PlantSuccess Newsletter

Volume IV, Issue 7

24 March 2004

Dear Subscriber:

Over the past five years, PlantSuccess conferences have featured executives from process industry leaders DuPont, Rohm and Haas, Bayer, Dow Chemical, Air Products, Exxon and others, as keynotes. All have done a great job setting the conference table for rosters of outstanding speakers. Tom Jefferson, Director, IT Production & Technology, Bayer Polymers, LLC, continues this trend with his presentation: Facility and Asset Management: Delivering a Realistic Value Proposition.

This address will lead to sessions, actively moderated by members of the press and leading consultants, and a lively discussion on the successful implementation of engineering IT in:
• Change Management
• Operational Effectiveness
• Collaboration
• Site Management
• Strategic Planning
• Maintenance and Reliability

By another roster of outstanding speakers with industry leaders:
• Air Products & Chemicals
• BE&K Industrial Services
• Cargill
• Degussa
• Dow Chemical
• DuPont
• Fluor
• Lyondell Chemical
• North Star Steel
• Shell E & P

Plus a presentation by Bill Treasurer, A.K.A. Captain Inferno. Most executives see risk as a four-letter word. But risk-taking is a key driver of personal and professional success. Without taking risks, you can't be an entrepreneur, you can't be an innovator, and you can't be a leader. In this entertaining and informative presentation, you'll learn about the value of risk-taking from a risk-taker's vantage point. Treasurer spent 7 years as a member of the US High Diving Team diving from heights that scaled to over 100 feet. The catch? He's afraid of heights! Bill will share some of the principles from his critically acclaimed new book, Right Risk. To learn more, go to www.right-risk.com

PlantSuccess is very pleased to have one of the great personalities of Texas -- Truett Airhart host our Welcome Reception. Truett is a technologist, a successful businessman, a noted philanthropist, a friend to many and an accomplished cook -- his recipe has won the World Championship Chili contest four times. This event is April 21, 5:30 8:30pm, 123 Lakeside Lane, Bal Harbor, adjacent to the Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake Hotel.

Review the agenda, register online at www.PlantSuccess.com. Take advantage of the early-bird discount. If lodging is required, call the Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake at 281-333-9300 and specify PlantSuccess for a special room rate of $109.00 plus taxes. If you have questions or need additional information, please call me at 770-565-3282.

We have an attractive discount for multiple attendees from the same company -- let us know if this applies to your company.

Carl Howk, Chairman

**********************

Sponsors Include

**********************

AVEVA Engineering IT

AVEVA Group plc is one of the world's leading engineering IT solutions and services providers to the process and power industries. Operations are global through three divisions: AVEVA Consulting, AVEVA Managed Services and AVEVA Engineering IT. A fourth division, AVEVA Solutions, is responsible for product development. Its technology is integral to the engineering process and industrial plant with a value in excess of $500 billion for more than 800 global clients.

Ivara Corporation

An industry leader and innovator in asset reliability solutions, Ivara combines advanced software and unparalleled reliability expertise to help customers achieve and sustain a proactive, reliability driven approach to maintenance. Using a comprehensive blend of technology and services, Ivara creates unique reliability solutions that align equipment performance with clearly identified business goals for increased revenue, operating output and quality.

*****************

Current Links

*****************

Skin in the Game Celerant Consulting at Shell E & P

Presentation at PlantSuccess Gulf Coast 2004 by Dave Purvis, Shell Exploration and Production. From a recent article in Forbes Magazine:

So Celerant crafted an unorthodox offer: We'll get to work cutting your costs, and when you start saving money, you can pay us out of those savings. A portion of Celerant's fees would be guaranteed, but the rest would be at risk. "If we didn't see savings, they didn't get paid.

And, Celerant is running another self-funding engagement, with Shell Exploration & Production, . The project aims to make offshore oil platforms more efficient. "I was under spending constraints. I could not exceed my normal operating budget. So the approach I took was that the project would have to be self-funding," says W. David Purvis, business planning manager at Shell. READ MORE.

Most people are thinking all wrong about jobs, debt, globalization, and recession

From eBrain Hosting: You can always count on Peter Drucker to provide a new way of looking at things. After all, he is the man who first recognized that management is a discipline worthy of deep and formal study. Long before anyone elsein the early 1950s, no lesshe predicted how computer technology would one day thoroughly transform business. In 1961 he presciently called attention to the rise of Japan as an industrial power, and two decades later he warned of its impending economic stagnation. And we can thank him for coining the concepts of "privatization," "knowledge workers," and "management by objective." READ MORE.

Business leaders optimistic about industry growth in 2004

Partial results from a recent survey of business leaders in the manufacturing and automation industries:

• 49 percent of the business leaders polled say they are expanding their businesses this year, compared to only 11 percent who say they are downsizing.

• Manufacturers see automation technology as having the greatest positive impact on manufacturing in the year ahead. Nearly three-fourths of respondents believe their competitors are investing in new manufacturing or automation technologies.

• Business leaders believe the high-tech equipment industry will see the biggest growth in 2004-05. Healthcare and computer technology are seen as the strongest emerging industries. READ MORE.

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 IV, Issue 7 Newsletter articles:

1. www.PlantSuccess.com

2. http://www.right-risk.com/

3. http://www.aveva.com/

4. http://www.ivara.com/

5. http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/040129/e893256c56ea22154ceb2b64a6860fbc_1.html

6. http://www.ebrainhosting.biz/english/news/news89.html

7. http://www.manufacturingsystems.com/lnwp/frameset.asp?midday=true&url=http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument%26orgId=539%26topicId=12084%26docId=l:82074159

8. www.PlantSuccess.com