July 24, 2008
Headlines from Today’s Activities
- For Dow Chemical, RtPM Translates to Record-Breaking Profits
- Siemens Announces Customer Excellence Award Winners
- Dennis Sadlowski on the State of Siemens’ U.S. Business
- Save Energy, Save Money, Save the Planet
- Siemens Controls Help Boost Beer Quality
- Process Automation Roadmap Points Out New Features
- New HMI Software Adapted for Windows Vista
- Seeing Is Believing: Simplified Machine Communication
- Power and Process Worlds Melding Thanks to Software
For Dow Chemical, RtPM Translates to Record-Breaking Profits
There’s more than one reason why Dow Chemical Co. had record-breaking earnings in its most recent fiscal quarter. But chief among them is the company’s commitment to real-time performance management (RtPM), began Eric Cosman, engineering solutions IT consultant, in his customer keynote to the 2008 Siemens Automation Summit and User Conference this week in Chicago. “There’s been a lot of talk about change this week, and there’s been a lot of change at Dow too,” said Cosman. “We’re growing through new product and solutions development, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures. We’re also experiencing exceptionally fast growth in emerging economies.”
Dow’s 43,000 employees run 56 manufacturing sites in 36 countries, and its engineers, designers and technical support staffs focus on process automation, process engineering, process safety, design and project engineering, project controls, construction management and procurement. To accomplish these ongoing goals, Dow previously developed and used its own homegrown concepts, data processing methods and software tools. However, to run its applications and processes more quickly and work more closely with its many suppliers, Dow needed a common language that staffers and suppliers could all understand.
“Selecting and designing the right KPIs for each application is really the secret sauce for getting real-time performance management done right.” Dow’s Eric Cosman on the global chemical giant’s ongoing efforts to boost company performance.
Siemens Announces Customer Excellence Award Winners
Siemens Energy & Automation recognized five U.S. companies for outstanding technological leadership during the 2008 Siemens Automation Summit in Chicago.
Raj Batra, vice president of Siemens’ automation and motion division, presented Customer Excellence awards to Ramón Román, engineering business unit manager, Bacardi, San Juan, Puerto Rico; J.C. Harrison, electrical engineering manager, Roeslein & Associates, St. Louis; Greg Kemper, chief electrical engineer, Lehigh Cement, Union Bridge, Mo.; Richard Smith, engineering section head, machinery controls, Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine, Charlottesville, Va.; and William Pels, vice president of business development, Steam Plant Systems, Schenectady, N.Y.
Siemens’ Rick Myers (far left) and Raj Batra (far right) recognized (left to right) J.C. Harrison, Roeslein & Associates; Greg Kemper, Lehigh Cement; Ramón Román, Bacardi; Richard Smith, Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine; and William Pels, Steam Plant Systems, as winners of the Customer Excellence Awards.
Dennis Sadlowski on the State of Siemens’ U.S. Business
Dennis Sadlowski, head of Siemens’ industrial efforts in North America, sat down with Walt Boyes, editor in chief of Control, to discuss the latest developments for the company in the U.S. market.
Save Energy, Save Money, Save the Planet
Bruce L. Taylor, manager of business process integration for Suncor Energy (USA) Inc., brought his unique blend of nearly 30 years of IT and process industry experience to bear on the problem of reducing Suncor’s carbon footprint. He presented his progress and his surprising findings at this week’s Siemens Automation Summit.
While Suncor is best-known for being the pioneer in oil extraction from the Alberta oil sands, it also operates twin refineries in Commerce City, Colo., and a smaller refinery in Sarnia, Ont., Canada. All of Suncor’s oil extraction processes are heavily energy-intensive. In the case of the tar sands, the energy required to extract a barrel of oil is significantly more than that required for normal oilfield extraction. Suncor is developing means of extracting oil from shale that require less energy, especially a project the company calls “slurry at the face,” and trying to find ways to make the SAGD steam extraction process less energy-intensive. The company has a great vested interest in energy management, having begun corporate programs for energy conservation more than ten years ago. So far, its efforts have resulted in 61 million tons of carbon dioxide prevented, a 25% decrease in company-wide greenhouse gas emission intensity and a 44% decrease in oil-sands greenhouse gas emission intensity.
“I can talk to an operator with 30 years’ experience, and he can spot the energy hogs in the refinery instantly. Younger operators cannot.”
Suncor’s Bruce Taylor reported how the Canadian petroleum refiner is leveraging Siemens’ Simatic IT XHQ visualization tool to save energy, reduce carbon emissions and provide decision support for plant personnel.
Siemens Controls Help Boost Beer Quality
Bell’s Brewery in Comstock, Mich., recently deployed a vertical Siemens’ automation solution developed specifically for the brewing industry—for all functions from brew house to cellar. In this video, discover how this pioneering microbrewery produces 26 different beers, each with a different temperature processing profile, and is reaching new levels of quality and consistency.
Process Automation Roadmap Points Out New Features
Sometimes a roadmap is more like a river map or a nautical chart. Much like the materials they handle and the products they produce, process automation technologies are conceptually fluid and free-flowing as they’re continuously updated and improved.
Such was the case at the “Process Automation Roadmap Forum” that was presented this week at the Siemens Automation Summit 2008 in Chicago. The event was delivered by three members of Siemens' Process Automation business unit and marketing team, which both are based in Spring House, Pa.
Christoph Lehmann, senior product manager for process automation products, reported that the next version of Siemens’ SIMATIC PCS 7 software is currently under development. The next release will include a variety of features centered around the general areas of design and engineering, installation and commissioning, operational excellence, maintenance and migration.
Christoph Lehmann was among the Siemens marketers that took Automation Summit attendees on a wide-ranging tour of the company’s plans in process automation and safety.
New HMI Software Adapted for Windows Vista
Siemens Energy & Automation introduced what it calls a faster and more precise way to view plant operations at the 2008 Siemens Automation Summit in Chicago. Simatic WinCC scalable SCADA visualization software has been adapted to Windows Vista, giving operators a uniform look and feel for the entire plant operation.
“The main feature of this is our deployment into the Vista platform,” said Phil Aponte from Siemens’ HMI marketing group. “Users now have the ability to use Vista for its enhanced graphics capabilities. We’ve taken the Vista functionality and moved it back into the XP platform, adding new drivers and the ability to incorporate .NET.”
The flexible WinCC software ranges from single-user to distributed multi-user systems with redundant servers and cross-site solutions with web clients. WinCC Version 7.0, in accordance with Windows Vista, provides image shadows, as well as animated GIFs or displays. Operators can use on-screen hover effects to change the color of fields by touching a cursor.
“Users now have the ability to use Vista for its enhanced graphics capabilities.” Phil Aponte of Siemens’ HMI marketing group discussed the launch of WinCC Version 7.0 aboard exiderdome.
Seeing Is Believing: Simplified Machine Communication
In a Thursday morning breakout session at this week’s Siemens Automation Summit, Marty Jansons, Siemens marketing promoter, networking products, demonstrated SIMATIC iMap, an engineering tool for Profinet Component Based Automation. It permits plant-wide, cross-vendor integration of distributed applications. It also eliminates the time-consuming programming of the communications links between intelligent devices―and it considerably reduces the engineering cost for the user.
"Components are graphically represented technical objects, which can be machines, systems or devices," began Jansons. "iMap, currently a separate tool from Step 7 programming tools, can give you plant-wide visibility of all these components so you can update whatever machine code you need, plus have visibility for diagnostics and maintenance."
The SIMATIC iMap open engineering software, said Jansons, springs from the Totally Integrated Automation philosophy, and with cross-vendor capability, users now can integrate intelligent devices from different vendors into Totally Integrated Automation. SIMATIC iMap uses standard mechanisms such as OPC, XML and ActiveX.
"iMap can give you plant-wide visibility of all control components so you can update whatever machine code you need, plus have visibility for diagnostics and maintenance."
Siemens’ Marty Jansons demonstrated the power of the company’s iMap visualization software for managing control devices in a multi-vendor environment.
Power and Process Worlds Melding Thanks to Software
Talk about mergers and acquisitions! Once upon a time, the two technological realms of power automation and process automation were totally separate and entirely distinct. However, an elegant combination of Siemens Energy & Automation’s software and related equipment is beginning to bring Power Transmission and Distribution (PTD) functions within the orbit of the company’s familiar PCS 7 process automation software.
This evolution was described in detail by Bill Joss, regional business manager for PTD in Siemens’ Energy Management and Automation division, during his presentation, “Integrated Process and Power Automation,” this week at the 2008 Siemens Automation Summit in Chicago.
“The future is that power and process are merging, but Siemens is the only company that can do it for now because of PCS 7,” said Joss. “We’ve had Totally Integrated Automation (TIA), but now we have Totally Integrated Power (TIP) too.” The company also demonstrated its TIP efforts in a special demonstration in an 18-wheeler parked at Navy Pier.
“The future is that power and process are merging, but Siemens is the only company that can do it for now because of PCS 7.” Siemens’ Bill Joss explored the potential for a unified process and power automation environment to improve operating efficiency and plant availability.