High Aspirations

If chemical companies accept the capital markets expectations as their primary performance target, then attempts to achieve production excellence - and thereby influence the biggest cost element in the business system - can only benefit them. To ensure well-rounded performance improvement, the capital market perspective should also be combined with other outward-looking measures derived 

It is vitally important to translate the various outward-looking perspectives into measurable and concrete technical targets for production managers and front-line personnel. Detailed value-driver trees are an excellent tool for establishing a direct link between financial indicators at the corporate level - such as Return on Invested Capital - and hands-on technical indicators that mean something to a production unit, such as tonnes of steam per tonne of product (Fig. 12.3). 

Explaining these value-driver trees to employees helps them to understand how the individual s daily actions and performance have an immediate and direct influence on the company s (or the business units) profitability. Based on this transparency, specific targets for front-line and intermediate performance indicators can be agreed upon in yearly target contracts at all levels of the organization. 

Top management has to initiate the target-setting process from the top of the value tree in a collaborative, non-authoritarian way. Targets should be set interactively in discussions between the different management levels. The process wiU then cascade through all organizational levels down to the front Une. There, it can end either at the level of each individual production team or even of each individual employee. 

Feedstock amount (tonnes) Feedstock price (USD/tonne) Energy amount (kwh) Energy price (USD/kwh) Personnel (FTEs) Personnel costs (USD/FTE) Main- tenance (USD) 

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The market context is also very important. If the company has especially high aspirations then the CEO must set aggressive targets, which means extracting maximum synergies in all areas. Companies that find themselves in an acquire or exit position or that merge during a downturn must also work that bit harder to capture all the potential. 

We set high aspirations - a ten percent improvement in return on sales in both the integrations ... 

Creating truly entrepreneurial procurement with the high aspirations proposed is not for every company. A more traditional procurement optimization effort will still create value, but will not create a competitive advantage. However, companies wishing to turn their procurement function into a new source of strategic freedom, a business idea, and a crystallization point for entrepreneurial fervor will find it well worth embarking on this rewarding journey. 

High aspirations and step changes in performance are both critical elements for operational excellence in production. Nevertheless, long term success eventually depends on an ongoing drive towards performance leadership. It is therefore crucial for chemical companies to institutionahze a process of continuous improvement in their production functions. 

The glyph of Sagittarius (see Figure 4-4) represents the centaur s arrow and your high aspirations. 

This is a highly aspirational statement, for although the declaration was adopted by representatives of states it is declared to be a common standard for which every individual and organ of society shall strive. Hence, the first article specifies both rights and obligations ... 

Carefully choose your co-workers and your boss, especially in the early, more formative part of your career. These frequent associations in a variety of settings are crucial because they will influence your attitude toward your profession, will affect the knowledge and skills you acquire, and will determine the expansion of your network. Unless you are an unusually independent, highly self-disciplined person, you will be shaped by the people enviromnent within whieh you work. Consider this advice of humorist and writer, Mark Twain Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. To reiterate, if you have high aspirations, carefully choose your co-workers and your boss. ... 

Horizontally Mixing Aspirator Aerators. An aerator using a horizontally mixing aspirator has a marine propeller, submerged under water, attached to a soHd or a hoUow shaft. The other end of the shaft is out of the water and attached to an electric motor. When the propeller is rotated at high velocity, at either 1800 or 3600 rpm, a pressure drop develops around the propeller. Air is then aspirated under the water and mixed with the water, and moved out. This type of aerator, shown ia Figure 3g, is very efficient ia mixing wastewater. 

Jet Pumps. A jet pump is a clever way of using a high pressure motive fluid and a venturi to aspire a low pressure fluid to an intermediate pressure level. 

Highly sensitive iastmmental techniques, such as x-ray fluorescence, atomic absorption spectrometry, and iaductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, have wide appHcation for the analysis of silver ia a multitude of materials. In order to minimize the effects of various matrices ia which silver may exist, samples are treated with perchloric or nitric acid. Direct-aspiration atomic absorption (25) and iaductively coupled plasma (26) have silver detection limits of 10 and 7 l-lg/L, respectively. The use of a graphic furnace ia an atomic absorption spectrograph lowers the silver detection limit to 0.2 l-ig/L. 

Whisker reinforcement is a viable method of toughening composites. However, health considerations associated with the aspiration of fine, high-aspect-ratio whiskers raise serious concern about their widespread use. 

Foam is a proportioned mixture of water and foam eoneentrate aspirated with air to eause expansion, e.g. from 6 to 10 times the volume (low expansion foam) up to >100 times (high expansion foam). It transports water to the surfaee of flammable liquids and enables it to float and extinguish the fire. An effeetive system depends upon ... 

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