PlantSuccess
Newsletter
Volume IV, Issue 9
7 April 2004
Dear Subscriber:
Since 1999,
PlantSuccess has built an enviable reputation for outstanding content managers and
other decision makers with process industry leaders speaking to the successful use
of engineering IT and other automation tools while addressing the impact on business
drivers, work processes and integration requirements.
Including PlantSuccess Gulf Coast 2004 22 April at
the Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake, we have recruited 115 different speakers with
65 different companies and continue this trend and the theme: Best Practices Driving
Plant Performance.
PlantSuccess
is our speakers. Keynote Tom Jefferson, Director, IT Production & Technology,
Bayer Polymers, LLC, directs another roster of outstanding speakers from industry
leaders:
|
Air Products
and Chemicals |
Malcolm
Reid ESG Quality Manager |
|
BE&K
Industrial Services |
Jay West
Technology Development Manager |
|
Cargill
Inc |
Tim Jordheim
Manager of Plant Business Solutions |
|
Degussa
Corp |
Tom Bates
Site Manager |
|
Dow Chemical |
Sylvia
Rappenecker Dow Design & Construction Product Manager |
|
DuPont |
Ellen
Dahl Manager of Corporate Asset Productivity |
|
Fluor
Corp |
VP of
Technology & Strategies Organization |
|
Lyondell
Chemical |
Kevin
Hunter IT Business Solutions Manager |
|
North
Star Steel |
Bill Carlon
Mp2/EXP Coordinator |
|
Shell
E & P |
Dave Purvis
Business Planning Manager |
Dont miss any
of these or the 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.
PlantSuccess
is our sponsors. Executives with industry leaders: AVEVA, Dimension4,
IndX a Siemens Company
and Ivara Corporation, will make presentations
on current strategies focused on the process industry and be available for discussion
in the Solutions Marketplace. These companies offer significant technologies proven
to enhance the performance of plant projects, operations and maintenance.
Visit www.PlantSuccess.com to review the agenda,
abstracts and bios pertinent to PlantSuccess Gulf Coast 2004 and all previous conferences.
Register online and indicate that you will join us for a very special Welcome Reception
a Texas BBQ by Truett My hobby is competitive cooking. Airhart.
We have an attractive
discount for multiple attendees from the same company -- let us know if this applies
to your company. If you have questions or need additional information, please call
me at 770-565-3282.
Carl Howk, Chairman
**************************
Community Includes
**************************
Trinity Technologies Corporation
Joe Morray,
founder and president of Trinity Technologies, has frequently contributed to PlantSuccess
as a moderator and was an easy choice to manage the 2nd track introduced
at PlantSuccess Gulf Coast 2004. Morray has a strong background in the process industry
as a founder and senior executive with an engineering firm, a software company and
now a consultancy.
Trinity Technologies
specializes in consulting services to chemical, pharmaceutical and other process
manufacturing industries. Trinity helps companies align critical work processes,
people and information technologies to become more competitive and profitable. Trinity
offers Information Asset Consulting Services for strategic planning and benchmarking,
technology integration and lifecycle project management.
The Owner-Operator
Forum, a precursor to FIATECH, was launched at the inaugural PlantSuccess (1999)
and FIATECH has had a presence at every PlantSuccess since. Many of the companies
PlantSuccess works with for speakers, sponsors and attendees are members of FIATECH
and contribute significantly to the goals and objectives of this organization. In
their own words:
FIATECH focuses
on accelerating the deployment of existing technologies, from our industry as well
as others. We also work to enhance, improve and implement industry-wide standards
and guidelines for capital projects. This fast-track approach maximizes member returns,
by shortening RD&D time, ensuring robust solutions and making sure that new
technologies work seamlessly together. As one of its first accomplishments, FIATECH
brought together leaders to create the industry's first-ever capital projects technology
roadmap. This acclaimed document provides a single vision for the industry. It delivers
a formal framework to help identify technologies that address the industry's most
pressing challenges, guide and help track all industry-related RD&D efforts,
and shape FIATECH's own work. READ MORE
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Current Links
*****************
From an article
in the current issue of Optimize Magazine on AVNET, a global technology distribution
company whose revenues fell from $12.1 billion to $9 billion in a year. Some extracts:
Change is the
one constant in business, and a company's long-term success or failure is tied to
how well it manages a business environment in constant flux. Successfully managing
change has become even more critical as we move into the real-time economy where
businesses demand more ROI from their IT infrastructure and business investments.
To stabilize
the company, Avnet's leaders emphasized return on capital employed (ROCE), cash
generation, and wringing greater efficiencies out of existing resources. The result
was a restructuring of the organization and corporate strategy to make us a more
balanced, flexible, and predictable businessregardless of external market conditions.
We found a dichotomy
between efficiency and effectiveness. You can be a lot more effective if you don't
care about efficiency, and much more efficient if you don't care about effectiveness.
We had to achieve both. READ
MORE
2004 State Tech & Science Index
Massachusetts,
California and Colorado are in the best position to take advantage of the knowledge-based
economy, according to this report from the Milken Institute. It finds that regional
economic prosperity is based upon how successful places are in attracting and expanding
science and technology assets and leveraging them for economic development. READ MORE
Throughput,
Productivity Top KPI List
According to
a recent online survey of Automation World subscribers and Web site visitors,
only about 52 percent of manufacturing organizations are using KPIs in their daily
operations. Topping the list of indicators that are measured:
• Throughput and productivity at 79 percent
each
• Downtime at 76 percent
• Inventory levels at 68 percent
• Raw material costs at 61 percent
• Labor costs at 58 percent. 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 9 Newsletter articles: