Emerson’s 2018 EMEA Exchange held at the World Forum in The Hague, The Netherlands, attracted a record number of delegates under its IIoT-themed banner of ‘Connect, Communicate, Create’. As one of the 1600, what impressed me most this year was the consistency with which the company has followed through on its mission to promote customers into the top 25% most efficient operations in their sectors.
I was first introduced to the idea of top-quartile performers at the 2016 event in Brussels. Here, Emerson introduced ‘Project Certainty’, a strategic approach to large capital projects that ensures completion on time, on budget and with plant operating at maximum efficiency from day one. In 2018, we took another step down the Emerson path to Industrial Internet of Things transformation. ‘Operational Certainty’ is a practical approach to help plant owners achieve maximum operating efficiency over the entire lifespan of their facilities. The foundations are the digital technologies of the IIoT deployed to ensure the highest levels of equipment reliability and energy efficiency through real-time asset health monitoring and analysis. Something Emerson Automation Solutions’ president for Europe, Roel Van Doren, described as: “Putting the ROI in IIoT.”
Top performers understand the five competencies of digital transformation
Analysis of top-quartile performers identified five critical competencies necessary to realise value from digital transformation: automated workflow; decision support; workforce upskilling; worker mobility and change management. Little surprise then that these are the areas where Emerson is investing most heavily in new technology to support its Plantweb digital ecosystem.
Van Doren described how future value can be unlocked through automating mundane production tasks to provide operators with the metrics they need to add value through better informed decisions. At the edge, the plan is to develop sensors analogous to the five human senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. At the analytics (Cloud) level, the data from these will then be processed and returned to the operator in the form of a ‘sixth sense’ perception of how well (or badly) the plant is behaving.
The ideas were powerfully brought to life later in the day when journalists were invited on a walk through the ‘Digital Workforce Experience’ in the Expo area, complete with miniature plant and operations room. I counted about fifteen different IIoT technologies that had been integrated to show how plant personnel will work differently in the near future, while exploiting the benefits of these next-generation digital tools.
The scenario involved a plant manager out enjoying an anniversary dinner with his wife (as plant managers are wont to do) when, out of the blue, a critical alarm on a distillation column is triggered. Immediately, he receives a message on his mobile phone and is connected to the operator in the control room, already busy going through a checklist that flashed up on one of the HMI screens. The most likely cause of the problem is identified as a sticky valve and the details are sent to a maintenance technician. When she gets into the area, she identifies the faulty device using RFID technology and is sent instructions on the required repair work. Once the repair is complete, the valve tests itself and sends an all clear signal back to the control room. Our plant manager, still busy enjoying his hors d’oeuvre, breathes a sigh of relief.
This little demonstration spoke volumes about the inherent power of IIoT technology, and the cost and time saving advantages it brings to those who deploy it intelligently. Yet, while many companies are struggling to formulate a plan for digital transformation, Emerson has this base covered as well. As part of its drive to become ‘a trusted adviser’ to customers, the company recently launched the Operational Certainty Consulting Group to help struggling organisations come to terms with the five core competencies of top-quartile performers identified earlier.
Emerson has taken an innovative approach to helping end users resolve operational plant issues using its IIoT technology and applications. What it demonstrated at Exchange 2018 is how cleverly it has joined the dots to reveal a blueprint for digital transformation based on Project Certainty, Operational Certainty and the Plantweb digital ecosystem.
Steven Meyer
Editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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