Call for Papers


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Call For Papers
Speakers receive complimentary attendance to the conference!

Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals 16th Annual Conference
October 20-23, 2008
The Cleveland Convention Center • Cleveland, Ohio

After setting record attendance in 2007 with more than 1,000 people, SMRP is searching for presenters for the 16th Annual Conference taking place October 20-23, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio. 

The SMRP Annual conference is one of the largest pure Maintenance & Reliability conferences in North America, making it the ideal opportunity to present your knowledge and network with industry peers. 

BENEFITS OF PRESENTING:

• Recognition from your industry peers
• Complimentary attendance to the conference
• Presentation will be published in electronic proceedings

CRITERIA

• The SMRP Annual Conference Tracks are formatted around the SMRPCO Body of Knowledge that contains five validated pillars of information essential to the success of maintenance and reliability professionals
• All presenters must be SMRP members
• Presentations must be non-commercial
• Supplier papers must be co-presented with a practitioner
• Abstract can be no longer than 300 words
• No more than two presenters per presentation is recommended
• The categories below are used as guidelines
• SMRP is willing to consider all topics related to maintenance and reliability. If you feel that your topic does not fit well into one of the categories below, please submit your abstract using the general category in which you would like to present.
• Accepted presenters must submit a written paper and their PowerPoint presentation approximately 8 weeks prior to the conference so that these items can be included in the conference proceedings.

SUBMISSION

• Abstracts must be submitted online.  Abstracts not submitted via the online submission form will not be considered.
• Online submission is available at www.smrp.org
• Online submission will close on Friday, March 7, 2008.
• Notification of acceptance will be sent to each submitter after Friday, April 11, 2008.
• When submitting your abstract, please indicate the topic(s) your presentation is best categorized within. Please rank your presentation as Fundamentals or Beyond the Essentials.
• If your abstract does not fit one of the tracks, select the "General" Category.
• All of the required information must be filled in on the online form for your submission to be considered.

Maintenance & Reliability- Fundamentals & Beyond the Essentials

Based on feedback from the attendees, there is a desire to have this additional distinction to better select presentations and content of interest. Classification of papers within the five tracks will continue. To help guide you in the classification of your paper, the following general guidelines are provided. The key is to match the content of your paper with the interests and needs of the attendee. Given the broad diversity of our members, there is a need for both fundamental and advanced topics within all five tracks.

Topics and content that provide a good foundation for growth and development of the practitioner:

Fundamentals

- Asset Management Basics

- Key Performance Indicators

- MRO Material Management

- Planning & Scheduling

- Preventative & Predictive Technologies

- Machinery Repair Techniques/Strategies

- Benchmarking Best Practices

- Change Management Tactical

Beyond the Essentials

- Safety & Reliability

- OEE

- Strategic Industry Trends

- Shutdown, Turnarounds and Outage Management

- Project Management

- TPM

- Lean

- Six Sigma

- ERP/CMMS EAM Optimizations

- Strategic Business Objectives - competitive advantage, growth, staffing

- Change Management Strategic

- Reliability/Maintenance Leadership

- ROI Determination/Financial Optimization

- Weibull/Monte Carlo Simulations, Crow/AMSAA

- RCM

TRACKS
Track #1 - "Business and Management"
Papers in this track should describe the skills used to translate an organization’s business goals into appropriate maintenance and reliability goals that support and contribute to the organization’s business results. Subjects would include:

• Creating strategic direction and plan
• Selling programs and change to stakeholders
• Creating measurement and performance evaluation systems
• Managing risk
• Business case preparation
• Communicate to stakeholders
• How to plan and budget resources
• Maintenance/operations performance agreements & specifications

Examples of other topics that might fit into this track are:

• Custodial maintenance
• Maintenance management
• Total productive maintenance
• Autonomous maintenance
• Benchmarking
• Case studies are welcome on any of these topics.

Track #2 - "Manufacturing Process Reliability"
Papers in this track should cover subject areas that relate maintenance and reliability activities as part of the quality assurance and improvement of the manufacturing process of the organization. Subjects would include:

• Maintain process and industry standards and specifications
• Understand the manufacturing process
• Manufacturing effectiveness techniques
• Safety, health, and environmental issues
• Manage effects of changes to processes and equipment

Examples of topics that might fit into this area also include:

• Equipment replacement
• Six Sigma programs
• Quality management

Case studies are welcome on any of the above topics.

Track #3 - "Equipment Reliability"
Papers in this track should cover activities used to assess the current capabilities of equipment and processes in terms of their reliability, availability, maintainability, and criticality. This may include how to select and apply the most appropriate maintenance practices, so that the equipment and processes continue to deliver their intended capabilities in the safest and most cost-effective manner. Subjects would include:

• Determine equipment and process performance expectations from the business plan.
• Establish current performance levels and analyze gaps.
• Establish a maintenance strategy to assure performance.
• Cost-justify (budget) tactics selected for implementation.
• Execute a maintenance strategy
• Review performance and adjust maintenance strategy.

Examples of topics that might fit into this area also include:

• Applied technology Preventive maintenance
• Reliability-centered maintenance
• Lubricant analysis
• Vibration analysis
• Infrared thermography
• Ultrasonics
• Alignment
• Balancing

Case Studies are welcome on any of the above topics.

• Assess organizational competence and direction.
• Develop the maintenance and reliability organization structure.
• Develop the maintenance and reliability staff.
• Communicate maintenance and reliability to the organization.

Examples of topics that might fit in this area are:

• General communication
• Writing
• Speaking
• The human side of maintenance
• People development/training
• Making presentations
• Leadership
• Influencing people
• Handling conflict
• Meeting management
• Performance management

Case studies related to any of the above topics are welcome.

Track #5 - "Work Management"
Papers in this track should focus on skills used to get the maintenance and reliability work done. These include scheduling and planning activities, quality assurance of maintenance activities, and stores and inventory management. Subjects would include:

• Comprehensive work identification.
• Plant-wide formal prioritization system.
• Effective work planning prior to scheduling.
• Effective, cooperative work scheduling and backlog management.
• Effective resource management (people, materials, financial).
• Document work execution and update records / history.
• Equipment history review and failure identification.
• Effective performance measures and follow-up.
• Capital project planning.
• Effective use of information technologies (CMMS, etc).

Examples of topics that might fit into this area are:

• Planning and scheduling
• Materials management, including warehouse
• Backlog management
• CMMS improvements, implementations, or usage

WORKSHOPS
SMRP will also be holding several post-conference one and two day workshops.  If you are interested in presenting one of these workshops please contact Gabi Mahn at gmahn@meetingsmanagementgroup.com 

PANEL DISCUSSIONS
SMRP may convene panel discussions during the conference. If you are willing to serve as a panelist on a particular discussion topic or topics, please complete the following form and check off the panelist radio button. You will need to submit separate forms for abstracts and panel discussion topics.

CASE STUDIES
Case studies are welcome on any of the above topics.

SMRP conferences are geared to the educational needs of Maintenance & Reliability practitioners.  Take advantage of this opportunity to promote your knowledge to your industry peers at the 2008 SMRP Annual Conference!

QUESTIONS?
Contact Gabi Mahn at gmahn@meetingsmanagementgroup.com