The IMI Newsletter Issue 1
October 2014
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IMI CEO Mark Selway reports on the first six months of 2014
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EngineeringMI Way GREAT the I
IMI plans to grow Lean!
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Swiss Hydronic site welcomes Group Chairman
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Critical invests in IT system!
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Precision division recognised for being Investors in People
Critical Precision Hydronic
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Highlights IMI CCI RSM receives recognition from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for their work in health & safety
EngineerhiengIMI Way GREAT t
P8 FAS wins prestigious supplier award P16
Mark Selway explains why we are having a brand refresh and introduces the importance of collaboration with the launch of the new global intranet
See what the divisions have been doing to become world-class P6
IMI Hydronic Engineering launches 15 new products at Mostra Convegno Exhibition! P21
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Senior managers gather in London for Mark Selway’s first Group Management Conference P23
A milestone in IMI Z&J’s expansion plans as Daniele Cecchelli and Jeff Lumsden turn the first turf in Houston
See how IMI Hydronic Engineering kept football fans on-side in the 2014 World Cup P12
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IMI Precision Engineering’s Life Sciences sector exhibit to their customers in Chicago and Munich P20
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Around the world, all our people participate in the third IMI Way Day P24
The IMI Way Day A global event, delivered by our great local colleagues!
Critical Precision Hydronic
IMI CEO Mark Selway reports on the first six months of 2014 Welcome to this first edition of IMI’s Group newsletter, the Eye. We are a global business with an ambitious future, and the Eye will be an exciting way of getting regular updates of all the fantastic progress that IMI employees are making. The audience for the newsletter is both internal and external – we want you to hear not only about our success stories and the new initiatives being introduced by Group, but also to share this externally whether it be with shareholders, customers, suppliers, your families or future recruits. The newsletter will be produced twice a year and the divisions and Group are collaborating to make it an interesting and informative read. Please give us your feedback and let us know about the important initiatives that you and your colleagues are involved in so they can be included in the next edition. August 1 was a big day for IMI this year as I presented our results for the first half of 2014 to the market. More importantly, I announced our strategy to accelerate the Group’s long-term growth and double our profits over the next five years. In March we initiated four key work streams which are now complete and have resulted in actions which are being deployed around the Group – particularly around planning, budgeting and operational improvement practices. We talk about them later in this newsletter. My first impressions of IMI remain valid – we have great people and that has become even more apparent as I continue to visit our operations right across the Group and engage with our 12,000 employees. We also have market-leading engineering expertise and long-term relationships with world-leading customers. All in all, we have a strong foundation on which to build the next phase of the Group’s development.
Our work also highlighted a number of operational and strategic challenges which must be addressed to deliver long-term accelerated growth, and we have introduced a range of improvement initiatives to help us get there. By capitalising on our strong foundations and targeting investment in new products and global infrastructure, we can achieve our ambitions. Acquisitions will supplement our organic growth and throughout the period of the plan we will continue to maintain our financial discipline. So when you put it all together, IMI is a really exciting place to be. We delivered results pretty much in line with expectations in the first half. We have completed the review of our end markets, our peers and the competitive environment, and benchmarked our current performance, to identify the opportunities for improvement. We have a plan to be a world-class business, and the leader in our chosen sectors. The strategy the Executive has outlined will ensure that this potential is harnessed and fully exploited, delivering sustainable, accelerated top and bottom line growth, whilst building long-term shareholder value. I would
encourage you all to watch the results webcast on our corporate website imiplc.com to see the full presentation and hear the questions that the market asked the Executive team. I hope you enjoy reading about what is going on across our Company.
Our purpose tions “We deliver GREAT soaluckling for our customers t manding the world’s most deges” engineering challen 3
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Transforming ‘good’ to ‘GREAT’ the IMI Way The launch of a new global brand signals the next chapter in the history of IMI Group logo
We have launched an exciting brand refresh to emphasise the new strategic direction set out by CEO Mark Selway and help it to become a truly world-class organisation. The new ‘one brand’ worldwide strategy for IMI plc was first revealed and explained to senior managers at a dedicated conference event in June. Implementation started across the business on 1 July 2014, with the aim of completion by June 2015.
New vision, new strategy, new brand The new look and feel for the refreshed IMI brand is both powerful and simple – designed to strengthen perceptions of our business globally while also communicating our strategy of ‘Engineering GREAT the IMI Way’. Mark Selway explains: “This is an exciting time, because IMI has so much potential. My five-year plan is to take everything that makes us a ‘good’ company and turn IMI into a ‘great’ company. I want IMI to become a truly world-class organisation; one that is instantly recognised as a leading global player in each of the markets we operate in. Launching a new brand identity for IMI, worldwide, is an integral part of that transformation.”
One business, out to achieve excellence
Divisional logos
The new IMI corporate identity presents a single, strong image to all stakeholders at all times. It represents a new chapter in our organisational approach, and signals the next step in IMI’s history. Based on a unifying and commanding ‘one brand’ concept, our new brand strategy tells the world that we are one business with a single strong purpose, a clear set of values and behaviours, and a culture that’s aligned with our mission of achieving excellence.
Complementary, rather than confusing The IMI brand hasn’t been refreshed since the 1960s. In the past the Group’s brand hierarchy repeated a diverse set of businesses that presented lots of different names and logos in different sectors. Now, the creation of an overarching ‘masterbrand’ and three distinct, but visibly related, divisions – IMI Critical Engineering, IMI Precision Engineering and IMI Hydronic Engineering – provides a far better and clearer definition of who we are as a business. This results in an easy-to-understand, simple and strong proposition for both internal and external audiences.
Creating a strong brand image, worldwide The new IMI brand co-ordinates and directionally navigates everything we do, creating a strong platform for establishing consistent processes and behaviours worldwide. It also facilitates a far simpler integration roadmap, and has the effect of instantly making IMI much more visible not only in customer markets, but in recruitment terms as an ‘employer brand’ too. Our future success requires us to channel and maximise our scale and the new IMI brand is the mechanism to achieve a strong brand image, worldwide. Ultimately, the strength of our brand will fuel IMI’s reputation in the marketplace. Correct and consistent use of all the elements of our new brand identity is therefore critically important. That’s why the launch of the new ‘one brand’ strategy for IMI plc is also being supported by the creation of a dedicated Brand Centre on our new global intranet. It is the ‘go to’ resource for everything to do with our new brand assets.
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business improvement
Critical Precision Hydronic
‘Killer apps’ and inspiring content Have you started to explore our new intranet yet? Certainly, a lot of hard work has gone into its launch... Our vision was to create a high-performing, truly global intranet that is accessible by all IMI employees worldwide, whenever and wherever they have access to a computer. We want this to be a highly valued, centralised resource that has the capability to help, inform and support each of us every day – wherever we happen to work within our organisation.
IMI Directory The quick and easy way to find a person or company within IMI.
News headlines Keep up-tospeed with all the latest IMI news. Reading list See which books are helping to shape and inform our direction.
Functional groups Dedicated content for each of our functional groups within the Group.
The divisions are now progressively rolling out the intranet to reach all of our businesses, with a plan for the majority of computer users to have access by the end of this year.
Brand centre The ‘go to’ resource for a whole host of key IMI brand assets. Engineering ‘GREAT’ Find out what it’s all about and the thinking behind the vision... CEO Channel The latest messages, videos and news from Group CEO Mark Selway.
Business tools A selection of ‘killer apps’ – all based on best practice – that provide real insight into our performance and help deliver tangible business value.
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Lean experts at IMI Critical Engineering drive improvement across the division’s sites WRITTEN BY Jeff Lumsden Global Lean Transformation Director IMI Critical Engineering
With the benchmarking process now complete and improvement plans in place, the 21 targeted site teams across IMI Critical Engineering are actively engaged and focused on implementation. The improvement plans across our sites are calling for very similar activities with focus on Total Productive Maintenance, Quick Change-over, 5 S and Value Stream Mapping. There are a number of on-site training and implementation activities targeted to address these key elements. Lean Experts are facilitating these activities and knowledge workers from our sites are actively engaged in a 4-5 day hands-on activity. In addition, lean leaders from sister sites are also in attendance to help with the execution and to learn the process so that they can cascade the training back in their home sites. So far 5 Quick Change-over activities have been completed at five different sites that have delivered greater than 50% reduction in set-up times on critical operations.
Working together delivers better results WRITTEN BY Dean Ward Divisional Lean Champion, UK IMI Critical Engineering
Having completed the 29 plant assessments IMI Precision Engineering have a spread of results with over 30% between the top and bottom. When visiting sites our internal assessors are not only giving a score but also coaching their colleagues on how to improve the Key Performance Indicators of the site. The current ‘best in class’ is visible through the intranet and sites are actively sharing processes and standard work while employees from each site are encouraged to visit other plants and learn from each other. It’s great to see the collaboration between sites, as they work together to continuously deliver better results. The enthusiasm to improve is evident throughout with a tangible 50% improvement target by year end. 6
The IMI Newsletter Issue 1
Mark Selway on a recent visit to IMI Remosa in Italy, personally reviewing their implementation plan with Mauro Natalini (the designated lead for Lean at IMI Remosa) and Giuseppe Buscemi.
As the improvement plans progress, the positive energy and alignment of the site teams grows. As experience is gained, it is shared readily and quickly across other sites with the overall intent of accelerating the improvement process. The reaction and feedback from the shop floor has been very positive with the recognition that there is plenty of opportunity to improve.
IMI plans to grow Lean! The drive towards creating lean manufacturing processes continues apace across the IMI Group, driven personally by Mark Selway. We kicked off lean benchmarking at IMI in November 2013. Over 50 employees have now been trained in the assessment process and our significant sites have now been assessed. The results show that our best performing plants are just above 50% of world class with the current average in the mid-30s. The scores provide us with a baseline from which to monitor our rate of improvement going forward. To this end, every site has developed an action plan that will enable us to improve our performance at the next assessment. The initial assessment scores are much less important than the ambition and pace of change that enables us to continuously improve. The Lean assessment results can be viewed on the manufacturing area of the new IMI global intranet. This is a fantastic tool which enables us to drill down into the elements of lean and view where each site sits against our best performers. It allows us to collaborate with our fellow operations, learn from each other and adopt the Group’s current best practices to improve our own plants.
IMI Hydronic Engineering’s Brežice site wins best in Group WRITTEN BY Alberto Tureikis Global Lean Transformation Director IMI Hydronic Engineering
Following the lean benchmarking that started last year, IMI Hydronic Engineering was delighted to learn that their factory in Brežice, Slovenia has come top out of all IMI Group sites assessed! Congratulations to the team for such an excellent result. Since the lean journey started in Brežice, the team have been working tirelessly to drive change, actively reducing their lead times to improve customer service, reducing set up times, and enhancing the ‘see through conditions’. Customer-focused activities to ensure fool-proof quality and on-time delivery have been the ultimate goal of the Slovenian team and the progress has been outstanding!
What have been some of the factors which have contributed to this rapid change? It’s the team mentality, the full involvement of the shop floor and their flexible attitude, which have meant they have been able to achieve the fastest improvement in the division. There is no ‘not invented here’ syndrome and everyone is open to change, to make sure that we reach world-class performance levels. With the full implementation of the lean tool kit over the coming months, we will undoubtedly see even greater progress, ensuring a sustainable transformation which goes beyond machines and buildings, engaging our people to revisit and challenge their processes and routines.
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Critical Precision Hydronic
Ground-breaking ceremony at IMI Z&J Houston facility WRITTEN BY Daniele Cecchelli President, IMI Z&J IMI Critical Engineering
On 5 February 2014, IMI Z&J celebrated a new milestone in the company’s extensive history with the groundbreaking of the new 120,000 square foot facility located in Houston Texas. Over the last six months significant progress has been made on this project which is scheduled for completion in November of this year. The facility design has undergone numerous iterations to ensure lean manufacturing capabilities which best suits product lines and customer needs. The factory is an open concept design, all under one roof with no walls inside the factory, and new state-of-theart machinery to enable us to produce great products for our customers within the severe service industry.
Right at the heart of Mark Selway’s messaging is the idea of collaboration - so important is its role in our future that it has become one of our core values. There have been a number of actions introduced to improve how we work together and as a result raise overall efficiency and competitiveness - all of which strengthen IMI now and into future.
IMI’s new HQ - 4060 Lakeside
On 30 May, employees visited the new site for a first hand look at the new facility. The team walked the property to gain insight of the actual size of the new office and factory which is three times larger than the current facility. The day was made even more special for all employees as they enjoyed a BBQ lunch which was prepared and served by the Field Service and Shop Management teams to celebrate this exciting investment in the company’s future.
The new facility will serve as a focal point for IMI’s presence in the crucial Houston centre of the oil & gas market.
Divisional Managing Director Roy Twite with the project team, Jeff Lumsden, Daniele Cecchelli and Metin Gerceker
Daniele and Jeff turn the first turf at the new site
New head office accommodates the IMI Precision Engineering Executive team WRITTEN BY Stuart Evans Property Manager, IMI plc
The Group already has IMI Critical Engineering’s Executive working in our Lakeside headquarters, and with the relocation of Norgren UK to its new premises in Fradley, it made sense for the IMI Precision Engineering divisional team to also be located at Lakeside. As we do not have sufficient space to accommodate everyone within our current building we have negotiated a new lease on the office right next door which has space to accommodate all head office staff, together with our Critical Engineering and Precision Engineering colleagues. As well as providing the necessary space, the new building has been designed to better accommodate the needs of IMI and its employees. The space will be predominantly open plan,
and to ensure that we create a contemporary and attractive working environment it will offer a number of improved and additional facilities, including more meeting rooms and state-of-the-art video teleconferencing. As the Group moves into the next phase of our development the move into the new building is an important and exciting milestone. Come the end of the year, we will all be located in a modern and vibrant office space, specifically designed for our needs, and we will be working alongside new colleagues. We are confident that this will accelerate collaboration on all fronts and create a dynamic working environment to the benefit of IMI and all its employees.
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IMI CCI earns star status for exemplary Health & Safety practices at its RSM plant WRITTEN BY Lucian Soaita CCI Americas Vice President of Operations, IMI Critical Engineering
From left to right: Lucian Soaita, IMI CCI Americas VP of Operations; Carol Gamble, Mayor of Rancho Santa Margarita; Mike Weddle, IMI CCI Americas HSE Manager; and CM Merrimon, IMI CCI Americas President.
After a rigorous process, IMI CCI Rancho Santa Margarita plant (RSM) in the US has become the 73rd site to receive the California Voluntary Protection Programme (Cal/VPP) Cal/ VPP Star designation. RSM is one of only four valve manufacturers in the US to receive this honour, which is the highest level of recognition bestowed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The Cal/VPP designation recognises both employers and employees for implementing health and safety programmes that go beyond minimal standards and provide the best protection against occupational hazards. Programme elements include management commitment, worksite analysis, health and safety training, and hazard prevention/control. Successful
applicants are considered leaders in their industry and are exempt from Cal/OSHA programmed inspections. A special ceremony was held at the RSM plant on 24 June to mark this accomplishment. Approximately
Predicting the future of IMI The ability to forecast our financial results accurately is a key factor in the relationship with our investors, and we dedicate a significant amount of time to trying to get it right. Standardising our forecasting is a key focus of the IMI Group and critical to our long-term future. Businesses across the Group have been busy adapting to a new forecasting cycle this year.
We see the key benefits of this new approach as:
We have moved away from our historical method of producing a 12-month forecast in January with twice-yearly updates in July and October and this has now been replaced with a quarterly forecasting cycle where our forecasts are updated regularly in January, April, July and October. The in-depth 3-year Long-Term Forecast (or LTF) has also been replaced with an annual budget for the year ahead, whilst a strategic plan collated in the first half of the year provides the longer-term view over five years.
l production of more precise forecasts to support our external results and investor communications and
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l decoupling the short-term priorities (or current-year forecasting) from the longer term, to better focus on key issues. l relieving the pressure on our businesses in January and July by having rolling updates to the forecast each quarter instead of rebuilding it from scratch:
l greater accountability against our forecasting accuracy from measuring against both budget and our most recent quarterly forecast through the year. What does it mean for you? If you’re thinking this change just affects finance, you’re wrong! Better forecasting impacts on every department and employee of the IMI Group - the shop floor will have a better
300 people were in attendance, including IMI CCI employees, guests from IMI, Cal OSHA, and government officials.
Well done to the RSM team!
WRITTEN BY Benjamin MacKenzie-Grieve Chief Management Accountant, IMI plc
idea of production planning and customer needs; procurement will have a better understanding of how much materials to order and when; while HR can recruit the employees the business needs in alignment with planned capacity. The inaugural annual budget and Q4 forecast will be collected in October 2014 and be used for bonus target-setting meaning that 2015 bonus targets will be communicated to employees much earlier than before. What’s to come? Later this year, our core process reporting calendar will go live and site leaders throughout IMI will be able to access reporting templates from, and sign-off their local reporting via, the intranet. This will improve the information flow and ensure that all businesses, and new acquisitions as they arrive, are following one standard process the IMI Way.
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WRITTEN BY Jürgen Kreienbaum Plant Director - Füllinsdorf IMI Hydronic Engineering
The introduction of continuous improvement to achieve operational excellence through lean principles at IMI Hydronic Engineering in Füllinsdorf Switzerlandhas been recognised by Group Chairman Roberto Quarta. After the initial implementation of lean principles in October 2013, improvements launched at the start of this year have taken the Füllinsdorf factory site by storm. The focus, to create a safe working environment by structuring shop floor activities and defining the procedures, ensures that the continuous improvements are sustainable. People are excited by the changes and have recognised the positive effects on their working environment; the factory was cleaned, floors re-painted and areas marked out for better material flow while standard operation procedures have been implemented throughout the entire factory. On-the-job training using lean methods in
Managing risk WRITTEN BY Simon Davies Head of Group Risk and Assurance IMI plc
What do Arthur Anderson, BP, Enron, Northern Rock and Firestone have in common? In short, they have all faced corporate crises that for some put the company out of business and for others reduced the stock market value and resulted in investors losing millions. These corporate crises were all brought about by major risk events that the companies did not manage well or had inadequate mitigation plans to address. These events ranged from product issues (Firestone tyres), environmental incidents (BP Deepwater Horizon) through to accounting fraud (Enron/Arthur Anderson). Whilst IMI has had a risk management framework in place for a number of years, this largely considered risk at a divisional level. However, for all of you that work in operating companies, you will know that the real risks facing IMI are risks that you face on a day-to-day basis at site level. Our new CEO is very passionate about risk management and has given great support to a programme to embed an IMI risk process at site level. We decided to pilot the new process ‘Managing Risk’ at three sites – one per
Critical Precision Hydronic
Lean improvements get nod of approval from IMI Chairman
The Füllinsdorf production site, just outside Basel, Switzerland
discussions and workshops was key in getting people involved and gaining momentum. Together, we have reached a common understanding of what we want to achieve. The foundations for the lean journey over the next few months and years have been laid. The hard work has not gone unnoticed.
division. The management teams brainstormed the major risks facing their businesses and assessed these in terms of the impact on the business and likelihood of occurrence. For all the key risks, the management team identified a series of actions to help mitigate the risk. Risk-profiling pilots have now been carried out at IMI CCI in the US, IMI Hydronic Engineering TA in Poland and IMI Precision Engineering Thompson Valves at Poole, in the UK and the results will shortly be uploaded onto the intranet. A rollout plan will now be agreed with the IMI Executive and site management teams. Operating companies will then be required to carry out similar risk-profiling exercises using the results from the risk pilots for their division as a guide. These risk profiles will then be formally updated on a six-month basis and uploaded on to the new IMI intranet site as one of IMI’s core processes. Using the site level profiles, both divisional and group risk profiles will be created enabling the divisional and IMI group leadership teams to focus on the key risks facing them. Site level key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with the risks identified will be monitored by local management at site level so corrective action can be taken should the trends show the risks escalating. Once the process is fully embedded the IMI Executive team and Board will have absolute confidence knowing the risks are appropriately managed.
In recent months there have been many factory visits to Füllinsdorf, and each time positive feedback was received about the changes in the lean agenda. In July we were particularly proud to welcome our Group Chairman, Roberto Quarta, who expressed his approval of the work done to date.
Safety on the road WRITTEN BY Chris Bell EU HSE Director, IMI Precision Engineering
Every year thousands of people are injured in accidents involving motor vehicles, and many of these occur while drivers are commuting or travelling on business. The HS&E team within IMI have launched a campaign to increase defensive driving knowledge to prevent potential accidents. IMI Precision Engineering are embracing this initiative - in both Asia and the Americas, defensive driver training is being offered to employees, while in Merklingen, Germany Zero-Accident Campaign Champions win participation in driving training.
Two members of the Merklingen team win driving training 9
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Improving core processes Many people think that internal control is at best a necessary evil and at worst slows them down and gets in the way of doing business. The reality is that internal controls are a necessary part of the business. A good analogy is the brakes on a Formula 1 racing car. The brakes enable the driver to navigate the bends in the track as effectively as possible, while maintaining speed and winning the race. In a similar way internal controls are there to help the business manage risks that may occur that might otherwise cost us money or result in additional work for our employees. As part of the development of our IMI Core Processes we have introduced a new process to enhance the way our
Extension now complete at IMI Orton’s Piacenza facility
WRITTEN BY Paul Roughsedge Director of Group Assurance, IMI plc
businesses are controlled to improve performance. The key controls that enable the business to operate have been incorporated into the new Internal Control Declaration process. In a similar way to lean manufacturing this is a new tool on the intranet that enables IMI to benchmark the performance of its business in Financial, Legal, IT and Human Resources. This is completed by each business twice a year with action plans developed to deliver long-term improvement in our businesses. The key benefits of the Internal Control Declaration process are:
l where there are control weaknesses at company, division and Group levels, these are identified and appropriate improvement actions are taken to address them
l to identify areas of internal control best practice within IMI and make this visible so that other businesses can leverage from internal control learnings across the Group.
To find out more visit the Core Process section on the IMI Intranet or the Group Assurance pages under Finance & IT.
l the questionnaire includes a scoring mechanism and the business Managing Director and Finance Director physically sign off the declaration, and l the areas or processes which have the lowest level of control scores are prioritised for improvement with action plans developed with Divisional management.
Environmentally-friendly energy-saving solutions at our Hydronic site in Sweden
WRITTEN BY Alberto Aliani Managing Director, IMI Orton IMI Critical Engineering
IMI Orton, part of IMI Critical Engineering has just completed a further expansion of its facility in Piacenza, Italy which provides an additional 2,000 square metres. The requirement for the new space is a consequence of the growth of the business over the last three years. This has been due to the important contracts secured in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) market where customers require larger valves. The new expansion has been built on the side of the existing machining shop, and will include a new metallurgical test area. The extension will also allow IMI Orton to expand the assembly area for a further third line, where valves for oxygen service will be assembled in a dedicated clean area.
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Before and after pictures of the new pond generator. WRITTEN BY Robert Johansson Maintenance Manager Ljung IMI Hydronic Engineering
At IMI Hydronic Engineering we develop solutions which help our customers to save energy in their HVAC systems – driving efficiencies whilst ensuring a comfortable indoor climate. But our concern with the environment doesn’t stop there. All around our factories we are making changes to help generate energy savings. One such project is the new pond generator (pictured) installed at the Ljung factory. In the 1960s, a dam was built in a river that runs close to the Swedish site in order to create a pond that could
house a generator. The idea was to use the principle of hydroelectrics to generate electricity for the office buildings. The replacement of the old generator this year has allowed a more efficient device to be installed, with the additional functionality of being able to monitor the water levels in the pond. The energy generated for the office buildings is expected to be around 300,000 kwh/year! In an environment where energy prices are soaring, this is an excellent contribution to reducing the energy bill and reducing our CO2 emissions. Additionally, an enhancement to the generator has been developed and will soon be added to it, whereby there will be automatic control of the slots in the pond, so when there is heavy rain, we should be able to reduce the risk of flooding to the factory.
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Critical Precision Hydronic
Changing gear on lean implementation at Ljung For more than 100 years, IMI Hydronic Engineering’s plant at Ljung has been consistently developing its operational capabilities. Last November, it was one of the first IMI plants to receive a lean assessment. The resulting score of 28%, presented great potential for improvement. Since then a plan to address gaps and take advantage of opportunities has been coordinated by the local management team. Starting with the involvement of cross-functional teams in a large valuestream mapping exercise, priorities and responsibilities have been clearly defined and set for the short, medium and long term. Alongside efforts to restore factory and machine basic conditions, and the involvement of operators in 5 S and autonomous maintenance activities, shop-floor operational KPIs have been introduced at machine level, allowing monitoring of individual output, OEE and scrap generation. This has significantly helped in developing accountability and engagement.
Long set-up times and unbalanced assembly lines appeared to be the main weaknesses of the factory, preventing Ljung from fully utilising its capacity and responding to customer expected lead times and on-time deliveries. Set-up times of over three hours have been reduced to about 20 minutes in CNC machines by fixing sets of tools, thus avoiding the need for change. By applying proper SMED methodology and involving operators and technicians, complex machining equipment (where set-up times were erratic and easily took over six hours) now have had set-up times reduced by over 50%. Additionally, assembly lines which were only 10-20% balanced, have been improved to over 90%. Such structured identification of bottle-necks and the methodological approach to set-up time reduction and line balancing created the conditions for the implementation of flow and more recently pull concepts. The improvements since our initial assessment have been GREAT! The latest assessment results increased to 48%, confirming the right direction and consistency in the approach. Congratulations to the TEAM!
Value Engineering Team reduces manufacturing costs
WRITTEN BY Daniel Nowack Director Global Procurement IMI Precision Engineering
WRITTEN BY Alberto Tuerikis Global Lean Transformation Director IMI Hydronic Engineering
KPIs for each machine are clearly visible in the production area
Set up time reduction chart
A helping hand WRITTEN BY Chris Bell, EU HSE Director, IMI Precision Engineering
Set up in 2011, the work done by IMI Precision Engineering’s Value Engineering Team now accounts for significant manufacturing cost savings each year. The team is focused on identifying and delivering improvements to products by identifying new technologies and processes, sharing best practice, supporting the manufacturing facilities and progressing projects through the business. The team uses a workshop-based technique to review current and new products for design, cost and process, generating projects that reduce manufacturing costs and improve margin. This method is best practice within IMI and is seen as as a tool to achieve the priorities of growth and operational excellence. Sales growth is being supported in a number of ways. These include reducing the costs of existing products to allow flexibility on pricing while maintaining margin, winning back old business through improved competitiveness, and ensuring new products are quoted and introduced at a competitive level. Value engineering identifies waste reduction opportunities in part handling and assembly processes. Its part reduction focus also drives business simplification and cost reduction in areas such as purchasing, stock, quality, assembly equipment and direct labour.
Accounting for a third of workrelated ailments, skin conditions are the most frequently encountered occupational health issue in Germany. First alert signs are red, dry, chapped and brittle parts of the skin. Skin protection plans, and cleansing and skin care lotions are being made available at strategic places all over the German IMI Precision Engineering sites. In production areas, racks are also made available for employees to dry their personal protection gloves.
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The GREAT ‘LEAP’ forward WRITTEN BY Iain Moore Global Blueprint Design Lead IMI Critical Engineering
Anyone visiting IMI Critical Engineering’s HQ over the last few weeks will have sensed the feeling of anticipation and excitement as a team of the Division’s employees have started collaborating, designing the Division’s new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Fully supported by the IMI Executive and Board, the division is investing £10m in the first stage of improving its many legacy IT systems by moving them onto one modern, standard platform. Whilst extensive research has identified the IFS system as the best fit to the division’s Engineer-to-Order business
model, any ‘out of the box’ ERP system needs extensive design work to tailor it so that it exactly meets the Division’s needs. Under Project LEAP (‘Lean ERP Applications Platform’), the Division has brought together experienced Valve Doctors, Project Managers, Engineers, Factory Managers, Sales and Finance staff from businesses across the world comprising eight different nationalities to collaborate on designing a solution that incorporates global best practices. You might wonder why the Division is investing such a high level of resource, the answer is the team felt that they were laying the foundations for the Division’s growth strategy. Project LEAP’s objectives are to improve the efficiency of how we process a customer order; from quote through design, engineering,manufacturing, delivery and cash collection. The end result will be more satisfied customers and internal resources freed up from manual transaction processing, enabling more time to be spent on growth initiatives.
Collaboration between sites helps to more than double capacity WRITTEN BY Ognjen Starovic Managing Director, Poole IMI Precision Engineering
After experiencing a dramatic increase in demand for Maxseal solenoid valves, IMI Precision Engineering’s Poole facility was faced with the challenge of satisfying customer needs while maintaining the expected market lead time of 4-10 weeks. Needing to act fast to improve productivity quickly, the team used demand flow technology (DFT) principles to completely re-organise the assembly area, and employed four new assemblers to
implement a DFT line over a two-week period. During the implementation of the new DFT line, the team contacted Terry Prideaux, Operations Manager at IMI Precision Engineering’s Bristol facility, to discuss best practice assembly method. Following a site visit, Terry and his team engineers recommended singlepiece flow, while a reciprocal visit to Bristol allowed the Poole production engineers to observe an equivalent model in action. As a result of sharing best practice, the Poole team were able to more than double capacity at the same lead times as well as gaining the flexibility to respond to urgent customer demands in an even shorter lead time.
Improved assembly at the Poole UK site
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Members of the LEAP project team
Muriel Rouget – Managing Director, IMI CCI Switzerland, and responsible for Project Management design, said she was excited at the prospect of the increased project visibility and the opportunity to leverage the full potential of the Division across the globe through efficiency gains. Jay Faramazi – a Valve Doctor with more than 20 years’ engineering experience, is leading the Engineering design. The key benefit he saw from the project was an opportunity to refine our company processes to incorporate engineering excellence as standard.
Wasit HIPPS Project awarded to IMI CCI Italy WRITTEN BY Stefano Malacrida IMI CCI, EMEA IMI Critical Engineering
HIPPS Integrated Skid
IMI CCI Italy team were successfully awarded 52 packages of High Integrity Pressure Protection Systems (HIPPS) by Saipem, for the Wasit Project in Saudi Arabia at the beginning of 2013. The first HIPPS system integration test was carried out in Italy in front of senior management and engineers from SAIPEM and SAUDI ARAMCO. The IMI CCI Italy team demonstrated its excellence in engineering and design with both companies expressing very positive feedback. The first set of 16 packages (8 platforms) have been fully integrated, tested and shipped. The first four skids have been successfully installed offshore, and the piping operation is progressing; this will lead to a pre-commissioning in September.
customer focus
Critical Precision Hydronic
New Hydronic Experience Centre WRITTEN BY Dr. Jean-Christophe Carette
Just 2 of the 9 live demo walls in the centre
Hydronic College Director IMI Hydronic Engineering
On 15 September 2013 the official inauguration took place of our brand new state-of-the-art Hydronic Experience Centre at IMI Hydronic Engineering’s HQ in Eysins, Switzerland. The new training centre embodies the fundamental philosophy that training – both practical and hands-on is the key to designing, installing and maintaining efficient and cost-effective HVAC systems. With all the latest products from IMI Hydronic Engineering, nine separate demo
Dr Jean-Christophe Carette explaining the correct dimensioning of valves at the interactive exercise table
walls for practical exercises on systems and products, and an interactive exercise table, the centre (which can hold up to 100 people at any one time) provides an excellent learning environment for all those involved in the HVAC industry. Since opening, 327 people from 35 different countries have been welcomed through its doors – a grand total of 701 trainee days over the past ten months! Amongst our most prestigious trainees,
Ideation helps one of the world’s leading oil & gas companies tackle global engineering challenges WRITTEN BY Phil Keating Development Director - Energy Sector, IMI Precision Engineering
we are honoured to count 29 guests from the United Nations, who visited the centre as part of a conference organised by the Committee for Housing & Land Management, to understand the impact an HVAC system can have on energy savings in buildings. Divisional Managing Director, Peter Spencer, was then asked to speak at the conference on simple yet effective ways to help save energy in housing – see page 15 for the full story.
‘Certificate of Registration’ approval from Petrobas awarded to IMI Truflo Rona WRITTEN BY Sarah Harris Marketing Communications Specialist, IMI Critical Engineering
January saw Petrobras grant its Certificate of Registration approval to IMI Truflo Rona for a control ball valve, a significant achievement. With great support from IMI InterAtiva, the Isolation Division made great progress in obtaining full approvals from Petrobras. Well done to everybody who has contributed to this important result.
The ideation team in Malaysia
Ideation takes brainstorming to the next level – solving problems and creating novel ideas. Ideation involves working closely with customers to gain a deeper understanding of their engineering needs and the challenges they face. Earlier this year, the IMI Precision Engineering energy sector team held an ideation session with one of the world’s leading oil & gas companies. The one and a half day session with the senior engineering team was a great success and has led to three joint development projects which are now being worked on. This pilot scheme is now being rolled out to other key companies in the energy sector. 13
customer focus
Helping hospitals around the world to be more efficient! WRITTEN BY Natalie Zeranska Marketing & Communications Manager IMI Hydronic Engineering
Hospitals are becoming ever more patient oriented, striving to ensure the maximum comfort of patients and visitors during their stay, as well as providing state-of-the-art treatments. In addition to putting the patient in focus, they are looking for ways to administer higher-quality care more efficiently. A recent hospital project in the Swedish capital – where IMI Hydronic Engineering was involved – even went so far as to minimise how far the patient was moved during his / her stay by designing efficient work methods and patient flows (not unlike some of the lean activities in our factories!). But not only are there efficiencies to better treat patients, newly-built and renovated hospitals also have a
strong focus on energy efficiency and sustainability. IMI Hydronic Engineering is proud to have been involved in countless projects all over the world, helping to deliver quality, energy-efficient HVAC systems, which ensure optimal patient comfort. There are three major reasons why hospitals require reliable and precisely controllable HVAC systems:
Channel Marketing Manager Pressurisation & Water Quality IMI Hydronic Engineering
With production starting in July 2014, this pressure maintenance system for heating and cooling excels when compactness and precision are required. The expansion vessel occupies just a third to one fifth of the space required by its static equivalent, while being remarkably accurate at maintaining pressure, within the limits of +0.1 bar. And now the Compresso has a new dimension: its groundbreaking BrainCube control panel is equipped with an intuitive touch screen user interface 14
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WRITTEN BY David Whelan Food and Beverage Sector Head IMI Precision Engineering
l minimising the costs – be that during construction or the running costs of the building l providing the proper climate for special hospital areas e.g. maternity wards / wards for the elderly & infirm, operating rooms, and l maintaining stable temperatures in research laboratories where specific temperatures are necessary to generate viable results. IMI Hydronic Engineering has the solutions to reduce the commissioning time during the hospital construction phase, helping in one case in the UK to save up to six weeks! Equally of importance, our products allow the precise control of hospital HVAC installations (including redundancy systems) for example where critical operations are carried out to ensure a constant 15°C in the operating theatre. And as there continue to be advances in healthcare, IMI Hydronic Engineering continues to develop innovative new products, such as TA-FUS1ON, with its unique fully adjustable Kvs, allowing you to perfectly size each valve, according to your system conditions. Oversizing and undersizing, which create system inefficiencies are a thing of the past.
Compresso Connect: a new era in remotelycontrolled pressure maintenance begins WRITTEN BY Maria Hooper
High-performance valves outshine competition
as well as an Ethernet connection. This allows for the remote monitoring and control of the pressurisation system through live view remote technology from any device equipped with an internet connection. It can also communicate with Building Management Systems, thanks to its additional standardised in-built connections. Norbert Ramser, Product Category Director at IMI Hydronic Engineering commented: “By enabling remote service and maintenance which is required throughout the life of a building, we are making it significantly easier for our customers to manage their installations and react much faster to any service demands.”
One of the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company required a high performance valve to pilot the media valve which controls the flow of liquid into the cartons of the filling machine. The solution had to provide accuracy, high speed response and high flow. IMI Precision Engineering offered the 3-way proportional pressure control valves into the application and successfully outperformed the previously preferred supplier. The food processing and packaging solutions company was impressed by the combination of fast response, high accuracy and the high flow rate of the valve. The valve is now the standard fit proportional valve within the majority of the company’s machine systems, and is used in several filling systems.
With just nine months between concept and launch, the new Compresso Connect is the first in a line of ‘connected’ pressure and water quality machines, with the Vento Connect and Transfero Connect to follow in early 2015. The new family, with remote connectivity, is set to revolutionise the field of water pressure maintenance. The new Compresso Connect
customer focus
Critical Precision Hydronic
IMI CCI Vienna innovates one of the largest titanium valves ever built WRITTEN BY Michael Pedigo Project Manager - EAME Oil & Gas Portfolio IMI CCI Vienna, IMI Critical Engineering
The outstanding performance of titanium in sea water has been exploited in recent years by the offshore oil & gas industry. Today, principally in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, the number and variety of applications of titanium and titanium alloys offshore is increasing at an exponential rate. The innovation of this unique titanium valve is part of the client’s effort to ensure the highest safety levels for a newlydeveloped offshore floating platform.
The valve will allow periodical cycling tests of the platform’s fire water system, providing an up-to-date safety environment for the personnel on board. The titanium material selection is immune to corrosion and reduces the installation weight by half which is an important factor for offshore floating platforms as well. The extended service life versus reduced maintenance effort, in combination with enhanced safety – need for personnel to visit hazardous areas is minimised – is a further crucial benefit for the client. Innovation in new product development is firmly embedded within the IMI CCI Vienna Engineering team; exceeding customer satisfaction every day.
UN Committee seeks guidance from IMI Hydronic Engineering WRITTEN BY Natalie Zeranska Marketing & Communications Manager IMI Hydronic Engineering
Peter Spencer presenting at the United Nations in Geneva
The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has long been concerned with improving and promoting sustainable housing in all 56 member states of the ECE region. Over the past 65 years, the Committee of Housing & Land Management has worked hard across Europe, North America and the Caucus, to help address the unique housing challenges of the UNECE region. The committee focuses on sharing innovative practice, giving guidance and developing policy guidelines to address common housing problems.
Peter Spencer – Divisional Managing Director of IMI Hydronic Engineering – was proud to be asked to present at the 74th session last October on behalf of the division. The Committee has identified the main challenge in the housing sector and the highest priority for government action as the inefficient use of energy. According to the European Commission EPBD and the US Department of Energy, 40% of the world’s energy is used in buildings and 50% of this in heating & cooling systems. This means that generating efficiencies in these systems, can help to save up to 30% energy usage. And this is the specific area of expertise of IMI Hydronic Engineering – providing energy efficient solutions for the residential sector. Peter Spencer presented two simple and cost-effective ideas to help increase energy efficiency in buildings focused on the HVAC system as well as a number of recommendations for the Committee. Small changes can make a BIG difference – so the more awareness there is around new technologies, simple tricks (for example changing your manual radiator valve) to save energy, the more efficiently both new and existing buildings can be run.
Generating efficiencies in these systems can help to save up to 30% energy usage.
Offshore floating platform
World’s largest Wasteto-Energy (WTE) plant installs IMI Precision Engineering system WRITTEN BY Jesper Bach Managing Director, NNE IMI Precision Engineering
When operational in 2016 the ARC plant in Copenhagen, Denmark, where they incinerate household waste to produce heat and steam that drives turbines and produces electricity, will be by far the largest of its kind in the world and a reference plant for future WTE plants. The customer, Babcock & Wilcox Vølund (B & W Vølund), a leader in both WTE and biomass, had problems with their current solution which was unstable and incurred excessive maintenance; they needed a ‘state-ofthe-art’ solution. IMI Precision Engineering’s robust and more efficient impact cylinder system provides less noise, more adjustment possibilities, better feedback, programming flexibility and a longer lifespan of boiler. This solution helps our costumer to save life costs, reduces the acquisition cost and ultimately gives our customer competitive advantage. There is now potential for Norgren to assist B & W Vølund on 3-6 to projects per year with two already in the pipeline. 15
customer focus
FAS seals prestigious supplier award WRITTEN BY Gregory Malherbe Managing Director FAS, IMI Precision Engineering
Innovative balancing solution minimises energy consumption of new skyscraper in Turkey! WRITTEN BY Volkan Gerdan Managing Director Turkey, IMI Hydronic Engineering
The surprised FAS team receive their certificate on stage
Dräger is a German-based customer specialising in breathing and protection equipment. The Dräger Supplier Day is a prestigious event to which Dräger invites its most important suppliers. The highlight of the day is a ceremony where the best performing suppliers receive awards. The most prestigious of these is Dräger Supplier of the Year - an award won this year by Fluid Automation Systems (FAS). The Dräger account was taken over
by Florian Fackler in 2008 following a period of quality issues. Through continuous improvement processes, managed inventory and reduced lead times, an improved relationship has led to doubled sales, with new projects driven by a partnership in China between the IMI Precision Engineering ATC and Dräger Shanghai. Dr. Dräger described FAS as ‘a great partner’ - a huge tribute to the hard work and passion the team have devoted to this key customer relationship.
‘Max-imising’ growth WRITTEN BY Jon Taylor Energy Sector Head, IMI Precision Engineering
Sales of the Maxseal range of extremely high quality stainless steel solenoid valves have grown fivefold since the products were integrated into IMI Precision Engineering in 2009. At the time of acquisition there were doubts about the willingness of end-users to specify a particular brand of solenoid valve. With this in mind, a global end-user Key Account Management Team was assembled to target some of the world’s largest companies, changing perceptions of solenoid valve integrity and influencing specifications. The outcome of this was the best year ever for sales of Maxseal valves in 2013. The team are now focusing on new product development and cementing relationships with other key customers in the oil and gas sector, while 20 of the world’s largest end-users have committed to trial the ‘partial stroke testing’ concept for the valves which will be launched later this year.
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When project owner, Soma Group, required an energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system for the Spine Tower – now the second tallest building in Istanbul – IMI Hydronic Engineering proved just how big a difference balancing know-how could make.
Maxseal ICO3 solenoid valve
Located in the key Maslak commercial and financial district of Istanbul, the new 192m high Spine Tower will have cost approximately $150 million to develop. With construction completed earlier this year, the tower provides 140,000m2 of prestigious business and residential accommodation over 56 floors, including office space and residential apartments plus an entire floor dedicated to a fitness suite and spa. At ground level, the development features retail and conference facilities as well as car parking. The Soma Group specified the installation of an energy-efficient and sustainable HVAC solution to ensure all users could work and reside in a comfortable and well-managed environment, operated to optimum efficiency. The energy-efficient system from IMI Hydronic Engineering will significantly cut annual energy consumption by up to 30% against the original design. A spokesperson for Soma Group commented: “With IMI Hydronic Engineering involved from the outset, we had every faith they would successfully deliver the ideal hydronic solution.”
customer focus
Critical Precision Hydronic
Measuring the Pulse of the Customer Experience WRITTEN BY Tina Mohr Customer Experience Champion - Americas, IMI Precision Engineering
IMI Precision Engineering Americas’ Customer Experience Improvement Team’s key focus for 2014 is employee engagement. Employees are at the heart of the customer experience and ultimately are the ones who drive results for our customers. Each and every employee – whether in an external or internal role has a vital part to play in delivering a great customer experience. Measuring the Pulse of the Customer Experience programme is being launched throughout the Americas.
Boards are being posted in the factory and office areas at all locations displaying the current Net Promoter Score, top customers for each facility and current local activities driving improved customer experience. Our Littleton, Colorado site was the first facility to get under way with the programme, with a game and video explaining it, and Brazil is now involved, with employees quickly embracing the scheme. The customer experience and service you provide is the lifeblood of a great organisation. Brand loyalty is about people connecting with people, and every decision we make as IMI employees has the potential to impact our customers.
A GREAT win in China WRITTEN BY Richard Yu Commercial & Operation Director, IMI Critical Engineering Greater China.
For the past 16 months IMI Z&J, IMI Remosa and IMI China have all been working closely to provide Jiutai Energy, a coal chemical plant, with the evidence that we are the right partner to help them succeed and meet their goals for their new Methanol to Olefins (MTO) unit.
Left to right: Jet Yang, IMI Critical China; Daniele Cecchelli, IMI Z&J; Luca Mambrini, IMI Remosa; Jackie Hu, IMI China
Collaborative efforts have displayed incredible determination to prove both our products and engineering capabilities are second to none. Our success is the direct result of the close partnerships between our IMI Critical Engineering business units. IMI Z&J, IMI Remosa and IMI China formed a formidable alliance, integrating the best possible resource with specialised expertise. With seven future MTO units planned in China over the next three years, this is the largest MTO project planned for 2014; licensed by international petroleum refining licensor UOP, and will require nine slide valves to be designed and manufactured by IMI Z&J in Houston, and nine high-performance electrohydraulic actuation systems designed and manufactured by IMI Remosa in Sardinia, Italy.
NPS Internal Communications Board
New generation air dryer WRITTEN BY Mark Wrigley Rail Sector Head, IMI Precision Engineering
Air dryer in situ on subway car
Maintenance engineers at New York City Transit had seen conditions where moisture in compressed air caused mechanical problems on subway cars. The engineers found that the standard pressure swing dryers removed damaging moisture when they were first installed on the subway cars, but performance declined, especially during hot, humid New York City (NYC) summers. IMI Precision Engineering’s Adsorbent Media Tube (AMT) dryer uses a patented technology radically different from
conventional desiccant beads. This design delivers higher moisture uptake and faster purging without degrading the dryer media, improving both performance and longevity. NYC Transit replaced the conventional pressure swing dryers with AMT test units, after 12 months of operation the test results showed that the air leaving the dryers was as dry as when the system was first installed. Now New York City Transit has a dryer that is projected to last up to 6 years, or 18,000 service hours, significantly exceeding the specified two-year maintenance cycle.
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customer focus
Football fever! Managing Director South America & Caribbean, IMI Hydronic Engineering
IMI Hydronic Engineering ensured that the 2014 Brazil World Cup could be watched by all attendees in absolute comfort – wherever they were!
Arena da Amazônia in Manaus
The Football World Cup is one of the most watched sports competitions in the world. An estimated 700 million people watched the final match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa. The final was broadcast to 204 countries on 245 different channels. Inside the stadiums, more than three million spectators attended the 64 matches. Early indications are that viewing figures for the Brazil tournament have surpassed these numbers! The location and choice of stadiums for each competition are very important; these are the places where the football lovers will celebrate their favorite sport and teams. No wonder then that stadium selection is very complex and the location, capacity, design and environmental impact are amongst the first things to be considered. IMI Hydronic Engineering was proud to be part of this major event not just in 2014, but over the years – having helped to design and control HVAC systems (heating, ventilation and air
WRITTEN BY Hernani Paiva
conditioning) in over 30 stadiums around the world. We have played our part to create perfect climates for spectators to watch the football – be it live or from the comfort of their own homes. For this World Cup, we supplied products to nine of the stadiums used with seating capacity ranges from 28,000 to 78,000 seats. Pictured bottom left, the Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador held a quarter-final match and top left, the Arena da Amazônia in Manaus held some of the group games. When considering comfort for this tournament in Brazil it was important to take into account the area’s challenging climatic conditions, the heat and the tropical rain water. The HVAC solution therefore had to deliver an optimum indoor climate for tens of thousands of spectators, whilst still helping to reduce the energy bill. IMI Hydronic Engineering supplied its expertise and products to both the new build and renovation stadiums, using TA-select software at the start to help determine the optimum component selection whilst ensuring at a strategic level that the system would respond in line with requirements. The solutions comprised a range of high performance balancing valves, differential pressure controllers, pressure-independent temperature control valves, pressuremaintenance devices and the TA-SCOPE – a powerful flow and pressure measurement and diagnostics instrument.
Engineering GREAT solutions for the world’s football spectators!
Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador 18
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customer focus
Critical Precision Hydronic
IMI CCI receives recognition award from Bechtel
WRITTEN BY Warren Ferguson Marketing Director, IMI CCI Americas IMI Critical Engineering
As part of their annual recognition of excellent contractors and suppliers, Bechtel Power Corporation, a global leader in the design and construction of complex power plants, presented an award to IMI CCI for its key role in support of their work in 2013. CM Merrimon, President - IMI CCI Americas, attended the awards dinner in Frederick Maryland, where our company was amongst 50 suppliers recognised out of 3,850 by Bechtel and their leadership team. The selection process was datadriven and is therefore quantifiable evidence of the hard work and dedication that so many put towards providing excellent support of this major customer. Such recognition from an important customer highlights the progress IMI CCI
Left to right: Toby Seay, President of Bechtel’s Power business, responsible for project development, execution, and services across the globe; CM Merrimon; Mark Zeiger, Principal Vice President and Manager of Procurement (Bechtel Power).
continue to make with Bechtel, as well as many other key customers. “Representing IMI CCI at this event was an honour! I would like to thank our colleagues who work specifically on the
TA-Compact-P: a great opportunity – developed and introduced within nine months Kicked off in September 2013 with a cross-functional and cross-site team and a commitment to an accelerated time line, this new product development was driven by customer needs and competitor differentiation.
The new range of pressure independent balancing and control valves required a high-flow capacity; allowing universal application in cooling and heating systems.
The TA Hydronics team at Ljung, Sweden
Bechtel project execution team for their efforts in supporting our customers, and thank you to everyone at IMI CCI for the efforts you make that contribute to our overall achievements.” said CM Merrimon.
WRITTEN BY Kieran Griffin Head of Engineering IMI Hydronic Engineering
The new TA-Compact-P
TA-COMPACT-P was designed to cost and manufacture – on time, within budget and within specification. This new range is promising to be one of the most exciting product developments in years! Having already received orders from Brazil, Russia, South East Asia and Turkey two months prior to launch, the ramp up has started and the product is leaving the factory door on its way to delighted customers. This development has been driven by a wonderful and committed IMI Hydronic Engineering team, supported by an improved advanced product quality planning process and senior management.
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Life sciences exhibitions WRITTEN BY Joe Stupfel VP & Sector Head - Global Life Sciences IMI Precision Engineering
This spring, IMI Precision Engineering exhibited at two life sciences exhibitions. The product line-up comprised revolutionary diaphragm valves and a conical rotary valve, while other innovations included the FASPROP and PICOSOL MS. At Pittcon in Chicago, leads were captured through a combination of visitors to the booth, prospecting at other booths and advertising. The team have since been working on a campaign to promote brand and product awareness to new contacts. At Analytica in Munich, almost twice as many leads were captured compared with previous years’ shows. It proved to be a really busy show with numerous meetings with existing customers held on the stand too. The Life Science team will also be exhibiting at the Medica exhibition in Dusseldorf, 12-15 November.in
The team at Analytica
Precision and Critical divisions join forces at Houston conference for the oil and gas industry WRITTEN BY Jon Taylor,
Energy Sector Head, IMI Precision Engineering
The team demonstrating the smart solenoid at OTC
IMI’s Precision Engineering and Critical Engineering divisions joined forces in May at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas. IMI Precision’s Norgren brand showcased its innovative smart solenoid valve with integrated electronics for Partial Stroke Testing, alongside its high-quality range of offshore stainless-steel solenoid valves and filtration products. IMI CCI displayed its line-up of control and isolation valves for severe service applications. This collaboration highlights IMI as one of the leading providers of highly-engineered solutions for the global oil and gas industry, strategically placed to support all global customers and their challenges.
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customer focus
Critical Precision Hydronic
IMI Hydronic Engineering launches 15 new products at Mostra Convegno Exhibition! WRITTEN BY Natalie Zeranska Marketing & Communications Manager IMI Hydronic Engineering
The first half of 2014 marked a peak in the exhibition season for Hydronic Engineering, with no fewer than 11 trade fairs in 10 different countries across the globe. Since the beginning of the year more than 15,000 customers have been able to touch and see some of the brand new products being released this year. The Mostra Convegno Exhibition in Milan, is the second most important industry event of its type (behind ISH held in Frankfurt, Germany every two years) and Hydronic Engineering were proud to attend for the first time in March of this year. Amongst the 2,000 exhibitors from the HVAC industry, there was much to see on the Hydronic Engineering stand – with 15 new products introduced to the market for the first time!
Engineering GREAT Solutions
From the Zeparo Cyclone (a dirt separator nine times more efficient than competitor devices), to the VentoEcoEfficient and the Compresso Connect (a pressure maintenance system with new remote access capabilities) customers now have the ultimate solutions for the protection of their systems and critical HVAC equipment. Additionally, TA-Compact-P (the most compact pressure independent control & balancing valve on the market), TA-compact-T (the only ON-OFF control valve with return temperature control) and TA-Pilot-R (the lightest, smallest and most accurate differential pressure controller on the market) now allow for the most efficient control of our customer’s’ HVAC systems, saving space and energy usage. The innovative AFC (automatic flow control) technology from IMI Heimeier integrated into both valve bodies for under floor
heating solutions as well as radiator valves, ensures that flow rates in radiators never exceed the desired amount. The excitement of customers as they were introduced to the benefits of these innovations, was clearly evident. One of our customers – Robin Thorén from Sandbäckens Rör AB – summed up why the new dirt separator is such a great innovation, having seen it in action: “How it works is genius really. It allows me to keep the flow in the system the entire time and it is the flow that actually cleans the system by creating the spiral [inside the product]. If we can use the energy which is in the system to clean it out as well it saves money and time – it is very effective. It is going to be a great piece of technology to use in our installations.”
Just some of the new products shown at the Mostra Convegno Exhibition 18th - 21st March 2014, Milan, Italy.
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people
IMI Precision Engineering recognised for investing in people WRITTEN BY Paula Chilton
HR Director EFC, IMI Precision Engineering
IMI Precision Engineering is celebrating the achievements of its Bristol and Leeds sites through the Investors in People (IiP) scheme. The Bristol site was awarded the Gold standard, held by just 3.2% of UK organisations, after meeting all 196 assessment criteria. It is the first IMI Group company to achieve the Gold award. The Leeds site opted to bypass the standard award and be assessed directly for Bronze.
Congratulations to. everyone involved Staff at Precision’s Bristol site with the Gold LiP award
Meet the new HR director
IMI’s future engineering talent – double awardwinning apprentice at IMI Truflo Marine WRITTEN BY Clayton Manley Managing Director, IMI Truflo Marine IMI Critical Engineering
Marcus Thomas has been with IMI Truflo Marine as an apprentice for two years. The company use a local training provider called In-Comm Training & Business Services, who assist in the recruitment and then training of apprentices. As part of their recognition of apprentices from many businesses across the West Midlands region, In-Comm recently held an awards ceremony at Walsall FC stadium. They have now run this for the past three years and IMI Truflo Marine have had winners in all three events! This year we were delighted that Marcus was nominated along with five other apprentices for the Apprentice of the Year – ‘Engineering & Manufacturing Technologies’, he won this category. Unbeknown to us, Marcus had also been entered into a category entitled ‘Most Improved Apprentice of the Year,’ and he won this award too! 22
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Marcus Thomas proudly receives his two awards.
We spoke with representatives later in the evening who commended not only Marcus but the company and particularly his Line Manager and mentor Mark Baker Smith, who had been pivotal in his development over the past 12 months. Mark has invested a tremendous amount of time, energy and support in developing Marcus into the award-winning employee we have in the business today. As part of his role in the quality team Marcus looks after our calibration requirements and has also taken a lead role on our co-ordinate measuring machine, in learning how to operate it, how to write programs on the machine and offline, generating SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) to ensure other people can go on the machine and follow these instruction. His development has been fantastic and we are looking forward to him remaining with the company and adding value for many years to come.
We are pleased to welcome Geoff Tranfield as Group HR Director. Geoff, who joins Mark Selway’s Executive team, started at IMI in January this year and is based at HQ in Birmingham. Geoff joins us from Petrofac, the FTSE 100 oilfield services company and has considerable international expertise from a variety of sectors. Geoff and his team are working on maximising the Group’s potential by helping to attract, recruit, retain and develop the best talent globally. Following feedback from the latest Employee Engagement Survey, a key priority has been to update and re-launch the Group’s performance management process. New global standards on reward, mobility, diversity and induction among others will be introduced in the coming months.
people
Critical Precision Hydronic
2014 IMI Senior Management Conference
WRITTEN BY Katrina Feeney Communications & Investor Relations, IMI plc
Mid-June was a busy time for IMI – not only did we launch our new global intranet but 100 of our senior managers, business heads and site leaders met for the Group’s Management Conference in London, UK. Mark Selway reinforced his key messages and outlined the progress we have made in shaping the next phase of development for the Group. Key takeaways from the meeting were: l our ambitions to grow the business, l the extension of the IMI Way to embrace our core processes human resource practices and procedures as well as the way we do business ethically and responsibly, and l the standardised tools we shall be using across the Group as a whole, including Lean and the launch of the new intranet. Attendees also heard firsthand about plans to update the look and feel of the Group with the new branding and the introduction of the strapline Engineering GREAT – taking our good business and making it great. At the end of the conference, managers were asked to describe how they were feeling in one word. Using interactive handsets, a live word cloud was created where words such as; excited; determined; energised; motivated; engaged and inspired appeared. Following the meeting, a range of measures were put in place by the divisions to cascade the important messages from the conference to all IMI employees.
New performance management process
Queretaro scoops HS&E Award
WRITTEN BY Sue Hall Head of Capability Development, IMI plc
WRITTEN BY Randy Cutler VP Global HSE, IMI Precision Engineering
IMI Precision Engineering in Queretaro, Mexico was the winner of the IMI HS&E Award, in recognition of the team’s tireless work to implement a strong safety culture at the facility. Notable achievements include significant reduction in energy consumption through measures such as the use of ultrasound equipment to identify air leaks. An innovative HS&E Communication Programme included a video showing safety messages delivered by employees’ families, and morning ‘Health Breaks’ where a fitness instructor was brought in to perform exercise routines. Runner-up in the HS&E category was the team from the Poole site in the UK.
Mark Shellenbarger and Robert Guerra receive the awards
Having volunteered their facility to host pressure testing training, they are now leading the way in the IMI Precision Engineering Pressure Testing Initiative, demonstrating ‘best in class’ results in engineering-out risks. The training promoted closer working relationships; across locations, IMI platforms and globally, providing a unified framework for the enhancement of pressure testing safety. The course has since reached all pressure testers within IMI Precision Engineering Europe and has also been recognised by IMI Precision Engineering Americas.
Group HR have introduced a new Performance Management Process which integrates and further develops the current performance appraisal, talent review and succession planning processes. The aim of introducing this enhanced process is to drive improved performance across the business and strengthen the assessment of our people. Initially this process will be introduced to at least two levels below Divisional Managing Directors. The values and behaviours established through discussions and validated at the Group Management Conference and The IMI Way Day will be embedded in the performance appraisal summary documents and issued to the divisions in due course. If you have any questions about this process, please contact your local HR department. 23
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The IMI Way Day - a global event, delivered by our great local colleagues
Code
“The way we act”
Branding
“The way we look”
“The way we act”
On 23 June, our third annual IMI Way Day took place. All 12,000 of our employees around the globe took part in a training session, delivered by their colleagues. The format of the day was the same for all sites – an introduction and update on our strategy by the site leader and then work in smaller breakout groups on the importance of the IMI Way and how it can be enhanced with a clear set of values and behaviours in our everyday working lives. The session was designed to be interactive and this year included a section on teamwork and collaboration – something that is being given significant emphasis by Mark Selway.
Group Head Office IMI plc Lakeside, Solihull Parkway Birmingham Business Park Birmingham B37 7XZ United Kingdom Tel: +44 121 717 3700 www.imiplc.com
Responsibility
Behaviour
“The way we impact”
WRITTEN BY Sue Hall Head of Capability Development, IMI plc
Core Process
“The way we improve”
Once training was complete, many sites dedicated time to local community projects or to team building activities. Sites worked with different local charities and a range of wonderful initiatives were supported around the world, making a significant positive impact in the local communities we operate in. Examples of the type of activities undertaken by employees were; collecting donations for food banks, supporting the local homeless in communities, renovating a local play area used by disadvantaged children, painting, gardening and clearing out community centres used by the elderly, volunteering at local hospices, maintaining local trails. The list goes on – the impact of all our sites working in their local communities is considerable.
Next Edition March 2015 Do you have any articles for the EYE? Please submit your story ideas, copy and images to: Group: Katrina Feeney katrina.feeney@imiplc.com
IMI Precision Engineering: Jack Winters jack.winters@imi-precision.com
IMI Critical Engineering: Sarah Harris sarah.harris@imi-critical.com
IMI Hydronic Engineering: Natalie Zeranska natalie.zeranska@imi-hydronic.com