79% of Businesses at Risk Due to Poor Asset Integrity Management
Technology
While many industrial companies in a recent study report having asset
integrity management plans and sustainability plans on file, only 21
percent are using information technology that would ensure those plans
are being followed.
This, according to experts at IFS North America, means that adequate
measures are not being followed that would protect stakeholder
investments - and in many cases the environment - by preventing asset
failure.
IFS North America conducted the study of more than 200 executives from
medium sized to large companies with help from Mint Jutras Principal
Analyst Cindy Jutras. While 58 percent of study respondents report
having an asset integrity management (AIM) or risk mitigation plan in
place, few are using centralized enterprise technology like an
enterprise asset management (EAM) system to track the key elements of
that plan, including documents about the equipment and assets themselves
and information on the training and certification of employees working
on the assets.
Asset integrity management ensures that an asset, like a piece of
equipment or industrial facility, is operated in such a way that it can
generate productivity and in many cases avoid damaging the environment.
Effective asset integrity management provide mechanisms to see that the
people, systems, processes and resources that deliver integrity are in
place, in use and will perform when required over the whole lifecycle of
the asset.
According to IFS North America Director for Asset Management Patrick
Zirnhelt, asset integrity management ought to be a key concern for any
stakeholder of a business that relies on productivity and viability of
capital assets.
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Join a Free
Innovations Webinar from IFS
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As a natural part of
our pursuit for future leading-edge
productivity we invite you to take part in
our upcoming webinars. This spring we'll be
broadcasting the many ways in which ERP will
evolve in the near future - enterprise apps,
scheduling and optimization, and business
intelligence are just to name few. They are
live and
you’re
invited
to listen.
THREE WAYS ERP WILL CHANGE
Compared to
those used in the 90’s, today’s ERP
systems have many things in common,
but also significant differences. In
this webinar, listen to IFS Chief
Technology Officer Dan Matthews talk
about three ways in which ERP will
change over the next 15 years.
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HOW TO MAKE INNOVATIONS COME TRUE
This session
gives insight on how IFS, together
with our customers, turn ideas into
innovations ready to hit the market.
We call it Platform for Innovation.
Take this opportunity to get
inspired and learn why companies
prefer the IFS way of boosting
business.
Thursday, April 26, 2012 at
9 a.m. CDT - Register Now!
(Password: spring2012)
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BOOST
YOUR BUSINESS WITH ENTERPRISE APPS
In this webinar we
will introduce and demonstrate IFS Touch
Apps - enterprise apps for iPhone and
Android. Join us to find out how our unique
cloud-based approach makes deployment and
roll-out of enterprise apps quick and easy.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at
9 a.m. CDT - Register Now!(Password:
spring2012)
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Free White Paper: 5 Enterprise Asset Management
(EAM) Steps to RCM
In industrial maintenance, utilities and other
asset-intensive industries, plant managers are
 telling
maintenance managers they want them to implement the
reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) processes
that they keep reading about in trade magazines.
In this white paper, we’ll outline the five levels
of asset-management development a company usually
passes through leading to more advanced processes
such as RCM to eventually achieve QAM.
Continue reading this white paper to learn more
today!
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Podcast: Aerospace & Defense
Manufacturers Can use Regulation in Their Favor
In the hyper-competitive field of aerospace
and defense contracting, a ma nufacturer,
maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) shop or service provider needs to
take every advantage. And the ability to document performance against
the requirement of the Defense Production Act of 1950 is one way that
even second and third tier defense suppliers can position themselves for
greater success.
In this month’s interview segment of the IFS
Radio Network podcast series, we will discuss how the Defense Priorities
Allocation System (DPAS) affects a company’s ability to compete for
defense program dollars. Vice President for Aerospace and Defense Kevin
Deal and Implementation Manager Gary Cornell will also address how the
right functionality in enterprise software including enterprise resource
planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM) and maintenance repair
and overhaul (MRO) can help you succeed.
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"The mandatory acceptance
clause of DPAS says that the contractor, the subcontractors
and suppliers have to accept these ratings and delivery
times … The reason this is so important when it comes to
enterprise software is that your system needs to follow this
priority down to the end item. So if you have a good
serialized structure for, say, the compression section on an
aircraft engine, and that gets broken down to the shops,
those vendors, subcontractors or suppliers need to
understand that each one of those fan blades has a priority.
And as it comes back together onto that engine, it at the
head of the line in front of everything else. You are really
compressing the critical path in order to get that aircraft
back into operation."
Kevin Deal, Vice President for Aerospace and Defense, IFS
North America
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IFS VBG GROUP Implements IFS Applications 8 to
Streamline Processes
Automotive engineering company VBG GROUP has gone
live on the Beta 2 version of IFS Applications 8 in
order to streamline and modernize the business
processes within one of their business divisions.
VBG GROUP is one of the worldwide Applications 8
early adopters utilizing the new and innovative
features of IFS Applications 8.
VBG GROUP is the world-leading manufacturer
of trailer couplings for heavy vehicles with
manufacturing and sales companies in Europe,
India, China, and the U.S. As a lean
manufacturing pioneer within the quality-driven
automotive industry, VBG GROUP is constantly
looking to improve their business processes in
order to deliver consistent quality according to
the industry’s exacting standards.
By updating to IFS Applications 8, VBG GROUP
benefits from a number of innovative solutions
for production planning, warehousing,
forecasting, reporting, purchasing planning, and
multi-site planning. In addition, VBG GROUP can
access the user-friendly and customizable IFS
Enterprise Explorer (IFS EE) interface as a
standard part of the solution. The interface is
based on the latest usability research and
offers extensive user customization options and
many intuitive features for filtering, searching
and navigating data, in order to suit each
individual role and competency within a company.
“The decision to get involved in the early
adopter program was easy. We wanted to modernize
our enterprise applications platform in order to
maintain our leading position within the
industry. We believe that IFS Applications 8
will enable us to make improvements throughout
our value chain - from enhanced user efficiency
via the IFS Enterprise Explorer interface, to
streamlined processes on our production line,”
said Stefan Josefsson, CIO at VBG GROUP.
IFS has a long tradition of working close to
the customer throughout the value chain and VBG
GROUP has contributed greatly to the development
of IFS Applications over the years. For
instance, the company’s input on IFS’s shop
floor reporting tool resulted in a best-practice
solution that is now included in the standard
IFS Applications suite.
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Watch Video -
IFS's Agile Development Methodology Explained
Watch
this 3-minute video, which explains IFS's Agile
Development Methodology to learn how we listen to
our customers feedback when developing our product.
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Meet IFS at These
Events
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Upcoming Events |
The Service Council™
Symposium
May 1-2, 2012 in Chicago
IFS will be attending and exhibiting at the
Service Council™ Symposium. This event provides
an invaluable opportunity to meet and network
with Services, Customer Experience and Customer
Management Executives in an environment
conducive to advancing Executive relationships.
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Offshore Technology Conference
April 30 - May 3, 2012 in
Houston, Texas
Stop by and visit IFS at
booth #6519
IFS will be exhibiting at
the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) again this year. Founded in
1969, OTC is the world’s foremost event for the development of offshore
resources in the fields of drilling, exploration, production, and
environmental protection.
OTC ranks among the largest
200 trade shows held annually in the United States and is among the 10
largest meetings in terms of attendance. Attendance consistently exceeds
50,000, and more than 2,000 companies participate in the exhibition. OTC
includes attendees from around the globe, with more than 110 countries
represented at recent conferences. Join IFS at OTC this April! |
APICS - The Best of the Best S&OP Conference
June 14-15, 2012 in
Chicago
Visit IFS at the show!
The Best of the Best S&OP Conference is designed
to provide in-depth education and practical
answers from the supply and demand sides of
sales and operations planning (S&OP). At the
Best of the Best S&OP Conference, you will
discover how to introduce, plan, implement, and
collaborate on S&OP at your organization.
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Accurate & Free Software
Comparison ToolLooking
to
compare software functionality from one vendor to
another?
Take the mystery out of the process and utilize the
Comparison Tool from Managing Automation at
www.managingautomation.com.
The IFS Validation Report includes:
- A solution overview
- A functional overview, including a summary of key
capabilities by application and industry
- A technology overview
- A description of the new enhancements in IFS
Applications
- A description of
Managing Automation's validation methodology
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Meet the IFS Team
Each month the IFS customer newsletter
will feature an IFS employee.
This month's spotlight is on:
Janet
-
Senior Product Support Analyst
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"I have been working for IFS for over 13 years, and I work in
the Milwaukee, Wisconsin office.
What I like
most about working for IFS is that I never know what my work day
has in is store for me. Each customer case is a new challenge
for me to solve. And I really feel like I have succeeded in my
daily work, when a customer submits a ‘Good’ survey response to
one of my cases.
On a
personal note, my husband's name is David and we have a
32-year-old son, Anthony and a 24-year-old son, Andy.
In my free time I enjoy bowling on a couples bowling league and
spoiling my three grandchildren: Ayden, Luca and Adriana.
An interesting
fact about me is that I’m one of those crazy people that will
stand in lines for hours to see a movie on the first day it is
released." |
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