Meridium Launches Asset Answers, the Only Automated Asset-Level Benchmarking Solution

ROANOKE, Va., May 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --  Meridium Inc., the global leader in asset performance management (APM) software and consulting solutions, today launched Asset Answers, the only simple, automated benchmarking tool for quick asset-performance comparisons with companies around the world.

Billions are spent annually to purchase, operate and maintain manufacturing assets, but companies have struggled with a structured approach to globally benchmark performance at the asset level until now.

"Meridium is seeing from our customers a strong interest in and need for a benchmarking solution that will help them enhance their commitment to safety, increase equipment reliability, and reduce maintenance expenses," said Bonz Hart, President, Meridium. "Giving customers the ability to leverage their data through global asset comparisons is a logical next step for Meridium."

Asset Answers is the only automated solution that completely eliminates the need for extensive data gathering and time-consuming benchmarking surveys, providing greater visibility into the performance of production assets.  This greatly simplified approach helps customers improve facility and community safety through metric-driven identification of assets with poor reliability statistics.  Asset Answers also lowers maintenance costs through the rapid, automated identification of assets with disproportionately high maintenance expenses.  

According to Roy Whitt, Vice President Value Realization for Meridium, "A solution like Asset Answers would have been immensely useful during my 30-year career in the refining industry.  Benchmarking information from global peers will help owner/operators make more informed decisions."

There are four "Insight Categories" within Asset Answers that provide understanding into different aspects of asset performance: benchmarking the costs of repairs as well as the percentage of planned versus unplanned work events: comparing the timing of repair and failure events versus those of peers; understanding the nature of the failures that affect assets; and comparing availability, downtime, and maintenance effectiveness for the asset base.  

"We are very excited about the opportunity to help owner/operators learn from their global peers.  Having access to this benchmarking data through Asset Answers will make all of us stronger, safer, and more efficient," according to Webb Burns, Vice President, Asset Answers.

Asset Answers has a simplified, cloud-based technical architecture, with no hardware or software to purchase, no database to support, and no annual software maintenance fees. Equipment data resides in a secure Asset Answers database from which users launch reports through their Meridium APM client or a web browser.  Data security is assured, company participants are never named, and data is displayed to other companies only as part of a peer group sample.   Asset Answers' data extraction and validation tool will retrieve data securely and ensure that all information entering the database is statistically valid.  

For more information, please contact Asset Answers at 540.344.9205 x1242 or [email protected]

About Meridium

Meridium Inc. is the global leader in asset performance management solutions for process, power, mining and discrete manufacturing industries. With Meridium software and services, companies will accelerate profitability through effective asset strategies, thus increasing asset reliability and improving the performance of their production assets. Developing or improving these asset strategies also has a direct, positive impact on operational excellence by reducing financial, health and safety, and production risk; optimizing maintenance costs; ensuring regulatory compliance and decreasing the potential for undesirable incidents. Industry leaders such as Eastman Chemical, Marathon Oil, Anglo Platinum, and Xcel Energy rely on Meridium for enterprise wide asset performance. Meridium is headquartered in Roanoke, VA, USA, with regional offices in Houston, TX, USA; Dubai, UAE; Bangalore, India; Ricasoli, Malta; and Perth, Australia. www.meridium.com

SOURCE Meridium Inc.