At the recent Wonderware X-Change 2011 User Group Conference, South African Instrumentation and Control had the opportunity to talk to Invensys Operations Management (IOM) chief, Sudipta Bhattacharya. We asked him about the group’s global objectives, the reasons behind the thinking and the role of Wonderware Southern Africa in it all. This is what he had to say:
[I&C]: Could you outline the strategy and structure of IOM for SA Instrumentation and Control readers?
[SB]: There are three main groups within IOM. One is what we call the core control and safety division, which is comprised of two main brands: Foxboro’s distributed control systems and Triconex’s triple modular redundant (TMR) safety systems – these are our two top brands. Let me explain. Take for example the US, of the 104 existing nuclear power plants there the majority of them run our safety systems. Let us take China; in the last two years we have won contracts to supply our safety, control and simulation technology to eight nuclear reactors in that region. Our advantage here is that currently we are building the next generation of digital safety systems and this is what the Chinese want for their green field reactor projects. We will continue to support the older analogue technology, but what is exciting about digital is that today’s hardware platforms have the power that allows us to start implementing predictability and other algorithms within the safety software. Our other advantage is the TMR concept. What you do not want is a false trip shutting down a reactor, these things are very complex to start and they almost never get shut down completely for any reason. With our systems you are always comparing one reading with two others and only if all three are wrong simultaneously do you take any action. The second part of the core Invensys business is our advanced applications on the software side; this is where Wonderware resides along with our asset management solution Avantis, our simulation science capability and our workflow tools. Then you have the third part which we call the equipment business, this is the measurement and instrumentation component, the midsized controllers and the chart recorders. This is Eurotherm and it gives us system access to the processes themselves. What we have brought to South Arica so far is really just Wonderware, but what we are doing now is putting in place a systematic strategy to bring the full IOM offering to the region.
[I&C]: You have said before that safety and control are the foundation of Invensys’ Infusion enterprise integration and control strategy. Could you tell us what drove this line of thinking?
[SB]: What drives the business is real-time information control. So when I have a DCS, it is monitoring parameters like flow, temperature and pressure in real-time. Consequently when there is a failure, the first point of information is the DCS. There is nothing more real-time than this, and remember, you run a nuclear reactor, a chemical plant or a refinery all in real-time. So, if for arguments sake a pump is not behaving well, how would you know? You would know the moment you see on your DCS screen that it is drawing more current than usual. Then an operator should trigger a notification to inform maintenance and other relevant management giving them the heads up that something peculiar is going on. This is why safety and control is the core – it is the source of your real-time information. Only on top of that can you start to build the advanced applications to act on this information. Ideally the real-time control world needs to be fused with the advanced applications that manage and audit the event notifications, but the approach must be from the bottom up. The moment you take a top down approach, it is no longer real-time.
[I&C]: How does IOM differentiate its enterprise-wide offering from those of competitors?
[SB]: The differentiators in our offering are firstly our high end safety systems where nobody is close to us; safety is one of our key differentiators. Then, when it comes to highly complex refineries, it is our control systems that run most of them. And when it comes to Wonderware, we are the world’s most prolific HMI/Scada system – the global adoption rate is astonishing. Another area where we lead strongly is the diversity of our simulation solutions. We can go beyond just simulators for operator training into the world of real-time and dynamic simulation using 3D visualisation tools. Add in our asset management and mobility solutions and you find that when you bundle it all together, our biggest differentiator is in fact our portfolio.
[I&C]: Traditionally Wonderware has been associated with functionality at the HMI/Scada level. How is this evolving in response to the enterprise-wide vision?
[SB]: Wonderware’s roots are in HMI/Scada, but today that platform is transforming itself into a system platform taking HMI/Scada to the next level and incorporating much more sophisticated visualisation. What we are also doing is building applications on the top of Wonderware. MES is an example of an application that sits on top of the system platform, manufacturing intelligence is another. We are also aware of the potential of cloud computing to deliver at this level and clearly there are things we need to do here. Last year we demonstrated proof of concept of ‘ArchestrA in the cloud’ in response to an idea that came up through our innovations project. We believe that virtualisation and Software as a Service are both business models that we should be looking at. We want to be ready for the day when a customer comes to us and asks: “Hey, do you have a cloud-based solution ready?” The cloud is a great way to collect information and make it accessible to centres of expertise or engineers on the move, this is key to our mobility offering. Workflow application is another area we are developing aggressively, since all the intelligent information we can provide is useless if users do not have a formalised way of reacting to a situation. Let me give an example: if I am historising a temperature and I realise this temperature profile is not moving in the direction I am expecting, what do I do with this information? What is needed is the ability to execute a certain set of processes repeatedly. For instance, I must notify the quality manager to come and take a look at the batch under production in case it is going out of spec. Also, I may need to notify a safety inspector in case this could lead to a dangerous condition and then I must notify maintenance. This is workflow. In the past it was implemented through word of mouth or custom code; in today’s world of the transitory workforce these are no longer maintainable solutions. What we have done is incorporate this ability as a module in the System Platform to model and audit the reactions that must happen, in this case in response to a temperature going out of limits. In regulated industries like nuclear, workflow is now a vital operating requirement and in the business world, companies like Amazon and ebay simply could not operate without it. This is the rationale behind the Skelta acquisition; it gives us the ability to embed a workflow module into the Wonderware System Platform.
[I&C]: In a South African context, how well are these ideas of enterprise-wide integration being adopted?
[SB]: Wonderware’s developers respect the pioneering spirit of engineers in South Africa. Locally, our customers are very willing to invest in new technology and better solutions. In fact, the trust relationship with our customer base here has grown to such an extent that we no longer have to drive the adoption. Rather, we are being approached to push the frontiers aggressively and provide new and better solutions that improve customer operations. Almost always the customers I meet here are the most receptive. Innovation almost seems to be embedded into South African users; it is fascinating to see such aggressive thinkers.
[I&C]: Globally there have been some significant wins for Invensys, particularly the nuclear projects in China. Could you tell us more about these?
[SB]: For us nuclear is a big business and the two markets we are currently focused on are North America and China. We are sharpening our skills in these markets and as other areas in the world start to open up to nuclear we will be ready, be they green or brown field by nature. Obviously we have to staff up significantly to achieve this and that is what we are doing right now. We have also identified the service industry as having growth potential. In the Western world there is an ageing workforce, which means many companies are looking to outsource non-core aspects of their business. In developing countries this is being driven by the talent shortage, but the manifestation is the same.
[I&C]: One final question, in terms of growth in Africa what’s on the go there?
[SB]: The core industries in Africa are things like mining, chemicals, power, water and food and beverage where we are strong. Looking at it from a Wonderware perspective, food and beverage is our largest sector. Locally we have two strong partners in Wonderware Southern Africa and EOH, they have established our position here and we will be looking to them to drive the growth going forward. The thing we will be doing differently is trying to broaden the penetration of the total IOM portfolio offering in the region. Other than that it is more and better of the same, they are both doing an excellent job and I am sure that Africa’s markets are going to become increasingly important to Invensys’ strategic growth in the future.
[South African Instrumentation and Control thanks Sudipta Bhattacharya and Wonderware Southern Africa for the time and insight provided at the X-Change 2011 conference in the Drakensberg.]
For more information contact Jaco Markwat, Wonderware Southern Africa, 0861 WONDER, [email protected], www.wonderware.co.za
© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd | All Rights Reserved
printer friendly version