Improving Valve Total Cost of Ownership

by | Nov 17, 2017 | Valves, Actuators & Regulators

Jim Cahill

Jim Cahill

Chief Blogger, Social Marketing Leader

Emerson's Christof Lindner


An important metric for driving continuous improvement in the process industries is total cost of ownership (TCO). One of the methods to lower these costs is to standardize and limit variations on the plant equipment across sites and geographic locations.

In a Flow Control magazine article, Improve Total Cost of Ownership with Valves, Emerson’s Christof Lindner shares ways that standardizing equipment, suppliers, programs and processes can drive down TCO.

Flow Control: Improve Total Cost of Ownership with ValvesChristof explains the purpose is to:

…focus on the goal of increasing efficiency and reducing TCO related to the procurement, installation and maintenance of valves and controls equipment, and inventory control processes across multiple plant sites.

Valves and control equipment is an important area to address, given their impact on reliable and efficient operations. The journey toward standardization…

…begins with an evaluation. Once the evaluation is completed, a team then works in collaboration with the customer to develop and implement a customized standardization plan across their facilities over a period of several years.

Cost savings can occur through streamlined specification and equipment ordering, quicker access to spares, use of higher reliability products, standardized lifecycle support, more consistent team members, and better application fit of the standardized equipment.

Christof outlines three components to effective standardization:

  1. Availability of accurate specifications and datasheets for commonly used valves and other technical components is of prime importance…
  2. Identifying and adopting best practices related to specifications and inventory management and suppliers using a standardized approach are key parts of the overall process…
  3. Ensuring consistent execution by all parties and early supplier involvement leads to program success…

Read the article for more on each of these primary components and how they work to drive down the total cost of ownership for the final control elements within a manufacturing or production process.

He concludes:

By implementing an effective standardization program, customers can expect to reduce their TCOs by up to 25 percent, which translates to potential savings of millions of dollars annually.

Suppliers of valves, controls and other plant automation equipment and solutions must continually address and adapt to add value to the customers they serve. The relationship between valve manufacturers and end users can often change dramatically because of new technologies, innovative processes, rapid execution of capital investments and other unplanned factors that affect operations. The best way to develop and enhance the relationship between a supplier and a customer is for the supplier to care enough about that customer’s business as if it were its own.

You can connect and interact with other valve and lifecycle support experts in the Valves and Operate & Maintain groups in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

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The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the authors. Content published here is not read or approved by Emerson before it is posted and does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Emerson.

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