The Cape Town branch held its latest Technology Evening on 28 June at the usual Eskom Marketing Centre in Edgemead. Clive Roberts, strategic account manager at Invensys Wonderware SA, gave a presentation on ‘Enabling timely and accurate information’. The theme was ‘Good Information’. Clive suggested that for information to be classified as good information, it must meet these criteria: It must be the (1) right information; in the (2) right context; for the (3) right people; at the (4) right time; in the (5) right format. With these five criteria met, Clive believes that the information consumer (i.e. maintenance technician, plant manager, operations manager, or director) can take the right action. Plants have large amounts of information in different formats (excel, SQL, SAP, etc.), from different sources (employees, scada, PLC, etc.) and in different locations (databases, files, etc.). The information can range from electricity usage, plant instrument readings, water usage, production numbers and many others. The challenge of the system designer is to make this information available to all the information consumers in the right context. Clive says the solution lies in having an agile platform that enables one to choose from a myriad of connectors and communication servers for control devices, applications and systems.
It was an interesting presentation, as was shown by the large amount of questions that Clive had to answer from the floor. With the rise in electricity bills, shrinking margins, and dwindling profits, decision makers need good information to take the right actions. The Cape Town branch thanks Invensys Wonderware SA for its support.
Branch activities
Dates have been confirmed for the site visits. The Koeberg site visit will be on the 24 July and the South African Navy visit will be on the 10 October. Booking is essential as the branch needs to determine numbers for these visits.
YouTube ‘TechTube’ video awards
In order to provide visibility to branch members in their profession, the branch committee has designed ‘The SAIMC Cape Town TechTube Award’.
The award is designed to celebrate SAIMC members in action doing what we do best i.e. control and instrumentation engineering. Members are requested to participate by uploading video clips (not longer than 5 min) of themselves, or their teams, in action doing their jobs or specific C&I tasks such as calibration, programming, repairing an instrument, network configuration, etc.
Five video clips will be selected by the committee and the winner will then be decided by our members at our social evening on the 30 August 2012.The competition closing date is: 23 August 2012.
1. E-mail your video clip to [email protected] (using your PC, cellphone tablet etc.)
2. The e-mail subject is the title of your video that will appear on YouTube. Please add your name to the subject as well.
3. The body of your e-mail will be the video comments (what the video is about).
The winning submission will win a framed certificate as well as an SAIMC branded shirt.
Training
The branch is currently in talks with a state of the art training centre with regards to possible collaboration in an apprenticeship/in-service training initiative. It is expected that much progress will have been made by the time this article reaches you. As mentioned in previous articles, training will be an important focus area this year. Fulfilling our mandate in facilitating training and up-skilling young people within the profession is of paramount importance to this branch, we will be working very hard in this area.
The excellence in automation project award
Members and interested parties are reminded about the branch’s prestigious excellence in automation project award. All nomination forms and supporting documentation need to be submitted before 1 October. Candidates can be nominated by the membership or can be proposed by any participating organisation within the Western Cape. Nominations will be reviewed by a committee consisting of C&I industry leaders. All nominees must be SAIMC members in good standing with 2012 SAIMC officers not eligible during their term of office. Nomination forms and further information can be obtained from Selvan Murugan: [email protected]
NB: Any C&I project, of any size will be considered. There are no limitations with regards to complexity, application or size.
Next meeting
The next technology meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 30 August at the Eskom marketing centre, Edgemead – 17h30 for 18h00. Further details will be communicated via e-mail, facebook, twitter and LinkedIn. Members are encouraged to join the branch on these platforms to ensure that they receive all branch communications. Just search for ‘SAIMC Cape Town’.
For any queries please contact Mothibi Thabeng: thabeng.m@gmail
| Tel: | +27 11 312 2445 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.saimc.co.za |
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