Noria's RELIABLE PLANT 2010 Conference is Major Success

Paul V. Arnold, Noria Corporation

Industrial professionals from around the world attended RELIABLE PLANT 2010, Noria’s annual conference and exhibition, held August 30-September 2 at the Nashville (Tenn.) Convention Center. Attendees represented companies in 44 states and 21 countries. This year’s event included three co-located trade shows: Lubrication Excellence, Reliability World and Lean Manufacturing.

RELIABLE PLANT 2010 marked the 11th year of Lubrication Excellence, the sixth year of Reliability World and the fifth year of Lean Manufacturing.

“In candid interviews with attendees, we received very high marks for this year’s conference,” said Paul V. Arnold, the editor-in-chief of Noria Publishing. “Our guests were particularly pleased with the quality of the educational curriculum as well as the idea sharing related to plant solutions that occurred in the exhibition hall.”

During the three main days of the conference, August 31-September 2, more than 75 case studies, industry reports and training sessions were presented. Mark Swenson, the vice president for manufacturing engineering and vehicle production engineering at Nissan North America, provided the keynote address on August 31. Track keynotes were presented by: Samuel Bethea, the director of North American maintenance and reliability at Campbell Soup Company; Aqua Porter, the vice president in charge of strategic projects and Lean Six Sigma operations at Xerox Corporation; and Robert Hafey, the author of the new book “Lean Safety – Transforming your Safety Culture with Lean Management”.

Lubrication Excellence presentations were delivered by leaders from: Noria, MillerCoors, Eli Lilly, ArcelorMittal, Energizer, Goodyear, Temple-Inland, Alabama Power Company, Covance, Shell, ICML, Lubrication Engineers, Polaris Laboratories, Schroeder Industries, Hy-Pro Filtration, Hendrix Engineering, Ludeca, Pioneer Engineering, Pall Corporation, MRG Labs, CITGO, Reliable Process Solutions, Fluitec International, IDCON, Wooton-Consulting, Thermal-Lube, Air-Tight Hubs, Spectro/QinetiQ North America and Lubrication Systems Company.

Reliability World presentations were given by leaders from: Alcoa, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Campbell Soup, Frito-Lay, ITT, Wells Dairy, AEDC/ATA, SKF, Periscope Consulting, Infor, PdMA Corporation, SDT North America, Emerson Process Management, Laurentide Controls, UE Systems, Lubrication Engineers, UtilX, People and Processes, Sigma Reliability Solutions, SageGuides.com, Productivity Inc., Reliable Process Solutions, Spectro/QinetiQ North America, John Crossan LLC and Manufacturing Solutions International.

Lean track presentations were given by leaders from: Xerox, Raytheon Missile Systems, Sonoco, Syngenta Crop Protection, APS, Sigma Reliability Solutions, Sara Lee, Woodbridge Foam, RBH Consulting, Life Cycle Engineering, Future State Solutions, Gemba Consulting North America and the Lean Leadership Academy.

At the expansive exhibition hall, more than 80 suppliers featured new products and industry solutions.

Workshops from Jim Fitch of Noria ("How to Rate and Select Oil Filtration”) and Drew Troyer of Sigma Reliability Solutions (“How to Optimize Preventive Maintenance Plans”) took place on August 30. ICML held testing for its Machine Lubricant Analyst (MLA), Machine Lubrication Technician (MLT) and Laboratory Lubricant Analyst (LLA) certifications on August 30 and September 1.

2011 Conference Coming Next Spring

Noria’s 2011 conference and exhibition will be held April 19-21 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. To learn more about this event as well as additional education and training events, visit these Web sites:

http://conference.reliableplant.com

www.noria.com

www.machinerylubrication.com

www.reliableplant.com