Emerson enters management consulting

The control and instrumentation supplier claims enterprise-wide reliability strategies can save global companies more than $50 billion (£31.3bn) a year in costs and increase capacity by more than 5%.

The launch of the new service follows Emerson’s acquisition of US reliability consulting services firm Management Resources Group (MRG) in May.

“Reliability is not just a workshop topic, it is an issue for the boardroom,” said Emerson Process Management Europe president Roel Van Doren at the service’s European launch in London last week.

“This is because increased availability and reduced maintenance costs increase shareholder value.”

Companies are spending millions on unnecessary maintenance costs

MRG’s Robert DiStefano

By reducing scheduled and unscheduled downtime, companies can reduce their maintenance spend by 50% or more, according to Solomon Associates, a benchmarking company in the process industries that tracks companies’ performance based on reliability and maintenance metrics.

Optimised reliability practices – such as increased condition monitoring and analysis-based maintenance activities – drive down costs and also improve sales, quality, health and safety, and environmental compliance. These are all key factors affecting operational risk and shareholder value, according to Emerson.

“If a company is not a top-quartile performer, it is losing millions in revenue and spending millions of euros on unnecessary maintenance costs,” said Robert DiStefano, MRG’s founder and chief executive prior to Emerson’s takeover.

“Every euro not spent on maintenance goes directly to the bottom line. Our approach helps companies dramatically reduce downtime and enhance safety and compliance, increasing the stature and reputation of a company and ultimately providing better value for shareholders.”

One of MRG’s clients, Corbion, a global food and biochemical company with plants in many countries, implemented standardised best practices of reliability over several years and has reduced its global maintenance expense by one third while also increasing availability.