IT in Manufacturing


Emerson expands Plantweb digital ecosystem

May 2018 IT in Manufacturing

As manufacturers accelerate digital transformation and workforce evolution, Emerson has unveiled significant enhancements to its Plantweb digital ecosystem, a comprehensive Industrial IoT automation platform.

“Manufacturing jobs are rapidly becoming data-centric roles, requiring immediately actionable information for experts across the enterprise,” said Peter Zornio, chief technology officer for Emerson Automation Solutions. “Through a deep understanding of customers’ vision for organisational effectiveness and business performance improvement, Emerson is innovating breakthrough products and services to accelerate that organisational transformation.”

Identify clear business objectives

A 2017 Industry Week survey of manufacturing leaders revealed more than 60 percent of those surveyed indicated active pilot projects in IIoT, but only five percent identified clear business objectives at the heart of their programmes.

Of the 205 industry executive respondents, 34% stated that lack of clear technology strategy was a barrier while 61% confirmed that a scalable approach to investment is preferred.

“A clear message from the industry is that a one-size-fits-all, vendor-prescribed IIoT approach won’t work,” continued Zornio. “They want to identify specific business challenges, target technology to improve performance and then scale up their investment based on results achieved. That is why we have architected Plantweb to enable companies to get started where they can gain the greatest near-term impact.”

Plantweb offers scalable solutions

Built on the foundation of best-in-class process control and safety systems, Plantweb expands on existing automation infrastructure to make the promise of IIoT scalable and achievable, with a broad portfolio of pervasive sensing technologies, an extensive suite of analytical software tools, secure and robust data infrastructure devices and expert services.

During the 2017 Emerson Global Users Exchange event in Minneapolis, Emerson introduced extensive enhancements to the Plantweb digital ecosystem portfolio, including:

• Pervasive Sensing: Emerson’s Pervasive Sensing is the foundation of the Plantweb digital ecosystem, providing enhanced

visibility into process performance and asset health, so experts have the information needed to drive operational improvements.

• Secure First Mile: As global adoption of the IIoT increases demand for robust cybersecurity strategies, Emerson’s Secure First Mile provides secure transfer of actionable data from OT

systems to authorised Internet-based applications, services or mobile users.

• Plantweb Insight: Emerson’s Plantweb Insight is a scalable and lightweight, web-based software platform that helps users make sense of plant data by leveraging sensing technologies and prebuilt analytics to provide relevant-time monitoring and identification of abnormal situations for specific asset classes.

• Plantweb Advisor: Emerson’s Plantweb Advisor is a scalable set of software applications that utilise deeper analytics to provide reliability and energy specialists with critical information about equipment health and efficiency as well as energy consumption and emissions.

• Always Aware: Formerly known as Always Mobile, Emerson’s new Always Aware suite of solutions builds on previous mobility capabilities, expanding them to focus on delivering role-based, relevant-time information and alerts to plant personnel, regardless of locations, enabling more effective collaboration and driving actions to improve asset and process performance.

• Services: Emerson is expanding its role as a trusted industry partner with consulting and service offerings that complement its leading portfolio of automation and IIoT-based technologies.

To help customers understand the impact these new technologies can have on personnel productivity and organisational effectiveness, Emerson brought the next-generation digital workforce to life with the ‘Digital Workforce Experience’ during Emerson Exchange. The immersive, role-based simulation demonstrated first-hand how various manufacturing roles are evolving and the impact they have on business performance.

“The industry’s technology evolution over the past 30 years has delivered tremendous improvements in efficiency,” Zornio said. “Now it’s time to fuel the next-generation workforce with the actionable insights they need to become even more strategic assets in their companies.”

For more information contact Rob Smith, Emerson Automation Solutions, +27 (0)11 451 3700, rob.smith@emerson.com, www.emerson.com



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