The Dow Chemical Company Chooses Asset Answers for Global Equipment Benchmarking Solution

ROANOKE, Va., April 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Asset Answers, the automated benchmarking tool for quick asset-performance comparisons with peer organizations, has announced that The Dow Chemical Company has chosen Asset Answers for its enterprise asset performance benchmarking solution.

"We are very excited about Dow joining the Asset Answers community as a Charter Customer member," said Brad Broughton, VP Business Development for Meridium. "Giving Dow the ability to view key asset performance metrics and benchmark with global peer organizations will help Dow further improve the effectiveness of their asset performance improvement program, resulting in safer, more efficient operations."

Asset Answers is the only automated, data-driven asset performance benchmarking solution that completely eliminates the need for manual data gathering and time-consuming benchmarking surveys. Having access to comparative performance metrics on a monthly basis allows customers to identify assets with poor reliability statistics or disproportionately high maintenance expenses. Current data is more actionable, leading to continuous improvements in work processes and asset management strategies.   

"The Dow Chemical Company has a strong interest in a benchmarking solution," said Kevin Bauman, Maintenance Technology Improvement Leader for Dow. "We believe Asset Answers is a great tool to further assist us in our commitment to safe, reliable, efficient operations."

Asset Answers provides multiple metrics organized into four "Insight Categories" that deliver key performance indicators on different aspects of asset performance: 

• Corrective Cost Analysis benchmarks the costs of repairs as well as the percentage of planned versus unplanned work
• Repair Event Analysis compares the time between repairs and failure events versus those of peers
• Failure Cause Analysis leads to an understanding of the nature of the failures that affect assets
• Asset Availability Analysis compares availability, downtime, and maintenance effectiveness for the asset base. 

Asset Answers is a hosted solution available through annual subscription, so there is no hardware or software to purchase, no database to support, and no software maintenance fees.  Asset performance data resides in a secure Asset Answers database from which users launch reports through a web browser.  Data is stored in an aliased and encrypted format, and only decrypted and unlocked per a specific user's security profile.  The identity of peer organizations is kept confidential: peer data is only displayed in aggregate, and identities of member companies are never divulged.

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."

For more information, please contact Asset Answers at 540.344.9205 x1180, [email protected] or www.assetanswers.com.

About Asset Answers                                                                                          
Asset Answers is a Meridium company. Meridium is the global leader in asset performance management software and services for asset-intensive industries. Meridium lowers the risk of harm to people, our planet and profits by predicting and preventing physical asset failures. With Meridium's unique enterprise analytics, our clients minimize production downtime while improving safety. Meridium is headquartered in Roanoke, VA, USA, with offices around the world including: Houston, TX, USA; Dubai, UAE; Bangalore, India; Ricasoli, Malta; and Perth, Australia. www.meridium.com

About The Dow Chemical Company
Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company connects chemistry and innovation with the principles of sustainability to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, renewable energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's diversified industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 160 countries and in high growth sectors such as electronics, water, energy, coatings and agriculture. In 2011, Dow had annual sales of $60 billion and employed approximately 52,000 people worldwide. The Company's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 197 sites in 36 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

SOURCE Meridium Inc.