Management of conflict is evolving so that HR must now demonstrate the value of staff and be able to measure the effectiveness of teams, individuals and departments. By implementing relevant measures, conflict management can demonstrate areas where companies are inefficient and where improvements can be made.

Companies organisational setup and design is continually evolving to meet the current business challenges. During recession this has been highlighted even further with business performance and effectivness in the spotlight. Will companies be prepared to change to meet the needs of economic upturn?

Human capital management investigates the value and the financial measurement and profitability of your staff. By reengineering your people models and frameworks Human capital can then be measured and reported upon to highlight the needs and gaps within your HR policies.

Retaining and developing your core talent in 2010 will become a necessity. As companies start to recruit once more and the recession eases talented staff will require specific programmes and initiatives to show a clear career path and succession plan.

Leadership skills are clearly different to management skills. But can leadership skills be taught, mentored, coached or developed? Developing both skills that fit to your corporate strategies and the personality of your organisation are paramount for business success. Succession planning for senior leaders is challenging as it is time consuming. Ideas and strategies for successful leadership development will be discussed this month.

Management of people is evolving so that HR must now demonstrate the value of staff and be able to measure the effectiveness of teams, individuals and departments. By implementing relevant measures performance management can demonstrate areas where companies are inefficient and where improvements can be made.

Companies organisational setup and design is continually evolving to meet the current business challenges. During recession this has been highlighted even further with business change and downsizing taking place. Will companies be prepared to change to meet the needs of economic upturn?

Shared services and the practice of sharing resources to reduce administration and costs are now high on the HR Directors agenda. When implemented effectively they allow for HR personnel to add value in other areas and to concentrate on aligning HR to strategic aims.

Understand how to align PLM with the wider enterprise to drive product innovation and ensure your business is ready to emerge stronger from the economic crisis.

As supply chain management continues its move into the boardroom, identify how the supply chain will deliver strategic value, driving the business forward through the recovery.

What defines a successful MES implementation and integration? Learn how to optimise customer responsiveness by aligning MES with the strategic business.

As we move into the economic recovery, understand how to turn risk into a business opportunity to return to profitability and deliver competitive advantage.

In order to deliver bottom-line savings and drive business recovery, understand how a culture of sustainability can drive competitiveness and generate renewed growth.

Don’t just survive, but thrive, during a period of uncertainty. Identify how the key factors behind a long-term lean strategy can mitigate the impact of a lean economy.

As cost-cutting rises to the top of the business agenda, examine the vital role a successful RFID implementation plays in delivering significant bottom-line savings.

Understand how to align PLM with the wider enterprise to drive product innovation and ensure your business is ready to emerge stronger from the economic crisis.

The growing consumer demand for green packaging alternatives provides a clear opportunity for brand differentiation with sustainable packaging technologies. New technologies available provide better environmental performance and business value by providing an opportunity for cost reduction.

Multiple production sites require accurate and up to date information on plant reliability, morbidity and productivity across operations. Effective multi site management and data acquisition techniques and technologies allow processors to benchmark facilities identify non- performing assets and further enhance manufacturing productivity and profitability.

By using technologies to measure what really matters i.e.: quality, throughput and yield, manufacturers can fully optimise their operations and understand where improvements can be made.

The food industry must discover new ways to reduce carbon emissions, recycle waste and manage water. The way to make truly substantial cuts is to get to the very heart of manufacturing by rethinking operations from the ground up and implementing new technologies and techniques as the foundations for sustainable operations and cost savings.

The food industry must embrace the possibilities offered by open innovation if it is to succeed in an increasingly competitive arena. Companies stand a better chance of escaping the law of diminishing returns in innovation by developing collaborative relationships to stimulate new product development and improve manufacturing efficiency.

NPD and Health Ingredients Fully understanding the current and future trends in health ingredients provides the foundation for healthy product development enabling the food industry to successfully target health conscious consumers.

Operational excellence has become the cornerstone for success in manufacturing operations by enabling food processors to maximise efficiency, eliminate waste and benchmark against set KPI’S as a barometer for success. Manufacturers can achieve business excellence by developing more stream-lined operations across the supply chain resulting in cost savings, increased throughput and profitability.

Here we will examine strategies to managing black powder in gas transmission pipelines. What causes black powder? What is its make up? What can you do to eradicate the problem?

Efficient plant operations are key to achieving successful refining margins. This month we explore operational excellence within refineries with a case study based approach

Regulation, environmental concerns and the finite nature of the hydrocarbon industry has led to heavy investment into alternative energy. From biofuels to wind turbines, the alternative industry is at the forefront of innovation.

Asset maintenance and integrity management is paramount when working offshore. Improving life cycle and asset integrity saves long terms and short term costs. This month we will explore maintenance strategies and solutions for offshore assets.

Real time and streamlined communications are critical to creating efficient, safe and productive operations. Here we will examine the implementation of IO and the benefits of a comprehensive communications system.

Learn how to extend pipeline life-spans by incorporating proactive maintenance strategies into the design and construction stages. Improving pipeline system integrity during various stages of pipeline life cycles

The concept of Floating LNG operations give offer a solution to the recovery of stranded gas reserves. But is floating liquefaction a tangible reality? Here we will examine the design and planning of FLNG vessels and their viability

The key challenge facing the offshore production industry is enhancing production and recovery while at the same time lowering costs. Here we will examine strategies and solutions to safely and efficiently enhance production operations

Pharma is innovating to become more efficient and productive. Shrinking pipelines, generic competition and regulatory stringency are demanding new approaches to drug discovery, development and manufacturing. From investigation in to new modalities and new drug delivery technologies to new multi-product manufacturing facilities, examine the characteristics of the pharma industry of the future.

Productivity has been disappointing in pharma discovery in recent years, the low-hanging fruit 'picked'. Pharma must continue to develop new innovative strategies of target and lead identification in order to develop the next generation of pharma products.

Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly out-sourcing functions from early research right through to manufacturing. In order to ensure effective external quality and a successful on-going relationship choosing the right partner and clear communication between both parties is essential.

With shrinking pipelines, pharma is looking for strategies to maximise returns from their portfolio. Effective decision making and resource allocation in R&D provides the opportunity to focus on drugs which are most likely to be well received on the market. In order to remain competitive against generics Pharma are also looking to extend the lifetime of legacy products, through development of new formulations or delivery methods, and the development of more efficient manufacturing processes to reduce COGS.

By becoming more sustainable the pharma industry can significantly reduce operating costs, whilst also meeting targets for reduced greenhouse gas emissions and being more environmentally friendly.

One of the major challenges the global pharma industry faces is reducing the attrition rates in order to reduce the costs of successfully bringing a drug to market. With 9 out of ten drugs compounds failing and with high development costs it has never been more important to explore successful strategies in order to ensure more drugs get to market.

From informatics approaches to drug discovery to data management and PAT in manufacturing, the role of IT in the pharma industry is becoming increasingly important. The high volume of data produced throughout the industry requires effective data management and integration solutions to support effective decision-making and compliance to regulatory guidelines.

Single-use Technology is set to be the foundation for the next generation of biomanufacturing plants. A fully disposable system can reduce processing time whilst also eliminating cross contamination and cleaning, resulting in lower operation costs.

The WHO estimates that up to 50 percent of drugs worldwide are counterfeit. This translates to approximately US$38 billion in legitimate corporate sales lost each year due to the sale of counterfeit drugs. With counterfeit drugs increasingly finding their way into the legitimate supply chain and in to patients, it is essential that pharmaceutical companies have effective enforcement strategies to combat the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit drugs.