Turnaround Industry Network Conference

This year, TINC will be held September 24th - 26th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 1200 Louisiana Street, Houston, Texas. It features Owner Company Executives and Managers presenting each day of the conference. It will also feature a quantitative benchmarking analysis of turnaround performance and practices. TINC 2012 will have distinct breakout session tracks for participants to gain insight into emerging best practices in turnaround planning and execution that lead to improved performance. An expert panel will also address current issues and topics.

American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (formerly NPRA)—2012 Reliability and Maintenance Conference and Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, May 22^nd - May 25^th, 2012

Bethesda, Maryland, March 2012 — Asset Performance Networks will be exhibiting at the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) 2012 Reliability and Maintenance Conference in May 2012. AFPM is a trade association which represents high-tech American manufacturers of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other fuels. AFPM also represents the petrochemicals industry, which produces thousands of vital products used in very day life. For more information, go to www.afpm.org

The Reliability and Maintenance Conference focuses on improving reliability in the refining and petrochemical industry. The conference covers topics such as: effective maintenance organization, productivity, equipment reliability, safety and mechanical integrity, training, environmental control, preventive maintenance, maintenance and engineering standards, inspection, procurement, and innovative reliability technology. For more information please click here.

At the conference, Houston-based AP-Networks Senior Consultant Pete Shirley will be presenting a paper entitled "Turnaround Excellence Through Organizational Transformation". In this paper, Pete discusses how organizations with best-practice processes, procedures, tools, and structures often inadvertently undermine their transition toward high performance. Key detractors to turnaround success can involve: implicit goals that directly conflict with explicit goals, hidden dysfunctional reward systems, ambiguous priorities, strict deadlines, ineffective communications, and the inability of site to identify and correct these problems “real time”. Pete's paper discusses (with real life examples) some of the more subtle cultural conditions which can negatively influence a team’s performance. The paper also provides some examples of tools that have been effectively used to steer teams back to success.

12^th International Downstream Technology & Strategy Conference – May 22^nd-23^rd, 2012, Rome, Italy

Bethesda, Maryland, February 2012 — Gordon Lawrence, Senior Consultant with Asset Performance Networks will be presenting a paper at the 12^th International Downstream Technology & Strategy Conference on May 23^rd, 2012, in Rome, Italy. His paper is entitled "Improving Turnaround Performance Outcomes by Controlling the Leading Indicators" and it will discuss how the use of a robust work process aids more predictable maintenance turnaround outcomes and hence greater operational efficiency. The conference will focus on how in these challenging times, refiners are increasingly looking at new methods to upgrade their facilities and improve yield for minimal cost and operational impact. For information on conference registration, please follow this link http://www.europetro.com/en/idtc_2012.