Wonderware X-Change 2011 feedback
June 2011
Analytical Instrumentation & Environmental Monitoring
From 17 to 20 April, Champagne Sports Resort in the Drakensberg was host to Wonderware Southern Africa’s 19th annual User Conference as well as a record-breaking audience of over 350 local and international industry professionals. X-Change has a justly earned reputation as the largest and longest running conference of its type in South Africa and this year’s event was no exception.
Mainstream presentations
The conference addressed a wide range of topics, from the highly technical to the tactical and from the necessary to the visionary. Presentations were split into streams:
Technology stream
After two days, it became obvious that today’s available technologies offer no barriers to realising almost any business and operational goals. In fact, it could be said that technology often has a great deal more to offer than is imagined by potential end users.
Wonderware’s ArchestrA technology continues to prove the wisdom of this ‘build an infrastructure first’ approach by facilitating the integration of applications at an increasingly accelerated rate. True integration is not simply connectivity between applications. It is a unification that provides seamless inter-operation to the degree that end users believe that a single application is involved – an application that exactly matches the operational needs.
High on the agenda was the newly-released ArchestrA Workflow, a human-level process management solution that guides people when responding to events. Other products included System Platform, Historian, an upcoming release of InTouch Scada/ HMI, HMI reports, Information Server and Microsoft’s Hyper V virtualisation solution.
User presentations
Another important aspect addressed by the conference was how end users implemented Wonderware solutions to achieve business and operational goals. 11 success stories demonstrated the huge benefits to be derived from expertly implemented technologies and applications in the fields of scada/HMI, MES, EMI, virtualisation, simulation as well as network diagnosis and management. Of particular note were:
* The implementation of expert systems at two gold mines in order to improve mill performance by up to 30%.
* Replacing 43 mission-critical mini PCs with thin clients and with no interruption to production.
* Country-wide EMI implementation for the monitoring of dust emissions at coal fired power stations.
* A brilliant and innovative implementation of an HMI that provides unprecedented navigation simplicity and operator interaction.
Thanks
An event like X-Change takes more than six months to plan and organise. From the invitation of international guests and call for presentations to venue logistics and awareness campaigns, this is no casual event and Wonderware Southern Africa would like to thank everyone who contributed towards making X-Change 2011 the success it deserved to be.
To read a more detailed report on the conference including the keynote addresses and awards, visit http://instrumentation.co.za/+C15115A
For more information contact Jaco Markwat, Wonderware Southern Africa, 0861 WONDER, [email protected], www.wonderware.co.za
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