attitudes regarding information security issues, both today and prior to last year’s terrorist attacks.

“Overall, the findings show that most respondents agree that information security is a key issue, and is continually gaining more significance. But while 88 percent of respondents felt that information security is essential to business survivability, an alarming 30 percent reported their business-critical information is still not adequately protected. Moreover, 45 percent reported they are not adequately prepared to deal with information security and cyber-terrorism threats.” READ MORE.

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Full links to Volume II, Issue 23 Newsletter articles: