IT in Manufacturing


Emerson’s new Plantweb ecosystem

January 2017 IT in Manufacturing

Pervasive Sensing, Secure First Mile, Connected Services and new software bring a comprehensive industrial Internet of Things portfolio to industry.

First introduced as an advanced process control and safety network, Plantweb now harnesses the power of industrial IoT to expand digital intelligence to the entire manufacturing enterprise, while also providing an architecture for on-premise applications. Plantweb provides a comprehensive framework to help manufacturers achieve Top Quartile performance in the areas of safety, reliability, production and energy.

“In 1997, Emerson revolutionised the automation landscape with Plantweb, the first field-based digital plant architecture,” said Peter Zornio, chief strategic officer, Emerson Automation Solutions. “Now, we are doing it again by harnessing the power of industrial IoT to give customers the technology foundation for Operational Certainty.”

Emerson’s Plantweb digital ecosystem includes several new products, services and partner-enabled solutions:

• Pervasive Sensing: expanding the industry’s largest portfolio of measurement and analytical technologies, Emerson is introducing a non-intrusive temperature sensor, as well as new sensing technologies in the area of corrosion detection, medium voltage electrical protection, and hazardous gas leak detection, among others.

• Secure First Mile: getting the right data to the right people can improve operational perform-ance, but with increased connectivity comes increased risk – especially during the ‘first mile’ when data is moved, from the plant floor onto the Internet to power IT and cloud-based applications. Emerson’s Secure First Mile is a set of architectural approaches and designs that allow customers to connect highly secure data from protected control and operation systems (OT) to operational performance applications in the cloud environment (IT).

• Plantweb Insight Software: a comprehensive portfolio of applications with analytics for asset health monitoring. Plantweb Insight applications can run independently of existing business systems and distributed control systems (DCS) and provide a simple yet powerful entry point to Industrial IoT. These applications are perfect for proving an industrial IoT strategy and gaining quantifiable business impact. Virtual machine-based deployment makes Plantweb Insight a low IT requirement application.

• Plantweb Advisor Software: a suite of analytical applications for performance modelling and facility-wide energy optimisation. Plantweb Advisor applications can be run on premise, in a private company cloud network or through a third-party cloud services arrangement. The widely adopted OSIsoft PI System’s scalable open data infrastructure is used as a platform for these applications.

• AMS Ares Platform: an easy to deploy software asset management platform that aggregates the health of assets from multiple business systems, and pushes this data to relevant plant personnel, depending on their roles and responsibility, either on desktop or mobile device.

• Always Mobile: enabling the mobile professional access to role-based tools, analytics and dashboards anywhere, anytime, Emerson extends the reach of Plantweb by adding mobility to the AMS and DeltaV process automation platforms. Experts can now have secure, mobile access to the information needed to perform their jobs, regardless of where they are. The DeltaV Mobile application allows users to monitor their process and receive notifications on user-selected process alarms.

• Connected Services: an industrial IoT-enabled cloud services offering for real-time monitoring of important assets’ health, energy consumption and other operational applications. Emerson experts constantly monitor and report on asset and operational performance, prioritised repair and asset trending. The service is highly scalable, leverages existing technology investments and utilises advanced security capabilities of Emerson and Microsoft.

• Microsoft Azure and IoT Cloud: Emerson has standardised on the cloud-based Microsoft Azure IoT Suite to enable Connected Services, expanding the Plantweb digital ecosystem to provide a secure, flexible platform for private cloud networks and third-party cloud service relationships.

Emerson’s recently announced Operational Certainty programme provides a clear business case for industrial IoT investment, with an emphasis on targeting specific business challenges and achieving measurable success with limited effort or investments. As business impact is achieved, customers can then scale their adoption based on project return on investment.

For more information contact Michael Eksteen, Emerson Automation Solutions, +27 (0)11 451 3700, [email protected], www.emersonprocess.com/mea



Credit(s)



Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page

Further reading:

Why the human firewall is important in the age of phishing and AI
IT in Manufacturing
Cybersecurity has long been a game of cat and mouse, with attackers innovating just as quickly as defenders can adapt. The most vulnerable point in any organisation’s cyber defence is still the human being behind the screen.

Read more...
Overcoming reactive maintenance
Rockwell Automation IT in Manufacturing
Dunlop Aircraft Tyres is leveraging technology from Rockwell Automation to optimise maintenance operations, affirming the significant role of digital tools in industrial maintenance management.

Read more...
How AI, digital twins, and predictive analytics are reshaping mining’s future
Schneider Electric South Africa IT in Manufacturing
For mining companies across sub-Saharan Africa, the competitive gap is becoming harder to close through conventional methods alone. One of the clearest areas of value is predictive and prescriptive maintenance. AI and advanced analytics now allow mines to move from reactive to predictive operations.

Read more...
Install and commissioning time cut by 50% thanks to digital twin insights
Rockwell Automation IT in Manufacturing
ECM Technologies, a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative and modular low-pressure carburising industrial furnaces, has developed a solution that removes many of the installation and commissioning challenges relating to the development, testing and deployment of large-scale heat treatment plants.

Read more...
Real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance in African data centres
ACTOM Electrical Machines IT in Manufacturing
Running a data centre in Africa brings many challenges. Traditional maintenance strategies struggle to keep up with these realities. Predictive maintenance offers a different approach.

Read more...
Siemens ecosystem strengthens data and AI integration
Siemens South Africa IT in Manufacturing
Siemens has announced significant expansions to its Industrial Edge ecosystem, accelerating data and AI integration and releasing enhanced cybersecurity functionalities. These enable a seamless integration of IT and OT environments, optimise processes and reduce operational disruptions.

Read more...
Siemens manages shipbuilding process for HD Hyundai
Siemens South Africa IT in Manufacturing
Siemens has been selected by HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering as a preferred partner to establish an integrated platform to manage the entire shipbuilding process as a single data flow to help ensure consistency across all its global shipyard facilities.

Read more...
Transforming the process industry through digitalisation
Endress+Hauser South Africa IT in Manufacturing
By connecting field devices, systems and people, digitalisation creates new opportunities to optimise operations, enhance maintenance strategies and support continuous improvement. As a leading instrumentation provider and major source of process data, Endress+Hauser plays a key role in enabling this transformation.

Read more...
The OT operator’s guide to security and uptime on the plant
RJ Connect IT in Manufacturing
The article addresses three common questions about industrial network deployment and maintenance, exploring ways to achieve better control and visibility with more efficiency.

Read more...
The assets you can’t see are the ones that can shut you down
IT in Manufacturing
ABEGuardOT is an asset management solution that delivers continuous, non-intrusive visibility across multi-vendor environments, including Siemens, Rockwell, ABB, Honeywell, Schneider Electric, Emerson, GE and Yokogawa, with support for OPC UA, EtherNet/IP, Modbus and Profibus.

Read more...









While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.




© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd | All Rights Reserved