Sustain.Ability was the theme which resonated throughout Honeywell’s 2012 EMEA User Group Conference, held last year in Istanbul. Honeywell Process Solutions president, Darius Adamczyk, explained it as a value system designed to balance the ever increasing demand for growth against the limited resources companies have at their disposal. “We have to start doing a lot more with a lot less.”
Adamczyk stressed that sustainable solutions are the only way for an organisation to prosper in a landscape where change is getting faster all the time. “Customers should view Honeywell as a resource,” he said. “Essentially we are a service based company with technology and collaboration as our enablers. Our vision requires we balance modern supply chain demands against the physical constraints of our environment.” He believes the answer is a technology approach that is underpinned by a lifecycle support strategy and supported by a new age of collaboratively empowered knowledge workers.
“Innovation with an emphasis on continuous evolution,” is the way Honeywell’s chief technology officer, Jason Urso, explained the approach. This is what Honeywell is all about became obvious as the introduction to Experion PKS Orion, the company’s next generation safety and control system, unfolded against the backdrop of a futuristic Star-Trek themed video production. The three enabling technology pillars are Universal I/O to improve project execution and reduce the risks associated with late changes, virtualisation to reduce lifecycle costs through an open systems approach, and collaboration tools to help experts work more effectively no matter where they are based.
Virtualisation was present in more than one form at the event, the impressive 3D operator training simulator was another example. However, in the Experion context, virtualisation is the way Honeywell takes the PCs out of the control room and consolidates them into a set of servers stored in a locked cabinet. “This is transforming the way we approach projects,” Urso said. “A large Greenfield project may take up to two years to implement, which means that on start-up day most of the microprocessor based hardware is already out of date – hardly an auspicious beginning to a sustainable solution.
“Virtualisation allows us to build graphics and control strategies in a Honeywell controlled project centre and check everything prior to deployment. Then, when we are ready, we can do the installation on the latest generation of hardware platforms. Like our Universal I/O implementation, it reduces the risk of upsets associated with last minute changes.”
Director of solutions consultants in the EMEA region, Jean-Marie Alliet, delved deeper into the practicalities of virtualisation as he launched the new Experion PKS Orion blade-server chassis. The single box with six blade-insert server cards can replace as many as 20 traditionally configured PCs and includes redundant power and communications functionality.
Alliet also introduced delegates to Orion’s suite of new alarm management functionality. ‘Alarm Help’ is a platform to help the operator cope appropriately in response to an alarm condition. Selecting the context and guidance menu options allows junior operators to respond way beyond their level of experience. Dynamic alarm suppression is designed to filter alarm bursts by suppressing everything except the key causal alarms. Secondary alarms are logged while the operators focus on resolving those with the highest priority.
All very exciting I thought as I listened to the keynotes, but for legacy users how does this tie together the ideas of a sustainable systems approach? Alliet and Urso had saved the best for last: enter the latest version of Honeywell’s High Performance Manager (HPM) controller. Known as the Enhanced HPM, this new controller provides a seamless path for legacy DCS users to migrate to the latest Experion platform. “The EHPM demonstrates Honeywell’s commitment to continuous evolution,” Urso said. “This product allows users to take what was once a legacy system and gradually in a step-by-step fashion move it forward such that it becomes part of a new, modern system while at the same time protecting all of the original intellectual property.”
Now that is sustainable lifecycle support. Virtualisation, Universal I/O and collaboration are the technology levers Honeywell is using to embrace the speed of change and reach for the stars through the advanced functionality that has been added in Orion. EHPM is the vehicle that is enabling it to do this while staying true to its over-arching vision of ‘never leave a customer behind’.
Steven Meyer
Editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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