PlantSuccess Newsletter
Volume III, Issue 26
18 December 2003
Dear
Subscriber:
The year 2003
has been a better year for most of us; recent reports regarding growth in GDP
and improvements in productivity gives all of us reason to be bullish on the
future -- as Wall Street has been most of the year. The DJIA has gained more
than 20 percent this year and is substantially above 10,000 for the first time
in 18 months. The total capitalization of US domestic companies listed on the
NY exchanges is now about $14 trillion – all other exchanges pale by comparison.
This year
also has been good because it looks as though the war against terrorism has
achieved one of its goals – prevent another major attack against the US. Two
years ago, the odds were not in our favor. Of course, capturing Saddam Hussein
alive is a fitting conclusion to a year when the US military has once again
demonstrated so much in the way of capability, strength and resolve. My
heartfelt thanks go to those who serve and to their families. I remember that
it is not easy; I hope they all return to a grateful nation.
The year
2003 also has been interesting for PlantSuccess. We continued our unique focus
on the owner-operator and high-value content with the Gulf Coast conference,
held in Houston in April, featuring:
- Keynote Doug Walker, retired exec with ExxonMobil where he was Manufacturing
Director of their Singapore Chemical Plant, a $2 billion petrochemical complex.
- John
Voeller, Black
& Veatch exec, technologist and now White House Fellow and one of the
year’s best sessions on a favorite topic, Knowledge Management, with
presentations by experts with CDM, DuPont, Fluor and SAIC.
- Managers with Bayer, Dow Chemical and DuPont responsible for supporting the operations
of their company’s multiple plant sites in the Gulf Coast area.
- Eastman Chemical’s Johnette McDaniel discussing ERP integration,
George Pohle with Shell Global Solutions discussing economic targets,
improved work processes and increased collaboration, plus Mike Alianza
discussing Intel’s use of technology to improve time-to-market.
- Presentations from PlantSuccess sponsors, a current FIATECH project and
a perspective on industrial security from ExxonMobil and CII.
Our 5th
anniversary conference in the Philadelphia area, in October, was special with
the return of Jim Porter, DuPont’s VP of engineering and operations, as
keynote and his outstanding address: “Six Sigma and Best Manufacturing
Practices.” Jim led a roster of great sessions and speakers, including:
- Executives Karan Sorensen of Johnson & Johnson and Bob Fraga
with the US Postal Service.
- DuPont’s John Sieg and Larry Killingsworth with Air Products
& Chemicals discussing MOC.
- Brad
Synder with BPSolvay
and Tom Argue of Rohm and Haas discussing supply chain execution.
- The
session: ISA-95 -- Integrating Enterprise and Manufacturing Systems with AspenTech’s
Don Clark, DuPont’s Ray Walker and Eric Cosman with Dow
Chemical.
- A
report by Hal Thomas of Air Products & Chemicals on the Process
Equipment Reliability Database (PERD) a current project with The Center
for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS).
- David
Muir of Accenture
and Steve Williams of AspenTech, presented Operational Excellence:
Best Practices in Manufacturing and there was a full range of presentations
from our sponsors.
We now have
more than 100 presentations by process manufacturing industry leaders for
review and downloading at www.PlantSuccess.com.
Although still available to everyone, we began tracking the presentations being
downloaded a few months ago and asking basic information of those making the
request -- almost everyone complies, our thanks to all.
The rate of
request is higher than I thought, particularly for presentations made two or
more years ago. This indicates that we are achieving a major goal of relevance
and quality in conference content. The interest is global and management
personnel generally make the request -- keynote presentations are very popular.
In April,
we return to the Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake for the third year and PlantSuccess
Gulf Coast 2004. Information on this unique event will be forthcoming at www.PlantSuccess.com and in this
Newsletter. Of course, we are always interested in talking to potential
speakers, moderators and sponsors. Please call me at 770-565-3282.
Thanks for
2003; best wishes for the holidays and the New Year,
Carl. Howk,
Chairman
*****************
Current
Links
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At the end of every year, Knowledge@Wharton publishes the results of interviews with members of its
faculty on five key sectors: the economy, the banking industry, airlines,
telecommunications and health care.
This year’s report begins: After a slow and confusing economic
recovery, 2004 will be a year of solid improvement building on positive news,
including the capture of Saddam Hussein, at the close of 2003. READ MORE.
Outsourcing
Not the Culprit in Manufacturing Job Loss
From the current issue of AutomationWorld: Over the past
decade, US manufacturing jobs have declined by more than 11 percent … Japan’s
manufacturing employment base has dropped by 16 percent … one of the largest
losers of manufacturing jobs has been China.” READ
MORE.
I recently learned of the passing, in August, of Louis T Rader, he was 91 and
lived a long and productive life. I knew him in 1969 as a professor at the
University of Virginia’s Graduate Business School. He joined the faculty with
an impressive set of credentials: president of the Univac Division of Sperry
Rand, VP of industrial process control at GE, and group VP at ITT. Rader was a
fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, on the faculty at the University
of Virginia’s School of Engineering and chair of the Department of Electrical
Engineering. READ
MORE.
By coincidence, one day last summer, I came across a
tattered piece of paper with the title “Rader’s Rules.” They were made a part
of many case studies then and seem to be relevant today to business and to
life:
The PlantSuccess
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. Subscribe or cancel by sending a request to Carl.Howk@PlantSuccess.com
Full links to Volume III, Issue 26 Newsletter articles: