Activity

  • Don’t Replace—Retrofit!

    Jim Cahill
    Much of our attention on the rise of renewable energy has been focused on the United States and Europe, but the reality is that a trend toward increasing renewable electricity generation is happening around the globe. Nowhere is that more obvious than in India, where the government has set ambitious goals to reach net zero emissions by 2070 and meet 50% of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by…

  • AI is Coming, and it’s Time to Get Ready

    Jim Cahill
    There is a lot of talk these days about the rise of AI. It’s not only that the technology is so new and exciting, with so much potential to change the world. AI is also a hot topic because the global environment is right for the changes it can bring. A workforce shortage has left many organizations struggling to find skilled personnel who can operate their plants just as operations have become more complex to meet a changing…

  • What does Emerson do for Wind and Other Renewables?

    Jim Cahill
    A recent U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) report anticipates strong growth in wind energy deployments. I’m enthusiastic about the continued growth of renewables in general, and wind energy, in particular. Emerson has been supporting major utilities in the power sector for over 100 years. As power producers increasingly move into the renewable space, we are moving with them in nearly every space –hydropower, solar, battery…

  • Software-Defined Control Unlocks a Future of Flexibility

    Jim Cahill
    It seems as if the challenges facing process manufacturers have changed nearly overnight, with many operations teams now facing entirely different goals than just five short years ago. These new goals—increased sustainability, reduced energy use, optimal efficiency—are demanding a laser focus on flexibility in process control, which in turn is driving a push toward modernization. In his recent article in Control Engineering…

  • Greater Reliability with Non-Intrusive Wireless Corrosion Monitoring

    Jim Cahill
    At the 2024 4C Health, Safety & Environmental Conference , Emerson’s Justin Vasquez shared a presentation, Enhancing Safety, Profitability, and Sustainability through Wireless Corrosion Monitoring: A Focus on Reliability with Non-Intrusive Monitoring Devices. Justin opened his presentation by showing invisible corrosion risk and its impact on the health of the plant and the suboptimal use of plant assets. Continuous…

  • Crushing It: E. & J. Gallo Wineries Sets a New Standard for Reliability

    Jim Cahill
    When considering ways to improve and secure operational excellence, organizations frequently overlook one key area: reliability and maintenance. In the struggle to define new ways to improve operations, it is easy to forget that even the most perfectly refined process will be sub-optimal if the underlying assets are not achieving peak performance. Even worse, if assets fail, even the best operations are useless while…

  • The Future of Green Hydrogen Blending is Boundless

    Jim Cahill
    With the new energy economy come big changes. We all know that energy sources can’t change overnight, so more and more producers and transporters—including those in natural gas—are looking closely at blending as a transitional technology. Today, much of the talk around blending in natural gas centers on hydrogen (H 2 ), with companies exploring new processes to blend green H 2 and natural gas to increase efficiency and…

  • Smaller Batches Still Have Big Needs

    Jim Cahill
    There’s no question that today’s life sciences landscape is changing dramatically. As new personalized medicine solutions emerge, companies are rapidly changing scale to include more multi-product manufacturing facilities. Many of these facilities are manufacturing treatments in much smaller batches. While many of the requirements around developing smaller-batch treatments are the same, the market does have its own…

  • Beyond the Black Box: Unlock More Value from Green Energy Assets

    Jim Cahill
    There are very few topics getting as much attention today as renewable energy. From expanding wind farms and solar operations to green hydrogen technology, to electric vehicles and their impact on the grid and infrastructure, the face of how we generate and use power is changing rapidly. One key change this shift has brought about is a need to rethink power operations. Green energy organizations cannot operate the same…

  • Transforming data into operational performance and proving it right at this Emerson facility in Lodz.

    Jim Cahill
    If you wonder how to move, from a simplistic and superficial view of the production process and start building the backbone of a proven methodology that can be replicable in time, adaptable to changes and at the same time make space for operational improvements, one of the best ways to start is by taking advantage of resources that are already in the factory. Each and every device, machine and line, as well as users…

  • Transforming data into operational performance and proving it right at this Emerson facility in Lodz.

    Jim Cahill
    If you wonder how to move, from a simplistic and superficial view of the production process and start building the backbone of a proven methodology that can be replicable in time, adaptable to changes and at the same time make space for operational improvements, one of the best ways to start is by taking advantage of resources that are already in the factory. Each and every device, machine and line, as well as users…

  • Software is the Solution for a more Efficient LNG Value Chain

    Jim Cahill
    As countries around the globe transition from fossil to renewables, the success of that transition will pivot on a reliable supply of natural gas. But an increase in demand coupled with changing global events has made the liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets more unstable. This instability has a direct impact on LNG operations. Suppliers are under more pressure than ever to operate at peak efficiency to optimize the…

  • Ask the Expert: Your burning questions about frequency and inertia for renewables and Inverter-Based Resources

    Jim Cahill
    Meeting local and national CO 2 emission goals and responding to social pressures related to global warming are primary factors driving decarbonization efforts in the energy industry across the world. At the same time, electricity demand is growing across the board. Together, decarbonization and increasing demand are creating a challenging environment for organizations tasked with ensuring grid resiliency. Efficient…

  • Digital transformation in chemical processing: how to start small to scale big..

    Jim Cahill
    The chemical industry is facing a unique challenge: a need for growth along with environmental regulations that each day are becoming stricter and more urgent. Limited resources, an aging workforce, aging equipment: achieving both efficiency and sustainability can seem impossible. But there’s a solution: creating an ecosystem of real-time data and actionable insights. In a word, digital transformation. Unlocking Data…

  • Digital transformation in chemical processing: how to start small to scale big..

    Jim Cahill
    The chemical industry is facing a unique challenge: a need for growth along with environmental regulations that each day are becoming stricter and more urgent. Limited resources, an aging workforce, aging equipment: achieving both efficiency and sustainability can seem impossible. But there’s a solution: creating an ecosystem of real-time data and actionable insights. In a word, digital transformation. Unlocking Data…

  • Thrive Through Technology Change

    Jim Cahill
    Most of us have experienced significant changes throughout our careers and life. Some of those changes have gone smoother and had significantly better outcomes than others – the single constant about life in our world today is change itself. This makes it crucial to understand all the pieces that are part of any change to have well aligned to make any change a great experience that provides positive outcomes and enables…

  • Turn Data Into Action

    Jim Cahill
    Plants need a strong pipeline of data to help them ensure optimal performance. We spend a lot of time talking about how to collate, transmit, and store that data so it is easily accessible whenever and wherever people need it. However, all that strategizing is of little value if the people the plant is delivering information to cannot understand or use the data. Emerson’s Drew Mackley is well aware of this inconsistency…

  • Embracing the edge to improve automation systems

    Jim Cahill
    Industrial manufacturing automation technologies have long been perceived as lagging the technologies available for commercial and consumer applications. This situation was largely by design because mission-critical production demanded proven performance, as opposed to cutting-edge convenience. An Emerson article in the March 2023 issue of Control Engineering , titled Evaluating Edge Opportunities for Industrial Automation…

  • Redefining AI: Turning Analytic Insights into Actionable Intelligence

    Jim Cahill
    Analytics using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) presents a massive opportunity, but also confusion. Where to start? How to start? What models to apply where? What types of problems can analytics solve?   Advanced analytics can transition power producers from a reactive operations and maintenance approach to a predictive or prognostic strategy. This actionable intelligence—built directly into the…

  • Make the Cybersecurity Journey Far Less Puzzling

    Jim Cahill
    Tackling cybersecurity can often feel like trying to complete an overly complex jigsaw puzzle. Figuring out how all the pieces connect is often a frustrating step. In the worst cases, however, the cybersecurity jigsaw puzzle doesn’t even have edges. And when that happens, it’s hard to even know where to start. Alexandre Peixoto addresses this complex journey in a recent interview at Control magazine . Peixoto shares…

  • Simulated Systems Close a Real Performance Gap

    Jim Cahill
    Many plants are facing personnel shortages, but the truth of the matter is that today’s biggest problems can’t be solved simply by finding more people. As organizations tackle more and more complex problems like driving down emissions, increasing efficiency, reducing energy use, meeting ever-changing market needs, and, simultaneously, increasing revenue, they must turn to a more advanced technology stack to empower their…

  • What’s so Great About Edge?

    Jim Cahill
    Every market these days is hot with pressure. We hear the same thing from every direction – Successful production needs technology that can provide speed and stronger efficiencies that deliver ongoing return – this is a must-have and no longer just a ‘nicety.’ These same demands are only growing every day for most industries to continue producing positive outcomes and hitting their always-increasing targets and goals…

  • Strategies for Better Remote Analysis

    Jim Cahill
    It is often said that the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the biggest catalysts of digital transformation in many process manufacturing organizations. Operations and maintenance teams that would never before have considered adding remote systems quickly discovered they were the only way to consolidate resources and keep facilities operational. But, as Brian Dubaskas and Navin Rajashekar share in their recent Automation…

  • Finding the Value in Control Valve Data

    Jim Cahill
    In a world awash with digital data, many tend to assume that more data equals more value, but the reality is that data only becomes valuable when it is analyzed and acted upon. In my article titled “ Transforming Valve Data into Dollars ,” published to Automation.com in November 2023, I discuss a new software application that converts raw control valve data into actionable information. The evolution of analytics …

  • Edge Analytics Usher in the Future of Plant Maintenance

    Jim Cahill
    Today’s plant maintenance looks very different from a picture of just 10 or 15 years ago. The tools and strategies that reliability teams have at their disposal have expanded dramatically—from new sensing technologies to comprehensive software solutions to track and trend performance across the enterprise. What has not changed, however, is that reliability personnel have a lot to do. If anything, today’s workers—frequently…

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