News of people and events important to the maintenance and reliability community

ATS APPOINTS JOE PYCZ AS NEW VP OF OPERATIONS
Advanced Technology Services, Inc., (ATS), a leader in managed services for equipment maintenance, IT infrastructure support and industrial parts repair, has announced the appointment of Joseph A. Pycz as vice president of Operations. Pycz brings 30+ years experience in operations and management to ATS, including having served the past 12 as president and CEO of ThyssenKrupp Crankshaft, LLC. During that time, he led and managed the company’s growth from two plants with annual revenues of $35 million to four locations with annual revenues near $350 million. Prior to that, he had been plant manager at Wyman-Gordon Company.

TIMKEN IN ALADON NETWORK & IVARA EXP PARTNER PROGRAM
Ivara Corporation has announced that The Timken Company has joined The Aladon Network and the Ivara EXP Enterprise Implementation Partner Program. The Aladon Network is Ivara’s global network of reliability experts and certified practitioners of Ivara RCM2™ and Ivara Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA), advanced methodologies for team-based approaches to developing a reliability strategy for all assets in an organization. As an Aladon Network Member, Timken is certified to deliver training and consulting services for Ivara RCM2 and MTA. In addition, the company now is an authorized reseller of Ivara EXP Professional asset reliability strategy development software. As an EXP Enterprise Implementation Partner, Timken will be able to deliver implementation consulting for Ivara EXP Enterprise asset performance management software. EXP Enterprise provides a cohesive and integrated platform to develop, implement and manage a living equipment reliability program.

Speaking of Timken, building on its extensive line of industrial lubricants, the company has announced the addition of several quality lubricant-delivery products, including grease guns, pumps and kits. These products are being introduced in the United States in March and in Canada during the second quarter of 2008. According to a company spokesperson, its new lubricant-delivery product line complements Timken’s ability to go beyond bearing technology and provide friction management solutions that meet maintenance needs.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

BE&K’S JEFFORDS HONORED AS TOP CRAFT PROFESSIONAL
Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) has honored Jennifer Jeffords with its Craft Professional of the Year award for 2008. Jeffords, who works as a combination stick and TIG pipe welder for BE&K Industrial Services International Paper (IP) site in Pensacola, fl, also is a weld instructor for BE&K’s Training Center there. According to ABC, the award honors individuals who set the standard for professionals in their craft by exhibiting pride, honor, and leadership, and share their passion for the trade, the pride of working with their hands and the satisfaction of a job well done to benefit both the construction industry and the greater community.

Of all the women in the U.S. workforce, only about one in every million is a welder. Jeffords, who took up this craft in 1999, was encouraged to do so by her husband of 21 years, Lee, himself an accomplished welder. She recently served as a key member of the BE&K project team responsible for converting the Number 5 paper machine at IP’s Cantonment, flmill, from producing 350 tons per year of white writing-quality paper to 500,000 tons per year of unbleached linerboard. During the shutdown, the team installed 72,000 linear feet of pipe and more than 65,000 linear feet of tubing.

Jeffords is the second BE&K employee to receive ABC’s prestigious, national award. She was nominated for it by BE&K’s Construction Training department based on her skill level and her commitment to teaching after-hours welding classes after work, three to five days per week. In addition to being presented with ABC’s Eagle trophy on March 8, at the association’s National Convention in San Juan, PR, she also was awarded a new full-size pickup by Tradesmen International, official sponsor of the 2008 Craft Professional of the Year competition.

SMRP SCHEDULES SECOND EXECUTIVE SUMMIT IN NYC
SMRP’s second annual Executive Summit is set for August 4-5, 2008, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. The event is designed to help executives learn more about the importance of reliability to their organizations while networking with their peers. This year’s summit will feature presentations by the president of Delta Airlines, the CTO of Cargill and corporate vice presidents from Constellation Energy and DuPont in a non-commercial environment. Note that this is not a technical seminar. These presenters will concentrate on the business and financial success their companies have experienced through a focus on Reliability Improvement. Space is very limited, however. For details on how you can have your company’s executives invited to this summit, visit www.smrp.org.

YOUR NEWS IS OUR NEWS! OUR READERS WANT TO KNOW ALL ABOUT IT. SEND MT NEWS ITEMS TO: jalexander@atpnetwork.com