As the oil and gas, petrochemical, refining and other manufacturing companies face mounting pressure to achieve improved financial results, Emerson has launched Operational Certainty™, a technology and engineering-based programme designed to help industrial companies achieve top performance and recover more than USD 1 trillion in operational losses globally.

Emerson is introducing new peer benchmarking insights to bring better perspective on best practices and technologies to achieve Top Quartile performance in the areas of safety, reliability, production and energy management. Top Quartile is defined as achieving operations and capital performance in the top 25 percent of peer companies.

The company is also launching a new Operational Certainty consulting practice plus expanded project execution methodologies and resources. Additionally, the company announces a new Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) digital ecosystem to provide the technology foundation for companies to securely implement Industrial IoT to achieve measurable business performance improvement.

“With a global contraction in capital spending, the industry is under tremendous pressure to hit financial targets with existing assets,” says Mike Train, executive president of Emerson Automation Solutions. “The key to setting and achieving new performance goals is first understanding what is possible given today’s technologies and which levers can deliver measurable, predicable results.”

A few examples of Emerson’s findings:

In terms of safety, Top Quartile performers had one-third the number of safety incidents as compared to their average industry peers.

In terms of asset reliability, Emerson found that Top Quartile performers spend half as much on maintenance compared with average performers and operate with an incremental 15 days of available production each year.

In the domain of production, Top Quartile manufacturers spent 20% less on production-related expenses as compared to average producers.

In the areas of energy and emissions, the top 25% of producers spent one-third as much as the industry average on energy costs and had 30% less CO₂ emissions.

Despite years of operations improvement programmes, many producers are increasingly disappointed with nominal improvements achieved. Due to limited peer benchmarking and uncertainty about which approaches will yield the greatest improvements, companies are trapped by decades-old work practices that fail to take advantage of advanced digital technologies, resulting in stagnant financial performance.

“Manufacturers are stuck in a ‘grind it out’ mindset, frozen in a paradox of needing dramatically better results yet being risk-averse to try new approaches,” says Train. “Companies lack the confidence in knowing which investment option will move the needle on financial performance. Operational Certainty provides a clear roadmap.”

With its industry expertise, consulting services, comprehensive automation technologies portfolio and new Industrial IoT solutions, Emerson is able to help customers extract greater value from their investments and deliver measurable results to the bottom line.

“By helping customers leverage the best practices and strategies of Top Quartile performers, Emerson is able to help customers improve their earnings as much as 15%,” says Train. “We know precisely what behaviours are delivering industry-leading performance and what is required for other companies to reach those levels.”

To aid customers in establishing a path to Top Quartile performance, Emerson starts with Operational Certainty Workshops, consultant-led sessions that help customers pinpoint their causes of poor performance, prioritise actions that can yield the greatest improvement and establish a scalable work plan for achieving those results. Customers interested in the Operational Certainty Workshop can learn more at Emerson’s website.

In 2015, Emerson first introduced the opportunity for Top Quartile performance in capital projects with Project Certainty, a commitment to help the industry address a crisis in poor capital project performance. Emerson reported industry data demonstrating that 65% of all projects over $1 billion fail to meet financial and schedule goals. The industry has responded, adopting new approaches and technologies to transform the way capital projects are designed, engineered and executed.

“Emerson introduced Project Certainty at precisely the right time, when the industry was desperately seeking new ideas for improving capital projects,” says Train. “We believe the same is now true for Operational Certainty. Customers are hungry for new ideas and proven ways to harness the power of Industrial IoT to make technology work in measurable, meaningful ways.”

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