In the mid-1950’s, the DuPont Engineering Department recognized the need for a better way to maintain DuPont worldwide manufacturing facilities. These plants, which produced a wide variety of chemical products, did not have an organized approach to painting. Rather, they painted facilities on a hit or miss “reactive” basis. Sites were painted when the surface had obviously deteriorated. As a result, painting costs were high and plant appearance was poor.

The Engineering Department established a task force to “reengineer” the DuPont approach to painting. The goal was to develop a proactive strategic approach for painting and maintaining DuPont plants designed to accomplish three goals:

• Provide maximum corrosion protection to minimize steel replacement costs and equipment failure.
• Improve plant appearance.
• Lower long-term painting and associated life cycle costs (e.g., lower both the annualized costs and the total cost of ownership).

After studying painting practices, testing coating systems, and researching painting economics, the task force developed a “Best Practice” for painting and maintaining plants. DuPont plants adopted these practices and the Engineering Department collected data from those plants for more than 18 years. The data clearly showed that:

• The new systems reduced painting costs by more than 55 percent in “normalized” dollars.
• Steel replacement cost was significantly reduced.
• Plant appearance improved dramatically.

Maintenance Painting Service™

By the mid-to-late 1960’s, visitors to DuPont sites often commented on the appearance of the plants. When they found out how much it actually cost to maintain the plant in good condition, they inquired if DuPont could help them with their plant sites. Responding to customer demand, DuPont established the “Maintenance Painting Service™” business in 1972 in the Finishes and Fabricated Products Department—DuPont Performance Coatings.

DuPont offered the MPS™ program to the chemical and petrochemical process industry with the same elements of technology, economics, and engineering analysis developed for DuPont plants. The MPS™ program provided our clients with a unique guarantee for long-term performance and predictable costs. By 2004, DuPont Maintenance Painting Service™ had delivered more than 1500 project-years of comprehensive painting programs with improved painting results and substantial savings to a wide variety of customers.

Thermal Insulation Maintenance Service™

In the late 1960’s, process insulation engineers in the DuPont Engineering Department began adopting the technology and methods learned from reengineering the plant painting process and applying them to the company’s insulation assets.

In 1987, the insulation management program was transferred to the DuPont™ Engineered Services (DES) business, the group responsible for the Maintenance Painting Service™, with the goal of developing a commercial insulation offering. The program was renamed Thermal Insulation Maintenance Service (TIMS™). DES initially offered TIMS™ only to DuPont facilities, but by 1990, this service was available to outside customers.

The TIMS™ approach has three objectives:

• Improve a clients’ thermal insulation work processes by using Best Practices and performance benchmarking.
• Help a client move from a reactive mode of insulation maintenance to a strategic one by using Strategic Practice Maintenance principles.
• Help the client achieve the Lowest Total Cost of Ownership of insulated assets.

Consulting Service

For several years, DuPont-managed service customers have requested similar service offerings that could be extended to smaller facilities. These facilities typically have small maintenance painting programs, and perform insulation on a reactive basis only. Because DuPont has been active in the consulting business both internally and externally for more than 100 years, establishing a consulting service to assist customers with maintenance painting and thermal insulation seemed a natural fit.

Established in 1996, DuPont™ Engineered Services Consulting Systems has the ability to take advantage of the same technology that has proven effective in the managed service program. We can also provide assistance to customers on safety management, procuring labor and materials, contractor management, quality assurance, and other key components of successful infrastructure management programs. We evaluate customer's needs individually and develop customized levels of support needed.