When: June 7, 2011

The WCMUG annually hosts a Fall meeting in British Columbia and a Spring meeting in Alberta. Each meeting consists of user presentations, an open forum/roundtable, a networking session and an optional training workshop. Typically, meeting attendance is between 60 and 90 Maximo users from the Oil & Gas, Energy & Utilities, Healthcare, Forestry Products, Mining, Public Sector and Transportation Industries.

The WCMUG is proud to host the Spring 2011 meeting in Red Deer, Alberta at the Holiday Inn 67 Street. The Spring 2011 meeting will be a 2 day event with the meeting on June 7th and an optional training workshop on June 8th.

GenesisSolutions is proud to be a Bronze Sponsor of this meeting. We will have a representative attending who will be able to discuss our Maximo 6 & 7 implementation, upgrade, training and reporting services & experience along with our associated Maintenance Improvement & Asset Reliability services offerings. Ask us about our Asset Management Master Planning program and how it can help lead your organization to Operational Excellence.

When: 6/29/10

The D.C. Maximo User Group is designed to help users learn about the bigger picture of asset management, exchange experience and tips with Maximo and discuss the different aspects of working in asset management in the Washington, DC metro area.

When: 05/24/10 & 05/25/10

The Maximo Utility Working Group (MUWG) is an industry group representing over 145 utility companies, counties and cities throughout the U.S., Canada, China, South Africa, Pakistan, Japan, and the Caribbean that exchange information related to the implementation and application of the Maximo asset management system. Two workshops are held each year, one in the summer, and the other in winter and Genesis has been one of the key supporting vendors of the conference for a number of years. Genesis will be attending and continuing to sponsor this productive, educational event. Our resources will be available to answer any questions you may have about the proven services we have provided over the years and continue to provide to the utilities community to help make the most of their maintenance programs.

GenesisSolutions is a sponsor of this event.

When: 04/25/10 - 04/28/10

The mission of the Facilities Management Maximo User Group is to provide a forum for Maximo users in the facilities management industry to exchange information, methods and experiences. Today there are very few forums for individuals to showcase the methods they are embracing in an effort to leverage the latest technology to optimize their company’s facilities, monitor and lower equipment costs, bench mark key indicators and eliminate costly repairs.  This exchange of information is designed to optimize the use of Maximo’s capabilities in the Facilities Environment. The integrated principles of business methods, administration, and practices of architecting, planning, and maintaining buildings, grounds, systems, and quality customer service needs to create optimal work environments. This meeting will be a great opportunity to exchange ideas, share visions, problem-solve, and take home a fresh new look at the best-practices for your organization.

GenesisSolutions is a sponsor of this event.

Russ Mokrouz, a Principal Consultant with GenesisSolutions, has been exposed to maintenance operations in a unique way since his early years.  The son of a USSR supersonic bomber pilot and brother to a Ukrainian fighter pilot, he was frequently on an airfield to observe day-to-day activities of aircraft maintenance and operations. Starting off on his path at the Ukrainian Air Force Academy studying aeronautical engineering, he then was selected to complete his studies at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.

A career transition to consulting services with GenesisSolutions brought another level of appreciation for implementing technology solutions in support of maintenance business processes improvements. For the past 7 years Russ has been working closely with various customer groups including maintenance supervisors, technicians, inventory personnel, IT, and senior management allowing him to build a broad spectrum of knowledge and expertise necessary to lead complex multi-site EAM / CMMS / CCMS implementations. Pharmaceutical and power industries remained the main focus for Russ over the years. Russ has a diversified skillset ranging from process re-engineering, system configuration and validation, to electronic report writing and the development of automated workflow; as well as user training and technical support. This all adds up to an astute ability to understand our customer’s expectations and to deliver quality solutions.

Russ’ personal goals are to provide a computerized system solution that brings the most value to our customers. Value is measured in time saved on streamlined processes, ease of use, electronic work management, and seamless reporting within the system framework. Aviation aspirations remain a significant part of Russ’ life as he often soars in an aerobatic glider over the green fields of Pennsylvania to the heights of the Arizona mountains.

Change Management - A Starting Point by Tom Terfehr  

The mantra in all of our workplaces today is: improve the way we do things. The reasons explained in Chinese, Dutch, Tagalog, English or Spanish are the same: More output with less cost. To get that done means change - organizational change and personal change. So, if change is part of our everyday lives it makes sense to understand how change works and how to make it work for us.

The following tool to understand and manage change has stood the test of time. It was first introduced by Michael Beers more than two decades ago and variations have been used in industry, government and education to guide change management.

Probability of Effective Change = (D*M*P) - (C)  

Where:  

D = Degree of satisfaction with the status quo

M = Model (picture, vision of changed future)

P = The implementation process

C = Cost (organizational & personal) as measured by time, effort, resources required, etc.  

The point is that change can be managed.  Let’s take each element of the change process and see how:

“D” - Degree of satisfaction with the status quo - for any change to happen there must be a reason. The stronger the reason the higher the probability is for successful change. That reason could be an outside force such as a new product or service from a competitor, a new or different customer need or a recession that costs a large percentage of our business in one year. The reason could also be an inside force such as a new manager with different ideas, poor quality that is costing money in claims or equipment downtime that impacts customers. The point is: to manage change, you need to find a reason to improve things (the Why) that makes sense to the people who will need to change and then explain it…sometimes over and over again.

“M” - Model or picture, vision of the future - The evidence is clear that people first need to understand the new way of doing things before we can make a decision to change from what we are doing now. So to manage change the “new way” needs to be explained. The benefits should be part of that explanation. Benefits come in the form of less pain (e.g. lost customer orders, regulatory warnings & fines, claims, etc.) or more pleasant things (e.g. higher equipment uptime, on-time shipments, no regulatory incidents, etc.). The point is: to manage change, explain a better way (the What) that makes sense to the people who will need to change and then explain it…again, sometimes over and over again.

“P” - the Implementation Process - Changing to a new way of doing things means that we need a roadmap. One helpful way to create the map is the “start, stop, continue” approach which involves three questions: What do we start doing (that we are not doing now)? What do we stop doing? And, very importantly, what do we continue doing? Change always means building on successes - taking core organizational and people strengths and building on them. The point is: to manage change, explain ways to improve things (the How) that makes sense to the people who will need to change and then explain it…over and over again.

“C” - Cost to change - Every change has a cost. The key question is: Does the gain exceed the pain (cost) of the change?  Cost comes in the form of simple things like inconvenience, learning new ways of working or more complicated things such as retraining for a new job, learning to use a new computer system, changing locations to keep a job, etc. There are ways to reduce the cost of change such as training, working in teams to help one another and using expert resources to shorten the learning curve. The point is: to manage change, understand the costs and figure out ways to minimize them that makes sense to the people who will need to change and then explain it…over and over again.

To restate, change can be managed. The approach outlined here is leading edge “change management.” GenesisSolutions has used this approach around the world (language and location do not matter - process does) to help our customers improve reliability, implement new CMMS software, redesign maintenance work management processes, change maintenance organizational structures, complete a corporate merger…and more.

To learn more about our Change Management practical application, please contact Tom Terfehr at tterfehr@genesissolutions.com.

April 2010 Upcoming Events

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Seminar

When: 04/15/10

Pacific Northwest Maximo Users is a regional group of professionals who support and/or use IBM® Maximo in the workplace as well as business partners who provide support related to Maximo. Our membership spans multiple states and provinces in USA and Canada as well as the various industries in which Maximo is used. All are welcome to participate, regardless of experience, area of involvement or ability to participate in quarterly meetings.

GenesisSolutions’ Jim Oldach (Manager, Reliability Services) will be presenting on “Putting CMMS Work History to Work” at this meeting.

When: 04/14/10

                                                         The primary purpose of the Southern California Maximo Users’ Group (SCMUG) is to provide an open forum for the discussion of technical and business issues involved with the employment of the Maximo product line of Maintenance, Production, Fleet and Asset Management Systems. The SCMUG values the personal and professional opinions of all types of Maximo users, from the Operational and Technical Management through the end users of the data systems.

GenesisSolutions will be attending this event.

When: 2/22/10 - 2/25/10

ISPE, the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, is the world’s largest not-for-profit association dedicated to educating and advancing pharmaceutical manufacturing professionals and their industry. Founded in 1980, today ISPE serves 25,000 members in 90 countries.

GenesisSolutions will be exhibiting in booth #76 and presenting on Thursday, February 25th (Mr. Mike Greenholtz - Discussing Wyeth Pharmaceutical’s Maintenance Excellence Program).

When: 2/21/10 – 2/24/10

 Find out how a smarter planet requires a dynamic infrastructure based on IBM service management capabilities.

• More than 200 customers will present first-hand experience to provide invaluable knowledge to all attendees
• IBM executives and industry leaders share how IBM service management can deliver smarter service on any scale
• IBM booth showcasing more than 100 real-world solutions
• More than 100 business partner exhibits in our enhanced solution expo
• Pre- and post-conference education
• Join our sponsors and showcase your solutions at the premier service management event.
• Self-paced, technical, hands-on labs and product certification
• IBM service management health-checks to diagnose your service management environment

GenesisSolutions is a Silver Sponsor of this event. Please visit us in booth # S419. We will also be co-presenting with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals & Port of Seattle.  More information is available at the IBM Pulse 2010 Website: IBM Pulse 2010