Elkridge, MD. July 24, 2008. Global performance improvement solutions provider General Physics Corporation (GP), the operating subsidiary of GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE: GPX), announced today the launch of OUTAGE! The Planning and Scheduling Experience, an experiential learning workshop that powerfully reinforces planning and scheduling concepts and best practices.
This eight-hour simulation is designed to improve planning and scheduling for outages and shutdowns across a wide variety of industries. The game experience replicates a real maintenance outage, complete with typical problems of parts, personnel constraints, quality control problems, contractor issues, scheduling dilemmas, work orders, safety issues, work identified late, risk assessment and more. Thousands of staff hours can be saved by eliminating non-valued-added activities, all from one eight-hour simulation. The simulation is designed for companies in capital-intensive industries such as energy, petrochemical, steel, automotive, pharmaceutical and other heavy industries.
Chuck Kooistra, GP’s Senior Vice President, explains, “Shutdowns, turnarounds and outages are critical challenges for our customers. Not managing them effectively can result in devastating financial consequences and may create safety and environmental risks. For a complex outage to be accomplished efficiently and safely, the organization must achieve high resource utilization. Outage performance directly correlates to the level of planning and scheduling, preparation, control of scope, assessment of risk and execution. OUTAGE! The Planning and Scheduling Experience is an exciting interactive game simulation that introduces and reinforces the tools and techniques vital to successful, team-based outage performance. OUTAGE! The Planning and Scheduling Experience allows participants to see the big picture, generates enthusiasm and provides a forum for outage professionals to see the impact of their contributions to overall success. We are thrilled to be able to provide OUTAGE! The Planning and Scheduling Experience to help our clients develop these skills within their workforce.”
GP’s launch includes a public webinar on planning and scheduling best practices: 2:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, July 30, 2008. Go to www.gpworldwide.com/maintenance/outage.asp to register for the webinar. GP is also hosting an invitation only demo of OUTAGE! The Planning and Scheduling Experience at the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals conference, October 20–23, 2008, in Cleveland, Ohio (Booth 400).
For additional information please visit the Outage! The Planning and Scheduling Experience webpage at www.gpworldwide.com/maintenance/outage.asp or email reliability@gpworldwide.com.
GP’s maintenance and reliability team works with clients to initiate deploy and sustain maintenance excellence through consulting, program design and development, training, training center management, coaching and hands-on implementation services.
About GP
GP is the principal operating subsidiary of GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE: GPX). GP is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP’s solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers. Additional information may be found at www.gpworldwide.com.
We make statements in this press release that are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements reflect our current expectations concerning future events and results. We use words such as “expect,” “intend,” “believe,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “anticipates,” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean a statement is not forward-looking. These statements are not guarantees of our future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause our actual performance or achievements to be materially different from those we project. For a full discussion of these risks, uncertainties, and factors, we encourage you to read our documents on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those set forth in our periodic reports under the forward-looking statements and risk factors sections. Except as required by law, we do not intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Contacts:
Scott N. Greenberg
Chief Executive Officer
(410) 379-3640
Sharon Esposito-Mayer
Chief Financial Officer
(410) 379-3636
Jamie Coffey
Director, Communications
(443) 255-3400