NSK Brasil Ltda. (a division of NSK Ltd., Japan) has established a partnership with Emerson / CSI (Computational Systems Inc., of Emerson Process Management Group, USA) to provide value-added predictive and preventive maintenance services to its industrial customers in that country Alexandre Froes, NSK Brasil's Marketing and Application Engineering Chief, told eBearing, "This is an important step to NSK, that even more has its focus on the aftermarket area and as you may know, NSK has never done this kind of agreement before." NSK and CSI will work together to provide integrated predictive and preventive maintenance services. Increasingly an important part of the industrial product maintenance picture, such services aim to improve machine efficiency and availability while simultaneously reducing maintenance costs. The move by NSK into these value-added services parallels similar efforts pioneered by SKF and now available from INA/FAG, Timken, and other key bearing vendors. By establishing such relationships and offering more value-added services, bearing manufacturers have been able to not only leverage their market position but also improve overall profitability in the face of increasing commoditization. The pilot agreement is the first ever of its type for NSK, and is currently targeted only in the Brazilian market. In the United States, Emerson has been developing CSI predictive and preventive maintenance programs specifically for bearings since at least 1997.