Emerson Exchange 365

Activity

Migrating Legacy Control Systems and PLCs with FlexConnect Solutions

Jim Cahill

Scott Ross Now, with these control systems being more than 30+ years old, most of these legacy systems have been placed in to end of life or retired lifecycle status which means no further factory support is available. I caught up with Emerson’s Scott Ross about the choices that must be considered moving forward. Manufacturers and producers face options whether to modernize to a newer family of distributed control…
- 7 Nov 2019
Migrating Legacy Control Systems and PLCs with FlexConnect Solutions

Jim Cahill

Scott Ross Now, with these control systems being more than 30+ years old, most of these legacy systems have been placed in to end of life or retired lifecycle status which means no further factory support is available. I caught up with Emerson’s Scott Ross about the choices that must be considered moving forward. Manufacturers and producers face options whether to modernize to a newer family of distributed control…
- 7 Nov 2019
Upskilling for Increased Manufacturing Productivity

Jim Cahill

How many times have you used a high technology device such as a smart phone or watch, only to discover a much easier/better way to do something after being shown how? This productivity improvement could have come from someone showing you, coming upon a write up or video, or formal training. Steve Tooley For those new to manufacturing and production or those more seasoned coming upon new automation technology, training…
- 6 Nov 2019
Upskilling for Increased Manufacturing Productivity

Jim Cahill

How many times have you used a high technology device such as a smart phone or watch, only to discover a much easier/better way to do something after being shown how? This productivity improvement could have come from someone showing you, coming upon a write up or video, or formal training. Steve Tooley For those new to manufacturing and production or those more seasoned coming upon new automation technology, training…
- 6 Nov 2019
Upskilling for Increased Manufacturing Productivity

Jim Cahill

How many times have you used a high technology device such as a smart phone or watch, only to discover a much easier/better way to do something after being shown how? This productivity improvement could have come from someone showing you, coming upon a write up or video, or formal training. Steve Tooley For those new to manufacturing and production or those more seasoned coming upon new automation technology, training…
- 6 Nov 2019
MyEmerson Personalized Digital Experience

Jim Cahill

Last month at the Emerson Exchange conference in Nashville, I shared notes in a real-time blog post about the MyEmerson personalized digital experience for our customers. Here is a quick, less than 2-minute YouTube video, MyEmerson: A Personalized Digital Experience . It is an interconnected digital experience that includes everything from software to documentation, engineering tools, and commerce. Connect people and…
- 4 Nov 2019
MyEmerson Personalized Digital Experience

Jim Cahill

Last month at the Emerson Exchange conference in Nashville, I shared notes in a real-time blog post about the MyEmerson personalized digital experience for our customers. Here is a quick, less than 2-minute YouTube video, MyEmerson: A Personalized Digital Experience . It is an interconnected digital experience that includes everything from software to documentation, engineering tools, and commerce. Connect people and…
- 4 Nov 2019
Migrating Legacy PLC-5s to DeltaV

Jim Cahill

Way back in the mid-1980’s, when I was a newly-minted engineer working oil & gas production projects offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, a new series of PLCs came on the scene to replace the Allen-Bradley PLC-2’s we had been using. They were the PLC-5 series. Javier DeLuna Now, more than 30 years old, the CPUs used in these PLCs were placed into end of life status which meant no further factory support for the CPUs as…
- 31 Oct 2019
Migrating Legacy PLC-5s to DeltaV

Jim Cahill

Way back in the mid-1980’s, when I was a newly-minted engineer working oil & gas production projects offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, a new series of PLCs came on the scene to replace the Allen-Bradley PLC-2’s we had been using. They were the PLC-5 series. Javier DeLuna Now, more than 30 years old, the CPUs used in these PLCs were placed into end of life status which meant no further factory support for the CPUs as…
- 31 Oct 2019
Optimizing Energy Consumption and Overall Reliability

Jim Cahill

Sam Thiara I heard a great story from Emerson’s Sam Thiara of a polymer producer in the Middle East region that was looking to improve energy efficiency across the facility’s steam system. They wanted to reduce energy costs and their carbon footprint, while also improving the stability and reliability of the process. The plant staff worked with Emerson industrial energy consultants to benchmark existing operations…
- 30 Oct 2019
Optimizing Energy Consumption and Overall Reliability

Jim Cahill

Sam Thiara I heard a great story from Emerson’s Sam Thiara of a polymer producer in the Middle East region that was looking to improve energy efficiency across the facility’s steam system. They wanted to reduce energy costs and their carbon footprint, while also improving the stability and reliability of the process. The plant staff worked with Emerson industrial energy consultants to benchmark existing operations…
- 30 Oct 2019
State-based Control Case Study at AFPM Summit

Jim Cahill

Dustin Beebe At the 2019 AFPM Operations & Technology Summit , Emerson’s Dustin Beebe teamed with a professional with a global chemical producer. Their presentation was case study was on applying state-based control on one of their production processes. Procedural automation addresses the various states in which a continuous process resides. Some examples include startup, upset recovery, planned shutdown, and emergency…
- 15 Oct 2019
Navigating your Career with the 5 V’s

Jim Cahill

The transition continues across many industries as Baby Boomers retire and new professionals come into the manufacturing & production industries. That’s true for refiners and petrochemical producers. Here in San Antonio, Texas, at the AFPM Operations & Process Technology Summit , an Emerging Leaders panel explored the issues surrounding this transition. Emerson’s Meha Jha joined this panel with other young leaders from…
- 14 Oct 2019
Cloud-based Air Separation Plant Monitoring

Jim Cahill

Pete Sharpe At the AFPM Operations & Process Technology Summit , Emerson’s Pete Sharpe teamed with an air separation plant company leader on a presentation, Bringing Smart Manufacturing to the Masses. Here’s their abstract: The Smart Manufacturing Institute has won a $70M grant from the Department of Energy to build a prototype of the Smart Manufacturing (SM) Platform and implement a number of test bed projects. The…
- 14 Oct 2019
Navigating your Career with the 5 V’s

Jim Cahill

The transition continues across many industries as Baby Boomers retire and new professionals come into the manufacturing & production industries. That’s true for refiners and petrochemical producers. Here in San Antonio, Texas, at the AFPM Operations & Process Technology Summit , an Emerging Leaders panel explored the issues surrounding this transition. Emerson’s Meha Jha joined this panel with other young leaders from…
- 14 Oct 2019
Cost of DCS Modernization?

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Laurie Ben and Aaron Crews presented DCS Modernization—What Does it Cost?, at the 2019 Emerson Exchange conference. Laurie opened sharing the facts that over 5800 modernization projects have been performed since the 21 st century began. Emerson provides pre-Front End Engineering Design (FEED) through commissioning and startup services for these projects. The earlier planning begins, low the costs and risks…
- 26 Sep 2019
Case Study in Carbon Black Process Optimization

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Dr. Tiffany Tang presented Novel Idea of Model Predictive Control on Fast Process! First Application at the 2019 Emerson Exchange conference. Here is Tiffany’s abstract: Carbon black formation reaction is a fast process in the order of seconds. An application of model predictive control (MPC) on such a fast process was recommended. MPC was proposed to close the loop on product quality, Iodine number, and oil…
- 25 Sep 2019
MyEmerson Digital Tools

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Brad Budde , Lisa Nelson and Allison Sterling presented on the topic of MyEmerson Digital Tools. Digital technology is widely affecting the way we live. US Adults spent 6.3 hours/day on average consuming digital media. Engineers work with CAD drawings, engineering tools, procurement tools and asset information that they get online to do their jobs more productively. Recently announced is the MyEmerson Personalized…
- 24 Sep 2019
Successfully Implementing State-Based Procedure Automation

Jim Cahill

Continuous processes still must go through startups, planned and unplanned shutdowns, upset recovery and other events. These operations have traditionally been performed manually. Eddie Lane At the October 14-16, 2019 AFPM Operations & Process Technology Summit in San Antonio, Texas, Emerson’s Courtney E. (Eddie) Lane will present with a Global Process Automation Technology Leader for a major chemical manufacturer…
- 16 Sep 2019
Globe Valve Basics

Jim Cahill

If you’re new to the process industries and have responsibilities including a safe, reliable and efficient production process, then you likely need to understand how control valves work. And, one of the best sources for learning is the Control Valve Handbook . For instance, if you need to learn about globe valves, section 3.1.1 of the handbook includes information on single-port valve bodies, post- and port-guided valve…
- 18 Jul 2019
Globe Valve Basics

Jim Cahill

If you’re new to the process industries and have responsibilities including a safe, reliable and efficient production process, then you likely need to understand how control valves work. And, one of the best sources for learning is the Control Valve Handbook . For instance, if you need to learn about globe valves, section 3.1.1 of the handbook includes information on single-port valve bodies, post- and port-guided valve…
- 18 Jul 2019
Globe Valve Basics

Jim Cahill

If you’re new to the process industries and have responsibilities including a safe, reliable and efficient production process, then you likely need to understand how control valves work. And, one of the best sources for learning is the Control Valve Handbook . For instance, if you need to learn about globe valves, section 3.1.1 of the handbook includes information on single-port valve bodies, post- and port-guided valve…
- 18 Jul 2019
Effectively Managing Alarms through Lifecycle

Jim Cahill

One unfortunate side effect of instrumentation becoming smarter and being able to communicate more data back to the control system, was the increased chance of flooding the operators with too much information in abnormal conditions. Work on the ANSI/ISA 18.2-2016 Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries standard began in 2003 to identify and codify solutions to this alarm flood challenge. The IEC 62682 standard…
- 29 May 2019
Share Your Expertise at Instrumentation and Automation Symposium

Jim Cahill

James Beall One of the longstanding events for knowledge exchange among instrumentation and automation professionals and students is the Instrumentation and Automation Symposium for the Process Industries held annually at Texas A&M University. The next one, its 75 th anniversary, will be held January 21-23, 2020. This symposium’s beginning dates back to 1946 as a short course on instrumentation applied in the process…
- 24 May 2019
Digital Skills and the Workforce

Jim Cahill

Organizational change involves managing change for people, processes and technologies. Emerson executive president, Mike Train , joined a CERAWeek 2019 panel, Digital Skills & the Workforce to look at the people part of this change management process. Panel moderator Susan Kish opened the panel describing the change in the workforce from the early 1900s through what it’s expected to be by 2030. The shift continues toward…
- 13 Mar 2019