Roadmap sessions at the Emerson Exchange conference are a chance to hear about not only what is available, but what is in the works and coming. I joined the roadmap session on Lifecycle Services to hear about new services that are being enabled by Industrial Internet of Things technology.
Emerson’s Johan Claassen kicked of the session discussing some of the enabling technologies driving manufacturers to reexamine their businesses to drive improved performance—better cost, resource and asset efficiency.
Lifecycle services comes in four levels—on demand & support, preventive & complex, predictive & optimized, and comprehensive.
Sean Sims next came up to discuss the Guardian platform and how it continues to expand. It supports manufacturers in four areas—maintenance, lifecycle management, cybersecurity and performance metrics in operator response, alarm performance and control performance. Cybersecurity remains a source of anxiety for manufacturers and a comprehensive strategy of technology and services provides ways to mitigate these risks.
Jeff Hackney describe some new modalities of Educational Services coming in 2019. One example he cited was physical DeltaV equipment coupled with virtual DeltaV software, configuration, and process simulation for a client to conduct training across their global operations.
The number of Educational Services locations continues to grow with new facilities in North America, Europe and Asia to provide more in person classes. In 2019, there will be more than 37 new courses created and available. The interactive plant environment learning center in Shakopee, Minnesota provides team-based hands on learning on a fully running process with more than 300 I/O.
Tim Bushaw discussed an important area for beginning a digital transformation being in plant shutdowns, turnarounds & outages. Instead of tearing down equipment to find out if it needs to be serviced or not, digital diagnostics provide the current health status to help prioritize the work that needs to be performed while the plant is down. Several key innovations include Plantweb digital ecosystem components, a digital walkdown app, remote assistance and mobile service centers.
Bob Brown discussed lifecycle services from the Flow measurement business within Emerson. Data rich flow devices provide a stream of information that analytics software turns into predictive maintenance guidance for operations personnel. Connected services enables remote experts to inspect the analytics to provide recommendations for what actions should be taken to maintain reliable and efficient operations.
Denny Cahill from the Final Control business area. He described digital tools enabling greater efficiency. Some of these enablers include the walkdown app, remote assistance app, workflow automation, asset management tagging (RFID), data analytics, and mobile service centers. Denny described the roadmap which begins with the installed base assets. Platforms such as Guardian Support and Plantweb Optics manage and present the data to make informed decisions to maintain reliable and robust operations.
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