EMERSON PURCHASES LEADING RELIABILITY CONSULTING SERVICES FIRM

EMERSON PURCHASES LEADING RELIABILITY CONSULTING SERVICES FIRM.

Expands Emerson Process Management's Domain Knowledge and Reliability Solutions Portfolio

ST. LOUIS, May 20, 2014 - Emerson (NYSE: EMR) today announced that it has acquired Management Resources Group, Inc. (MRG), a leading reliability consulting services firm.  The acquisition adds the deep asset-reliability consulting expertise of MRG to Emerson Process Management's existing asset management capabilities to help customers who face growing needs to improve safety, increase plant uptime and reduce maintenance costs.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"Combining MRG's reliability consulting expertise with Emerson's monitoring and predictive diagnostic technologies uniquely positions us to help customers solve reliability problems and achieve world-class operating performance," said Jim Nyquist, President of Emerson Process Management Systems and Solutions.  "With increasing numbers of customers relying on us as a trusted advisor for our industry domain knowledge and innovative automation solutions, MRG complements and strengthens our leadership position."

Founded in 1987, MRG is a recognized leader in helping process plant owners and operators improve plant availability through successful implementation of site and corporate-wide reliability programs.  Well known in the community of process reliability professionals, MRG leverages proprietary project methodologies and deep knowledge for all categories of plant assets.

"MRG has created and nurtured a culture of integrity, service, and thought leadership that has attracted the most experienced, capable and dedicated reliability professionals," said Robert DiStefano, MRG's founder and Chief Executive Officer.  "We are excited to be joining the global Emerson Process Management organization that is committed to similar values and vision."

About Emerson
Emerson (NYSE: EMR), based in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), is a global leader in bringing technology and engineering together to provide innovative solutions for customers in industrial, commercial, and consumer markets around the world. The company is comprised of five business segments: Process Management, Industrial Automation, Network Power, Climate Technologies, and Commercial & Residential Solutions. Sales in fiscal 2013 were $24.7 billion. For more information, visit www.Emerson.com.

About Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management (www.EmersonProcess.com), an Emerson business, is a leader in helping businesses automate their production, processing and distribution in the chemical, oil and gas, refining, pulp and paper, power, water and wastewater treatment, mining and metals, food and beverage, life sciences and other industries. The company combines superior products and technology with industry-specific engineering, consulting, project management and maintenance services. Its brands include PlantWeb™, Syncade™, DeltaV™, Fisher^®, Bettis™, Micro Motion^®, Rosemount^®, Daniel™, Ovation™ and AMS Suite.

About MRG
Management Resources Group, Inc. (www.mrgsolutions.com) is a leading professional services company with more than two decades of experience delivering comprehensive, scalable asset management, reliability and asset data integrity services to a diverse group of clients across all process industries.. MRG was represented in the deal by Pacific Crest Securities and Business Law Group, LLC.

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MRO Inventory Data Standardization

IN TODAY'S EVER CHANGING GLOBAL ECONOMY, companies must stay competitive to survive. Operating at peak performance is considered business critical. For asset-intensive organizations, a key to achieving peak performance is having a robust Materials Management program. It starts with an accurate and standardized MRO inventory catalog. We hear this all the time:

• What is the part named? - Craftsmen waste hours per day looking for parts because there are no standard naming conventions
• Who used the part? - If no one checks the part out, then count in the system will be inaccurate
• When should I order more parts? - Most of the time a part's inventory level has little to do with the importance of the asset that the part belongs to. This often results in too much or too little stock.
• Where can I find the part? - Parts are stored in bins on the shop floor or under the desks and their locations are often undocumented; searches waste time.

All this adds up to wasted time, extended equipment down time, and excessive inventory - wasted money.

MRG has been helping companies for over 25 years clean and standardize their MRO data as part of an overall Materials Management program. It doesn't matter if you are using SAP, Maximo or other CMMS/EAM systems; MRG has the experience. MRG provides a cost effective approach that utilizes our proven tools, libraries and experience to complete MRO data standardization projects on time.

To read more, click here.

New White Paper! Is Your Asset Management Program Built on a House of Cards?

Is Your Asset Management Program Built on a House of Cards?

With more than one trillion dollars in new capital expenditures planned per year and potential savings exceeding one percent of lifecycle costs (Uptime, 2012), it is not surprising that operational readiness is receiving a great deal of attention. Moreover, with ISO 55000 slated for release in 2014, companies are likely to see increasing pressure from regulators and customers to have seamless control of asset data throughout the lifecycle. Bruno Storino expanded on DiStefano 2012 with "Capital Projects Operational Readiness and Business Risks: Maximizing Returns on New Assets" (Storino 2012), which provides an overview of a comprehensive program that optimizes the transition from engineering to operations for new assets. This paper adds to that body of work by illustrating how to manage the handover of asset data-the lynchpin of operational readiness for large-scale projects.

In the early days of operations, the lack of detailed asset data and the corresponding lack of documented maintenance strategies inhibited the efficient allocation of plant resources. With business pressure high to generate positive cash flow, personnel are applied to making assets run, and requests for the additional resources needed to catch up on asset data are often denied. Once a plant is operating, the cold hard reality is that the profit and loss statement rules resource decision making. Poor quality asset data, reactive maintenance, and poor profit performance create a self-perpetuating cycle that is difficult to break.

Click to read the rest of the White Paper.

New White Paper! CMMS in the Wind Industry

CMMS in the Wind Industry

To benchmark the current U.S. wind turbine fleet reliability performance and identify the major contributors to component-level failures and other downtime events, the Department of Energy (DOE) funded the development of the Continuous Reliability Enhancement for Wind (CREW) database by Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia). Through a wide variety of activities and interactions, Sandia National Laboratories has observed limited adoption of electronic work orders in the wind industry. To explore some of the contributing factors for this limited adoption, the CREW team looked to other industries to determine whether there are limitations in the tools sets available to the wind industry. This report will review some of the software tools available for use in the wind industry. This report is one of the steps in driving a culture change toward the electronic collection of accurate work order data and the developing a "full data picture."

Click to read the rest of the White Paper.

New White Paper! EAM and CMMS Implementations: Are you getting what you paid for?

New White Paper! EAM and CMMS Implementations: Are you getting what you paid for?

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) implementations have become significantly more complex over the last decade. The days of installing an application and using it only in maintenance departments are gone. Today, with larger and more complex enterprises, management needs to have near real-time access to data that could affect the company's ability to produce its product. That, coupled with the need to reduce the cost of production, makes it easy to understand why the systems have become more integrated.

The applications are designed to house data. That data ranges from assets to inventory to craft types and crew makeup, and more. Collectively it's a lot of data. Historically such systems were designed in-house or purchased from an industry-specific vendor. At the core, these systems can all store, categorize, and report on events, but they are only as good as the information they are fed. At some point after the system is in place, there will be a need to evaluate it for viability or to re-determine requirements. Questions will arise, including "Are we getting what we paid for, and if not, why?"

Click here to read the rest of the White Paper

New MRG Article - Are You Being Ruined By Best Efforts?

New MRG Article - Are You Being Ruined By Best Efforts?

Mike Whittaker CMRP, is leading MRG's European team. Mike's article "Are You Being Ruined By Best Efforts?" was published in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of Maintenance and Engineering magazine. To read more, click here.

A New White Paper - Keys to Implementing a Reliability Process

A New White Paper - Keys to Implementing a Reliability Process
Author: Darrell Carnes

Since the late 1990s more and more companies have realized the benefits of a reliability-based maintenance program. As organizations evolve and adopt a new reliability-based culture, long-time employees are taking on new roles. Seasoned mechanics are finding themselves promoted to the position of reliability coordinator with new responsibilities that include getting the reliability program up and running, reducing costs while maintaining the facility, and keeping efficiencies up. These new responsibilities can seem overwhelming at first as the new reliability coordinator questions: where do I start, how do I get employees involved, and what technologies do I use? Luckily, there is help available to get your program off to a good start. While there are numerous sources of information-books, seminars, websites, etc.-sifting through such an immense amount of information can be overwhelming. This article outlines some basic steps-communication, process development, and training on short- and long-term goals-that will help you to get started and give your reliability-based maintenance program a solid foundation.

To read more, click here.

A New White Paper - How to Pick Your Project Team

A New White Paper - How to Pick Your Project Team
Author: Paul Cronin

Leaders of reliability-centered maintenance projects usually have to rely on volunteers from multiple departments to join their teams. Much of the literature about selecting teams is based on enterprise-wide initiatives led by high-profile executives. Executives have the luxury of handpicking the "right" people. This is not a typical scenario because most reliability-centered maintenance initiatives are led by a staff person who has no direct control over any of the team members and can only influence the decision to volunteer. How well the project leader influences the organization and people's perceptions will determine the quality of the team volunteers. Volunteers will be looking at two key criteria: what they know about the project's impact on them, and their perception of the project leader. This paper outlines steps to building team success by addressing these criteria.

To read more, click here.

A New White Paper - Operational Excellence and Improved Reliability

A New White Paper - Operational Excellence and Improved Reliability
Author: Paul Cronin

Integrating Asset-Based Operational and Reliability Programs to Achieve Excellence

The real improvement in plant performance occurs when operational excellence programs are integrated with reliability programs and are built around each asset. In many companies, reliability is a stand-alone engineering or maintenance program that only indirectly involves operations. Operational excellence programs focus on operations only. Safety and environmental programs are also separate. To achieve true excellence, operations, maintenance, and reliability programs must focus on assets and be integrated with safety and environmental programs.

To read more, click here.

A New White Paper - Top Five Maintenance & Reliability Enablers for Improved Operational Performance

A New White Paper - Top Five Maintenance & Reliability Enablers for Improved Operational Performance
Author: Dennis Belanger

Think back on successful projects or initiatives both in business and your personal life. Consider why they were successful. Think about the key things than enabled these successes, particularly long-term sustained successes. By truly understanding the positive enablers that bolstered success and leveraging that understanding, chances of future success are significantly improved.

Many improvement initiatives put a significant amount of focus on the benefits they can provide, including potential cost savings and improved productivity. Unfortunately, we often don't spend enough time discussing and identifying the enablers that must be in place to achieve the projected benefits. While understanding the benefits is important, there are two additional parts to any business case: the upfront cost or investment and the level of management fortitude required to achieve the goal. I believe that management fortitude is primarily measured by how the enablers for success are addressed. If considerable effort and focus is applied to the enablers, an initiative is likely to be successful and sustainable. If the enablers are left to chance, then failure will likely be the result.

The bottom line is that taking the time to understand, establish, and surround yourself with a foundation of positive enablers is key to success.

To read more, click here.

A New White Paper - Capital Projects Operational Readiness and Business Risks

A New White Paper - Capital Projects Operational Readiness and Business Risks
Author: Bruno Storino

When a company invests in new assets, it makes a strategic business decision to improve its position in the marketplace. Building new facilities-or expanding existing ones-is a response to market needs. Investing in assets or new facilities may be required to launch new products or increase existing capacity. In some cases the nature of the industry requires close proximity to demand; in other cases it may be better to locate a new plant closer to specific raw materials sources.

The objective is to complete the project on schedule, on budget, and to have the new assets commissioned. Once the facility is put into operation, it must fulfill its intended role and deliver what was specified in the business-case strategy throughout its entire lifecycle.

Considerable effort is put forth during project phases prior to commissioning, but it is during the operational lifecycle that the new assets must pay for themselves by fulfilling their role in the market strategy that spurred the investment. Traditionally, the project-execution phase places less emphasis on ensuring optimal utilization of the assets during their productive life. Companies often fail to recognize and address significant operational risks, which results in paying a steep price in the form of less-than-optimal facilities and operational processes.

To read more, click here.

A New White Paper - Implementing a Best Practices Predictive Maintenance Program

A New White Paper - Implementing a Best Practices Predictive Maintenance Program
Author: Douglas Hart

In a global marketplace, it is imperative that industrial and manufacturing organizations operate as competitively as possible. Maintenance has an enormous impact on an organization. It influences equipment reliability, equipment availability, production throughput, and eventual bottom-line profitability, so it is critical that informative and cost-effective equipment management strategies be employed. Predictive Maintenance (PdM)/Condition Monitoring, if implemented properly, is a very effective strategy.

In this white paper you will learn how to avoid the ten most common pitfalls associated with implementing a PdM Program in your organization.

To read more, click here.

A New White Paper - Equipment Advocates: Giving Equipment a Voice

A New White Paper - Equipment Advocates: Giving Equipment a Voice
Author: Charles Spillman

The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease
This truism is well worn and time tested, but it usually doesn't refer to a wheel. The trite saying typically means the guy who is the loudest, the most overbearing, and the most insistent will get his way. Unfortunately, the same does not hold true for a wheel that is actually squeaking, a bearing that is scouring a path through the bearing race, or a compressor that is... well, you get the idea. The truth is that often the production schedule and the pressure to fulfill delivery obligations becomes the squeaky wheel, and the insistent noise from the sales and the operations departments muffles concern for the production equipment.

It is Time to Give the Equipment a Voice!
A Midwest mining operation struggled with unscheduled down time and chronic, repetitive repairs that significantly impacted uptime and throughput. Preventive maintenance was routinely disregarded, and all efforts from the maintenance staff were concentrated on urgent repairs. The constant pressure from operations to keep production equipment in service and the frenzied need for quick repairs had created an adversarial relationship between the maintenance and operations staff. The two groups struggled with constant heated confrontations about what repair work was critical and what could be postponed. This battle resulted in a tense working environment and steadily deteriorating asset health.

To read more, click here.

A New White Paper - To See the Future Look to the PAS(t)

A New White Paper - To See the Future Look to the PAS(t)
Author: Scott Herrick, CMRP
Within the next two years a new ISO standard is expected to emerge. Industries around the world will adapt to the new standard, and although the focus will be different, the motivations will be the same. This new ISO-tentatively titled 55000-will address areas of asset management.

To read more, click here

MRG Reliability Tip

Defining Your Reliability Terminology

An essential component of any Reliability Program is to define your terminology at EVERY step of the journey.

With MEL classes and Function descriptions, ensure that everyone saying or hearing ‘Switch’ have the same understanding of the term. In Maintenance and Work Order Systems, I have seen a ‘Tighten Connection’ task, generated from an Infrared scan, entered as Work Type: PdM, Corrective, Repair, Emergency, PM, Reactive, Routine, Condition Based, and even Optional. Define your terms! The definitions must be understood by Planning, Scheduling, Electrical, Mechanical, Instrumentation and Operations. They must be supplied to or developed with any contract work management teams.

Even ‘common sense’ terms like ‘Done’ and ‘Complete’ MUST be defined for each step of the process. This is especially true when Milestones or KPIs are based on job or task status. Develop a list of the criteria that must be met before the status is changed. Correctly explaining what “Done” means, for every step and phase, can avoid misunderstandings and overrun expenses, as well as providing more efficient tools for analyzing and reporting on performance and progress.

MRG is Featured in Uptime Magazine's June/July Edition!

MRG is Featured in Uptime Magazine's June/July Edition!
Operational Readiness:
Bridging the Gap Between Construction and Operations for New Capital Assets

There is ample proof and little argument today that organizations that deploy best reliability-based maintenance practices to existing operational assets produce significantly more asset availability at lower costs. Where making a profit is important, such organizations have a dramatic bottom-line impact and enhance their competitive footing. Numerous articles have been written detailing the mechanics of such programs and the successes of companies that have employed them. We argue (and empirical evidence supports) that developing such a program, that is bringing new assets into these reliability-based maintenance programs early in an asset's lifecycle, is more cost effective than developing a program at any other time, and can drive significant value both in the short and long term.

Think of best reliability-based maintenance practices as a risk-mitigation program designed to anticipate and mitigate potential problems that are likely to negatively impact total project value once operation begins. Such programs prepare the organization that will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the new assets during design and construction. With the right preparation, the organization will be more ready to assume the operations duty than has historically been the case. The term "operational readiness" is rooted in this principle.

To read more, click here.

Trouble Getting Your EAM System off the Ground?

Is your Master Equipment List accurate? Do you use consistent naming conventions from one plant to another? How about your inventory catalog? Does it include the parts required to maintain your equipment, and only those parts? Think a moment about the cost of a failure. How do the costs associated with the PM/PdM technology compare to that? How would you take the optimal strategy for a given asset and apply it to your other, similar assets?

Are you ready to continuously improve your reliability program based on the results it delivers?

For more information read The Top 10 Best Maintenance Practices for Your CMMS.

MRG and Flowserve's Enterprise Asset Management Summit Has Moved to September!

MRG and Flowserve have chosen to defer our Enterprise Asset Management Summit. The high rate of planned plant turnarounds taking place this Spring conflicts with the early June date we had set. We have postponed our 2012 Enterprise Asset Management Summit to September 25 and 26th! To learn more, click here!

Enterprise Asset Management Summit - Ft. McMurray, AB

MRG and Flowserve invite you to join a group of your peers for a complimentary* one-and-a-half day Enterprise Asset Management Summit on June 5th & 6th, 2012 in Fort McMurray, AB, Canada.

During this powerful workshop, you will discover the impact reliability-focused asset management can have on business performance. Best-in-class companies from every industry have successfully introduced a culture of reliability while improving asset performance. See how reliability-focused asset management will improve margins, equipment reliability, and availability while decreasing critical asset failures.

Seasoned industry professionals will discuss common challenges, relate success stories, and demonstrate solutions that can be immediately applied to help your company start seeing the benefits of a reliability-centered approach. You will have the chance to learn how to leverage the expertise of people who have made the journey to reliability, making your road to success shorter and less risky. This open and interactive forum also offers a valuable networking opportunity.

Join us and take your organization to the next level!!

Click here for an informational brochure.

Register here today!

Enterprise Asset Management Summit - June 5-6th 2012

Enterprise Asset Management Summit - June 5-6th 2012

MRG and Flowserve invite you to a complimentary* Enterprise Asset Management Summit.

Agenda:
Day one begins in the afternoon and we will show you what good looks like using our Performance Benchmarks and describe the key capabilities needed for reliability success. We will then walk through case studies of the challenges faced by your peers and the techniques they used to reach their goals.

Day two is an all-day session utilizing The Reliability Game^®. The Reliability Game^® is an excellent first step toward developing a culture based on reliability focused asset management. Participating in this simulation will give you and your fellow attendees a new perspective on how to attain proactive reliability excellence.

Join us, and take your organization to the next level!

LOCATION:
Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

HOTEL:
Sawridge Inn - Fort McMurray
530 MacKenzie Boulevard
Fort McMurray, Alberta T9H 4C8

http://www.mrgsolutions.com