Activity

  • Digital Valve Controller Diagnostic Alerts Maximize Maintenance Efficiency

    Jim Cahill
    Digital valve controllers offer many benefits over simple valve positioners, including the ability to detect and report degrading valve performance in advance of outright failure. However, implementing a comprehensive diagnostics program to take advantage of these features can be a daunting task. My article in the September 2024 issue of Processing , titled “ Activate diagnostic alerts to leverage digital valve controller…

  • The Power of Modern Simulation

    Jim Cahill
    The continuing changes in the electrical grid that have come as a result of the shift toward more renewable energy have dramatically increased complexity of power generation and distribution operations. Operators not only need to keep a close eye on their plants to ensure they are supplying (and not over-supplying) adequate power, but they also need to predict the future and react—following both weather forecasts and…

  • Enhanced Connectivity in Digital Valve Controllers

    Jim Cahill
    Despite numerous advancements to digital valve controllers in recent decades, their local user interfaces and connectivity options have remained somewhat limited. My article in the August 2024 issue of Process Industry Informer , titled “ Digital Valve Controller Connectivity Improvements ,” discusses how the next generation of digital valve controllers expands user interface capabilities and connectivity features to…

  • Life Sciences and Automation Companies Deliver the Future—Together

    Jim Cahill
    In the life sciences, bringing treatments to market quicker is no longer a bonus. Today, accelerating the treatment development pipeline is an expectation—arguably a core value—of the world’s most respected pharmaceutical companies. The pipeline for the COVID vaccine showed us that it was possible to operate differently , and companies around the globe have not only taken note; they’ve taken action . However, accelerating…

  • Pragmatic Innovation Unlocks the Next Generation of Automation

    Jim Cahill
    There can be little doubt that the automation industry has seen significant innovation over the last four decades, from dedicated equipment, to off the shelf components, to electronic marshalling, to virtualization. In fact, those massive innovations only scratch the surface of how automation has grown. However, in his recent article in Hydrocarbon Processing , Emerson’s Claudio Fayad posits that those changes will…

  • Tailoring Automation for Tailored Medicines

    Jim Cahill
    The life sciences industry is changing rapidly. Where once companies were focused on developing blockbuster treatments and manufacturing them as quickly and safely as possible, today, personalized medicine has changed that landscape. Now life sciences companies are looking at specialized treatments like cell and gene therapies which are developed and manufactured quite differently from those traditional blockbuster drugs…

  • World’s Only WirelessHART Remote I/O Devices Provide Universal Connectivity

    Jim Cahill
    About 150 years ago, L. L. Zamenhof created Esperanto to be an international language that the entire world could adopt. While his aims were noble, it didn’t catch on. Process manufacturers have had similar problems because instrument and device-level industrial networks can use any one of various incompatible protocols to exchange data. But now, market forces, rather than simple good intentions, are settling on WirelessHART…

  • World’s Only WirelessHART Remote I/O Devices Provide Universal Connectivity

    Jim Cahill
    About 150 years ago, L. L. Zamenhof created Esperanto to be an international language that the entire world could adopt. While his aims were noble, it didn’t catch on. Process manufacturers have had similar problems because instrument and device-level industrial networks can use any one of various incompatible protocols to exchange data. But now, market forces, rather than simple good intentions, are settling on WirelessHART…

  • Scaling Innovation in the Lithium Battery Boom

    Jim Cahill
    It often feels as though electric vehicles went from niche to commonplace overnight. And as much as the general public is feeling that shift, manufacturers are feeling it even more. The demand for lithium batteries , and the raw materials to power them, has seen an incredible increase. This shift has created a stress point, forcing manufacturers to speed production to keep up, but has also created an incredible opportunity…

  • Scaling Innovation in the Lithium Battery Boom

    Jim Cahill
    It often feels as though electric vehicles went from niche to commonplace overnight. And as much as the general public is feeling that shift, manufacturers are feeling it even more. The demand for lithium batteries , and the raw materials to power them, has seen an incredible increase. This shift has created a stress point, forcing manufacturers to speed production to keep up, but has also created an incredible opportunity…

  • Rethinking Reliability Strategies

    Jim Cahill
    Industrial Engineering works in front of monitoring screen in the production control center. technology concept. At many plants around the globe, reliability strategies haven’t changed much in the last few decades. Technicians grab a documentation device—sometimes an Android or iOS device, sometimes a hardened laptop, other times, a fit-for-purpose handheld communicator—and head into the field to perform their scheduled…

  • Rethinking Reliability Strategies

    Jim Cahill
    Industrial Engineering works in front of monitoring screen in the production control center. technology concept. At many plants around the globe, reliability strategies haven’t changed much in the last few decades. Technicians grab a documentation device—sometimes an Android or iOS device, sometimes a hardened laptop, other times, a fit-for-purpose handheld communicator—and head into the field to perform their scheduled…

  • Dump Data Overload with a Boundless Automation Vision

    Jim Cahill
    Data. You have it. You might even want more of it. And, if statistics are any guide, chances are you simultaneously see areas where you have too much of it. In recent years, as computing technology has expanded and sensing equipment has rapidly decreased in price and complexity, maintenance and reliability teams have been quick to instrument their equipment. As instrumentation grew, more and more data started coming…

  • Dump Data Overload with a Boundless Automation Vision

    Jim Cahill
    Data. You have it. You might even want more of it. And, if statistics are any guide, chances are you simultaneously see areas where you have too much of it. In recent years, as computing technology has expanded and sensing equipment has rapidly decreased in price and complexity, maintenance and reliability teams have been quick to instrument their equipment. As instrumentation grew, more and more data started coming…

  • Cosun leverages real-time information for value creation

    Jim Cahill
    At the Emerson Exchange EMEA 2024 in Düsseldorf, Robin Kobesen, innovation manager smart operations at Cosun, provided an overview of the company’s Smart Operations program, including many of its organizational, technical and project-related challenges and best practices. His presentation, entitled `Ignite collaboration through real-time predictions’, won the award for most innovative Boundless Automation application…

  • Cosun leverages real-time information for value creation

    Jim Cahill
    At the Emerson Exchange EMEA 2024 in Düsseldorf, Robin Kobesen, innovation manager smart operations at Cosun, provided an overview of the company’s Smart Operations program, including many of its organizational, technical and project-related challenges and best practices. His presentation, entitled `Ignite collaboration through real-time predictions’, won the award for most innovative Boundless Automation application…

  • Can we take advantage of Gen-AI to increase human efforts in industrial automation?

    Jim Cahill
    As the hype around generative artificial intelligences (Gen-AI) like ChatGPT, Gemini, Bing Chat, increases, there is a false belief that it will replace many human creative products like written content, computer code, technical documents, graphic works… So far, these affordable and free AI tools have been widely used to create content that has non-critical implications. But some concerns may arise, if we consider to…

  • Can we take advantage of Gen-AI to increase human efforts in industrial automation?

    Jim Cahill
    As the hype around generative artificial intelligences (Gen-AI) like ChatGPT, Gemini, Bing Chat, increases, there is a false belief that it will replace many human creative products like written content, computer code, technical documents, graphic works… So far, these affordable and free AI tools have been widely used to create content that has non-critical implications. But some concerns may arise, if we consider to…

  • Can we take advantage of Gen-AI to increase human efforts in industrial automation?

    Jim Cahill
    As the hype around generative artificial intelligences (Gen-AI) like ChatGPT, Gemini, Bing Chat, increases, there is a false belief that it will replace many human creative products like written content, computer code, technical documents, graphic works… So far, these affordable and free AI tools have been widely used to create content that has non-critical implications. But some concerns may arise, if we consider to…

  • Electronic Batch Reports Support Digital Transformation

    Jim Cahill
    Hovione  is a contract development and manufacturing company dedicated to helping pharmaceutical customers bring new and off-patent drugs to market. As part of the digital transformation conference stream at Emerson Exchange EMEA 2024 , Mariana Brás, senior process automation engineer at Hovione, explained how electronic batch reporting has helped ensure the company follows good manufacturing practices (GMP), reducing…

  • Electronic Batch Reports Support Digital Transformation

    Jim Cahill
    Hovione  is a contract development and manufacturing company dedicated to helping pharmaceutical customers bring new and off-patent drugs to market. As part of the digital transformation conference stream at Emerson Exchange EMEA 2024 , Mariana Brás, senior process automation engineer at Hovione, explained how electronic batch reporting has helped ensure the company follows good manufacturing practices (GMP), reducing…

  • The Future of Automation is Coming, and the Foundational Technologies are Emerging Today

    Jim Cahill
    For decades, or perhaps even longer, many manufacturers considered productivity and sustainability to be at odds with each other. Sustainability technologies were expensive, so they weren’t worth implementing because they would eat into profits. However, in the last few years, organizations across the globe have made a startling discovery: performance and sustainability are actually two sides of the same coin. This…

  • The Future of Automation is Coming, and the Foundational Technologies are Emerging Today

    Jim Cahill
    For decades, or perhaps even longer, many manufacturers considered productivity and sustainability to be at odds with each other. Sustainability technologies were expensive, so they weren’t worth implementing because they would eat into profits. However, in the last few years, organizations across the globe have made a startling discovery: performance and sustainability are actually two sides of the same coin. This…

  • What can you expect during a modern turbine control retrofit project?

    Jim Cahill
    Whether it is onshore, offshore or newer airborne technology, wind power is playing a key role in the energy transition. With this continued growth in the wind power market, organizations are looking closely at how they can ensure their wind turbines—some of which may be decades old and outfitted with outdated technologies–can operate at peak efficiency. For numerous reasons—cost, delays due to supply chain shortages…

  • What can you expect during a modern turbine control retrofit project?

    Jim Cahill
    Whether it is onshore, offshore or newer airborne technology, wind power is playing a key role in the energy transition. With this continued growth in the wind power market, organizations are looking closely at how they can ensure their wind turbines—some of which may be decades old and outfitted with outdated technologies–can operate at peak efficiency. For numerous reasons—cost, delays due to supply chain shortages…

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