Activity

  • Seamless Automation for a Personalized Future

    Jim Cahill
    It’s hard to discuss the life sciences today without talking about advanced therapeutics and personalized medicine. We are currently in a period of massive innovation that will reshape the delivery of medicine for decades to come. Where once pharmaceutical companies were laser focused on blockbuster drugs, today they are exploring more targeted therapeutic research that […] The post Seamless Automation for a Personalized…

  • When Hands Are Few the Data Works Harder

    Jim Cahill
    It is hard to imagine a more difficult environment in which to operate than a mine. Dirty environments, massive critical machines, and hazardous operating conditions all come together to create a wide array of opportunities for unanticipated shutdowns. That’s why mining operations have relied for decades on a deep bench of personnel with many years of expertise under their belts to keep equipment operating at peak performance…

  • A Deeper Look Into Ovation 4.0’s New Features

    Jim Cahill
    One of the most popular topics of discussion at the 2025 Ovation Users’ Group Conference has been the new Ovation Automation Platform 4.0 . Attendees have had the opportunity to take a close look at the software to see all the new capabilities and features built in. Whether it is experiencing the first GenAI advisor integrated into an automation system specifically designed for the power and water industries, or seeing…

  • Big Data can Drive Big Insights

    Jim Cahill
    There is no question that the rise of renewable energy has complicated operations for power generators and distributors. New technologies mean new devices and lots more data to manage. With each passing year, everything seems to be getting bigger and more complicated. Emerson’s Sarah Newton and Matt Roberts highlighted this fact in their presentation at the 2025 Ovation Users’ Group Conference , illustrating the way…

  • AI Lives on the Edge

    Jim Cahill
    We have talked a lot in this space about the importance of a boundless automation vision for successfully deploying AI into the OT space . After all, AI needs loads of data, and if that data is trapped in silos, it can’t get to the data lakes, analytics applications, ERP systems, and AI tools that will create dramatic change in operational excellence across an enterprise. However, as Claudio Fayad explored in his recent…

  • Reliability Solutions Require the Right Tools

    Jim Cahill
    Today’s reliability teams face something of a catch-22. As experienced personnel have retired from process manufacturing in droves, plants have fewer and fewer expert staff with each passing year. That means fewer people are available to collect the critical reliability data they need to ensure plants are operating at peak performance. However, as Emerson’s Erik Lindhjem shared on a recent expert panel in Plant Engineering…

  • The Right Conditions for Condition Monitoring

    Jim Cahill
    Margins are tight, personnel are in short supply, and competition is steeper than it has ever been in the process manufacturing industry. As a result, organizations are looking to capture every ounce of performance improvement possible. One of the key places performance improvement gains can be achieved is in reliability . Getting ahead of asset issues can help teams avoid excessive repair costs, redundant work, and unanticipated…

  • Context Is the New Currency in Industrial AI

    Jim Cahill
    It feels today as if the whole world is consumed by a focus on AI. In media, in industry, and even in our day-to-day lives, AI tools have come front and center at an almost unheard-of pace. In industrial manufacturing, the rise of AI is incredibly apparent. While it is true that AI has been embedded in industrial manufacturing technology for years—most commonly as machine learning algorithms—the rapid improvement in…

  • Big Machines, Bigger Stakes: Avoiding Downtime in Mining Operations

    Jim Cahill
    Are you familiar with electric rope shovels? If you’re in the mining industry, you almost certainly are, but for those who may not have mining experience, a quick definition is in order. Electric rope shovels handle the movement of massive loads of minerals at a mine site. If they’re onsite, they’re almost always critical machinery. Moreover, they are massive and complex. In a recent article in Global Mining Review…

  • AI Requires Reliability Infrastructure

    Jim Cahill
    Today, it seems as though everyone has new personnel they need to rapidly upskill. While the expertise crisis resulting from the shrinking industrial workforce is nothing new, it certainly doesn’t seem to be getting better anytime soon. As a result, process manufacturers have had to find new ways to improve their workforces, not only with training, but with day-to-day support to help operators and technicians in the field…

  • Exchange 2025 Goes Above and “Beyond”

    Jim Cahill
    Emerson Exchange 2025 is off to a strong start. At the opening keynote, CEO Lal Karsanbhai and CTO for Emerson’s Aspen Technology business, Claudio Fayad , introduced a core component of this year’s gathering, the reveal of Emerson’s Project Beyond . Project Beyond builds upon the foundation created with Emerson’s Boundless Automation sm initiative. Announced in 2022, Boundless Automation is Emerson’s answer to the…

  • AMS Machine Works software version 1.8 offers breakthrough advancements in asset management, reliability and maintenance for industrial rotating machinery

    Jim Cahill
    Emerson’s AMS Machine Works software continues to advance in the mission to unite the full breadth of condition monitoring and vibration technologies making up the AMS machinery health management lineup— including route-based portables, wireless sensing, edge AI-analytics and online prediction-plus-protection systems —under a single software platform. By bringing all modern AMS condition monitoring tools together under…

  • One Platform to Rule Them All

    Jim Cahill
    AI seems to be everywhere these days. It’s on our phones, it interacts with us when we need customer service, it’s generating art and entertainment—the list goes on and on. However, one place where AI tools don’t seem to be making an appearance is at the control level of process manufacturing plants. There’s a very good reason for that: traditional controllers run on embedded hardware that doesn’t have the performance…

  • MES Done Right

    Jim Cahill
    Automation in the process manufacturing industry is nearly always complex. Not only must automation technologies carefully orchestrate operations, but they must also monitor safety, reliability, efficiency, and these days, even sustainability. The distributed control system (DCS) is a key part of that equation, but far from the only one. To get the most out of the DCS, operations teams also rely on data from a wide…

  • Empower Your Enterprise with Edge Tech and Performance Platforms

    Jim Cahill
    As today’s lean process manufacturing teams look for ways to make the most of their limited resources, many are trying to find a way to limit the impact of having their most expert people spread thin across plants that may be many miles—or even continents—apart. Often national and global operations can result in variability in operational performance between plants, even if they are configured identically. As Sean Saul…

  • Taming Alarm Overload for a Smarter, Safer Future

    Jim Cahill
    Sometimes, you really can have too much of a good thing. Everyone knows effective alarms are critical to running a safe, efficient plant. In recent years, digitalization has leveled the playing field on alarms. With modern control systems, alarms are easier and faster to create than ever before. Whenever something goes wrong, a user can quickly create an alarm to make sure they know immediately if that issue ever arises…

  • Maximizing ROI: Integrated Simulation Delivers Value Across the Plant Lifecycle

    Jim Cahill
    It has been interesting to watch the recent shift in the attitude toward simulation technologies over the last five or so years. What used to be a “nice to have” add on to a capital project has become, for many organizations, a go-to technology for business success. Companies are under more pressure than ever to increase production while simultaneously curbing waste and energy use—critical differentiators for unlocking…

  • Maximizing ROI: Integrated Simulation Delivers Value Across the Plant Lifecycle

    Jim Cahill
    It has been interesting to watch the recent shift in the attitude toward simulation technologies over the last five or so years. What used to be a “nice to have” add on to a capital project has become, for many organizations, a go-to technology for business success. Companies are under more pressure than ever to increase production while simultaneously curbing waste and energy use—critical differentiators for unlocking…

  • From Control to Connectivity: Modernizing the DCS for Data-Driven Manufacturing

    Jim Cahill
    It’s not often that we get a new take on the distributed control system (DCS). After all, the DCS has been a process manufacturing staple for decades, bringing together independent applications and processes for increased stability, and, in the case of the DeltaV DCS , powerful data contextualization. Not only has the DCS been around for decades, but many plants have had their specific DCS in place for decades as well…

  • Analytics in Action: The Key to Modern Manufacturing is Boundless Automation

    Jim Cahill
    As the world of process manufacturing continues its quest to both drive increased production to meet customer needs and provide sustainable operations to meet global expectations, more and more companies are discovering that data is central to accomplishing their goals. The problem isn’t a lack of data— most plants produce loads . Instead, the organizations are trying to find ways to make that data useful. At the heart…

  • Make the Most of Maintenance Software

    Jim Cahill
    As the global marketplace expands, operating at peak efficiency has become increasingly important. If your competition is manufacturing their products while your personnel are navigating an unanticipated outage, you’re not only losing money, but possibly providing competitors a way to get a foot in the door with your loyal customers. To avoid that risk, many organizations are looking to shore up their maintenance practices…

  • Maximizing Reliability with Emerson’s “The Big Three” Diagnostics in Digital Valve Controllers

    Jim Cahill
    Revolutionizing Valve Maintenance In industrial operations, ensuring reliability and reducing downtime are non-negotiable goals for maintenance teams. Emerson’s FIELDVUE Digital Valve Controllers, equipped with “The Big Three” diagnostics , offer a transformative approach to achieving operational excellence. These diagnostics— Supply Pressure Alert, Drive Signal Alert, and Travel Deviation Alert —are tailored to provide…

  • Virtualization Delivers Results

    Jim Cahill
    We hear a lot these days about the value of IIoT technologies and how they will change the way OT teams operate. However, in many cases, the added complexity of IIoT solutions can be difficult for teams to navigate. Effectively implementing IIoT technology into an existing infrastructure takes careful consideration and planning and requires an infrastructure in place that is designed from the ground up to be IIoT capable…

  • For Life Sciences Data, Context is Critical

    Jim Cahill
    As systems become increasingly interconnected, we talk more and more about the importance of data and, more specifically, the need to get data to the right people, in the right format, at the right time, wherever they may be. This initiative has become even more imperative as operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) converge. No longer are OT assets siloed and air-gapped by default. Today, OT systems…

  • AI will Drive the Future of Power

    Jim Cahill
    While we’ve seen a recent explosion in focus on artificial intelligence in the last few years, AI has been around and in development for a long time. Machine learning engines have been helping operators and technicians better perform their tasks for many years now. So what has changed to make everyone suddenly shift focus? The answer is Generative AI, or GenAI for short, and it’s the topic of a recent interview Rick…

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