Emerson Exchange 365

If one thing is certain in life, it’s that change is inevitable. However, in spite of the process industry's focus on all things cutting edge, there is one area that is often overlooked but profoundly influences our ability to engineer and build projects that are safe, reliable, and efficient. That area, according to Dave Beckmann, is the way we manage change in our businesses. Mr. Beckmann, an internationally renowned speaker and process industry expert, explored this and other issues in his enlightening keynote address Tuesday morning at the 2014 Emerson Global Users Exchange in Stuttgart.

“All companies are made up of two critical components,” Beckmann explained. “A management team designed to run the company the right way, and a leadership team designed to help the company do the right things. Companies who have these two elements in equilibrium succeed at a much higher rate than those who let the pendulum swing to either one side or the other.”

“This is particularly true in the process industry. If the pendulum swings too far to the Management side, an undue focus will be placed on efficiency and cost savings. This can often result in poorly designed projects that cut corners on safety and reliability.”

As an example, Beckmann points to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. “In order to save money on cooling water pumping, the spent fuel rods were stored on top of the nuclear reactors, emergency generators were located on the plant floor level, and the sea wall was constructed only 28ft above sea level. Objections to this were voiced, but squelched. The same concern was infamously voiced by NASA engineers who felt that the ‘O-Rings’ on the Space Shuttle Columbia engines were not sufficient to prevent fuel leakage, but their concerns were not heeded by a management team who were under pressure to meet a launch date.”

“Success depends on a healthy balance between a management team that is chartered to do things right and an engineering leadership team that is charged to do the right things,” Beckmann said. “When these two are in balance, companies achieve an operation that is both safe and efficient.”

“I believe through the collaboration of end users, engineering companies and suppliers such as Emerson, we can play a critical role in bringing focus on this critical element of our Process Industry. Our goal should be to empower engineering leaders to challenge management teams in a healthy way to make sure that our projects address ‘The Right Things.’”

“This is compounded by the growing lack of talent in our businesses as an older generation retires and is replaced by newly minted engineers who may not have augmented their formal training with a graduate degree from the school of ‘Hard Knocks.’ Thus, the new challenge is even greater today than it was just a decade ago.”

Beckmann concluded by encouraging Exchange attendees to take advantage of conference sessions where companies are presenting ideas that can be applied tangentially to their own situations. “I also urge attendees to visit the demonstration area where they can see first hand the tools and educational cirriculum which they can apply in their plants. But, most of all,” he said, “I hope that this event emboldens a new generation of engineering leaders to make their voices heard so that their companies not only ‘Do Things Right,’ but also ‘Do The Right Things.’”