Managing Risks in Asset Intensive Operations

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - April 8, 2009) - "Managing Risks in Asset Intensive Operations," the latest research report by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), has correlated specific business capabilities and technology enablers to top companies ability to reduce the impact of operational risks on financial performance. For the purposes of this study, Aberdeen has evaluated and classified asset intensive companies based on two performance indicators: Production Compliance and Unscheduled Asset Downtime. The results of the report revealed that top companies are able to effectively manage risks related to asset failure, environment and compliance management by realizing 2% unscheduled asset downtime as compared to 13% for Laggard companies and 99% production compliance as compared to 85% for Laggard companies. Please visit this site to obtain a complimentary copy of the report: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5713.

Putting these findings in context, Mehul Shah, Research Analyst with the Aberdeen Group, states that, "Top companies are leveraging an enterprise risk framework to identify, document, and quantify operational risks across enterprise. These companies are more likely to implement asset management solutions in addition to analytics, risk management, FMEA and Job Safety Analysis to ensure that asset and production information is available to the employees and is integrated with business systems to make timely and informed decisions to mitigate risks across operations. This report is a roadmap for companies planning to adopt a risk-based approach in asset intensive operations to manage and reduce adverse events on a predictive basis."

Based on the above findings, Shah adds the following recommendations to achieve top performance:

   1. Establish executive sponsorship for implementing a risk management
      program across the enterprise.

   2. Invest in analytics to provide predictive insights and improve
      visibility into production and asset performance across the
      enterprise.

   3. Implement a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) strategy to
      improve the effectiveness of maintenance operations.

   4. Invest in an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solution to improve
      visibility into the total lifecycle of assets and provide that
      information to appropriate decision makers.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: IBM Maximo and Infor. Obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/benchmark/5713-RA-risk-manufacturing-operations.asp

For additional access to complimentary Manufacturing Research

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

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Contact Information: Media Contact: Mehul Shah, Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5212 Mehul.shah@aberdeen.com