Permission to change and develop in the Life Sciences!

• Enjoy a unique environment to meet and gain input from all stake holders on industry direction, challenges and solutions.
• Shape your strategy on the way solutions should be developed and applied in your facility
• Understand how partnering can take you further, faster and with reduced risk
• Experience hands on demonstrations of automation equipment and packages.

The invitation was interesting, and challenging. “Future.Now – Developing the Life Sciences Landscape Together” was an arresting title. It was a co-operative event between National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) and Emerson. We were invited to “Boost your knowledge, gain from the experience of others and increase your professional network at NIBRT state of the art facility in Dublin!”

Mike Train, Executive President with Emerson explains their focus under the attentive eye of European President Roel Van Doren.

This correspondent was aware of the NIBRT facility but had very little idea of what it was real function or its relevance to Irish industry. This was an opportunity find out. Further looking through the programme two things became apparent. One was the calibre of personnel speaking from the Emerson organisation and then the application rather than product orientation of the various sessions.

It proved to be a very interesting two days.

Day 1: Working together towards a common future.
Presentations from NIBRT, Industrial Development Authority (IDA), GSK, Alexion, Zeton, Novo Nordisk and Emerson Automation Solutions.

Pharma v Biopharma

After a short welcome fro Emerson Europe President, Roel Van Doren, the CEO of NIBRT, Dominic Carolan, outlined the foundation and raison d’etre of the organisation. It is a training and research in the area of bioprocessing. It is located in a new, world class facility in Dublin (IRL). As medical science advances “simple” chemistry, while still essential, is not fully capable of solving all health issues – Pharma versus Biopharma. Bioprocessing is a specific process that uses complete living cells or their components (e.g., bacteria, enzymes, chloroplasts) to obtain desired products.

Thus this facility exists to support the growth and development of all aspects of the biopharmaceutical industry in Ireland. It is purpose built to closely replicate a modern bioprocessing plant with state of the art equipment.

Making Ireland ready – a good news story.
Dr Chantelle Keirnan, Scientific Advisor with the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), described the far-seeing intuitive initiative to look at bioprocessing “before it was profitable or popular!” This state body is responsible for the attraction and development of foreign investment in Ireland and had been extraordinarily successful in attracting nine of the top ten pharma companies to set up manufacturing processing plants in Ireland. They considered at the turn of the century that bioprocessing was the way that life science was going and took steps to ensure that Ireland was ready. One of those steps was the provision of Government funding of NIBRT.

Togged out for the tour

Many of the delegates – in excess of one hundred attended some from other countries – donned white coats and took the opportunity to tour the impressive facility during the event. It includes a purpose-built, multi-functional building which replicates the most modern industrial bioprocessing facility. Some idea of this facility may be gleaned from their website here.

This is a good news story. How often are decisions of state organisations regarded, not entirely without justification, with a jaundiced eye? Those that are good are “oft interréd with their bones!” The vision that saw this development in industry and the individuals who having caught the ball ran with it and brought it so successfully to fruition is worthy of equal attention and praise.

The rest of the day was an examination of the industry, processes and looking into the future. Mike Train, Executive President of Emerson spoke on the changes that are influencing industry and his company’s focus. We are facing “an evolution not a revolution” he stated, a point emphasised by other speakers throughout the day. He also stressed the importance for giving permission to change. (See full list of speakers at below.)

Pictures from the event!

We then had a series of speakers from the industry, people who get their hands dirty so to speak in actual processing speaking of their experiences and challenges. Speakers from GSK and Novo Nordisk explored areas like partnership, legacy issues, building on or expanding existing plants, saving energy, wireless. There was some discussion on the cloud and its advantages and just how vulnerable it might be to security breaches.

The discussion on handling all this data and identifying and retrieving those pieces of data which are really useful to the process brought to mind the prophetic words of the American media theorist, Neil Postman years ago, “…a central thesis of computer technology – that the principal difficulty we have in solving problems stems from insufficient data – will go unexamined. Until, years from now, when it will be noticed that the massive collection and speed of light retrieval of data have been of great value to large scale organisations but have solved very little of importance to most people and have created at least as many problems for them as they have solved…” (Neil Postman: “Amusing ourselves to death:” 1985)

Peter Zornio, Chief Technology Officer with Emerson gave their philosophy in meeting the demands of “Life Science Visions.” He lauded the various discussion groups such as the Biopharma Operations Group in helping how to keep up to date with technology and fostering new ideas.

We are on a digitizing journey. Moving from manual and paper to digital recording and control.

Day 2: “New Technology, New Processes, New solutions!”
Presentations from BioPharmaChem, GSK, Infinity Automation and Emerson.

The day started with a presentation on modular flexible manufacturing – introducing the PK Controller and a little later in the day there was an exposition on DeltaV Discovery/DeltaV 14 in maintaining data and transferning and easing technology transfer through the life cycle of drug development.

In his second presentation Peter Zornio gave the business case behing IIoT. IoT is usually referring to domestic, building environment and other civil applications. But it is also useful in the industrial environment where it is referred to as IIoT. Initially it was a link up at the instrument and control area but of late it is spreading to the portfolio of sensors. Their emphasis is on “the first mile!” (This is a backward reference to the perennial problem in many, especially rural, areas of “the last mile” – the internet connection directly into the home! – a heart felt sigh from your correspondent!)

The Real Challenges!

Ian Allen of Infinity Automation spoke on challenges to the life science automation world. “Don’t go backward to go forward” he said. We must use things like data integrity, cyber security, Microsoft dependencies and Industrie 4.0 as “gifts to leverage the opportunity and change!” The real challenge is not so much the technology but our use of it. We were coming back to “permission for change!”

We might perhaps use the words of the Bard of Avon, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. But in ourselves….”  The “gifts” are there. The Technology is there or on the way.

Let’s own these gifts and make them our own.

 

Pic: Travis Hesketh

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The Speakers:

Day 1 Dominic Carolan CEO – NIBRT Dominic Carolan was appointed CEO of NIBRT in April 2015. Mr. Carolan previously held senior roles in Mallinckrodt (Dublin), Genzyme (Waterford), also Genzyme (Corporate) where he was Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, and in Sanofi, where he headed their global network of Sterile Injectable Lyophilisation sites. He has successfully lead the startup of two significant Pharma & BioPharma facilities in Ireland and has a proven track record in operations leadership and in attracting and developing the talent required to deliver long term success. A graduate of UCD in Chemical Engineering, Mr. Carolan was Chairman of BioPharmaChemical Ireland from 2008-2010. Dr Chantelle Kiernan Scientific Advisor – IDA Dr. Chantelle Kiernan joined IDA in September of 2009 and is responsible for attracting research related foreign direct investment for Ireland. Chantelle has responsibility for the Multinational research portfolio – spanning Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, Medical Device, Engineering Food services industries. Chantelle has spent her career equally dispersed between academia and industry. She holds a PhD in Immunology from Trinity College Dublin in the area of immunomodulation and continued her academic career with a Post-Doctoral fellowship in Harvard University, Boston. Chantelle is currently undertaking an MSc in International Business law. She has spent almost fifteen years in industry. In her current role as Scientific Advisor for the IDA, she has been integrally involved in attracting and securing large scale R&D foreign direct investments for Ireland. Mike Train Executive President – Emerson Automation Solutions Michael H. Train leads the Automation Solutions business of Emerson, which posted sales of $10.2 billion in fiscal 2015. Train began his career with Emerson in 1991 as an international planner, then took on additional responsibilities in a number of executive posts that included serving as President of Emerson Japan and Korea, VP of Corporate Planning, President of Emerson Process Management Asia Pacific, and President of Emerson’s Rosemount business. He was most recently President of Global Sales for Emerson Process Management, responsible for sales, service, support, and customer satisfaction for all products and services across five world-area organizations. In that role he was also part of the leadership team that drove strategic initiatives and investments for the entire business group. Train earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from General Motors Institute and an MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He currently serves on the management school’s advisory council and was a 2008 Eisenhower Fellowship recipient. Dave Tudor Vice President, Head of GMS Strategy – GSK Dave joined GSK in 1992 at Worthing as a PhD Chemist from Glasgow University. He has over 20 years’ experience with the company carrying out a number of Technical, Compliance and Manufacturing leadership roles. In 1997 he moved to Irvine to take up a lead chemist role before coming Quality Control Manager in 1998. He joined the site leadership team in 2001 to run Technical Development before moving to manufacturing as Actives Production Director in 2005. During this time he completed a Masters degree in Manufacturing Leadership at Cambridge University. In 2007 he moved to GSK House to work on a central network re-structuring project before becoming Site Director at Montrose in October 2008. At Montrose, he led the transformation of the site to manufacture over 12 products for GSK including a major investment programme. In 2011 he was appointed VP Primary Supply Chain with responsibility for global Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) manufacture and supply, a network of GMS sites across the world including facilities in Asia and Europe. In 2017 he was appointed VP Head of GMS Strategy with responsibility for manufacturing strategy, deployment of strategic programmes, performance management and advocacy. He plays an active role with a number of Governments and is currently co-chair of the Life Sciences Scotland Industry Leadership Group. Dave is also a member of UK Chemicals Industry Association Council and Board. Dave is married with 4 children and lives in Troon, Ayrshire. He enjoys all sports, particularly football, is a keen reader of Scottish history and does cooking to relax. Peter Zornio Chief Strategic Officer – Emerson Automation Solutions As Chief Strategic Officer for Emerson Automation Solutions, Peter has responsibility for overall coordination of technology programs, product and portfolio direction, and industry standards across the Automation Solutions group. He has direct responsibility for the product definition and development organizations for control systems and software products. He has been at Emerson for 10 years. Prior to Emerson, he spent over 20 years at Honeywell in a variety of technology and marking roles, most recently as overall product management leader. Peter holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire. Herman Bottenberg Marketing Director,, Zeton PDEng. Ir. Herman Bottenberg is a chemical engineer with 15+ years of industrial experience, along with two years of Post academic work on Plant Design. He worked for 17 years at Zeton B.V. in The Netherlands, with five years of experience in project engineering and project management. The last 12 years he has been active in business development, sales and marketing. Since 2016 Herman is also responsible for the Marketing and Sales group at Zeton B.V. Herman has specialised in transformation of processes from batch to continuous, process intensification and modular processing plants for pharma and chemical industry. Day 2  Matt Moran Director – BioPharmaChem Ireland Matthew Moran is Director of BioPharmaChem Ireland. He graduated in Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin in 1980 and in Chemical Engineering at University College Dublin in 1981; he holds an MBA also from University College Dublin (Smurfit School of Business). He worked for over ten years in the pharmaceutical industry where he held a number of management positions both in active ingredient and dosage form manufacture. He is a member the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC). Matthew Moran is a Board member of the Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredients (API) Committee of CEFIC (CEFIC/APIC) and The European Association for Bioindustries (Europabio) BioPharmaChem Ireland represents the interests of the biopharmachem sector in Ireland. CEFIC/APIC represents the European API Industry. Europabio represents the European Biotech Sector. Ian Allan Automation Consultant – Infinity Automation Currently the Managing Director of Infinity Automation, a relatively new company carrying out Automation & MES Consultancy, Strategic Planning and Major Program/Project Health checks, with blue chip Global Life Science companies and Strategic vendors that support that Industry. Formerly Ian was the Global Head of Automation & MES with Novartis, where he was responsible for the Manufacturing Automation Strategy and MES Program within Technical Operations in the Vaccines division.  Prior to that he worked for GSK as Global Automation Director responsible for Automation, Process Control and MES across 73 sites worldwide. There he led a team that developed a library of Emerson DeltaV modules to be deployed in multiple Bulk API sites across the world, as well as developing a blueprint for MES integration and Network delivery of Electronic Batch Records. Prior to that he held several roles in GSK within the Engineering and Automation departments. Ian started his career with IBM as a junior engineer when computers were a little bigger than they are today and holds a BSc in Electrical & Control Engineering from Strathclyde University. He is currently facilitating GSK’s Global Automation Steering Team and is leading the Digital Factory Automation workstream for a new Hybrid Manufacturing platform with the first instance being delivered in GSK Singapore Jurong site. Colin Chapman Director of Manufacturing IT – GSK Colin Chapman is a Chemical Engineer with nearly 20 years experience in Life Sciences with GSK. Colin’s career has spanned across process engineering & automation, operations and new product introduction in both commercial manufacturing and clinical supply chains. In his current role as Director of Manufacturing IT Colin has successfully led the introduction of Manufacturing Operations Management across the clinical supply chain driving business process re-engineering and global workflow automation using technologies such as Syncade. GSK’s continuing program focuses on three value drivers, Compliance, Business Intelligence and Productivity. Klaus Erni Product Manager & Namur 148 Board Member – Emerson Automation Solutions Klaus started his Emerson career in 2003 in Germany, where he was working as a Technical Manager for Key Accounts before he transferred to Austin, TX to become the DeltaV Hardware Product Marketing Manager. In 2015, he went back to Europe and took over another Global Role, being now the Technical Consultant to some major Strategic Accounts. While in Germany with Emerson, he was responsible for the technical aspects of the DeltaV Systems during the Sales and Implementation Phase, as well utilizing the latest Hardware and Software features while upgrading and expanding Systems on Key Customer sites. Prior to Emerson, Klaus was with the Hoechst AG, he did several Engineering projects with various PLC and DCS and SIS Systems and was as well a RS3 System User. Danny Vandeput Director Pervasive Sensing Strategies – Emerson Automation Solutions The (Industrial) Internet of Things (IIoT) is revolutionizing the way we live but it also provides many new challenges to the industry. This can create confusion, uncertainty – combined with fuzzy statements – and different opinions. My great passion is to bring clarity in the Industrial Internet of Things and what benefits it can bring for you. I help industries to find the right perception of IIoT, how sensors can maximize profit, reduce downtime and bring the ROI into the IoT. Being already 23 years with Emerson I have assisted many types of industries on their way to Top Quartile Performance. This includes amongst other trainings, workshops, audits and implementing solutions.

#PAuto @EMR_Automation @NIBRT_ #IIoT @HHC_Lewis

Closing historic gap in machine and factory automation.

B&R, the largest independent provider focused on product- and software-based, open-architecture solutions for machine and factory automation worldwide has been acquired by ABB.

B&R, founded in 1979 by Erwin Bernecker and Josef Rainer is headquartered in Eggelsberg, Austria, employs more than 3,000 people, including about 1,000 R&D and application engineers. It operates across 70 countries, generating sales of more than $600 million (2015/16) in the $20 billion machine and factory automation market segment. The combination will result in an unmatched, comprehensive offering for customers of industrial automation, by pairing B&R’s innovative products, software and solutions for modern machine and factory automation with ABB’s world-leading offering in robotics, process automation, digitalization and electrification.

A video of This announcement and other details here on the ABB Website (4 April 2017)
Benefits for Austria
With this acquisition, ABB becomes the largest industrial automation player in Austria. ABB has operated in Austria for more than 100 years. With the strong future role, B&R and its headquarters in Austria will play as part of ABB, Austria, particularly Upper Austria, will benefit. The planned expansion of the R&D and production activities in Eggelsberg and Gilgenberg will strengthen Austria’s high-tech industrial landscape.
Transaction financials
The transaction multiple is in line with peer valuations. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price. ABB will finance the acquisition in cash. The transaction is expected to be operationally EPS accretive in the first year, and is expected to add significant synergies of about 8% of B&R’s stand-alone revenue in year four. The transaction is expected to close in summer 2017, subject to customary regulatory clearances.

Through the acquisition, ABB expands its position in industrial automation and be uniquely positioned to seize growth opportunities resulting from the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industrie 4.0). In addition, ABB takes a major step in expanding its digital offering by combining its industry-leading portfolio of digital solutions, ABB Ability, with B&R’s strong application and software platforms, its large installed base, customer access and tailored automation solutions.

“B&R is a gem in the world of machine and factory automation and this combination is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This transaction marks a true milestone for ABB, as B&R will close the historic gap within ABB’s automation offering. This is a perfect fit and will make us the only industrial automation provider offering customers the entire spectrum of technology and software solutions around measurement, control, actuation, robotics, digitalization and electrification,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “This acquisition perfectly delivers on our Next Level strategy. With our unique digital offering and our installed base of more than 70 million connected devices, 70,000 control systems and now more than 3 million automated machines and 27,000 factory installations around the world, we enable our combined global customer base to seize the huge opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

“This combination offers fantastic opportunities for B&R, its customers and employees. We are convinced that ABB offers the best platform for the next chapter of our growth story. ABB’s global presence, digital offering and complementary portfolio will be key for us to further accelerate our pace of innovation and growth,” said Josef Rainer, co-founder of B&R.

“This is a strong signal for our employees as our operations in Eggelsberg will become ABB’s global center for machine and factory automation,” said Erwin Bernecker, the other co-founder of B&R. “The most important thing to me is that the companies and their people fit so well together and that our founding location will play such a key role.”

Complementary strengths
With the acquisition, ABB will expand its industrial automation offering by integrating B&R’s innovative products in PLC, Industrial PCs and servo motion as well as its software and solution suite. ABB will offer its customers a uniquely comprehensive, open-architecture automation portfolio.

B&R has grown successfully with a revenue CAGR of 11 % over the last two decades. Revenues more than quintupled since 2000 to more than $600 million (2015/16). The company has a rapidly growing global customer base of more than 4,000 machine manufacturers, a proven track record in automation software and solutions and unrivaled application expertise for customers in the machine and factory automation market segment.

Both companies have complementary portfolios: ABB as a leading provider of solutions serving customers in utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure; B&R as a leading solution provider in the automation of machines and factories for industries such as plastics, packaging, food and beverage. The joint commitment to open architecture increases customer choice and flexibility facilitating connectivity in increasingly digitalized industries.

Substantial investments in innovation
Innovation is at the heart of both companies. B&R invests more than 10 percent of its sales in R&D and employs more than 1,000 people in R&D and application engineering. ABB spends $1.5 billion annually on R&D and employs some 30,000 technologists and engineering specialists. Going forward, ABB and B&R will continue to invest considerably in R&D.

Automation of machines and factories is a key driver of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the IoT. ABB will continue B&R’s strong solution-based business model and build on its deep domain expertise to develop new software-based services and solutions for end-to-end digitalization. ABB’s industry-leading digital offering, ABB Ability, will now capitalize on the large installed base, application and solution know-how, simulation software expertise and advanced engineering tools of B&R.

Proven integration approach
On closing of the transaction, B&R will become part of ABB’s Industrial Automation division as a new global business unit – Machine & Factory Automation – headed by the current Managing Director, Hans Wimmer. Both companies consider B&R’s management and employees as a key driver of future growth and the business integration together with their counterparts from ABB. The co-founders of B&R, Erwin Bernecker and Josef Rainer, will act as advisors during the integration phase to ensure continuity.

The integration will be growth-focused and live by the “best-of-both-worlds” principle, with ABB adding its own PLC and servo drive activities to the offering of the new business unit in a phased approach. ABB underlines its clear commitment to continuing the B&R growth story by articulating a mid-term sales ambition to exceed $1 billion.

ABB is committed to further investing in the expansion of B&R’s operations and to building on the company’s successful business model and brand. B&R’s headquarters in Eggelsberg will become ABB’s global center for machine and factory automation.

@ABBgroupnews #PAuto #Industry4

Automation survey results announced.

Professionals express positive outlook for automation in Ireland now and in the future!

The Automation Market Survey,organised by Irish company SimoTechnology, specialists Manufacturing Information Systems for regulated industries such as life sciences and food & beverage, has been published. The survey ran from 10th June through 5th August 2014 and Pat Desmond, Managing Director, expressed himself satisfied with the number of responses received.

    Request your copy!

The survey incorporates a wide representation among the automation community of practice, primarily in Ireland, with participation from a good variety of employers, employees, and contractors at different levels across the main industry sectors.

“Significantly, the survey results would indicate an overall positive outlook in the industry at present with industry professionals and engineers expecting this outlook to continue for the foreseeable future or to improve further,” says Pat Desmond.

Among the results of note are:

• Job security or prospects are reported as improved among Staff (46.15%) and Contractors (46.15%) and Employers/Owners/Directors (53.33%).
• Job satisfaction is reported as generally high with 74.36% of Staff and 69.23% of Contractors being Satisfied with their current roles
• For those considering a move the key motivators are
  – Contractors: Remuneration and Location
  – Senior Mangers: Career Progression and Remuneration
  – Staff: Job Security, Location and Career/Technical
• The Most Challenging Aspects of working in the automation field are reported as Excessive Workload/Unrealistic Demands by 60.26% of Staff and 46.15% of Contractors. Among Employers/Owner/Directors Travel Away From Home is reported as the most challenging aspect of their roles by 46.15% of respondents.
• In the technical skills required in the industry the areas of most shortage are reported as Process Automation, Data Historian/Reporting and MES with long delays (1-4 months) in sourcing candidates or no suitable candidates being reported by some Employers/Owner/Directors in these fields.

Request your own copy of the Automation Market Survey 2014

#EMrex Revving up in Stuttgart!

The Emerson  Global Users Exchange in Europe was a three-day event for existing and potential users of Emerson Process Management products and services. The event was held from 1-3rd April 2014 in Stuttgart, the capital of the German Land (State) of Baden-Wurtemburg (D).

Many memories sprang to mind as the Aer Lingus flight from Dublin touched down gently at Stuttgart Airport. It was over forty years since I had been there on a training course – in pneumatic instrumentation – in a local company which has long since been swallowed up , much like pneumatic controls,  in the advances and takeovers since that time! There on the surrounding hills was the emblematic fernsehturm, the very first television tower in the world and a symbol of a resurgent city recovering from the ravages of total war.

I was travelling to the Emerson Exchange User Group meeting (Tagged #EMrex on twitter) of the European, Middle East & African region along with over 1,200 others anxious to learn of the experience of others as well as learning of any new “goodies” Emerson themselves might have to unveil! This was the second such event in Europe, the last was also in Germany in the city of Duesseldorf, two years ago – see Automation returns to Duesseldorf. Of course the User Conference for the Americas has been held annually for a number of years (see our Reports here!)

The event started with a plenary session where everybody gathered in the main hall to hear the schedule for the three days, a business update on Emerson and a technology update.

Francisco Diaz-Andreu opens the Emerson Global Users Exchange, Stuttgart, April 2014

Delegates were welcomed by Francisco Diaz-Andriu, of Repsol, Spain and member of the Board of The Emerson Users Group. He has been active in automation in Spain for many years and was the founding president of the vibrant International Society of Automation (ISA) Spain Section, in which he is still active. He gave a preview of what attendees could expect during the three days. He outlined the work of the user group in the organising of the conference and the composition of the board. Needless to say they are always looking for new members to broaden the application expertese available to future events.

The Porsche factor!

Roel van Doren

Emerson’s European President, Roel van Doren, started with the first presentation talking about the company’s philosophy.  A great company is a company that asks the right questions. Instead of, “What can we sell you?” or “What do you want to buy from us?” a great company asks its customers questions like, “What is your vision for the way your plant should operate?” or “How can we work together to solve your problems?”

This kind of collaborative approach to the customer relationship is the essential idea behind the strategic direction Emerson is taking. Taking his cue (excuse the mixed metaphor!) from one of the companies for which Stuttgart is famed far and wide, Porsche, he drew a comparison, “Like the pilot of a high performance race car you face many challenges that come in your direction at an ever increasing speed. And like a pilot, you must be able to react quickly to those challenges. You need to be able to fully trust the team that’s behind you. Our hope is that you will trust us to be the business partner that you can rely on, and that you will trust us to be part of your team. Because when the right people with the right technology come together, magic happens.”

The Plenary Session

Pervasive Sensing
The Chief Strategic Officer of Emerson, Peter Zornio, can always be relied upon to give an interesting presentation and this year proved no different. He spoke about the expansion of the Emerson offering from being merely process control towards an all-embracing monitoring of the entire operation, whether in the process area or in the peripheral areas within and without the premises. He introduced us to the iOps concept – Integrated Operations. As technology has developed so has it been possible to see what is happening in all areas of the plant – in real time. It calls for a clear, up-to-date view of what’s happening in all aspects of an operation. This assists in more efficiency, increased staff effectiveness and therefore more productivity. By using what they have named Pervasive Sensing they have adopted a policy based on the axiom “You can’t improve what you don’t know!” With this philosophy it is possible to prevent problems rather than react to them.

The iOps centre during a demonstration.

Later we had the opportunity to visit the iOPs facility set up on the Exchange exhibition floor where demonstrations were a big attraction.

Think for change
An entertaining keynote was given by Dave Beckman, a former marketing executive with Emerson and who now spends his “retirement” as a speaker to the process industry. He advocated thinking outside the box,not to be afraid to be on the edge. He also was optimistic for the future as countries suddenly realised that they ought to rely on their own resources.

Emerson Exchange Daily 31 Mar {+} 1 Apl {+} 2 Apl {+} 3 AplReleases at the event! + Asset management software update reduces fieldbus device commissioning time by up to 80% + Pervasive Sensing will more than double the existing measuring market! + Wireless condition monitoring and prediction system reduces plant downtime and maintenance costs on Teeside! + Wireless improves leak detection maintaining regulatory compliance & enhance safety + Air cooled heat exchanger monitoring solution! + Cooling tower monitoring ensures cooling water availability, quality reducing chemical costs! + Dealing with dull, distant, dirty and dangerous locations!(iOps) This is a nice 3min video from Nicolas Menet from the event entitled, “Final Control Valve Solution”

He cited the example of the United States which has changed almost beyond recognition. This has largely been the result of the technology which allows the extraction of shale gas. It has changed everything! Suddenly this huge country is again self sufficient in fuel. This is going to happen elsewhere too as the political situation changes due to economic circumstances. And things are changing to make previously unthinkable policies suddenly acceptable. Witness the effect of the Fukashima disaster! All nuclear power stationa are now being closed down in Japan and in Germany. What are these great countries to do for energy?

Keeping up!
In some way it may be said that a person who attends one of these multi-thread conferences has a disadvantage over the person who is sitting at his desk following things on twitter. I did attend one or two of the sessions as well as the afternoon press conference at which details of new products and applications were given. Links to these may be found in the box.

The Exchange daily news was emailed to all who requested it on each evening and these gave an excellent resume of events.

But of course nothing can compare with the networking at these events. Now in the age of social-media, one knows a lot of people without ever meeting them. Conferences like this are an opportunity of meeting people whose tweets or contributions other social networking platforms you have been followed. This was no exception and besides meeting many European and American press people like Keith Larson of Control, Nick Denbow of Industrial Automation Insider and John McKenna of Process Engineering. We also had the chance to meet the very active, possibly the most active in automation, Emerson Twitter cluster including Jim Cahill, Chris Amstutz, Nick Taylor and, for the first time, Mike Boudreaux.

Social aspect
There was a social aspect to this as well and many hostelries in the city benefitted from delegates sampling Schwaebish cuisine. This correspondent and his companions for the evening couldn’t have had more praise for the Stuttgarter Staeffele – (Your restaurant for Swabian specialties!). German food has an ill-deserved reputation for being somewhat stodgy but a visit to this 40 year old restaurant will, without doubt, change any such preconceptions.

There was also a group event which was a visit to the Porsche museum to tittalate the little boy in many as they drooled enviously over these glorious machines made with such precision and care. There are over eighty vehicles on display. We are not sure how many orders were placed as a result of this visit!

• The next Emerson Exchange Users Exchange is scheduled for the Americas. It will be held in Orlando, (FL USA) from 6th to the 10th of October 2014. Maybe you’ll be there.

#EMrex We heard it on the Grapevine!

Combining the Elements of Success

“Looking forward to a great week. #EMRex or Bust!”
This was one of the tweets the last weekend of September which reminded us that the annual #EMrex Fest was about to be launched this time in a place called Grapevine. (Hence our crazy headline!). Last year’s EMREX was in Anaheim California and it’s

The Emrex Board!

Emerson Global Users Exchange, said the Chairman the Emerson’s User Group, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions’ Tracy Waller, presents an “opportunity for “Combining the Elements” of success to impact your company’s bottom line.” He did add that “the value you gain from Exchange is limited only by the amount of knowledge you can absorb while attending.” And that is true without a shadow of doubt. That tweet about a great week reminded us poor twitter watchers that an avalanche of tweets was about to descend bearing the hashtag #EMRex.

America is a big and far-away place and Grapevine, Texas is about six or seven hours behind Europe so the #EMrex tweets usually start coming in at about 11.00 Irish time. However on the first day it looked as if some of the afficianados didn’t go to bed at all as tweets were waiting to be read as we opened our laptops on this side of the mighty Atlantic. As one tweet said “Should be interesting to watch Emerson Exchange through Social this week!”

Tracy Waller opened @EmersonExchange welcoming attendees from 50+ countries. We learned that there were 2834 in for the opening of which 500 were from countries outside of the US. As we are using tweets to compile this report one statistic given was EmersonExchange 365 (the Emerson User Community!) has grown to over 9000 members! “What a great way to connect to other like minded professionals!” Another stat reported “350 workshops and exhibits this week,” and another confirmed Waller’s comment above, “Over 350 workshops, forums, keynotes- more content than any single person can attend.”

Let’s go!

So what happened? Steve Sonnenberg, Emerson Process Management leader, welcomed attendees noting that a third of attendees were first-timers. It is primarily “an unmatched opportunity to learn what others are doing,” he said. “You invest your trust in us…I want Emerson to be a listening organisation!” Another tweet reported “Emerson Process grows, expects inflection in last half of 2014. Emerson continues to invest in the business..” The term “inflection” in this context is new to this writer however we assume that it means that the speaker foresees a measurable upswing towards the end of that year. Perhaps one of the reasons is the feasibility of pervasive sensing as it becomes cheaper and easier to deploy due to wireless technology and this will neccessatate the implementation of a policy that ensures that they can serve. The message strongly coming through was “When you run into obstacles or need a hand or just some advice, you’ll trust us to be part of your team.”

Shiny stuff time!

Peter Zornio in full flow!

“Nice to get the biz update – But show me the technology!” is a nice introduction to the presentation of the irrepressible Peter Zornio, Emerson Process Management’s Chief Technical Officer. “Peter Zornio warned us to fasten our seat belts, before he goes through the shiny new things.” He highlighted “12 products going through human centered design process” at Emerson. Our tweeters were hard put to keep up with this roller-coaster ride. “New technologies in Coriolis, DP level, DP flow, Vortex flow, Temperature, Analyzers… lots!” were unveiled. We have taken some tweets at random! Make sure you have a reviving cup of coffee at hand!

Shopping for diamonds!:

“Worlds first total wireless radar now available!”

“Emerson extends lighter weight and technology of Micro Motion Coriolis meters to its density and viscosity meters as well!”

“D-RTU Distributed RTU automatically join to RTU network!”

“Incus ultrasonic gas leak detector senses gas leaks by listening, therefore not affected by weather or dilution!”

“DeltaV SIS with Electronic Marshalling is a modern safety system. Can be used integrated or standalone!”

“New functionality introduced for shift change automation and documentation in Syncade; Operator logbooks!”

“CSI 2140 4-channel machinery health analyzer w/ Bluetooth and wireless communications is up to 50% faster than CSI 2130!”

“Look for the official retirement party here this week for Provox and RS3 systems.”

“Pervasive sensing will more than double the number of sensors in a process facility!” and “Site safety, reliability and energy efficiency will benefit from pervasive sensing!”

“New combined WirelessHART and WiFi gateway!”

“iOPs is where it all comes together to connect the business to the process loop!”

“We are building the future of operations.”

“I feel like I’m shopping for diamonds!”

And finally “Hard to keep up with P. Zornio #EMRex #ToMuchShinyStuff!”

Under promise and over deliver

Mark Thompson co-founder of Virgin Unite Mentors, Sir Richard Branson’s network for executive coaching and entrepreneurial innovation delivered a keynote. He spoke about how to inspire building leadership skills to inspire 10x performance, learn more. Risk is a very hard thing to take on, and we need to support our teams to take on that risk.The importance of trust, “Trust– exceed expectations… Under promise and over deliver.”

It was interesting how all three opening speakers reflected this philosophy, each in his own way.

Associated exhibition area

Always at these meetings there is an exhibition area where delegates may get their hands on product or learn in more detail about actual applications. There are exhibits from Emerson companies and from supportive companies and this is usually a very busy networking area.

ISA Bookstore up and running. Stop on by & see #PAuto titles.

On twitter this usually translates to “Come see us at booth XYZ!” or “Our awsome display at #EMrex, with a picture of an empty stand (or booth as they are called in the US), with 3 or four eager company representatives or (if they are lucky) a set scrummage of backs heaving to get at the goodies! Maybe not too exciting but twitterati at the event are sometimes made aware of something that they might miss otherwise. However those who post short videos on what they are doing can be enlightening. For those actually attending of course the experience is…well here’s a tweet, “Two hours into the exhibits at #EmrEx and it is still humming..” Nuff said!

Talking about videos, the collection of videos being published about the show are another way of getting the atmosphere and sometimes information. Look at Emerson Daily Exchange where there is a series of short videos to whet virtual appetites! Another useful resource during the week was Live at the Exchange, a review of happenings on a day by day basis with photos shared on-line, some of which we are using in this report. (tweet: “The Control Global team is here & publishing to Emerson Exchange365!“)

Break-outs
When attending this event it is always difficult to select which room to go to in which thread of automation. Following on twitter sometimes one is assailed by tweets from the various talks or presentations which can be confusing but also instructive as it can lead to exploration elsewhere for more information on the topic. This is especially fruitful where the presenter provides his power point presentation and/or notes on-line. We will just give a few tweet examples here.
“Great discussion and thanks to our industry panelist’s – Monetization of #NatGas – O&G Industry Forum”
“Life Science team at the ready for Continuos Process Verification solutions!”
“Fort Worth 2: workshop by Madhav on how Emerson delivered Containerized DCS and OTS on time for fast track Project!”
“Dallas3: Mr Nishimaki from KNGPG explains how #EMR #wireless solution benefited to achive high reliability”
“Bob Huba highlights the importance of people and processes in #PAuto cybersecurity.”
“Marlin Midstream changing the game – controlling valves wirelessly on a natural gas cryo plant!”
“Killer talk on SynTQ PAT application by BMS on a Fluidized Bed Drying process and a Blending process!”
“Cool! I just saw my safety dashboard video from the iOps Center at Emerson Exchange 2012.” (this from Mike Boudreaux!)
“Kaleb Pergande provides a look at enhancements of the Fisher GX control valve over its 10-year lifespan.”
“Aaron Crews outlines dashboards for risk mitigation to increase safety in our process facilities.”
“Wow ! Come and see Australia’s biggest iPad @ #emrex in workshop -SANTOS Brisbane Collabrative Control Center by Mike and Patrick!”
“Be sure to get to the DeltaV roadmap sessions: Come and Meet Claudio the new DeltaV marketing Dir..”
“This is cool: Session ID 8-5039- High Fidelity Modeling with MiMiC Simulation Software…”
“Bring your laptop to the fire and gas workshop at #emrex we’re going to be working…”
“Just watched @LouHeavner making APC theory look easy. Very impressive!”
“Great presentation of how integrated operations powers you business potential at exchange by Mike Boudreaux and Suchit Rout.”
“I saw a real LouLou of a presentation on VRU’s, 8-4939. Last chance tomorrow at 3:15!” (not sure what a LouLou presentation is but we assume it’s a compliment!)
“Got out to see the Fisher Regulator Technologies HQ in McKinney this afternoon. Shiny and new, indeed!”
“Three attributes of Pervasive Sensing, Jonas Berge tells me: wireless; non-intrusive installation; good enough measurement accuracy!”
“So did you take Steve’s advice and meet 5 new people every day? Well, check out the Networking session today – 2.15, Dallas 6.”
“yes , in fact meeting more than 5 people #emrex from different countries , having fun !”
“Nice synergies presented at #EmrEx; Wireless leak detection on pipe-lines and tank gauging in refinery tank farm. #WiHART is the enabler.”
“Cindy Scott presents the new DeltaV Executive Portal – view process graphics and create dashboards in IE for use in your enterprise!”
“Want to be a rocket scientist too? http://ow.ly/24qdDU!”
“Emerson research leader exits each meeting wondering, “How can a 58 year old have so much fun at work?” Easy: Fun problems/great people.”
…and so on! Can you feel the enthusiasm?

More fun
Can you take any more well of course there is the evening time when the sessions are over and what we in Ireland call “seissiúns” begin. This is party time and no Emerson Exchange is complete with out this kind of fun – or the real craic! And our tweeters are not idle here. “Knock Knock Knocking on Heaven ‘s Door #EmrEx. Emerson , LBP’s, and Exhibitors jammin’ it tonight on stage!..” “Dancing with @Merry120 and @DeannaDaisy. It’s an #EMRex tradition! As always, the band was awesome tonight!!” Maybe we should draw a veil over the rest of the evening.

“Best exchange ever this year. Truly lives up to expectations. Real connections and great interaction with and between customers!”
“We had another good exhibition at #EMRex. Thanks for the great conversations! The Final Control booth is all packed up until next year!”

A great quiet has now descended on our tweet-feed as the participants return to their homes and mull and digest over the information they have received! And to a well earned rest!

And so to Stuttgart!
The last word I’ll leave with Nick Taylor: “Germany is beautiful in the Spring. Join us for #EMRex Stuttgart, April 20014!” And it looks like it will be as outstanding as the previous time this was held in Europe with a Record number of abstracts from users. Click here for more information on Emerson Users Exchange EMEA. Last year this was in Duesseldorf (D) and you can see what we thought in our article, Automation returns to Düsseldorf! (Oct 2012)

BTW The Americans will do it all over again in Orlando, (Fl USA) next October: 6-10 October 2014.

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Reports
As we come accross other reports in other locations we’ll link here!

Emrex Video Daily! {}Day 1{}Day 2{}Day 3{}Day 4{}Day 5{}

Day One {}Day Two {}Day Three {}Day Four (ControlGlobal)
• Control Global also have a page which they alarmingly call “Emerson Exchange News all in one place!” We didn’t think that was possible but this team are remarkable!

Emerson: A Problem Solver (Gregory Hale, ISS Source, 1/10/2013)

Emerson: Pervasive Sensing for Safety (Gregory Hale, ISS Source, 1/10/2010)

Process Systems User Group Sees Large Crowd (Gary Mintchell, Manufacturing Connection, 1/10/2013)

“Pervasive Sensing” Is the Future (ARC Advisory Group, 11/10/2013)

Emerson dishes a feast at Dallas Exchange (South African I&C, November 2013)

Pervasive or Persuasive Sensing? (Kiran Patel, IMS Research, 4/11/2013)

Pervasive sensing highlighted ar Emerson Exchange 2013 (Bill Lydon, Automation.com, 25/11/2013)

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• Anything we’ve missed is sure to appear on Jim Cahill’s (Watch how you pronounce that name folks), Emerson Process Experts. He was there in the flesh with his eyes wide open!

So much geek at NIWeek! A virtual attendee reports virtually!

Engineers are the future. Keep inspiring another generation!

David Bocanegra – “EV3 software is awsome…”

We have never been able to manage to get to NI Week, which is held annually in Austin Texas, more than 4000 miles away from Ireland as the crow flies. However we have been able to attend vicariously, via twitter, the live-streaming of keynotes and the blogs and releases issued during and immediately afterwards.

It has sometimes been said that in one way it is better to watch the twitter feeds than actually being there! It can certainly be as demanding on time and looking at a computer screen can be pretty exhausting. Indeed with the advance of hand-held units, iPads and phones, which can be connected all the time, the quantity, if not always the quality, of tweets was fairly intense. Of course its great disadvantage is the inability to provide the experience of face to face social intercourse, (nor the sometimes unpleasant aftermath of too-late nights!)

We have gathered the links to articles, blogs and pr material as we became aware of them and put them in a box on our Home Page to assist the busy engineer, nerd or geek who wanted a quick place to see these without having to trawl through what seemed like thousands of tweets. We have included that box below this article.

Tweet overload!
The enthusiasm of these National Instruments events is legendary and it continually seeped through these social media sharings. Things like “My biggest takeaway from every #niweek keynote: science and engineering are freakin cool!” (@TheRealAdamKemp ) or “Dr T kicked off #NIWeek 2013 by talking about Graphical System Design, Industry 4.0 and Cyber-Physical systems (oh, and bagpipe tuners!)” (@mjg73 ) and “My twitter news feed is blown up because of #niweek 🙂 totally not complaining! LOVE the new #roboRIO (so jealous I don’t get to use it)” (@alexkay4235 ). Another reported “Nearly 4,000 attendees packed in for the #NIWeek conference with over 1,000 streaming online!..” And more wonder & delight, “3rd year here, and the #NIWeek keynote intro still raises the hair on my neck!” (@Backerthebiker) or “Dang! Opening video presentation at #NIWeek 2013 was AWESOME! Kicking off this year’s conference with a big boom.” (@lindseyjo23); “Ready for another day of great madness! Love #NIweek” (@Fabiola31416).

Dr James Truchard

In think you get the idea!

The technology
Co-Founder Dr James Truchard kicked of in his inimitable style. The enthusiasm he generates is perhaps comparable to that generated by the founder of Apple though his style is completely different and perhaps understated though very real. He spoke about platforms and the future of virtual instrumentation. “From cyber physical systems to big Analog data solutions, graphical system design provides a platform based approach for measurement and control!”

Jeff Kodosky

The Applications
The second day commenced with a presentation by the other side of the foundation duo, Jeff Kodosky – the Father of Labview. Fostering discovery – using Labview in the most difficult applications. These include the iconic CERN project in Europe, sensitive healing technologies for cancer treatment and facilitating food production in otherwise impossible areas.

Inspiring and Preparing the Next Generation of Innovators
“High school kids created these robots!”
Day three Ray Almgren discussed Inspiring and Preparing the Next Generation of Innovators, always a strong suite with National Instruments. However we have no intention in treating on these “keynote” sessions. No! National Instruments with their usual efficiency, have provide professional videos of NIWeek 2013 Keynote Presentations and they are well worth looking at. They have divided each days keynotes into four sections which means that one can navigate to the topics/technologies of interest.

There are a few presentations which impressed your correspondent.

The young are always impressed with robots. We were introduced to David Bocanegra, a youthful programmer (10 years old), using the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 system. He demonstrated his skill and the versitality of the EV3 software. When asked he enthusiastically responded “EV3 software is awsome…” (See pic at top of page!)

We saw some high-school students using the NI roboRIO on a frisbie fairing robot. They started the system and there was a pregnant pause interrupted by one of them saying “Uh-oh!” One of the Nat Instrument guys (Ray Algrem) came across to see what was wrong but obviously the students had it under control as they explained what the robot was doing while nothing could be seen.

“What’s the probability of success?” he asked dubiously.

“High!” was the confident (and indignant) response of the students! And they were right!

They then used the doubting presenter for target practice as they used him in a William Tell-like exercise of shooting a bottle of his head with a frisbee! Wonderful stuff!

Dr Red Whittiker & Lunar Lander

Two other presentations on the third day were both to do with space. A memorable presentation from NASA’s Associate Administrator of Education, Leland Melvin. He shared his time on the International Space Station and his experience with robotics in space. Finally a presentation from Dr Red Whittaker, Carnegie Mellon University, on a planned robotic expedition to the moon to explore mineral resources there. The extraordinary machine that will be landing and doing the work was shown. Watch out for news of the pin-point landing and exploration in October 2015. Fascinating stuff.

Finally these tweets “I know I say it every year, but this was THE BEST #NIWEEK EVA!” (@crelfpro ) and “Had a great time @NIWeek! Already excited for next year.” (‏@TandelSystems).

Invitation!
“Thanks for attending #NIWeek 2013. We had a blast & hope you did too. Stay social & tell us what you liked best!” (@NIglobal)

Oh yes! Next year they do it (or something like it) all over again. Mark your diary – NI Week 2014 – 5th to 7th August 2014 in Austin Texas USA. 

NIWeek 2013 NI Week on twitter #NIweek! 7 Steps to to Making the Most of NI Week Social Media Guide at NI Week (Slideshow – #NIWeek tweets are more powerful with photos.) Live Keynotes (National Instruments’ videos in digestible chunks!) Check out LabViewNI.com for LABVIEW NEWS INFORMATION Blogs and Reports (We’ll probably have missed a few so check out the tweets etc!) Bloomy Controls Awarded Most Outstanding Technical Resources (PR Web, 22/8/2013) cDAQ, cRIO, myRIO, PXImc und natürlich LabVIEW ((Hans Jaschinski, all-electronics.de 20/8/2013) Cold Fusion Demo in Texas – More Pictures (DRbobblog, 16/8/2013) NI Week 2013: The Enable highlight reel! (Ben Zimmer, Enable Education, 14/8/2013) NIWeek 2014 dates announced (Radio Electronics 12/8/2013) Instrument Maker Puts Education Center Stage (Douglas McCormack, IEEE Spectrum, 12/8/2013) Reach of software-designed instrumentation for electronic test extended (Read-out Signpost, 12/8/2013) National Instruments’ CEO Hosts Investor Conference (Transcript) (Seeking Alpha, 10/8/2013) Record-breaking Attendance, Groundbreaking Products (NICommunity News, 9/8/2012) National Instruments adds to their platforms (Larry Desjardin, EDN Network, 9/8/2013) National Instruments promotes lifelong science, engineering education (Mary Gannon, Connector Tips, 9/8/2013) Engineering Innovation at National Instruments’ NIWeek (Laura Lorek, Silicon Hills News, 9/8/2013) Technologies & tutorials highlight week (Vision Systems Design, 9/8/2013) Take care of the village people (New Electronics, 9/8/2013) Students can design sophisticated systems in one semester (Read-out, 9/8/2013) The Fourth Industrial Revolution Is Here (Rob Spiegel,Design News, 8/8/2013) NIWeek’ displays latest in science, tech (Jess Mitchell , Austin YNN, 8/8/2013) Electric Utility Distributes Control to Move Grid Into 21st Century (Aaron Hand, Automation World, 8/8/2013) The Outsider’s Guide to NIWeek 2013 (Matt Migliore, Flow Control, 8/8/2013) Places to be this week (Martin Rowe, EE Times, 8/8/2013) Ditch the Lab: Take measurements in rugged environments (Read-out, 8/8/2013) Programming Lego Mindstorms using RTI DDS Toolkit for LabVIEW (Merwin Shanmugasundaram, RTI, 8/8/2013) Custom hardware is dead (New Electronics, 8/8/2013) Fun at NIWeek (Mary Gannon, MotionControl Tips, 8/8/2013) National Instruments redesigns NI CompactRIO from the inside out (Read-out, 8/8/2013) NI Week hat im texanischen Austin begonnen (Hendrik Härter, Elektronik Prazis, 7/8/2013) Platforms in a programmable world (New Electronics, 7/8/2013) Day 2 of NI Week is “applications day!” (Paul Heney, Mobile Hydraulic Tips, 7/8/2013) Engineers solve $10-billion spoiled milk issue (Davif Yeomans, KXAN, 7/8/2013) NI Unveils New Products and Glimpses of Future for Automation, Test and Measurement (Gary Mintchell, Manufacturing Connection, 7/8/2013) NI cDAQ-9188XT Introduced for Rugged Environments at #NIWeek (Radio Electronics, 7/8/2013) Wineman Technology Simplifies Complex Control for Test Cell Applications with INERTIA™ 2012 (PR Newswire, 6/8/2013) Cyberphysical Systems Will Boost Manufacturing Performance (Gary Mintchell, Manufacturing Connection, 6/8/2013) NI Week’s cool apps on display (J LOve, EDN Network, 6/8/2013) Jet vehicle at NI Week turns heads (David Yeomans, KXAN, 6/8/2013) Custom Hardware Design Is Dead (Janine Love, EETimes, 6/8/2013) NI Week 2013 and the big data revolution (Paul Heney, Mobile Hydraulic Tips, 6/8/2013) Industrial Controllers Evolve with FPGAs (David Greenfield, Automation World, 6/8/2013) LabVIEW 2013 helps users focus on innovation Instead of infrastructure (Read-out Signpost, 6/8/2013) Start of the never ending tour (New Electronics, 6/8/2013) Items of NI News on Modular Connections (Starts 5th August) NI Week: Hotter than Austin in August (Microwave Journal 5/8/2013) Wineman Technology Selected to Showcase INERTIA™ Software Platform at NIWeek 2013 (5/8/2013) Pictures & Videos • Scenes from NI Week 2013 (Machine Design, Photo Gallery, 12/8/2013) • Design World: Day 1 : Day 2 • Niweek expo hall in 6 seconds (VI Shots) • A less frenetic glimps of the NIWeek Editor experience! (1.07 min video!) So much geek at #NIWeek! Although Read-out was unable to sail over to Austin however we did make it to last years NI Day event in London (GB). Here is what we said about it! No boxes with magic pixies at Westminster!

“Integrated Industry” – at core of forums, thematic clusters and competence centres

Trade fairs highlight industrial integration in crucible of fourth industrial revolution

We missed the mammoth Hannover Fair last week but managed to get a feel, as is our wont, through twitter and social media.  One of the tweeters, Leo Ploner, of Industrial Ethernet Book, messaged on the last day: “A successful @hannover_messe coming to an end: 6,550 exhibitors from 62 countries, 225,000 visitors, and close to 100 @IEBook tweets.” (You may read his reports on the show HERE!)

The eleven trade fairs staged under the umbrella of HANNOVER MESSE 2013 from 8 to 12 April featured the keynote theme of “Integrated Industry.” 6,550 exhibitors, highlighting a multitude of innovative products and technology solutions, provided a vivid showcase for this theme. The show’s five core topics – Industrial Automation and IT, Energy and Environmental Technology, Fluid Power and Power Transmission, Industrial Subcontracting, Manufacturing Technology and Services and R&D – opened up new prospects for expert dialogue across all aspects of Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution!

There was strong European Union representation at the fair. The European Commission sent three commissioners to attend on different days as well as fifteen different delegations for various European Bodies and the European Parliament. The fair highlighted Russia during the week and welcomed the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who accompanied the  Chancellor of Germany‎, Angela Merkel in touring the fair on the first day.

Industrial Automation
Industrial Automation featured process and production automation and system solutions for production and buildings. The “Integrated Industry” keynote theme was the dominant topic at exhibitor stands, and the debate on the “Factory of the Future” continued at the “Industrial IT Forum”. Leading robot manufacturers and system providers organized a “Parade of Robots”, while showcasing their latest production automation technology and solutions. Within the exhibition halls, trade visitors were able to view live displays of robots in operation. The process technology exhibition area provided comprehensive coverage of topics like pressure, filling level and temperature measurement as well as transmission and control engineering, along with a rich program of presentation and discussion forums.

The Efficiency Arena moreover offered visitors a program of lectures and debates on all aspects of energy efficiency in industrial processes during the five-day event.

Hannover Messe 2013 8/12 April 2013 Releases received at Read-out Desk to date!. Follow on twitter #HM13 HM13 News MesseLiveTV (Exhibition Videos) Newsletter Hannover Messe 2013 top photos on Pinterest Industrial Ethernet Book (IEB) Show Preview Control Engineering ‘Integrated Industry’ Theme Opens 2013 Hannover Messe Kuka Introduces Lightweight Robot, Gives Rides Control Engineering Europe Industry prepares for the next ‘Industrial Revolution.” (12/6/2013) ARC Advisory Day 1 [ ] Day 2 [ ] Day 3 Intensifies the Drive Toward the Fourth Industrial Revolution (David Humphrey 9/5/2013) Gary Mintchell • BorgWarner Cooling Systems Showed Increase In Productivity In 6 Months • Puzzlement In Industrial Wireless Network Land Automation.com Hannover-Messe Final Report (Includes links to other reports!) Phoenix Contact News Videos Day 1 [ ] Day 2 [ ] Day 3 [ ] Day 4 Profibus Blog (USA) • Hanover Fair First Impressions. • The News: Competence Centre

Motion, Drive & Automation (MDA)
MDA introduced Bosch Rexroth as this year’s HERMES AWARD winner, successfully highlighting the immense potential stemming from innovations in the area of electric and mechanical drive engineering, pneumatics and hydraulics. Bosch Rexroth received the award for a software solution perfectly tailored to the “Integrated Industry” keynote theme at HANNOVER MESSE. Generally speaking, the exhibitors at this year’s MDA focused on efficient and sustainable intelligent integrated system solutions. All the market leaders in the sector were at MDA, with displays including roller bearings, gears, clutches, hydraulic cylinders and subassemblies, filters, valves, sealing systems, oil supply systems and power electronics. The MDA show again included an accompanying forum for debate on current trends and technologies. Key topics this year were drive technology for wind energy plants, sealing systems, condition monitoring systems, along with sustainability, energy efficiency and lightweight construction.

Energy
The leading-edge technologies displayed by Energy exhibitors illustrated their ability to make a real contribution to the global transition in energy systems. Exhibits covered the entire energy industry supply chain, from generation, grid supply, transmission, distribution and storage through to the latest IT and market mechanisms for smart grids. The focus was on potential savings and efficiency gains from decentralized energy supply solutions. This involved energy efficiency service providers and the entire cogeneration and trigeneration market segment, plus the decentralized grid supply stationary fuel cells featured at the Hydrogen + Fuel Cells pavilion. Smart grids were another major theme, with a dedicated theme park and an accompanying forum. The most popular HANNOVER MESSE forum was again “Life Needs Power”, where experts from policy, research and industry debated all the key trends and issues confronting the energy industry. Another major drawing card was the Renewable Energy forum, located within the same named exhibition sector. The forum featured informative presentations on wind and bio energy, photovoltaic systems, and solar and geothermal energy.

Wind
Wind power is seen as the driving force among the various renewable energy options. Worldwide installed power has already reached more than 200 gigawatts, and the participants in the Wind flagship tradeshow were clearly there to talk business. The leading manufacturers, subcontractors, logistics specialists and service providers were on hand to present their new concept designs and technologies for on- and off-shore solutions, and they used the international industrial platform provided by HANNOVER MESSE to highlight their skills for the energy transition. Higher towers, larger nacelles, longer rotor vanes and more powerful transmission systems are making wind energy plants more powerful. Optimized plants for low-wind locations also have a part to play in making efficient use of wind energy. The Wind event again highlighted the enormous innovation momentum in this sector.

MobiliTec
The raft of new products and innovative solutions on display in MobiliTec made an impressive contribution to HANNOVER MESSE in terms of economic policy issues. As the flagship tradeshow for electric drive technologies, mobile energy storage and alternative mobility technologies, the event provided a comprehensive overview of electric mobility solutions. Among the exhibitors were regions whose projects have been selected by the German federal government for funding under the “Electric Mobility Showcase” program. Another highlight was the eMotive pavilion with cutting-edge electric mobility displays. The MobiliTec user forum drew big visitor numbers, with discussion and debate on the latest research findings and trends in energy storage technologies and powertrain electrification. Visitors were also able to test drive the latest electric vehicles on the extended circuit on the open-air site at the Hannover Exhibition Center. The European Research Commissioner, Máire Geoghgan-Quinn presented the new EU research framework program Horizon 2020 at the MobiliTec Forum on 11 April. She attended both in her European Capacity but also as Ireland’s Commissioner as that country holds the European Presidency during the first half of 2013.

Digital Factory
Digital Factory in Hall 7 was again the ICT hub at HANNOVER MESSE. The huge importance of IT as a driver of industrial innovations was reflected in the broad range of solutions on display, including PLM, ERP, MES and CAx. The key themes of the event were fully canvassed both in trade meetings and in the debates on strategy issues on all aspects of Industry 4.0. The industry associations VDMA (German Engineering Federation), ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association) and BITKOM (German Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media) have created an agency specifically for this purpose, which they launched at the fair. Exhibitor firms provided impressive examples of the integration of real and digital business environments across every facet of the “Integrated Industry” keynote theme and debated the specific challenges involved in maintaining the data flow from product design, production scheduling and production through to the service phase. A special highlight of Digital Factory was the first CAE forum dedicated to the topic of numerical simulation. Presentations by representatives of industry and academia addressed topics like “IT Services” and “Quality Assurance in Virtual Product Design”.

ComVac
Exhibitors at ComVac provided a complete market overview of their sector. All the market leaders were back this year for the “odd-numbered cycle” at HANNOVER MESSE to display their compressed air and vacuum technology products and solutions – from generation and treatment to distribution and practical applications in systems and machines. The focus was on state-of-the-art solutions which consume significantly less electric power and are more maintenance-friendly, with lower noise emissions, adding up to clear efficiency gains in production operations. Other sector themes in high demand included the classic after-sales segments like maintenance, repair and service contracts and consulting and analysis. This included the simulation of compressed air requirements, leakage checks, and audits and evaluation of compressed air systems and finance options. The businesses exhibiting at ComVac all see compressed air technologies as an essential part of industry and skilled trades operations.

Industrial Supply
The optimized hall configuration and comprehensive supporting program for the Industrial Supply event, particularly the Suppliers Convention and Materials Forum, were well received by exhibitors and visitors alike. As a worldwide global sourcing event, the Industrial Supply show staged in halls 4 to 6 clearly showed how closely the subcontracting industry is involved in its customers’ planning and production processes. They appreciated the synergies from the physical location near the venues for surface technologies, environmental technologies and R&D. The companies presented components and processes meticulously tailored to customer requirements, for intelligent integration into their production processes. This made a clear and very tangible contribution to the HANNOVER MESSE keynote theme of “Integrated Industry”. The Industrial Supply exhibitors impressed visitors with their wide range of applications and solutions-oriented products and technologies for functions like solid and sheet metal forming, machined components, systems and subassemblies, casting products and latches and locking systems, operating controls, fastening techniques and joining and adhesive bonding technology. Lightweight construction topics were again a special highlight. This technology is seen as providing intelligent solutions for sustainable efficiency improvements. Meanwhile, the first Wind Energy Suppliers forum focused on eco-friendly, resource-conserving production processes, competitive logistics, new materials and process engineering solutions and intelligent production technology.

SurfaceTechnology
SurfaceTechnology 2013 showcased the entire value chain of application-oriented surface technologies. As a key technology segment with applications across all industry sectors, the surface technology industry derives full benefit from the HANNOVER MESSE concept, since it has customers and users in all the sectors represented at the event. The new SurfaceTechnology venue in Hall 3 was a success, providing more effective synergies with the adjacent Research & Technology and Industrial Supply shows. Visitors were particularly impressed with the pavilions and special presentations on topics such as painting technology or nano-based applications and processes for high-tech surfaces. The Surface Technology forum focused on the importance of surfaces in interaction with the respective base materials.

IndustrialGreenTec
The displays of IndustrialGreenTec exhibitors at events covering all aspects of environmental technologies focused primarily on the needs and issues facing SMEs from Germany and abroad. At a range of workshops and conferences, international trade visitors were able to learn from the pioneers of sustainable production processes. Special attention was given to best-practice examples in terms of resource efficiency and the conservation of natural resources. One of the event highlights was the IndustrialGreenTec Conference, centered around the practical implementation of sustainable production processes and how businesses can benefit from them.

Research & Technology
Technology transfer and partnerships between research and industry were in the spotlight at the Research & Technology show. The exhibiting institutes, universities and companies were in Hall 2 to dialogue with industry and political representatives on the new technologies and improvements that will be needed to successfully address the challenges facing industry. The main focus was on the HANNOVER MESSE keynote theme of “Integrated Industry” and Industry 4.0. The “tech transfer – Gateway2Innovation” showcase put creative innovators in touch with business decision-makers and others looking for new ideas. The Research & Technology thematic clusters, such as Adaptronics, World of Nano, Bionics, Organic Electronics, Textile Solutions and in the R&T Arena clearly illustrated the potential benefits for industry stemming from the research and science domain.

Maxim Zverkov, Formika, spokesman for the partner country, Russia, in the wind-up press conference commented, “A better event in the field of industry does not exist in the world!” 

Mexico an industrial leader – “Land of opportunities!”

The stereotype is “The Lazy Mexican”, but in reality, Mexicans are among the hardest working people in the world, according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)!

Mexico is a significant market for manufacturing and automation products. Mexicans are the hardest workers in the industrialized world, China included. The OECD—the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, of which the United States is a member—studied working trends in three dozen countries, including paid and unpaid work. Mexicans topped the list, and exceeded the United States in both categories.

In 2011, Mexico received almost 20 billion dollars of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), consolidating Mexico as one of the top recipients of FDI among emerging economies in the world. Mexico’s manufacturing industry and the financial services sector are top among the most preferred investment targets. Among the manufacturing sectors, the main recipients are automotive, iron & steel, beverages, and chemicals.

“Mexico has signed 11 Free Trade Agreements with 43 countries, including the United States, Canada, the European Union, and Japan, some of the largest and most lucrative markets in the world. Mexico actively participates in world trade. It is the 10th largest exporter and importer worldwide, accounting for 2.5% and 2.6% of the world’s total exports and imports, respectively. Mexico is a land of manufacturing opportunities,” according to Steve Clouther, the principal author of ARC’s “Automation Systems Market Outlook for Mexico” .

Economic Stability
In contrast to the widening crisis in the euro zone, Mexico can point to 17 years of macroeconomic stability, low inflation, manageable debt, an open economy, and increasing competitiveness. The gross domestic product expanded 3.9 percent in 2011, and there are forecasts suggesting that by 2050 it could be larger than that of France. Mexican factories are exporting record quantities of televisions, cars, computers, and appliances, replacing some Chinese imports in the United States and fueling a modest expansion.

Process Industries
In 2010, Mexico was the seventh-largest oil producer in the world, and the third-largest in the Western Hemisphere. State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is one of the largest oil companies in the world. Mexico is consistently one of the top three exporters of oil to the US, along with Canada and Saudi Arabia.

• The Distributed Control System (DCS) sector is by far the largest automation technology for the process industries, especially oil & gas. All of the major DCS suppliers have a strong presence in Mexico.

• The DCS and SCADA sector accounts for more than a third of the revenues, and PLCs, IPCs, and Panels account for another fifth

Discrete Industries
The automotive industry is a very strategic industry for Mexico. In 2011, the automotive sector accounted for approximately 4 percent of the Mexican GDP and 20 percent of Mexico’s manufacturing GDP. According to the ranking of 40 countries by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), based on car production, Mexico ranked eighth globally. The aerospace industry is another very strategic industry for Mexico. From an automation perspective, GMC and drives account for the largest investment, followed closely by PLCs, IPCs, and panels.

Record sales for robots

The annual sales of industrial robots for 2012 have beaten any other year to date reports the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA – part of the PPMA Group of Trade Associations). The first two quarters were mainly responsible for the majority of the annual sales and once again the automotive and automotive components sectors have been the main source.

2011 was a record year for Robot sales at 1,336 industrial robots being sold from the major suppliers, but 2012 has by far exceeded this figure with 2,476 units being sold. Mike Wilson chairman of BARA said “whilst this is good news and the automotive sector has unsurprisingly generated most of these sales, we are witnessing only a modest upward trend over the last few years in the uptake of automation and robotics across other sectors. The Pharmaceutical industry being the strongest with growth of 115% over last year’s result.”

Grant Collier Head of Marketing for BARA, and responsible for the Automating Manufacturing Programme – a government initiative to persuade UK companies to automate and remain competitive, said “we have seen a tremendous level of interest from all sectors for the use of automation with the funds from the programme now almost completely allocated.  An increasing number of the companies that applied have asked for a further detailed review of their processes, but it’s still early days in seeing whether these appraisals actually turn into actual orders for automation and robotics systems”. He continued “the government has increased the capital allowance tenfold from £25,000 to £250,000 meaning there has never been a better time to invest in this technology”.

Other sector variances include Electronics which is up by 76% and the Food and Drink industry which is disappointingly down by 22% since 2011. The main consensus is that there is much interest from the Food and Drinks sector in automation but the major supermarkets continue to apply short contracts and the retain the ability to change packaging design with little notice. Whilst the latter is not the problem it once was with the programmability of automation and robotic systems, these issues have become an increasingly reported barrier to investing in automation by this sector.

Developing economies’ growth fuels DCS market in Asia.

The major growth in Distributed Control Systems (DCS) revenues continues to come from developing nations. Growth in countries such as India and China is conspicuous because of sluggish growth rates in other regions of the world. While developed nations are just holding their own (at best) in DCS investments, in developing countries, several recent trends are becoming increasingly important for success in the DCS business. These two countries are undergoing rapid growth and industrialization in Asia. At the time of this report, however, China’s growth is slowing. Even with a slowdown in China, Asia remains a leading growth engine for the global DCS marketplace, representing almost 35 percent of the world market.

ARC expects the top five growth industries in Asia to be oil & gas, mining & metals, cement & glass, water & wastewater, and electric power, in that order, with associated increases in DCS revenues. The growth of these industries is expected to be above average. Demand for oil will continue to increase in the long term despite short-term demand shortfalls. Oil exploration and production is taking the industry into increasingly remote and hostile regions, increasing demand for remote operations and subsea production. The power industry is also growing at a healthy rate over the forecast period. Developing economies, such as India and China, continue to invest in new power capacities and world-class power generation facilities. While pent up demand for mining & metals and cement & glass investments caused sizeable increases from 2010 to 2011, the growth is expected to return to a more moderate level over the forecast period.

ARC Foresees the Robust Growth of DCS in Asia
According to ARC Advisory Group’s research, the total distributed control systems market in Asia will exceed $6,300 million in 2016. ARC’s latest study, “Distributed Control Systems for Asia Market Research Study” provides an in-depth analysis of the DCS business in Asia. In addition to market analysis and forecasts, the study also covers the current market nuances, strategic issues, and the future outlook. The report also highlights the factors that influence the DCS market in Asia and its dynamics.

G. Ganapathiraman, Country Manager, ARC Advisory Group, India and co-author of this study says, “The trends that drive the DCS business in Asia vastly differ from those in developed nations. Due to the economic growth in China and India along with the other BRIC countries, investments in infrastructure, oil and gas production, and in refining are rising, leading to increased demand for DCS.”

In 2011, ARC saw a much larger increase in revenue over 2010 than previously anticipated. The order book started improving at the end of 2009 and was quite strong throughout 2010 and the first half of 2011. Because the DCS business is primarily project based with an average nine month lag time from order book to recognized revenue, this strong order book translated into an excellent revenue year for 2011 with Asia’s revenue up over 4.5 percent from 2010.