Orlando-2011-ARC-World-Industry-Forum

Presenting ARC's Fifteenth Annual Orlando Forum

ARC World Industry Forum:  Driving Innovation, Sustainability, and Performance

February 7-10, 2011 - Orlando, Florida

Speakers Stress Need for Transformative Innovation

ARC’s 15th Annual World Industry Forum was held in a beautiful new venue, the Renaissance SeaWorld Marriott Hotel.  This year's event attracted more than 650 participants, representing 250 different organizations from 20 different countries.  This included more than 100 speakers, 45 media representatives, and a record number of end users from the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors.  Many participants commented that this Forum was possibly the best they had ever attended.

This year's forum began with a series of well-attended and highly interactive workshops and several important supplier press announcements on Monday; followed by general and topical sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in the five different tracks.  However, all was not work: Opto 22 and ARC co-hosted a pre-Forum Super Bowl Party Sunday evening, ARC hosted a welcome reception Monday night, AT&T hosted a luncheon on Tuesday, AVEVA and Mitsubishi both hosted receptions Tuesday evening, and Siemens hosted a reception at SeaWorld Wednesday evening. 

Driving Innovation, Sustainability, and Performance through Collaborative Value Networks
In his opening remarks, Andy Chatha, ARC's Founder and President, introduced ARC's new Collaborative Value Networks concept, commenting that while the business drivers haven't changed significantly since last year, the intensity continues to increase.

According to Andy, recent events in the Middle East increased the level of uncertainty.  Security — both physical and cyber — is becoming a bigger challenge for all companies.  The BRIC countries are becoming stronger and more competitive every year.  More "Facebook-generation" younger people are joining the workforce every year, bringing many new ideas and working styles.  Government regulations increase by the day.  We have started to upgrade the electric grid, with the Smart Grid having the potential to become as powerful and intelligent as the Internet.  And the IT revolution continues, bringing with it, what Andy calls "easy IT" solutions.  "With all these changes going on, we need to become highly flexible and agile," said Andy. 

Andy added that any company that wants to reduce costs by 20-30 percent to compete effectively must innovate and look for new ways to do things using new solutions that enable new business models.  This provided an excellent segue to his next topic for discussion; Collaborative Value Networks.

To put this in context, Andy first discussed ARC's Collaborative Manufacturing Management (CMM) model, which ARC introduced back in 2000.  While the CMM concept provides a meaningful way to visualize and analyze the plant as a node in a supply chain network, it doesn't go far enough.  Today's companies realize that they must become more design- or innovation-centric and supply chain networks don't incorporate design and engineering departments, which are managed separately by a different department.  To become more innovation-centric, companies need to integrate their design, make, and deliver processes from end to end.  Collaborative Value Networks extend CMM to the enterprise.

Oil & Gas Industry Trends and Challenges
The first keynote speaker at Tuesday morning's opening general session, David Ritter, President of the Haymarket Group, provided a high-level overview of the trends and challenges facing the global oil & gas industry today and its importance within the global economy.

According to David, "The oil & gas industry facilitates global economies.  The global oil & gas industry will invest 1.5 trillion dollars a year from 2010 through 2030."  According to David, "Population and economic growth are the biggest growth drivers for energy — particularly in Asia — and the global energy demand will double by 2050.  Conventional supplies will struggle to keep up with this demand, and alternative sources will not initially be able to close the gap."  As a result, "Oil and gas will provide more than 50 percent of the world's energy requirements for the next 20 years and this continued dependence on oil and gas will trigger regulatory intervention; transforming carbon dioxide into a resource, rather than a hindrance.”

In conclusion, David commented, "Innovation, creativity, and performance excellence are essential to meeting the future challenges of responsible energy production."

The Power of One, the Power to Lead
The next keynote speaker, Don Taylor, Vice President of Manufacturing and Engineering at Dow Chemical's Advanced Materials Division, gave a well-received presentation on the company's global transformation strategy.  Don prefaced his presentation by saying that many of the challenges summarized in David's oil & gas industry overview also apply to the global chemical industry.  To set the tone for his presentation, Don cited a quote widely attributed to manufacturing guru, W. Edwards Deming: "Change is not mandatory.  Survival is optional."

According to Don, Dow Chemical initiated its transformation strategy five years ago.  The objective was not only to change the products the company made, but also how it made the products and how its people operated.  The changing manufacturing and engineering landscape leads to diversification of manufacturing activities and operations.  More products require manufacturing flexibility (discrete, complex batch, simple batch, and continuous), plus the need to integrate different organizations, and to do so in a difficult economy.

The company's Integrated Management System combines work processes and engineering competencies, providing a culture of empowerment with individuals "empowered to deliver."  The company also initiated an Integrated Performance System to track performance on a daily (rather than monthly) basis, with teams evaluating performance in daily meetings and implementing changes and improvements.

According to Don, the transformation at Dow Chemical has had some significant results.  With a "safety-first" focus, process safety incidents have been reduced by 50 percent; loss of primary containment incidents have been reduced by 50 percent (with related spill quantity reduced by 70 percent); and the number and severity of injuries has been reduced by 50 percent or more at many sites.  Other results attributed to the transformation include accelerated implementation, plus improved synergies, reliability, energy efficiency, production capacity, and more.

Asset Information Management Strategies
At the Wednesday morning's general session, Bechtel Group Senior Vice President, Geir Ramleth, gave a presentation on the need for suppliers, EPCs (such as Bechtel), and owner-operators to develop and implement standards for managing asset-related information.  He prefaced his presentation with, "We [Forum participants], as a collection of industries, need to mature by developing some basic standards [for asset information management]."  Geir then gave some examples of common standards that make life and business easier.  These included calendars, standard gauge railways, boxcars for shipping, standard couplers for fire hydrants, and credit cards, which can be used anywhere around the world. 

Geir went on to describe the owner/operator challenge of poor information.  These include the time it takes to achieve design capacity at new facilities, increased regulatory requirements, the aging workforce, low "wrench time" due to poor access to accurate information, and a move toward centralized operations.  Geir said, "We, the builders, should help owner/operators deal with their information challenges. 

Geir commented that he agrees with ARC's new model for the asset information process, which allows for a smooth, rather than disjointed flow of relevant information for stakeholders over the asset lifecycle.

Geir concluded, "To deliver the full potential of asset information management, we need everyone — suppliers, EPCs, software providers, and owner/operators — to work together, support standards, and deliver solutions.  Most people don't disagree that standards are needed, but not many are doing much about it."  

Both the general sessions summarized above, and the more topical program sessions at this year's World Industry Forum (including sessions on operational excellence, anti-counterfeiting and brand protection, project performance management, enterprise mobility solutions, sustainability and production management, and energy management) shared a number of common themes.  These include the need for companies to adopt common standards and processes, the need for real-time decision support through digitization, the need for easy IT, and the need to innovate in how companies manage and leverage data, collaborate across value chains, leverage new technologies, incorporate standard approaches and technologies, and adopt new business models.

Attendee Testimonials

We received many favorable comments from our attendees on the quality of the agenda, diversity of speakers, and the Forum as a whole.  Following is a sampling of what they told us.

"One of the best ever ARC Forums - well done ARC Team!"

Maurice Wilkins
Vice President, IA Global Strategic Marketing

"I come here every year to get a fresh perspective on new ideas."

Craig Schiro
Senior Engineering Associate

"ARC does a great job of putting together the right thought leaders for the industry.  Just a tremendous amount of consistency, continuous improvement, and innovation in their conference programming.  You learn a lot and you get to meet a lot of great people and really build a lot of friendships."

Fred Yentz
CEO

"ARC’s Forum provides a great opportunity to network, along with interesting presentations about top notch topics."

Andreas Wernsdörfer
Vice President, Automation & Electrical Engineering

"There’s no place else you can find so many experts in one place – it’s a great place to network."

Chris Gibbons
Project Execution and Control Manager

"ARC's Forum changes my perspective on industry trends and allows me to make better decisions regarding those trends."

Richard Morihara, Research & Technology Engineer

"Increased participation in ARC's Forum is indicative of the improving economy and a willingness for industry leaders to think about the big picture again."

Sid Venkatesh, Associate Technical Fellow

"ARC's Forum gives OMAC's Machine Tool Working Group (MTWG) participants an opportunity to meet face-to-face for problem-solving and strategy sessions. It also allows us contact with other industry leaders that are not part of the MTWG."

David Odendahl, Model Based Definition Engineer

"ARC did a great job organizing the workshop and sessions.  The format was one of the most interactive sessions I’ve attended and was very worthwhile.  The content was informative and pertinent to anti-counterfeiting strategies and organizational issues.  I look forward to attending next year."

Robert Sherwood
Vice President, Security Programs Management

"ARC's Forum offers an amazing insight/expertise/experience with the oil/gas/power/refinery industries; it helped Rackspace Hosting engage with many potential clients and current customers within the industry.  ARC's staff was overwhelmingly hospitable and truly helped Rackspace Hosting feel welcome as a first-time attendee and sponsor.  We walked away from the event with multiple quality opportunities, immediate action items, and a new level of knowledge.  We will definitely be back next year!"

Matthew Lathrop
Sharepoint Evangelist

"As an emerging vendor in the segment, the "Beyond the Perfect Order Metric" session’s content, presenters, format and hosts were outstanding.  I brought home a number of insights that will help my company better address our clients’ and prospects’ needs."

Jonathan Kall
CEO

"Final impressions from ARC's World Industry Forum:  Innovation is alive and well for manufacturing companies looking to compete and win in the global market."

Tom Knight
Founder & CEO

Benefits of Attending

Top ten reasons for attending ARC's Orlando Forum:

• Learn about new technologies, new practices, and emerging standards
• See the latest product releases from leading suppliers
• Hear how others are solving some of your most pressing problems
• Discuss your issues and ideas with peers, suppliers, and ARC Analysts
• Network with colleagues and develop valuable relationships with peer and supplier executives
• Expand your knowledge by attending sessions from eight exciting programs
• Discover new ways to breakdown cultural, organizational, and contractual barriers
• Collaborate with peers on shared problems like limited capital, aging workforce, etc.
• Impress your boss and colleagues with new fresh ideas to improve performance
• Inject your requirements into supplier product roadmaps

Agenda

Following is the schedule for the Forum.

Sunday, February 6

Monday, February 7

Tuesday, February 8

Wednesday, February 9

Thursday, February 10

Executive Speakers

Keynote and featured speakers include the following.  Click on the speaker name to view a brief bio. 

Location

The Forum is held at the Renaissance Orlando Hotel in Orlando, Florida.

Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld Marriott
6677 Sea Harbor Drive
Orlando, Florida  32821
407-351-5555 or 800-327-6677
renaissanceseaworldorlando.com

Previous Attendees

The following companies have attended recent ARC forums:

Speaking Opportunities

For information on nominating a speaker for the forum, please visit our Speaking Opportunities page or contact us at info@arcweb.com.

Sponsorship Opportunities

For information on opportunities for sponsoring the forum, please contact your client manager or info@arcweb.com.