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Plantweb Insight wins 2017 Product of the Year Award from Oil & Gas Engineering

Plantweb Insight is a 2017 Oil & Gas Engineering Product of the Year WinnerEvery company likes to win recognition for innovative products. An award affirms our development efforts and says people from outside the company agree that we’re on the right track. Emerson got just such an affirmation this month when Oil & Gas Engineering released its Product of the Year winners. Emerson’s Plantweb Insight software product family took home the Gold Award in the Data & Analytics category.

The magazine put the award in the right context:

What’s fascinating about innovation isn’t that it sometimes arrives in a “Eureka!” moment that fundamentally changes the world forever, but rather exactly the opposite. Most innovation arises instead incrementally and because of collective efforts. How does that happen, that we all conspire together to come upon what we need or what’s asked of us? The winners of the very first Oil & Gas Engineering Product of the Year awards apparently have broken the code for doing just that…

Plantweb Insight isn’t a totally new concept. Emerson didn’t invent the idea of an app for a smart device, but it did see the value in using simple, lightweight and preconfigured software to do very important tasks for manufacturers. The idea of integrating wireless condition monitoring transmitters with a deceptively uncomplicated data gathering and display mechanism is amazingly simple. It’s one of those things that makes users say, “This is exactly what I need.”, and makes competitors say, “Why didn’t we think of that?”.

I say deceptively uncomplicated because there’s a lot more going on inside the app than most users will realize. A huge amount of software powers those icons on the screen, reflecting years of field experience and engineering development. The greatest thing for users is they don’t have to think about it the underlying technologies.

Instead, the WirelessHART network for the transmitters is self-organizing, with no cabling needed. To get the information, load the app on your smart device, tell it which variables you want, and it does its thing. No custom software. No need to bring in a system integrator to create dedicated HMIs. Everything can be up and going in less time than you would have imagined possible.

But the most important point is this: Plantweb Insight saves money. Putting it to work as part of a comprehensive equipment condition monitoring program can reap enormous savings. From steam traps to pressure relief valves to motor bearings—a whole bunch of things that are normally maintenance headaches can be brought under control. With continuous monitoring and effective data analysis, it becomes far easier for a plant to keep things running on an even keel with lower maintenance costs and uninterrupted production.

Is Plantweb Insight worth an award? You bet it is.

You can find more information like this, and meet with other people looking for condition monitoring solutions at the Emerson Exchange365 community. It’s a place where you can communicate and exchange information with experts and peers in all sorts of industries around the world.