Sandra DiMatteo

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Utility rate applications more defensible backed by engineering data

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Aligning near-term operational decisions with longer term strategic asset investment decisions requires using a data-driven methodology that considers asset risk, cost, reliability and performance. Finally, we can integrate the engineering and financial communities in an effort to optimize those decisions and ensure both capital and operations & maintenance investment activities are aligned across all time horizons.

Ivara EXP asset health indices, reliability and performance metrics are inputs to CopperLeaf C55 investment projects for maintenance, upgrade, life extension, and replacement. Together, EXP and C55 provide the foundation for fact-based decisions to get the right balance between ongoing maintenance, capital replacement, and overall risk mitigation.

With this solution, utility rate applications become more defensible because they are backed by engineering data; decision-making and planning processes become more transparent and efficient; cycle-time to explore scenarios and generate new plans is reduced; and savings are achieved through optimized maintenance and capital plans.

The EXP / C55 combination sets the standard for complete asset life cycle management.

For more on the Ivara / CopperLeaf partnership, click here.

July 21st, 2011 Sandra DiMatteo Developments in EXP - Industry Solutions - Strategy & Leadership Leave a Comment »

Managing Asset Performance & Reliability with IBM Maximo & Ivara EXP

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

Organizations thinking about how they can improve maintenance effectiveness, are recognizing that they need to focus on doing the right work – that is, the maintenance tasks that represent the minimum amount of work to ensure that a given asset delivers the performance needed at the lowest possible cost. EXP feeds Maximo better and more timely information to ensure Maintenance is doing the right work.

EXP is integrated to IBM Maximo for asset strategy, consolidation and analysis of data from multiple sources, CBM analytics and Work Order triggers as well as backend analytics for continuous improvement of asset intelligence and relative EAM strategy. With a certified “Ready for Tivoli” interface, Ivara EXP Enterprise helps organizations maximize their investment in the IBM Maximo solution by enabling a proactive approach to equipment performance management.

Watch the short demo showing how Ivara EXP is integrated with IBM Maximo to manage asset performance and reliability:

June 3rd, 2011 Sandra DiMatteo Developments in EXP - Industry Solutions Leave a Comment »

Ivara CEO discusses asset performance management as supply chain strategy at ARC World Industry Forum

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

This video was recorded at ARC World Industry Forum 2011 in Orlando, FL.

In this 10 minute interview, Paul Marshall discusses asset performance management as a supply chain strategy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNVjArCajGk&feature=related.

May 3rd, 2011 Sandra DiMatteo Strategy & Leadership - Uncategorized Leave a Comment »

Quantifying the Benefits of an Asset Performance Initiative

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

As published in Uptime magazine… whitepaper written by Paul Lanthier, Director of The Aladon Network and Ivara Reliability Services…

Asset performance improvement initiatives that are based on an increase in asset reliability are an excellent way to maximize financial return from your assets. These initiatives provide significant and sustainable benefits for relatively low financial investments compared to their capital expenditure alternatives.

This white paper describes how to quantify these financial benefits as well as the possible metrics to use in managing the initiative. The paper includes a number of examples where such benefits have been achieved and provides a normalized compilation of results from work performed over the past 10 years.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/reliabilityweb/uptime_20110405/#/48

April 21st, 2011 Sandra DiMatteo Strategy & Leadership Leave a Comment »

Baker Panel Report motivated ScottishPower to act on Process Safety

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

There have been many catastrophic industrial incidents since the BP Texas City refinery incident, but not at ScottishPower. The Baker Panel Report into the BP Texas City refinery fire motivated ScottishPower to carry out a self audit assessing if a similar catastrophic incident could happen within its operations, and if so, how well could risks be managed?

ScottishPower is not a complacent organization. They were given just two years to address process safety; develop sustainable processes to address the British Government’s Health and Safety Executive HSE Plant Ageing report of 2006 (RR509) and also to attain PAS 55 accreditation. If anyone tells Martin Sedgwick, Head of Asset Management at ScottishPower, that it cannot be done in so little time, that was motivation to get the job done!

It was time to change a very reactive culture in an older coal fired plant to a proactive culture, while at the same time, addressing the future lost knowledge due to employee attrition and the lack of technology to support the approved business model.

In only two years, ScottishPower successfully established the asset management and process safety framework that has led to improved plant reliability. As a result, they have improved performance and transparency of key processes, as well as experienced fewer unplanned outages and breakdowns with significant cost savings:

20% reduction in operations and maintenance costs
22% increase in plant availability
25% reduction in plant forced outage rates
10% reduction in insurance premiums

Read the story…

April 19th, 2011 Sandra DiMatteo Industry Solutions - Regulatory Compliance - Safety and Environmental - Strategy & Leadership Leave a Comment »

Demonstrate a simple example of reliability and you’ll gain a lot of support

Friday, April 1st, 2011

Look around you. There are so many opportunities to apply common sense reliability principles and gain many untapped benefits. Watch this 8 minute video showing a simple Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA) example then think about the possibilities in your plant. Interestingly, this example was ‘stumbled’ across during an RCM2 / MTA facilitator training session. You will see the value of getting Maintenance and Operations together to apply common sense strategies, in this case saving the company $11,000 annually. It’s a great learning tool, too. Just imagine what you could achieve coupling RCM on high risk assets along with MTA, starting with the ‘lowest hanging fruit’ in your plant.

April 1st, 2011 Sandra DiMatteo Implementation Success - RCM 2 Comments »

Managing Asset Performance and Reliability with SAP EAM and Ivara EXP

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Watch this 3 minute video demonstrating the value of EXP integrated to SAP for asset strategy, consolidation and analysis of data from multiple sources, CBM analytics and Work Order triggers as well as backend analytics for continuous improvement of asset intelligence and relative EAM strategy. Together, SAP PM and Ivara EXP enable a proactive approach to asset performance management.

March 21st, 2011 Sandra DiMatteo Developments in EXP - Industry Solutions Leave a Comment »

How should instrumentation be treated in RCM Analyses?

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Denis Marshment of Asset Dynamics Asia, discusses how instrumentation should be treated in RCM Analyses…

Process industries are increasingly reliant on Instrumentation. Instrumentation used in process control maintains product quality, reduces operating costs and helps to maximize production output by delivering instantaneous and highly accurate readings for adjustment of process parameters. Instrumentation also plays a vital role in ensuring that plants remain safe and meet environment regulations.

When instrumentation fails, the results can be disastrous. The BP Texas City Refinery explosion that led to the death of 15 workers, injuring more than 170 others and costing BP billions in damages was in a large part caused by a failure of the instrument control and protection systems.

So is RCM the best place to analyze instrumentation assets to improve safety and reliability?

The uncertainty over this question has led some to remove the instrumentation assets from RCM analysis entirely and develop new methods such as IPF (Instrument Protected Functions). This may seem like a neat & tidy solution to the problem but it can also result in an RCM analysis detached from the process.

Our experience has been that instrumentation is as much a part of RCM analysis as rotating equipment and should most definitely be included in the analysis. The question remains then, how should instrumentation be treated in RCM2?

Let’s review the elements of the RCM2 process when applied to instruments… http://www.thealadonnetwork.com/PDFs/Instrumentation_RCM2_Denis_Marshment_ADA.pdf

Denis is a Director of Asset Dynamics Asia with over 14 years experience in mechanical engineering and management consulting and is a licensed practitioner of the Aladon RCM2 network. Prior to joining Asset Dynamics Asia, Denis was a principal consultant with Price Waterhouse Coopers where he led the Physical Asset Management Group in Asia. Denis has extensive experience in implementing reliability improvement initiatives in the oil & gas industry and has help large multinationals in Asia and the Middle East make the transition from reactive to proactive maintenance through the application of leading technologies and methods.

January 28th, 2011 Sandra DiMatteo RCM - Safety and Environmental Leave a Comment »

Moving from Time-Based to Condition Based Maintenance

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Scott Peich, Reliability Program Leader, at ArcelorMittal speaks at the Ivara Reliability Leadership Summit on the value of having Inspectors and Planners working with Tradespeople to help them do their jobs better and more efficiently.

January 4th, 2011 Sandra DiMatteo Condition Based Maintenance Leave a Comment »

The Role of Software in Asset Performance Management: Reduce maintenance cost, downtime and safety incidents

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Ivara is a proud sponsor of the Aberdeen Group Benchmark Report 2010.

While frozen budgets have been a key issue for maintenance organizations, the results from Aberdeen’s fourth annual research study, including responses from 117 executives revealed that managing employee and plant safety, reducing maintenance costs and minimizing asset downtime is placing increasing pressure on these groups. This report will serve as a guideline for maintenance and reliability professionals to understand how to proactively manage these challenges in this uncertain business environment.

For a limited time only, download the report here

November 2nd, 2010 Sandra DiMatteo Industry Solutions - Uncategorized Leave a Comment »