Conferences Autumn 2007

The annual Energy Institute Awards Dinner was held in the Savoy Hotel, London, hosted by Lord Coe. ABB again sponsored the event and hosted guests from Total, Centrica and BP. Peter Hunt was also a member of the judging panel for the awards.

Peter Hunt, ABB and LOrd Co

ABB Engineering Services sponsored and exhibited at the IQPC (International Quality and Productivity Center) event on Mature Assets held in Aberdeen. This two-day event was a great opportunity to exchange timely and important information with fellow industry professionals and included a presentation from Stewart MacIntyre on Alarm Management which was extremely well received. There were over 60 delegates at the event from companies such as Centrica, BP, Marathon Oil and Shell.


ABB Engineering Services exhibited at the HazardEx 2007 Conference in Birmingham. Karl Watson gave a paper entitled ‘Experience of Assessing Installed Safety Instrument Systems in a Far Eastern Gas Separation Complex’. ABB also sponsored the Safety Award at the Gala dinner during the conference and this was presented to MTL by Peter Hunt.


The precision and effectiveness of shutdowns and turnarounds has become critical to ensuring consistency in throughput and profitability. ABB exhibited at the IQPC (International Quality and Productivity Center) Conference on ‘Shutdowns and Turnarounds’ in London. Martin Brown delivered a presentation entitled ‘Striving for Turnaround Excellence’. The event was chaired by Alan D’Ambrogio, ABB.


Clive Smith and Mike Johnson of Operational Improvement, gave a presentation at the North West Chemicals Group Sustainability Event in Manchester. Clive has conducted a survey into the use of Continuous Improvement in chemical organisations, and following Mike’s presentation on the benefits of adopting a Continuous Improvement approach, they both ran a workshop to identify areas where the North West Chemicals Group can deliver assistance to companies in the region.


A joint paper entitled ‘Alarms for Operators’, authored by Tony Atkinson of ABB Enginerring Services and Martin Hollender of ABB Research was presented at the OECD-CCA (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) Workshop on Human Factors in Chemical Accidents in Potsdam recently. The paper was presented to a highly influential workshop group tasked with revising the OECD ‘Guiding Principles for Chemical Accident Prevention, Preparedness and Response’ document and generated significant interest. A copy of the presentation accompanying the paper can be viewed by following the link on the solutions web page at www.abb.co.uk


The ABB Engineering Services Manufacturing Award is presented to the Chemicals Industry Association (CIA) member organisation that has shown the greatest improvement across a site or within a specific production unit. This year the award dinner was held in the unique surroundings of the National Railway Museum at York; a fascinating evening where Tim Yates, Operations Director of winners, Syngenta, Huddersfield, was presented with the award by Martin Grady.

Martin Grady, ABB, Tim Yates, Syngenta, and Steve Elliot, CIA