Emerson Exchange

OK, I confess. I'm one of those last-minute types of people. Please don't follow my example. You have until March 15, 2010 to submit your abstract to present at the September 27 - October 1, 2010 Emerson Exchange meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

Here's some of the information that came to me today in a gentle-reminder email:

With less than two weeks left until the March 15th deadline for abstracts, we've received a substantial number of abstracts and this year's conference will be a great opportunity to "Build on Your Knowledge". We're expecting another valuable and highly educational conference, as many industry leaders, educators, and experts are planning to share "what's worked for them" and to learn "what's working for others".

Sounds like work to pull something together and present, so your natural question might be, "what's in it for me?" The Emerson Exchange board responds:

And, not only will your peers benefit from your experiences, but so will you: One conference admission will be waived for each accepted Workshop, and Two for each Short Course.

It's a chance to not only share your wisdom but also learn from a lot of other folks. Here are the types of tracks available for presentations:

...over 275 Workshops and Short Courses on topics such as:

• Business Operations, Integration & Intelligence
• Wireless Applications
• DeltaV and Ovation System Applications
• Management - Life Cycle, Automation Justification, People, Assets
• Emerson Product / Service Updates
• Process Optimization
• Asset Optimization / Maintenance & Reliability
• Control Systems Modernization
• Project Management & Engineering Tools
• Safety Instrumented Systems
• Valve Applications
• Instrumentation Applications

With San Antonio so close to Emerson's Process Systems and Solutions business based here in Austin, I'd expect to see a number of DeltaV technologists, project and industry consultants there for you to ask questions and give direct feedback.

Submitting an abstract and giving a presentation is a great way to come to Emerson Exchange when budgets are tight. I hope you'll consider presenting and not following my lead--waiting for the last minute!

MP3 | iTunes

Last year I summarized an Emerson Exchange presentation by James Beall, Advanced PID Functions for Improved Control Performance. At this year's Emerson Exchange, he did a reprise version, Interesting and Useful Features of the DeltaV PID Controller. I'll highlight some additional nuggets of wisdom that he imparted.

When it comes to limits being placed on setpoints and for a loop that is in automatic mode, it's usually best to let the operators have total control on the setpoint and not apply setpoint limits to the PID control when it is in the cascade mode. He did add that when it comes to cascaded loops like a level control master PID loop and a flow slave loop, it's a good idea to set limits on the output of the master loop rather than the sepoint of the slave loop, and that there is a lot of flexibility in the DeltaV PID control algorithm to do this.

With cascade control, James noted that mode tracking and bumpless transfer is provided and that limited conditions in the slave loop are taken care of through the BKCAL feature. DeltaV Books Online describes the input and output:

BKCAL_IN is the analog input value and status from a downstream block's BKCAL_OUT output that is used by a block for bumpless transfer. This connection is necessary if the PID is a master to another controller in a cascade. Without the connection, the slave controller will not make the transition to CAS and the master PID will never be active.

BKCAL_OUT is the value and status sent to an upstream block to prevent reset windup and provide bumpless transfer to closed loop control.

In conditions where the slave loop is limited, you can enable PID external reset. You would most often use it in the primary loop of a cascade and have it compensate for unexpected slow secondary-loop response. This is done by selecting the FRSIPIDOPTS "Dynamic Reset Limiting" on the master loop and the CONTROL_OPTS "Use PV for BKCAL_OUT" on the slave loop.

I summarized James' discussion of gain scheduling, which provides up to three regions of different PID tuning with a smooth transition between regions. This year, he described a parameter FRSIPID_OPTS that modifies the proportional gain as a function of the error (process variable, PV minus setpoint, SP). You can use this non-linear gain function to make the tuning more aggressive as the separation between PV and SP increases. It also can be used to create the "error squared" PID function.

James cautioned that using this non-linear gain function on an integrating process, like levels, can cause oscillations at the reduced gain. For these applications, the reset time should be based on the product of gain and the minimum gain modifier (NL_MINMOD), which will result in a larger reset time to prevent oscillations. He suggests using the gain scheduler to provide non-linear tuning on integrating processes.

There's more wisdom shared on valve output characterization, anti-reset windup limits, adaptive control, and loop simulations, which I'll leave with you should you choose look at the embedded presentation.

MP3 | iTunes

One of the issues with the proven OPC standard has been the communications between OPC client and OPC server when a firewall separates them. The cyber-security challenges that process manufacturers face were not envisioned in the original release of the OPC specification in the mid-1990s. The network transport is based on Microsoft's distributed component object model (DCOM), and the challenges of using DCOM with firewalls are well documented.

An initiative was formed among process automation suppliers to solve the security challenges of the DCOM model by using the secure network communications services in Microsoft's .NET framework. Current members of this initiative include Advosol, Emerson Process Management, Honeywell, Iconics, InduSoft, Matrikon, Mobiform, Mynah Technologies, OSIsoft, Smar and TiPS.

The result of their efforts is the Express Interface (Xi) and is described on a newly created Express Interface website:

Express Interface (Xi) is a new Microsoft .NET interface designed for secure and reliable access to automation systems. Xi provides an integrated set of methods for accessing both run-time and historical data, events, and alarms. It has been designed for fast and secure communication through firewalls and for simple implementation and use. Xi defines a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that is based on MMS (Manufacturing Messaging Service) and WCF (Windows Communication Foundation).

The site is primarily for client and server developers and includes a specification overview, specification and sample code downloads, internet-accessible Xi demo servers, and the Xi public license. There are also products and tools available to help accelerate software development.

At the recent Emerson Exchange, DeltaV product strategist, Chris Felts, described how the Express Interface communications technology was being incorporated into the upcoming release of the DeltaV system. Like OPC, Xi is a client-server architecture for data exchange between the ISA95 level 2 (control system level) and level 3 (manufacturing execution / operations management level). It also supports the same functionality as OPC Data Access (DA), OPC Historical Data Access (HDA), and OPC Alarms and Events (AE).

Unlike OPC, Xi incorporates the secure aspects of the .NET framework using both firewall-friendly HTTP/HTTPS services and secure web services via Microsoft's Windows Communication Foundation. This communications framework also incorporates levels of robustness not found in the earlier DCOM communications. For example, if communications are lost between the client side and server side, the Xi interface will retain the current state of the connection and allow the client to re-establish communications without losing its original configuration.

At the Emerson Exchange, there were 10 Xi servers and 15 Xi clients in the demonstration area including Emerson's DeltaV system, Ovation system, and Syncade operations management software, as well as ones from Advosol, Iconics, Indusoft, Matrikon, Mobiform, Mynah, OSIsoft, SMAR, and TiPS. Specifically for the DeltaV system, the version 10.3.1 release adds Xi Data Access, Xi Alarms & Events, and Xi Historical Data Access via one Xi interface. The existing DeltaV OPC DA, HDA, and AE servers will remain to support existing OPC applications. Xi and OPC can reside together in the same system.

Chris suggested some uses for the Xi interface including secure communications through firewalls, communications to non-Windows clients, real-time and historical supervisory control and data acquisition, high throughput (100Mb typical bandwidth) and high tag count applications.

MP3 | iTunes

Update: Updated the links above to the ExpressInterface.com site for the change from HTML to ASPX pages.

At last week's Emerson Exchange, John Rezabek of ISP presented Wireless or Fieldbus? You might recall John from his columns in Control magazine and on the ControlGlobal.com site. He presented a cost comparison for a plant expansion considering Foundation fieldbus instruments versus WirelessHART-based ones.

John values the digital integration of field devices, which both technologies provide. I asked if he minded if I blogged his presentation and he was OK with it, as long as I wasn't disruptive (only kidding on the disruptive part!)

John did an analysis on a project to purify a co-product using two distillation columns and adding intermediate and project storage as needed. The process required the measurement and control of flows, pressures, levels, and temperatures around the column. The project included 16 control valves, 14 control loops, and 16 indicate-only measurements.

Conduits, wires, and stainless steel junction boxes are expensive and complex. Wireless has the great promise to save design and installation costs associated with wired systems. Wireless does not replace all wires because of the power consumption requirements on some of the devices like control valves' digital valve controllers. Also, some of the indicate-only devices, such as RTD temperature sensors, required wires and associated cable raceways. This lowers the incremental savings since the tray and junction boxes would still need to be present. John's analysis also considered conduit and basket tray for the wires in both the wireless and Foundation fieldbus cases.

The project would already run a network of RGS conduit and twisted pair fieldbus cable for the control valves. The analysis compared the incremental costs for the wireless instrumentation-related services against Foundation fieldbus device-related services. Also, a home run wiring infrastructure for both cases was considered pre-existing. Other assumptions used for the analysis were list prices for the instruments and local, union, man-hour labor rates.

John calculated the Foundation fieldbus wired case to be just over $25,000 (USD) and the wireless case to be just over $27,000. The main difference is the difference in list prices of the devices and differences in the conduit and terminations required. In his summary, John noted that the actual price of the devices based on the buying agreement might have an impact on the analyses others might conduct.

From an engineering standpoint, John attributes more spec sheets, more devices, device cost, fewer drawing, lower change impact, less power conditioners, and similar configuration to the wireless case versus the Foundation fieldbus case.

From a design effort standpoint, no junction box drawings, fewer terminations, no termination hardware, no field power because of the batteries, less conduit, and less total copper used for the wireless case.

Points John made favoring a wired approach included: uncertainty about column temperature control, uncertainty about update frequency adequacy, spares diversity, signal integrity, and wireless protocol diversity with ISA100. His points favoring the wireless approach included easier infrastructure for future/unforeseen measurements and with things being more-or-less equal--creating a foothold for future opportunities.

He closed noting that 2-wire multi-drop bussed I/O squeezed the wireless installation advantage and the use of basket tray versus conduit tightens this advantage even more. As long as a wired backbone is needed for control services, wired strategies for indicate-only devices are cost comparable. The case for wireless was not a slam-dunk for this project, but (not unlike fieldbus) we all have to do the math for our individual circumstances.

As I noted in an earlier post with wireless devices used in control applications, technology advancements in control, communications, and power over time might alter the necessity of the wired backbone.

MP3 | iTunes

I spent the weekend catching my breath after an exciting Emerson Exchange conference last week. I thought I'd give you a roundup on all the news I could find.

First, the real-time Twitter feed on the tag, #EMRex we established seems to be a great success. Here's an archive in three parts of the tweets during the event (part 1, part 2, and part 3). The Read-out Instrumentation Signpost blog has a great recap and captured these Twitter stats (originally developed by Emerson's Aaron Crews):

#EMRex tweeters
99 active participants
950 tweets

#EMRex top tweeters:
@EmersonExchange (142)
@RuneReppenhagen (50)
@JimCahill (44)
@MikeBoudreaux (38)
@nancybartels (36)
@timalosi (28)

The long tail (bottom 80%) of twitter users accounted for more than 30% of the total volume.

If you have a Twitter account and want to follow the folks that made these numbers a reality, visit the Emerson Exchange group in TweepML.

The ControlGlobal.com Emerson Global Users Exchange micro site provided a roundup of the big news and sent out daily email newsletters:

• September 28 (print, email)
• September 29 (print, email)
• September 30 (print, email)
• October 1 (print, email)
• October 2 (print)

The following press releases and pictures were issued during the Emerson Exchange:

• Emerson introduces the DeltaV™ S-series platform with "I/O on Demand" that eliminates work, reduces project cost, and increases operational flexibility
• Emerson forms Human Centered Design Institute to drive Ease of Use into new product development
• Emerson announces winners and recognizes all finalists of 2009 Smart Wireless Innovators Contest
• Emerson unveils full redundancy for Smart Wireless monitoring and control applications, furthers wireless adoption on all capital projects
• Emerson and Meridium combine their asset management expertise to create valuable new capabilities

Here's more great coverage by members of the trade press and blogging community:

• ControlDoctors.com blog
• Process Control Musings blog
• Flow Control Network- Emerson Vows to Make Automation Easier
• Gary Mintchell's Feed Forward
• Chem.Info
• Greg Hale's Talk to Me blog- New DeltaV, new processes at Emerson, Emerson's new DeltaV, Emerson product development: It's all about ease of use

Now you know why it took me a few days to catch my breath!

Update: Gary Mintchell, on his Feed Forward blog, just posted his podcast interview on the DeltaV S-series release (MP3) with DeltaV product marketing director, Dave Deitz.

Update 2: For those with subscriptions to Andrew Bond's Industrial Automation Insider newsletter, he has a great summary in the October 2009 edition.

This week at the Emerson Exchange, Deb Franke and I are presenting, Gamechangers: How to Thrive in Chaos.

Please visit the Exchange Resources area to see the presentation and the associated script. I'll be adding sound to the presentation later today. I'll update the post with the finished presentation.

Update: Here's the presentation with embedded audio:

Please let Deb and I know your thoughts and add a comment below.

Emerson's Joel Lemke presented You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure: Getting a Handle on Plant Energy Usage at the 2009 Emerson Exchange. The presentation's abstract is:

User cases will be presented demonstrating how new flow metering installations enabled users to reduce their overall cost of steam, compressed air and other utilities. Until meters are in place, it is impossible to prioritize improvement projects or quantify benefits of existing improvement projects. A metering system should be easy to install and inexpensive to operate to ensure net benefits.

Energy costs remain a large part of operating a plant for many process manufacturers. Joel notes that knowledge is required of the utility fluids of where the energy is flowing and how much is consumed. It needs to be granular to know who is using what at a sub-unit level. Good measurement is required to get the information to make the decisions required to optimize energy usage.

Joel showed a steam system showing three boilers feeding a steam header connected to multiple units throughout the process. This pulp and paper mill began to apply a concerted, energy reduction program when oil exceeded $100 (USD) per barrel. The goal was to compare their usage to industry benchmarks in steam, compressed air, process water, and electricity.

The quality of the installation of differential pressure (DP) flow measurement is key to the accuracy and ongoing reliability of this flow measurement. He shared some best practices. The first is ways to eliminate impulse lines. Consider direct mount installations, which eliminates inaccuracies, provides consistent installations, reduces complexity, reduces leak points, and ends leak testing. Leaks are wastes in energy, put personnel at risks, and increase maintenance costs to troubleshoot and repair.

A new best practice, Joel mentions is to mount the DP meter above the pipe as long as the steam is below 400 degF. There is no imbalance between the upstream and downstream side of the pressure measurements across the orifice.

Another energy saving area is to minimize pressure lost from leaks. By auditing the compressed air systems to eliminate leaks, you can reduce compressor horsepower requirements from the source pressure to the pressure at the destination. Annualize over a year, this can result in large energy savings.

Joel discussed self-organizing wireless networks. The cost per point using wireless was much lower because of the lower installation costs. The mill has added temperature measurement in addition to the DP flow measurement. The WirelessHART measurements enabled much more complete monitoring of plant utilities for the given budget.

At Emerson Exchange 2009, Lubrizol's Bob Wojewodka and Emerson's Terry Blevins presented, Benefits Achieved Using On-Line Data Analytics. Lubrizol and Emerson have worked together to develop on-line batch analytics as a beta test. The objective was to demonstrate on-line prediction of quality and economic parameters and evaluate different means of on-line fault detection and identification.

The intent was to document the benefits of this approach and learn from the test with data and usability feedback for product development of these batch analytics capabilities. Some of the challenges of applying online data analytics in a batch process are process holdups, access to lab data, variations in feedstock, varying operating conditions, concurrent batches, and assembly and organization of the data.

The foundation for this project was to form a multi-discipline, collaborative team that includes plant operations. They developed a workflow process to capture team input using an "input-process-output" data matrix to capture and explain the information required for the data analysis. It was important to integrate lab and truck shipment data by creating a workflow process with the plant's SAP enterprise planning system.

Calculated property estimation was performed on feed tank quality and other non-directly measured properties. The instrumentation was surveyed and loop tuning performed to improve process control. And, a formal training program was established so that everyone was knowledgeable about the new work processes.

For the data analytics, it was important to identify among a wide number of inputs and process variables how these variables relate and which ones have the greatest impact on product quality. These analytics could also predict the end of batch quality while the batch was running. The team had good correlation between the predicted end of batch, what the lab samples indicated, and what the end of batch time actually turned out to be.

The analytics were developed for two batch processes, where the output of the first fed the second process, as well as provided finished output.

Over the three-month period, a process fault was detected using the on-line analytics. A problem was identified a problem with the mass flow meter. This occurred during the initial training, so the operations team quickly embraced these analytics. The on-line analytics also discovered a problem with a hot oil heating system. They discovered the process with the first batch and estimated it would have taken weeks to find with traditional methods. This alone paid for the efforts by the collaborative team's time in this effort. The benefits have been seen from the operators through senior management.

Emerson's Wim van Loon and Rafael Lachmann presented Modular Safety Concept (MSC) for Marine & Offshore projects and the Value Proposition at Emerson Exchange. Their abstract:

The current demands from the Marine and Offshore industry require low CAPEX, high amount of flexibility and increasingly faster execution of projects. Emerson offers the Modular Safety Concept as part of a Distributed ICSS allowing customers to meet these requirements and stay Class-compliant. What are the objectives, design constraints and solutions and what are the value adds to the project?

Wim kicked off the presentation describing a conversion Floating Production Storage/Offloading Systems (FPSO) project. In very simple terms, it's converting existing tank vessels into FPSOs. This means building the production and storage facilities with the necessary process automation and safety instrumented system.

One of the issues with FPSO conversions is the capital expenditure risk in cost and schedule overruns. This can drive the return on investment below the set thresholds. Wim described areas where risks can be reduced throughout the project lifecycle. Fit for purpose design concepts contribute to a fast-track character. During the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase, if you split a larger project into parallel modules, you divide the risks where a schedule slippage in one module does not impact all the modules.

Wim described global project engineering standards with a library of standard DeltaV configurations and work processes. These standards are applied globally across all world areas to help provide resources for the process module development, no matter where the construction takes place. Complete wiring, loop test and functional check out of the modules can be done in parallel to minimize project risk.

Rafael described the modular safety concept (MSC). Here's a complete application note on the modular safety concept. Distributed control has been available since the advent of the distributed control system. Distributed safety is required. The safety system applies to emergency shutdown (ESD), process shutdown (PSD), and fire and gas (F&G). Redundancy in all logic solver and power means redundant processor and redundant I/O and two sets of feeders that are individually UPS-backed up. The feeders are each capable of powering the entire ESD or F&G module node.

With the modular approach to both the automation and safety instrumented systems, the modules can be built and tested in parallel and hooked up once they are integrated with the vessel.

The distributed approach provides significant CAPEX and schedule risk reductions over traditional, centralized process control, emergency shutdown, and fire and gas systems.

Update: I've added a link above to a detailed application note on the modular safety concept.

The folks at TidyTweet.com were kind enough to point their service to me in a tweet last night. They are providing a filtered version of the Twitter messages being projected on the big screens all around the Emerson Exchang. Here's a web browser version to get a feeling.

And here's an embedded widget to see it on this page:

Twitter Updates

Back to the conference!

For those already in Orlando for the 2009 Emerson Exchange going on this week, welcome! For those on the way, safe travels!

For those not able to attend this year, make sure to follow the action at the Emerson Global Users Exchange event site throughout the week.

The site highlights news from the site and has a real-time Twitter feed of those tagging their tweets with the hashtag, #EMRex.

It's going to be a very busy week, but I'll try to blog the sessions I get to attend.

Have a great week!

The preparations and plans are coming together for Emerson Exchange, which is in just two short weeks in Orlando, Florida (Sept 28 - Oct 2). I'm excited about some of the social media activities where you can participate, even if you're not there in person with us.

The communications hub will be in Twitter. We've added a real-time search on the main Emerson Exchange page. You can see what others are saying at the event by keeping an eye on that page from time to time.

If you want to join in and add your thoughts, consider signing up for a Twitter account. I had put together a "Getting Started" wiki page for those who wanted to follow the DeltaV brand. One additional bullet is to add @EmersonExchange to your follow list. We have and will be spreading the word to have folks use the hash tag #EMRex for any Emerson Exchange-related posts. This makes it easy to do a #EMRex search to see what's being said. There's already quite a bit of communications happening!

A good example is the recent ISA Marketing & Sales Summit. The organizers promoted the use of the Twitter hash tag, #ISAMS. You can see links to presentations, pictures, comments on presentations. I wasn't there in person, but able to get a flavor for the action. We hope the #EMRex tag can be just as valuable.

Another good example is the #PAutoUP hash tag used for the Process Automation Usability Project site.

Borrowing ideas from other big events like SXSW here in Austin, several presenters will also have their own hash tags for their sessions. It's a way to follow a presentation that you want to see if you're not there, or see the comments from other participants in the session with you in real-time. As I mentioned in an earlier post, #DebJim will be the hash tag for Deb Franke and my, Gamechangers: How to Thrive in Chaos presentation being held on Tuesday 9/29 at 10 am, in room Sun 3 and repeated Thursday 10/1 at11 am in room Miami 2.

Mike Boudreaux will be giving a DeltaV SIS Product Update presentation on Wednesday, 9/30 at 8 am in room Destin 2. He'll be using the hash tag, #EMRexSIS.

DeltaV brand manager, Rune Reppenhagen, will be presenting DeltaV InSight improves plant performance and loop monitoring capabilities at large process plant on Wednesday 9/40 at 1:15 pm in the Sanibel 3 room. He'll be using the hash tag, #Rune.

This is the list that's confirmed at the moment. I'll update this post when I hear about more.

Posted via email from Emerson's Jim Cahill's posterous

Most if not all the major automation suppliers have events for their customers to provide a face-to-face way to exchange ideas on applications, technology developments, and even more importantly, catching up with old friends. Emerson's version of this is the Emerson Exchange, and the 2009 conference is quickly approaching--September 28-October 2 in Orlando, Florida.

I mentioned in an earlier post how other industries are seeing Twitter become pervasive at their events, because it works well with your cell phone. You can post messages through text messaging, through a mobile web page, or through a number of mobile client applications.

Twitter addresses several issues you may encounter at large events. Issues such as how do I contact someone whose cell number I don't have? Or, how can I setup an impromptu meeting place for a group? Or, what do other folks in the audience think of this presentation I'm listening to?

These solutions all start with establishing a special tag for the event to denote that the content of the Twitter message or "tweet" is specific to the event. For the Emerson Exchange, it will be #EmrEx. From your mobile device, you set up a search, either by going to the Twitter search page from your mobile browser or setting up a #EmrEx RSS feed with something like mobile Google Reader.

So far so good? If so, here's how I'd solve the three challenges above.

If I'm already connected in Twitter with the person I'm looking for (where we follow one another), I can send them a private, direct message. If we're not, I can send out a tweet, such as:

#EmrEx Has anyone seen Mr. X?

I check my Twitter search or #EmrEx RSS feed and see if anyone sends a tweet out with Mr. X's whereabouts.

On the second case, let's say we want a group to meet at the lobby bar at 7pm. I'd tweet:

We're meeting in the lobby bar at 7pm, join us! #EmrEx

For the third case, some of the presenters will set up their own tags. Deb Franke and I have not yet aligned on what our How to Thrive in Chaos presentation tag will be (perhaps something like #ThriveC #DebJim ). We'll see if we can get an extra monitor to share any tweets that come in during the session. I'll be on the lookout for ones like:

Not sure I get how this #ThriveC #DebJim tag works. Wish @JimCahill would explain it better. #EmrEx

I've been in sessions in other conferences where they did this, and the presenters changed their presentations because it was missing the mark with the audience expectations. It also gives folks in the audience a chance to see how others are reacting to the presentation in real-time.

I know if you're not using Twitter, all this may seem like a lot. The baby step is to create an account and follow EmersonExchange, a number of other great process automation folks who use Twitter, and me.

Update: Deb and I landed on #DebJim as a tag we thought would be unique, have minimal characters to not crowd out the 140 character Twitter limit, and be easy to remember. I've struck the earlier thought and replaced it with the #DebJim tag.

I wanted to pass along an email I saw with some deals to help you get the OK to join us in Orlando for the Emerson Exchange.

Perhaps you think I'm harping on this subject of wanting you to come to the Exchange. The ulterior motive is of course to encourage you be part of a packed room for Deb Franke and my presentation, Gamechangers: How to Thrive in Chaos. Enough with the personal aside and back to the deal:

Registration is ramping up for the Emerson Exchange, and users have plenty of great reasons to attend the 2009 conference and exhibit. Among other things, attendees will learn how to navigate through and compete in these challenging economic times as well as what "best practices" can improve plant efficiency and reduce the costs of automation. Attendance also enables users to earn CEU credits from certified training professionals and to maximize the value of the equipment investments they've already made. Finally, the conference provides endless opportunities to network with peers in your industry, as well as to meet the experts behind the latest, most innovative technologies available. All this is yours for the price of admission.

Organizers have increased the number of user-driven Workshops available, and they're working hard to get more people signed-up during the Early Bird Registration period. If you have customers still un-committed to this event, tell them about a special promotion available this year.

By attending the Emerson Exchange, users may take advantage of a discount program. Customers at the conference will receive a voucher for one of several Emerson Process Management offerings:

• 10% off (up to $200 USD) of any standard, published North America Educational Services' course
• $500 off a "consult for a day" or Initial Opportunity Assessment consulting engagement. (The consulting offer is open to the first 10 redemptions on a first -come basis. Travel and living expenses are separate.)
• $750 off for a PlantWeb Experience software bundle.
• $995 off of any Smart Wireless order worth more than $15,000 US total. (Only one per customer site. Orders must include a Smart Wireless Gateway.)

Each voucher is valid for one person, one time, and is not transferable. Visit the website for additional terms, conditions, and details.

"Early Bird" discounted registration runs through August 17th. Advance registration discounts continue until September 14th. Take action now to reserve your place at the 2009 Emerson Exchange, which will be at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Florida from Sep 28th to Oct 2nd.

Enjoy your weekend and see you in Orlando!

I just wanted to drop a quick note that I'll be out on vacation next week, but that two great Emerson folks, Aaron Crews and Mike Boudreaux, have graciously agreed to do guest posts. For those of you that use or have tried Twitter, you definitely want to include Aaron and Mike on your follow lists. You can count on some of their tweets to point to interesting things in our world of process automation and in the larger world outside it.

Mike also manages the Safety Instrumented Systems and Process Safety rooms in FriendFeed. These rooms are great "one-stop shops" for the flow of news and on-line conversations in these important subjects.

One other important note--for those thinking about attending the 2009 Emerson Exchange technical conference, which will take place September 28 through October 2, 2009 in Orlando, Florida--you now have one month left to get the conference early bird rate.

With many process manufacturers having instituted travel restrictions, this means you have one month to win over the required hearts and minds and get the best conference rate. In an earlier post, I offered some reasons to help buttress your case. Hopefully, a few of them may work!

My connections to grid may be spotty at best next week, but I leave the blog in great hands and may have a tweet or occasional picture to share.

In these challenging economic times, it can be difficult to justify attendance at conferences, which can enhance your skills and abilities to resolve issues with your manufacturing process.

The Emerson Exchange board recently put a list of reasons why you should attend events like the Emerson Exchange conference, set for September 28 through October 2 in Orlando, Florida.

I mentioned in an earlier post, how capital constraints often shift the focus of automation professionals from expansions and new processes, to optimization of the processes that currently exist. Conferences like the Emerson Exchange provide a gathering area to share practices about what works and what doesn't. One single pearl of wisdom gained can more that pay for the expenses and time away.

Here are seven reasons the board developed to help with your justification efforts:

1. To learn best practices and see how colleagues are improving efficiency and reducing costs with automation
2. To understand what your peers, other suppliers, and customers in your industry are doing to navigate through and compete in challenging economic times
3. To touch and experience the breadth of innovative Emerson technologies all in one place
4. To meet with the Emerson experts behind the technologies and learn how innovative technologies can be put to work for you
5. To network with your peers and other industry leaders and make the right connections
6. To receive complimentary certified training and earn CEU credits
7. To get the most out of your automation investments and realize its true value

Here's what I'd add. The focus of this blog over the past 3+ years has been to connect you with the experts around Emerson Process Management. By taking a look at all the categories on the right side of each blog page, you can see a lot of posts showing application and industry expertise, product expertise, automation lifecycle expertise, industry standards expertise, and more.

Most of the people featured will be at the Exchange. If you found something interesting in one or more of the posts, this event provides a chance for you to ask about your specific challenges and situation. It's that one nugget of wisdom that might lead to the efficiency gain, energy reduction, quality improvement, etc. that you've been battling.

For example, I recently did a post about Emerson's James Beall and his work to help a refiner with their crude unit instability. He'll be presenting two workshops on some of the useful subtleties in PID control and control performance monitoring, loop tuning, and adaptive control.

Here's the preliminary list of presenters and their presentations to see if the person with whom you'd like to connect will be there. Or, send me an email, and I'll try to find out for you.

See you in Orlando!

MP3 | iTunes

Update: Sorry for the broken hyperlink to the preliminary list of presenters. I've fixed it.

In an earlier post, I discussed thought leadership as a reason you might consider using the people-to-people connecting social media applications like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc. This topic is one of the items Deb Franke and I will be sharing in our Thriving in Chaos presentation at the Emerson Exchange.

Another topic will be ways to more effectively find the information you need to solve the issues in front of you. As we all know, there is absolutely no shortage of information. Our email inboxes overflow. The World Wide Web contains at least 25.45 billion pages of information as of June 23, 2009. If your desk looks anything like mine, well, it's not a pretty picture.

So how do you deal with this ever-growing flood of information to find what you need to solve the issues at hand? Of course, we all know about Google and the other search engines and have become well trained on the proper selection and amount of keywords and phrases to use. Sometimes this works great, sometimes not.

One big issue is that there's a lot of wisdom trapped in email inboxes and sent items folders. Desktop indexing and search software like Windows Search, Google Desktop, and many others can help to some extent. But what about the information others have that doesn't reach your email inbox?

Different approaches from content management systems to blogs, wikis, and forum software have been and are being tried with varying degrees of success. The key element to success seems to be the number of people willing to participate and the community that naturally forms from this participation. Metcalf's Law states, "the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n2)." He also offers:

...a more insightful and, I think, important contribution to the conversation -- that to understand the value of a social network we need to consider not just the number of users but also the affinity between the members of the network.

My take away? Your fastest path to the information you need to solve the issue at hand, if a Google search does not get a quick answer, is to try your social network--if you've built this network to sufficient size to realize the exponential effects described by Metcalf's Law.

Why is that? Beyond the social bonds you establish, with each connection you make, you are adding another human brain:

...containing about 10 billion nerve cells, or neurons. On average, each neuron is connected to other neurons through about 10 000 synapses. (The actual figures vary greatly, depending on the local neuroanatomy.) The brain's network of neurons forms a massively parallel information processing system. This contrasts with conventional computers, in which a single processor executes a single series of instructions.

If you use LinkedIn, use the Answers area to ask questions. You might also try answering some and building expertise credibility if your answer is selected as the best answer or a good answer. LinkedIn also has groups such as Automation Engineers Technical Group and Automation Engineers. Several automation suppliers have LinkedIn groups, such as Emerson's DeltaV group.

If you use Twitter, try posing your questions to those who choose to follow you. You'll grow your list of followers as you share interesting things about yourself and/or your expertise. Or if Twitter is not for you, try using some of the well-established email lists from ISA and Control.com.

As good as it is having more than 25 billion things at your fingertips, having trillions of massively parallel neural connections working with you is something you want to foster, strengthen, and grow.

MP3 | iTunes

Attention 2009 Emerson Exchange (Sept 28-Oct 2) presenters--your presentations are due for review in a mere two weeks (June 26). This fact jolted me more than my typical few cups of coffee this morning.

I huddled with Emerson's Deb Franke to flesh out our Thriving in Chaos presentation. Given the trying economic times in which most businesses find themselves, it seems this chaos is not abating.

The presentations we've given in the past (2007, 2008) have focused more on the social media (a.k.a. Web 2.0) applications and the benefits of their use. This year we want to lift the focus to the results of what you may be trying to accomplish in your work and career, and how these applications can amplify your efforts.

One example is to better establish thought leadership around your expertise. ModelingAndControl.com's Greg McMillan wrote about this in his What Have I Learned? - Writing post. He shared:

I would guess 100 or more automation professionals are retiring each year who have published at best an infinitesimally small portion of their expertise for posterity.

It does not require a blog to build thought leadership around your area of expertise. It can be through email lists like ISA's Technical and Industry Discussion Lists, supplier product sites like our DeltaV LinkedIn and Facebook groups, comments on industry and automation blogs, or aggregated sites you might create such as the Process Safety Room in FriendFeed. In turn, this can lead to articles, mentions in books, podcasts, business press, and others who turn to you for your expertise.

Two short weeks and much thought baking to do--I'd better get going. If you're also presenting, best of luck in pulling yours together too!

MP3 | iTunes

I received an email notice from the Emerson Global Users Exchange (a.k.a. Emerson Exchange) board, letting me know that on-line registration is now open. You have until August 17^th of this year to save 25% on your registration fee.

The Emerson Exchange will be September 28^th through October 2^nd at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. This year's conference theme Engaging Minds. Amazing Results. is described in the email:

In these challenging economic times, as our companies press for increased productivity, energy efficiency, and lower production costs, automation professionals can truly shine by Engaging their Minds to achieve Amazing Results! There's no better place to discover a new idea, discuss solutions with subject matter experts, and prepare for the upcoming technological advances in process control.

The conference will include over 300 sessions offering best practices, implementation successes, tips and tricks, and proven project methodologies. Tracks include Business Operations & System Integration, Asset Optimization / Maintenance & Reliability, System Applications, Project Management & Engineering Tools, Control System Modernization, Instrumentation Applications, Process Optimization, Valves Applications, Emerson Product/Services Updates, Safety Systems & Instrumentation, Education Services Training Courses, and Wireless.

Within these tracks, here's a preliminary agenda of the presentations, short courses, and workshops. More details of the individual sessions will be added over the coming months.

As I mentioned in a prior post, Deb Franke and I are again teaming up for a presentation, Gamechangers: How to Thrive in Chaos. This is a fitting topic for these interesting economic times in which we all find ourselves. If you have some thoughts on how you're dealing with this chaos, add a comment or shoot me an email.

Our presentation continues on our series of Emerson Exchange presentations on the benefits of applying social media applications to what you do.

I really look forward to seeing you in Orlando for great conversation and fun.

MP3 | iTunes

I heard some good news recently that Deb Franke and my Emerson Exchange presentation, Gamechangers: How to Thrive in Chaos, was accepted by the board for the 2009 Technical Conference. The Exchange will be held September 28 through October 2 in Orlando, Florida.

We build on some of the thoughts in our recent Control Engineering Asia article, The World of Web 2.0. Here's the abstract of our presentation:

In uncertain times, playing it safe and hunkering down might seem smart, but Jim Cahill and Deb Franke will explore alternative tactics and tools that produce amazing results. We'll tell stories from personal experiences about 7 gamechangers to enhance your credibility, build on your strengths, and expand your network. You'll see ways to take control, break boundaries, and thrive in changing times.

I thought I'd inventory some of ways we are using some of these social media applications around the Emerson Process Management organization. I was inspired to do this by a really good presentation I discovered today by Jon DiPietro, President of the ISA Boston section.

Here are some examples in social networking applications:

• Facebook - Process Control with Emerson's DeltaV System
• LinkedIn - DeltaV Digital Automation System
• LinkedIn - Syncade Suite

I'll put Twitter into a category by itself since it combines instant communications, mobile communications, interest sharing, and more:

• DeltaV (wiki-based description)
• Emerson Exchange
• Many, many Emerson individuals

YouTube and Flickr provide great ways to share videos and pictures:

• Flickr - DeltaV
• YouTube - DeltaV

Here are some content aggregators, spearheaded by Emerson's Mike Boudreaux:

• FriendFeed - Emerson Exchange Room
• FriendFeed - Process Safety
• FriendFeed - Safety Instrumented Systems

How could I not include blogs into the mix?

• DeltaV News
• Modeling and Control
• Global Life Sciences
• Emerson Korea blog (in Korean Language)

Some of the Emerson local business partners also have some great initiatives:

• ControlDoctors.com
• Process Control Musings

I know I missed quite a few things and hope Emerson folks who read this post will add some more sites in the comments section. Most of these have RSS feeds which means you can subscribe and have the information flow to you, instead of you having to seek and find it.

Deb and I have a lot of work to do to prepare our presentation, and hope if you'll be joining us in Orlando, that you'll join our session. We look forward to it!

Update:I wanted to share this podcast interview that Deb Franke and I did with Telesian Technology's Juliann Grant. It was great fun and I hope there are some nuggets for anyone considering social media in their organization.

It is Spring Break week here in Austin, Texas for the schools and universities in the area. Unlike most people who did a family vacation, I took a couple of vacation days to attend the local SXSW Interactive conference. From their website:

Attracting digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs, the event celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology. Whether you are a hard-core geek, a dedicated content creator, a new media entrepreneur, or just someone who likes being around an extremely creative community, SXSW Interactive is for you!

I'm not sure about hard-core geek, but I consider myself at least in the ranks. There is also a film event and music event so creative folks are everywhere. My goal was to listen for ideas that I could "borrow" and apply to this blog, in other social media initiatives, or as part of the big, Emerson Exchange event.

The rapidly growing service, Twitter, blossomed several years ago at SXSWi. People discovered that it is a great way to share what they're learning in the sessions they attend, to announce and look for impromptu meet-ups, and to ask questions of the panelists during the panel session. To get a flavor for some of these examples and more, look at the Twitter search on the tag #sxsw. This means that anyone who uses this text sequence #sxsw among their 140 characters of wisdom will have their thoughts easily found by others using the same tagging convention.

At last year's Emerson Exchange, we used the tag, #EmEx. There are just a few remaining messages, but we had quite a number, from several people, during the event. I'd like to encourage everyone who comes upon this post and is considering a trip to the Emerson Exchange, to sign up for a Twitter account to gain some familiarity with it.

One thing I really liked was the sessions that used separate tags. One example is the keynote discussion between Guy Kawasaki and Chris Anderson on the power of free. They assigned a tag, #free to this particular session. There are 30+ pages of audience member tweeted notes published during this session, and during the following session, Rebuilding the World with Free Everything. The second session even put the Twitter Search screen running the #free search on the two big screens. The panel addressed some of the questions that came in.

Imagine being in an Emerson Exchange session where you can see your notes and the notes of other audience members streaming in real-time. Or imagine where you could ask your questions and have the presenter see and answer them in real-time. Or imagine where others not attending the event could also see and follow, much like the peek you have into what I saw at SXSW if you followed the links to the #sxsw and #free tags.

Now some presenters might not want any of this and prefer a "no tweeting" rule for their session, but I imagine many would love to see this level of interactivity. I'll raise this issue with the Emerson Exchange Board for their thoughts on this.

The first step to making these imaginations a reality is for you to give Twitter a try, if you haven't already. We offer a few tips on how it works on the DeltaV Twitterers page. Hopefully, you'll give it a try so we can have some of the great, dynamic exchanges just like what I experienced at SXSW!

MP3 | iTunes

Update: I'm reading my RSS feeds over lunch and saw a great post on Twitter from senior digital editor of Chemical Processing magazine, Traci Purdum--Twitter Isn't a Bird-Brained Idea. Glad to see more folks educating others on the value of Twitter!

The timing of this Emerson Exchange Call for Presentations reminder email is perfect with my post last Friday on ways to share your expertise. If you're a process manufacturer with Emerson products, an integrator of Emerson products, an Emerson local business partner, or an Emerson employee, the Emerson Exchange is the perfect opportunity to share your expertise.

Have you solved a unique challenge that others would be interested in hearing about? Are you using technologies in a novel way? Are the quantified results from your efforts so compelling that others must know about them? If so, to any of these and countless more I didn't ask, than you're the perfect person to present at the 2009 Emerson Exchange in Orlando, Florida from September 28 through October 2.

My colleague Deb Franke and I have presented the last two years (2008, 2007) on aspects how process automation professionals can use the social media applications to be more successful and productive. We did find it encouraging reading about a:

...recent MIT study found that in one organization the employees with the most extensive personal digital networks were 7% more productive than their colleagues - so Wikis and Web 2.0 tools may indeed improve productivity.

So there you have it. Sharing your ideas and building your network of fellow experts leads to greater success and productivity. And the best part is that if you choose an Emerson Exchange presentation as a way to do this, your conference admission fee will be waived (or one fee waived for multiple presenters.)

The deadline for submitting your abstract is March 16^th, so it's coming up fast. From the email, here are some of the tracks and possible topic areas where your presentation might best fit:

Business Operations & Business Systems Integration

• Improvements in business operations
• Manufacturing Execution System (MES) integration
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) integration
• Reducing maintenance or regulatory compliance costs
• Human Factors
• Control room ergonomics
• Development of plant and technical personnel

System Applications

• Integration of DeltaV with Non-Emerson Systems
• Integration of DeltaV with other applications
• Novel DeltaV applications
• DeltaV system tools
• Digital bus technologies
• System life cycle
• Tips and tricks using systems
• Cyber security

Instrumentation Applications

• New technologies and their use in analytical measurement applications
• Solutions to difficult analytical problems
• Custody transfer applications
• New technologies and their use in flow measurement applications
• Solutions to difficult measurement problems
• Custody level measurement applications
• Fieldbus and wireless applications

Valve Applications

• Advances in control using digital valve controllers
• Best practice valve selection and installation
• Experiences in implementing control in the field using fieldbus

Asset Optimization / Maintenance and Reliability

• Justifying a predictive maintenance program and technologies, and quantifying ongoing benefits
• Designing, implementing and optimizing an asset management program
• Work processes to leverage predictive diagnostics within daily maintenance activities
• Successful programs for improved equipment reliability
• Planning and executing turnarounds
• Experience with diagnostic tools and techniques
• Compliance with regulatory requirements for plant asset

Safety Instrumented Systems

• Successful integrations of Emerson systems and safety instrumented systems
• Update on SIS regulations and technology
• Role of smart instruments and valves in Safety Instrumented Systems

Project Management and Engineering Tools

• Projects using Emerson's PlantWeb technology and/or services
• Project workflow optimization / improvements
• Engineering tool solutions (SPI)
• Reducing capital or engineering costs
• Simulation
• Improving access to process information

Control System Modernization

• Migrations of existing systems (Emerson & non-Emerson) to latest Emerson systems & platforms
• Cost savings using migration tools
• Installation methods that reduce overall conversion/configuration time
• Factors influencing modernizing control systems

Process Optimization

• Advanced process control technologies
• Loop performance auditing
• Use of embedded loop monitoring, model predictive control and/or neural nets
• Optimization where to start & how improvements are sustained

Wireless

• System and instrumental applications
• Portable operator interface or handheld applications
• Security
• Cost benefits and ROI

MP3 | iTunes

Update and bump: I just wanted to remind everyone that today is the deadline to get your Emerson Exchange abstracts submitted. Deb Franke and I just submitted ours over the weekend and now have fingers crossed hoping it gets selected. Good luck to you if you submit one as well!

When I struggle with a technical issue, whether it is hardware, software or just something I'm trying to understand better, I usually start with Google. I'll add as many relevant keywords as I can think of, and add "howto" as one more keyword. The search often returns amazing results, usually from individual's blog or a response in a forum, describing exactly how to solve the issue.

The web offers so many ways, not just blogs and forums, to share your interests and expertise. These many ways were the focus of a presentation Deb Franke and I gave at last year's Emerson Exchange.

At the ModelingAndControl.com blog, Greg McMillan shares his wisdom every week. This week's post, What Have I Learned - Einstein and the Ultimate Limits for Loop Performance is a perfect example. If you're a process control engineer and you're not already subscribed to the blog's RSS feed, I recommend you do.

This post offers straightforward guidance, like:

The absolute limit to feedback control system performance is the total dead time in the loop, which is the summation of all the final element, process, measurement, I/O, and controller execution time delays. A feedback control system cannot correct for something it hasn't seen yet and hasn't been able to change yet in the process...

Greg references an on-line eBook, Funny you should Ask a Process Control Engineer where you can find more information to support this guidance. Greg has numerous eBooks, application notes, lectures, and articles available on the Modeling and Control Blog.

Another example Greg offers is that advanced process control (APC) also cannot violate this absolute limit. He writes:

Many of the early APC algorithms significantly increased the loop deadtime (See "Advanced Control Algorithms- Beware of False Prophecies in the Funny Thing E-book). While model predictive control (MPC) can potentially help dead time dominant systems, the original execution time (e.g. 1 minute) of separate MPC software packages was so large their applicability was restricted to slow processes. With the advent of the MPC embedded in the DCS, the execution time can be as fast as 1 second which means MPC can be applicable to all but the fastest processes (e.g. liquid pressure control and furnace pressure loops).

In all of Greg's guidance, he provides links where you can get more detail. It's like a self-directed, university-level course for process control engineers. All one needs is the quiet and focus to take it in and absorb it.

I'm sure you have some specialized knowledge for which you're known. If you're the type of person who believes you'll get back far more than you give, consider using some of the tools we mention in our Emerson Exchange presentation like Google Reader, Delicious, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. to share this knowledge for the next person searching for answers.

MP3 | iTunes

I saw Emerson's James Beall the other week and asked him for a copy of his Emerson Exchange presentation, Interesting and Useful Features of the DeltaV PID Controller.

Every year, James presents to standing-room-only crowds and his presentation (given twice) this year was no exception. PID or proportional-integral-derivative control is definitely not a new concept. I did some Googling around and found references to it dating back to 1922 when N. Minorsky published an article on its use for automatic ship steering control.

While PID control has been around for a long time, technologists keep adding innovations, like degrees of freedom to the proportional action and the derivative action.

James began by describing three common PID forms: parallel, standard (a.k.a. ISA form), and series (a.k.a. classical form.) The standard form is the default choice in the DeltaV PID function block and the series form is an option. James counseled that the choice is based on your prior experience and personal preference. The series and standard forms are identical if the derivative action is not used. Also, your choice of forms can impact the conversion of tuning constants from a previous control system.

The PID function block also has a STRUCTURE parameter that provides two degrees of freedom for the proportional and derivative actions. On a change of setpoint (SP), you can scale these actions (BETA = proportional action scaling, GAMMA = derivative action scaling) between 0 and 100%.

The PID function block has an integral dead band (IDEADBAND) for when the error (SP minus PV) gets within this dead band. At this point, the integral action stops. James described a level controller application that feeds a downstream unit in order to reduce the movement of the controller output when the error enters the dead band.

James discussed three setpoint filters based on rate of change. One filter provides a time constant in seconds of the first order SP filter (SP_FTIME). Another provides a ramp rate at which downward setpoint changes (SP_RATE_DN) or upward setpoint changes (SP_RATE_UP) are acted on when the loop is in automatic mode.

Limits can also be placed on highest and lowest setpoints allowed, whether or not these limits are obeyed when the loop is in cascade or remote cascade mode, or whether output limits of the master loop in a cascade pair are used to limit the setpoint to the slave loop in cascade and remote cascade mode.

On the subject of cascade-control loops, James shared how mode tracking, bumpless transfers, and other loop interactions are automatically handled by the PID block's BKCAL interblock communications.

Gain scheduling is another PID control innovation for loops with nonlinearities where different regions of the PID controller can have different PID tuning parameters. The DeltaV PID function block can have up to three regions with different tuning parameters, based on a selected state variable (output, process variable, error, production rate, etc.) The algorithm provides a smooth transition between the regions.

James also provides guidance on valve output characterization and anti-reset windup limits in the presentation. Although these advanced PID functions can appear quite technical, they can significantly improve the performance of PID control and provide ways to handle difficult process dynamics. The bottom line to getting this control right is better control performance and a more efficient process.

You can read about the full capabilities of the PID function block in the 9.3 version of DeltaV Books On-line.

MP3 | iTunes

Marshall Meier received an award for his recent Emerson Exchange presentation, Improve How You Visualize Data. I first met Marshall at last year's Exchange after I discovered we both did presentations on social media, a.k.a. Web 2.0. Here was last year's summary of his presentation.

In this year's data visualization presentation, he shared ideas from preeminent thought leader, Edward Tufte, and his seminal book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Another thought leader Marshall highlighted was Stephen Few, who wrote several books on data presentation, including Show Me the Numbers.

When presenting, your focus should be on just showing the data. Don't clutter it with extraneous visual information. Why does this matter? Your data is important. It helps you and those with whom you share this data better understand problems and make decisions. The goal for an excellent graph or chart should be to get the viewers of this data to ask questions.

Marshall showed the same information presented in both a cluttered and clean presentation. The first view might prompt more thoughts about mad scientists than about the rise and fall of U.S. patents over time. Presentation viewers are more likely to engage in a conversation about the data with the simple uncluttered presentation.

One of Tufte's ideas Marshall shared was the data-to-ink ratio. This is the amount of ink devoted to the data compared to the total ink used in the graphic. For a PowerPoint presentation, think pixels instead of ink. The higher the ratio, the more you're focusing the visual display on the data.

Marshall described "chartjunk" as additional graphics not related to the data in a quest to make the chart more aesthetically pleasing. Instead, it distracts from the data. If you think your graph is boring, you're showing the wrong data. Open a USA Today newspaper and you'll find examples of chartjunk--like a gas price tracker that shows a gas pump graphic with a window containing the average price and another containing the directional price change. Although cute, the data-to-ink ratio is low.

Another example Marshall shared is the comparison between the main Yahoo page and Google page. They are at opposite ends of the visual display spectrum.

For those that love the visually exciting, 3D graphics in Microsoft Office products like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Marshall's simple message is, "Don't use 3D." Although it may look cool, the 3^rd dimension does not add anything. When the graph has multiple data series, 3D makes it difficult to compare data between two data points. In 2D, comparisons are easier to make. Again, the focus shifts from the "eye candy" to the data itself.

You can also fall into the trap of distorting the data. The concept of "lie factor" is the size of the effect shown in the graphic divided by the size the effect in the data itself. Graphic treatments that show a 3D-perspective can visually distort the data. Bar charts often convey size, relative differences, and area better than pie charts do.

Marshall closed his presentation with a famous graph described by Edward Tufte:

Probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn, this map by Charles Joseph Minard portrays the losses suffered by Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign of 1812.

It shows you can use creativity and "eye-candy" if it amplifies the data and not the extraneous. Congratulations, Marshall, on a very informative, award-winning presentation!

MP3 | iTunes

If ever there were a need for dynamic control, it would be for the global bond and equity markets this week. Instead of tackling that global challenge, with today's post I'll highlight Emerson senior process control consultant Mark Coughran's Emerson Exchange presentation. He presented, "Equipment Selection and Installation for Dynamic Loop Requirements" last week.

The purpose of Mark's presentation was to share ways to extract more value from the control system by designing it for the process dynamics or to diagnose and improve control in an existing installation by better understanding the process dynamics.

A key dynamic control requirement for the loops is that process variable (PV) changes should move to a new setpoint (SP) without oscillation. Recovery from process disturbances should also occur without oscillation. The loops should run in a cascade or automatic mode without the need for operator intervention. And finally, the loops need to respond at the speed required to meet the process objectives.

Mark stressed the importance of properly selecting, installing and maintaining the final control elements (like control valves), transmitters and controllers. No amount of tuning can overcome improperly sized or malfunctioning loop elements.

Given Mark's experience in working with process manufacturers, here's his top-ten list of mistakes that he encounters:

• Oversized control valves
• Inappropriate valve flow characteristics
• Non-communicating, low-performance valve positioners
• Positioners not tuned for the damper/actuator
• Inadequate signal conditioning (thermocouples)
• Incorrect range/resolution of transmitters
• Poor physical location of transmitters
• Oscillatory tuning of loop controllers
• Unit controller tuning ignores interactions
• Inappropriate control logic for switching block valves

Mark's presentation included a number of specific examples including refinery boiler feedwater control, reactor jacket temperature control, Olefins plant reactor temperature control, boiler O₂ control, acetylene reactor temperature control, beverage-quality CO₂ heat exchanger gas pressure control, pulp mill lime mud density control, Lysine plant resin bed level control, and chiller level control. This is a wide-ranging list of control challenges, but the common thread is to start with an understanding of the process dynamics by measuring them.

The solutions Mark discussed ranged from control valve trim changes, to Lambda loop tuning, to thorough operating training, to application of advanced control strategies like model predictive control.

Some of the common threads of Mark's guidance were:

1. Use high-performance smart positioners
2. Specify the control valve/damper dead band, response time (ANSI/ISA-75.25.01-2000)
3. Select the valve size and flow characteristic for installed gain
4. Use a signal characterizer or PID gain scheduling if process gain varies greatly
5. Tune the positioner for the valve/actuator
6. Install the sensor for minimum dead time
7. Use a transmitter to amplify low-level signals
8. Select the appropriate transmitter hardware span
9. Apply Lambda tuning for non-oscillatory response
10. Apply Lambda tuning to coordinate response of interacting loops
11. Check other control logic outside the PID block

None of this might help with the roiling financial markets, but it can certainly help your process run more smoothly and efficiently.

MP3 | iTunes

At the Emerson Exchange last week, Deb Franke and I presented, Feeding that Inner Geek While Sharing Your Expertise and Interests:

The key point of our talk was that there are more ways than ever to discover things that interest you, to share things that interest you, and to use these tools to be more successful (and have more fun) in what you do.

There seemed to be a lot of interest in the topic and it was really great to have the energy of two standing-room-only sessions. We captured the questions and answers from both sessions, in case you weren't able to join us.

The presentation is fully scripted if you download it, or here's a transcript.

One of the really great ideas Deb had was to have index cards made for the question and answers and geek treats that members from both sessions wanted to share.

As with most collaborative things brought to us by social media (a.k.a. Web 2.0), there were some great ideas exchanged and we hope you find some of these geek treats, Q&A and the presentation itself helpful. If this sparks some ideas, keep the conversation flowing and add your comments below.

MP3 | iTunes

At last week's Emerson Exchange, I had the chance to catch one of my favorite presenters, Mike Schmidt, who is a principle SIS consultant in Emerson's refining and chemical industry center. What makes him a favorite is that he can really simplify concepts around process safety and safety instrumented systems (SIS) and make them easy to understand by those of us not steeped in safety. He also adds a touch of humor to keep the audience engaged and having fun while learning about the serious subject of process safety.

Mike co-developed with Emerson process safety engineer, Tim Forbis, the presentation, "What About...Using Bypasses, DBB, and Other Process Features in Safety Instrumented Functions". Their abstract:

There are special design concerns when process features like double-block-and-bleed and isolation-and-bypass valve configurations are included in safety instrumented functions (SIFs). This talk addresses these concerns and also gives guidance on considerations for performing safety integrity level (SIL) verification calculations when incorporating these and other process design features in SIFs.

Mike provided guidance on four process examples including pump and discharge valve, multiple inlets (to a tank or vessel), double block and bleed, and unit bypass and isolation.

Let's take the first example from the presentation of a pump and discharge valve. The safe state is stopping the flow by closing the discharge valve. The complication is the pump continuing to run causing a "deadhead" condition against the valve and risking pump damage. The typical function of the basic process control system (BPCS) is to stop the pump if the discharge valve is not open.

Mike and Tim's recommendation was not to include the pump in the SIF for several reasons including:

• Pump damage is not a hazard protected against
• Pump damage does not warrant SIL-rated protection
• Less complexity means a better spurious trip rate
• Pump stop may not contribute to SIF purpose--stopping flow
• Few components decreases cost--initial investment and operating cost

Now, if deadheading the pump is its own hazard, use a separate SIF with hazard-specific trip conditions. For instance, if the deadhead condition causes the pump to leak leading to fire, then you must mitigate that risk. Or, if the pump stop is included in the SIF as a redundant means to stop flow, then trip on the same condition as the discharge valve. A separate trip condition based on valve action adds complexity and cost, compromises independence and results in worse Probability of Failure on Demand, Average (PFD_AVG) and mean time to failure spurious (MTTF_s).

A final consideration Mike shares is that if your logic solver, such as DeltaV SIS, has sequencing capabilities, the safety logic should stop the pump first and then close the valve.

The other cases also present recommendations and counter-recommendations based on the circumstances of the hazard to be mitigated. Mike's key takeaways for the audience are that the actions for the SIFs may need to be different than the actions for process control in the same process. Also, the final control elements in the SIFs should be limited to those needed to accomplish the purpose of each SIF.

Adding more than is required increases the probability of failure on demand, increases spurious trips, increases investment costs, and increases ongoing operating and maintenance costs.

Update: One of the great suggestions from a customer (thanks Rich!) at last week's Emerson Exchange was that I should consider recording the blog for those with long commutes. I thought we'd give it a whirl, so here is today's post in podcast form. Next step will be to figure out how to get it to iTunes... stay tuned!

I've been immersed all day in great presentations that are the makings of future blog posts, so I'll keep this brief. You can get snippets of some of the happenings on the Emerson Exchange Twitter communications stream.

Here are Automation World's Wednesday stories:

• Managing Risks in Risky Situations ("Perfect Storm" keynote)
• A Growing Hunger for Efficiency
• A Forest of Opportunity
• Videos from the Exhibition Hall
• Call a COP (Center for Operator Performance)
• AMS Suite: Asset Portal 3.1

Here are ControlGlobal.com's Wednesday stories:

• Wireless Validation Keeps the Budweiser Flowing
• DeltaV Engineering Tools Get New Look and Feel
• ChevronPhillips Relates Early Wireless Lessons
• New Duke Power Plant Relies on Industrial Networks
• Systematic Assessment, Response Reduce Upgrade Risk
• DeltaV SIS Saves Space, Integrates Data on Offshore Rig

The Talk to Me blog writes Wireless will advance but never rule. And the DeltaV News blog shares the press release, Emerson is First of Many to Begin Shipping Open Standard WirelessHART Automation Products.

Whew, it's been an energetic, exciting week so far!

Here's some of the news I've seen from around the Emerson Exchange from Tuesday, September 30th 2008.

ControlGlobal.com eNews

• 2-wire Coriolis
• CAPEX wireless savings on hydrotreater
• Biogen-Idec multi-site integration
• Earlier automation supplier involvement in capital projects
• Change leadership
• To use main automation contractors or not to

AutomationWorld Daily News

• An interview with John Berra and Steve Sonnenberg
• 2-wire Micro Motion Coriolis meter
• Wireless vibration monitoring
• 4-wire intelligent analyzers Chambers for external mount level instrumentation
• Management thinking
• Refining industry outlook
• Metals and mining industry outlook
• WirelessHART standard compliant devices first to ship

Manufacturing Business Technology: Emerson unplugged.

And of course, here's the latest from the #EmEx Twitter stream.

We're trying something new this year at the Emerson Exchange in the collaborative spirit of Web 2.0 / social media.

We have some flip video cameras that we've been passing around to see what folks might capture and share. Here's one from Emerson's Marshall Meier, whom you might recall from earlier posts.

Here's a quick 1:15 video which shows Emerson's Bill Zhou describing how plugged pressure sensing lines are detected by the absence of statistical deviation. This causes an alert to be sent from the Rosemount 3051S to the AMS Device Manager:

Wow, it's been an action packed two days here at the Emerson Exchange. If you're not live with us here in Washington D.C. this week, there is some excellent coverage that you'll want to see. Check out Automation World's News from the Emerson Global Users Exchange featuring highlights from Monday. Also visit Gary Mintchell's Feed Forward blog.

ControlGlobal.com has excellent Monday recap in their Emerson Exchange eNews that went out to their email news subscriber list. Also, visit Walt Boyes' SoundOFF! blog.

To discover what other folks might be writing, I did a Google Blogsearch on "Emerson Exchange". So that I don't have to keep redoing this search manually, I subscribed to its RSS feed in my Google Reader. If you have interest in following the happenings, give it a try. So far I've discovered a post by OPC Exchange's Eric Murphy and a News.EasyDeltaV.com item.

There is also a vibrant communications channel, Twitter, that I mentioned as a tip in last Friday's post. It features short updates in 140 characters or less for anyone using Twitter who adds #EmEx to their message. Here's a Twitter search of the #EmEx tag to give you quick takes from people around the Exchange. And if you use Google Reader or another favorite RSS reader, here's the RSS subscription for the Twitter #EmEx search so you don't have to keep manually performing the search. It is all about automation, isn't it?

More to come!

There is a flurry of activity as we make final preparations for next week's Emerson Exchange. If you're reading this post before the event (September 29-October 3, 2008), there's a good chance that you're a leading-edge kind of person who knows how to subscribe to this blog via RSS to see this post soon after it's published.

So here are my final tips from a social media (a.k.a. Web 2.0) perspective:

1. Use the handy scheduler to find the sessions you want to attend and to build your personal schedule. There is also a spreadsheet you can download to have the information locally on your PC.
2. If you're not already using some of the Web 2.0 / social media applications and are curious, consider attending Deb Franke and my "Feeding That Inner Geek" presentation (Tues 9/30 9am Chesapeake A, Wed 10/1 2:30pm Chesapeake A). I checked with the hotel and these rooms seat 80 so hopefully they'll be enough room for everyone who wants to catch it.) If you're not going to be able to make it, the presentation will be posted in a future blog post.
3. Give Twitter a try. It's a great way to communicate in short bursts what you're seeing and where to meet up or discover meet ups with others. This is one of the things we'll discuss in our presentation. The big key is to tag your posts with #EmEx so that others can discover them with this #EmEx Twitter search. You can even subscribe to this #EmEx search if you have a web-enabled phone and use the Google Reader mobile version or other mobile RSS reader. Here's a picture showing how this looks on my phone.
4. Many of the people I've featured in blog posts will be presenting. Check out some of the blog categories on the right side for areas of interest. Scan the category posts and see if there will be folks you'd like to see. Look them up in the scheduler or spreadsheet from tip #1.
5. Track me down. All of my contact info on the right side of every blog page and I would really enjoy speaking with you! If you're not going to be joining us in Washington D.C., look for updates on this blog and through the Twitter stream of communications.
6. Have fun! There's lots of old friends to catch up with, new friends to make and great information to exchange. Hopefully, you'll accomplish everything you set out to do and have lots of fun in doing so.

See you in person or virtually through the Web 2.0 /social media channels!

Update: Both sessions are in Chesapeake A!

This is a great time of year to be a blogger for Emerson with the Emerson Exchange happening next week. It's that time when process manufacturing professionals, Emerson and local business partner professionals, and alliance members gather to exchange their expertise with one another.

It's also a target rich environment for me to find great things to discuss in blog posts. Emerson's Dave Rehbein, a senior data management solutions consultant, will be presenting a workshop, Plant Floor Security Assessments - Key Findings. I've known Dave for a long time. We represented Fisher-Rosemount in the original OPC standards effort back in the mid 1990s. Dave served as the master editor for the original OPC specification released in 1996.

If your responsibilities include the cyber-security efforts around your automation systems, and you'll be at the Exchange next week, this is a presentation you'll not want to miss (Wed 10/1, 2:15pm Chesapeake 7, Thurs 10/2 9am Chesapeake 7.)

Dave will present aggregate findings from three different process manufacturers where he performed plant-floor security assessments. He'll discuss risks found in the areas of: patch management, isolation of plant control network from the office network, following existing security procedures, use of unsecure legacy operating systems, security log auditing, and hardening of PCs and servers.

Dave describes the security assessment process as one that typically takes two weeks and involves reviewing existing plant floor security processes, reviewing network and device security, developing a risk matrix of the plant floor systems and application, and developing the risk mitigation plan based upon the findings from these earlier steps.

It's critical that the process manufacturers have participation throughout the organization for the plans to be executed and the work processes put in place for ongoing security. He recommends participants include an executive sponsor, a plant area engineer, plant IT director, security officer, chief network architect, network/telco architect and an operations manager. Dave presents an overview of the flow of activities over the two weeks.

Microsoft provides some excellent assessment tools that can gather information on the current state of security. Dave mentioned the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) and the Microsoft Security Assessment Tool (MSAT) as important assessment tools for things like identifying patch levels and to conduct interviews with key plant personnel to assess the maturity of the existing security programs.

The risk matrix that is developed as part of this security assessment process takes each recommendation developed and looks at its urgency, impact and investment required. Each of these parameters is graded on a low, medium, high scale. This helps establish the priority, justification and roadmap for cyber security improvements.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, commercial off the shelf technologies (COTS) have allowed all automation suppliers to rapidly improve their platforms by taking advantage of the price/performance curve described by Moore's Law. The downside is that security is a much greater concern since parts of the technology development are outside the control of the supplier. Security consultants help suppliers to rigorously test their equipment to identify and fix areas of security concern.

Process manufacturers must also do establish security practices for the lifecycle of the automation equipment on which they rely to operate their plants. The process Dave describes in his talk is a great way to compare with what you're currently doing today.

Here's a quick post to end the week. I had the great honor of doing a keynote presentation at the ISA Marketing & Sales meeting this week on the subject of Web 2.0. The presentation, Challenges, Perils and Opportunities in Web 2.0 for Automation Marketing:

The purpose was to share some thoughts and experiences for other automation suppliers who attended this event. There were a lot of great questions at the end and most seem to be very engaged in the subject. Here a couple of reviews from Walt Boyes, Gary Mintchell, and some great Twitter tweets from Juliann Grant. Also, Carl Henning at PTO Profiblog saw the uploaded presentation and asked if anyone other than our small circle of bloggers really follows any of this stuff. Add any thoughts you might have.

The week after next at the Emerson Exchange, Deb Franke and I will be presenting on the topic of great ways to take advantage of Web 2.0, Feeding that Inner Geek (Tues 9/30 9am Chesapeake B, Wed 10/1 2:30pm Chesapeake A.) The audience is not to sales and marketing folks like this one, but rather engineers and other automation professionals.

I hope if you're going to the Exchange, that you'll join us. Your pre-work, should you choose to accept it, is to read this DeltaV News item on Twitter, take action and join Twitter, and be prepared to tag all your tweets at the Exchange with the tag #EmEx so others can easily find the thoughts you share with this simple search.

Update: Juliann, I saw I fat-fingered your name and left off an "n" on the end. I fixed it. Great seeing you this week!

Update 2: I just saw Gary Mintchell's post pointing to his YouTube Automation Travels video recap from this event. Check it out!

Update 3: Juliann Grant has a great recap, ISA Marketing and Sales Summit Roundup, on her What's Working in Marketing blog. Thanks for your kind words, Juliann!

I'll close this week on a lighter note after the earlier FUD post. I've been working on my keynote presentation for the ISA Marketing & Sales Summit and pushing to have it done today. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the audience is sales and marketing folks with the numerous automation suppliers that serve manufacturers as well as members of the automation trade press. If you come across this post and are in this audience, come join us!

I thought this presentation could follow some of the ideas Deb Franke and I will discuss in our Emerson Exchange presentation, Feeding that Inner Geek. As I thought about it, the focus is very different. Both will discuss the myriad of social media applications dubbed Web 2.0. But the focus for the Emerson Exchange presentation is about the different ways you have to share your interests and expertise.

For the automation sales and marketing community, it's more about how we might consider doing what we do differently.

I think the result of automation professionals sharing their interests and expertise and sales and marketing professionals listening and participating better through many of these Web 2.0 applications will make everyone more effective at what they do. And perhaps have even a little more fun along the way.

Enough procrastinating, I need to get back and finish this presentation. Before I do, one last thing... For those going to the ISA Marketing and Sales Summit, I propose we use a Twitter tag #ISAMSS and for the Emerson Exchange, I propose we use #EmEx. This will help anyone at these two event who use Twitter to follow what others are posting. It's also a great way to share your current location and propose impromptu meetups, like at the hotel lobby bar.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, take the first steps by watching the Twitter in Plain English video and getting a Twitter account. Then connect with me by going to twitter.com/JimCahill and click follow. I'll get notified and follow you in return. If you use these tags during either or both events, you'll be amazed how others will start follow what you have to say.

Update: You can follow the Twitter posts at the Emerson Exchange by using this search: tinyurl.com/TwitterEmEx and/or subscribing to the RSS feed: tinyurl.com/TwitterEmExRSS. If we can get enough folks sharing their thoughts with Twitter and tagging their posts with #EmEx , then even if you're not able to join us, you can get still get perspectives on what's happening.

Twice here at Emerson Process Experts, I've featured the work of Shenling Yang. The first was in her role as member of the DeltaV technology team and the second as an integration specialist in the Life Sciences industry center. Shenling shared with me a presentation she is developing with a biotech manufacturer for the Emerson Exchange on backing up and recovering critical process data. This is a huge requirement for regulated industries like pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers.

The scenario they will present is the dreaded 3 am phone call from the plant with the news that production has stopped, people standing around and it's up to you to do something. Choice one is to go to the plant, to rebuild the automation system configuration, to revalidate the process, to lose a bioreactor batch that may have been running for up to 100 days, and then to hopefully resume production within a few weeks. To give you a sense of the value of saving a batch, it's important to note that the medications being produced in these bioreactors save lives and any loss of a batch means a delay for a patient who needs this medication.

Choice two is to load the data backed up from the critical data backup application, have the operator restart the plant, verify normal operations and save the running batch in the bioreactor. Obviously, choice two was the way to go. It is vital to protect and recover control system data because human error or system failure can wipe out years of work, experience, plant operations information and process records.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates and requires fully validated backup and restoration solutions for critical data. With the FDA's 21CFR Part 11 electronic record provisions include the accurate and ready retrieval of control system information through the record retention period. The FDA's 21CFR Part 210 & 211 good manufacturing practices (GMP) require this retention period be at least one year after the expiration date of the batch.

The goal established by this biotech manufacturer was to be able to recover and be back up and running 100% with minimal loss in three hours or less. They were looking for something with minimal customization that would automatically back up the configuration and version control databases without any operator intervention. The solution was to use the Critical Data Backup application (CDBA) developed by the data management services team to meet the 21CFR Part 11 compliance for backup, recovery and preservation of electronic records. It's a part of the overall disaster recovery plan, which includes files, spare on-site server hardware, physical separation of equipment and networks, and always-available support personnel on-site and at their Emerson local business partner location.

The backup system includes a server, tape carousel and gigabit network to link multiple DeltaV systems and transfer large files quickly, safely and efficiently. This application help formalize the backup process which was not as diligent or documented as it should have been.

Like anyone who administers a server or even backs up the family PCs can attest, you don't know how good it will work until you have to use it. The day came when this site lost two hard drives in a RAID array. They were able to put a new server in the rack, transfer data using CDBA, do a warm batch restart and be back up in an hour with no loss to the batch.

This sounds like a great presentation to catch if you need a way to formalize your system backup and recovery effort.

From my stack of email, I received notice that the Emerson Exchange registration is now open for this year's event September 29 through October 3 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Washington, DC. Early-bird registration lasts until August 18th, which saves 25% over full conference price.

Although not yet final, check out the presentations, short courses and workshops currently slated. A final list will be available in early July. It's quite an impressive list already, so if you want to take a closer look, I recommend downloading the spreadsheet version for easier sorting and searching.

The name Emerson Exchange comes from it's single biggest value for most folks. That is, the exchange of ideas and expertise among automation professionals, Emerson and other automation suppliers, trade editors and analysts.

The email invitation did a nice job of previewing the tracks with some highlighted sessions. There is pretty much something for everyone.

Business Operations & Integration (21 topics)

• How to Economically Justify New Automation Investments
• Industrial vs. Enterprise Networks
• Feedstock Dynamics - Moving from 1st to 2nd Generation Biofuels
• Integration of SAP into DeltaV

System Applications (49 topics)

• Case Histories - Control System Solutions
• Ovation Provides Power Management for ConocoPhillips Bohai Project
• Industrial Ethernet and Digital Buses
• Cyber Security for Control Network
• Antivirus, Patch Management and Disaster Recovery

Instrumentation (52 topics)

• Best Practices in Applying Combustion Analyzers
• Belgium Brewer Turns to Rosemount Analytical to Solve Harsh pH Application
• LNG Analysis Fundamentals
• Managing Gas Chromatographs (GCs) and Mass-spectrometers with multiple sequences through a DeltaV System

Valves / Valve Automation (23 topics)

• Specific customer application issues solved by final control technology
• Improving plant reliability through the application of on-line diagnostics
• Review of advanced tuning concepts with digital valve controllers
• New product testing and evaluation procedures to reduce risk in your plant

Safety Systems & Instrumentation (19 topics)

• Automation and Safety Solutions of LNG Plants Today
• Using DeltaV Platform
• People - The Vital Link in Functional Safety
• SIS with Foundation Fieldbus
• The Role of Smart Instruments and Valves in Safety Instrumented System

Asset Optimization (33 topics)

• Designing, Implementing and Optimizing an Asset Management Program in the Canadian Oil Sands.
• Electromechanical Relay Replacement: Real World Examples
• HART - Analog, Digital, and Wireless - All-in-one
• How Monitoring Equipment Performance Reduced Fuel Consumption by 2% on a Pipeline Gas Turbine

Maintenance & Reliability (24 topics)

• Modern Asset Management + Traditional Troubleshooting = Reduced Downtime and Optimized Control
• Advanced Diagnostics Functions for Increased Safety and Throughput
• Electrical Systems Testing at Utility Generation Plants
• OxyChem improves Facility Reliability Using Predictive Cable Testing

Project Management & Engineering Tools (23 topics)

• Extreme Make Over Emerson Edition: Refreshing BP Gas Plant Documentation
• Cool Tools for DeltaV System
• FAT?, SAT?, HAT?, CAT?, SIFT?, IFAT??? Making sense of acceptance testing
• Execution of MIV Project. Opportunities & Challenges- View from Other side
• Execution of World Class Petrochemical Projects, using Foundation Fieldbus Technology

Control System Modernization (17 topics)

• Get lessons learned, successes, pitfalls, and best practices from over a dozen implementers' experiences
• Learn how technologies and execution methods can improve the economics of a controls upgrade project
• Find the hidden benefits of control systems upgrades
• Discover new methodologies to justify modernization projects

Process Optimization (26 topics)

• Liquid Pipeline Control Optimization Maximizes Throughput
• Gas Plant Throughput Maximization using PredictPro
• Saving Energy With Improved Automation
• Optimization of Emissions Reduction Equipment (SCR)
• 4 Easy Steps to Better Decision Making with Advanced Diagnostics
• Equipment Selection for Dynamic Control Requirements

Emerson Product and Services Updates (30 topics)

• Overview of new product and service offerings from Emerson Process Management
• Update of recent product enhancements with additional "how-to" detail
• Review of resulting development actions from your PlantWeb feedback
• Examples of how newly released products & services have benefitted end user applications

I look forward to seeing you there! Also, if you want to learn more about how Web 2.0/social media can help you, make sure to check out Deb Franke and my presentation.

I mentioned submittal of two social media-based abstracts to the Emerson Exchange in an earlier post. Each year, the Emerson Exchange board members receive way more submittals than they can accept, so anyone who wants to present has to keep their fingers crossed.

The good news is that one of the two was accepted. Deb Franke and I will be presenting:

Feeding that Inner Geek

Join Deb Franke and Jim Cahill in a conversation on using the internet, high-tech gadgets, and social media technologies that will enable you to be more productive and effective in all that you do, especially in your working career.

We picked this title because it was the title one of the most visited blog posts on this site to date. And with the Emerson Exchange's hundreds of sessions to choose from, we wanted a title that might stand out.

The goal is to build on presentation we did last year, Getting the Most Value from the Internet: How New Web 2.0 Tools and Techniques Can Help You Innovate.

Social media tools continue to proliferate as people learn the value they can bring. Two examples that we did not discuss last year are Twitter and Friendfeed. Friendfeed is new and Twitter is rapidly growing. I have been looking into the utility of Twitter for people with interest in the DeltaV system, to connect and communicate directly with one another. As learning occurs along the way, I'm sharing tips with our nascent DeltaV Twitter community.

The common thread with these social media applications is that they connect people with other people who have similar interests. Our hope is that one of these interests is around our world of process automation.

One final note, we have the honor of being one of the blogs mentioned in the new book, Groundswell. Written by Forrester Research principal analysts, Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, it helps you and your business clearly formulate your strategy with respect to social media. I just finished the book the other night, and in the spirit of the groundswell, put my review of it on Amazon.com. Hint... I liked it.

In my days as a young automation engineer putting in power, control, and safety systems on offshore oil and gas platforms, I had the "opportunity" to see improperly terminated motor leads burn up during a startup after power was supplied to them from a variable speed drive. So, it was with great interest that I listened to a presentation during the Emerson Exchange by Wally Vahlstrom and Cliff Kirby in Emerson's Electrical Reliability Services organization. I could have used their expertise back then to prevent that sinking feeling I had when I smelled smoke.

Their presentation, Early Detection of MV Cable Problems Improves Overall System Reliability, described how failures can occur and steps to diagnose impending failures.

Cable terminations and splices are the area where most prone to deterioration and failure since these are typically assembled by hand. The junctions account for 80 percent of the failures. Typical problems include nicked insulation, incorrectly connected or no drain wire, physical abuse, and environmental contamination-all of which can produce partial discharge (PD). Also, voltage transients caused by lightning and other sources, and manufacturing defects can create reliability problems.

Cables themselves can also fail caused by many things including manufacturing defects, damage caused by installation or physical abuse, metallic shield corrosion, water migration, and even cable test methods like DC Hi-Pot methods which can damage older cables. Typically, the cable will pass the test, but fail after AC power is reapplied after some period. There are many suspected reasons for this but one may be that 'space charges' develop in the insulation during application of the DC test voltage.

Wally discussed a form of deterioration known as water trees found in extruded dielectric cables. These trees are water-filled micro channels that develop in the insulation of cables operating in a wet environment. The patterns that form resemble trees that have lost their leaves. Water trees can continue to grow under operating voltage until they bridge the insulation. This often leads to cable failure.

Cliff discussed some of the US standards and guides for testing cables in the field. IEEE 400 warns against testing the cable using DC Hi-Pot methods on older medium voltage cables, especially in wet environments because it accelerates failure. Other test methods described by the IEEE 400 standard include AC Hi-Pot, Partial Discharge, Very Low Frequency (VLF), Dissipation Factor (Tan delta) and Oscillating Wave (OSW).

The Electrical Reliability Services team uses on-line partial discharge detection methods to test the reliability of the cable system. It is the only test of the ones mentioned that can be performed while the cable is energized and in service. This testing method is a non-destructive, non-invasive predictive maintenance tool that assesses aging cables. This test is also used to test for workmanship in new cable installations, given the 80% failures occurring around the handmade terminations and splices. Ah yes, this is what triggered my memory of those smoking motor terminations!

A spectrum analyzer, RF analyzer, and U-shaped sensor are used to identify partial discharge. This testing can see about 500 feet each way down a cable.

Cliff showed some installations with corrosion in other areas outside of the cables including medium voltage switchgear. Typically, this is caused by non-operational space heaters in the switchgear. These space heaters prevent condensation that causes this corrosion to occur.

Cliff recommends a site assessment be done which can be performed over time. What to assess should be based on criticality, past failure rates, and environmental conditions to prioritize how and where the partial discharge testing is done.

Update: I've removed the picture and associated text for the picture I incorrectly attributed to IEEE.

Last week I did a post about pipeline surge pressure relief and a technical guide about this written by Emerson's Daniel business. They are known for gas and liquid fiscal flow measurement solutions for the oil and gas industry.

I received a nice follow up note from Dave Seiler about a Latin American refiner who was fighting turbine meter maintenance problems due to large concentrations of foreign materials in the pipeline liquid flow. The problem was so acute that they actually had to install two meters in parallel so they could switch between meters while the other was being maintained.

The refinery engineers worked with the local Daniel team to replace the turbine meters with a 6-inch liquid ultrasonic flow meter. These do not have moving parts, unlike the turbine meters, which were being impacted by the particulates in the flow.

I didn't know much about the ultrasonic technology in flow applications, so I googled around and found a Hydrocarbon Processing magazine article reprint, Use liquid ultrasonic meters for custody transfer, in the Daniel area of the EmersonProcess.com website.

Dave is a co-author of this paper. The article does a great job of simplifying how the ultrasonic technology works. It also includes the math on how the ultrasonic flow measurement works.

My analogy, fresh from a rafting trip down the Guadalupe River, is to imagine that you're floating down the river with an ultrasonic transducer on one bank, and another on the other bank a little further downstream. Ultrasonic pulses are sent between the two transducers in each direction. The pulse traveling across the river from the upstream one to the downstream one will obviously travel faster since it's going across the river with the current. And of course, the reverse is true; it takes longer to travel across the river going upstream against the current. With the formulas in the article and enough perseverance, you can calculate the river's flow rate from these time differences. For the 3D world of pipe flow, the authors' explain:

The resulting time difference is proportional to the fluid velocity passing through the meter spool. Single and multiple acoustic paths can be used to measure fluid velocity. Multipath meters tend to be more accurate since they collect velocity information at several points in the flow profile.

Now back to the story... after the installation of an ultrasonic flow meter, the refiners saw that the meter was reporting low flow rates when the product in the pipe switched between gasoline and diesel.

The local Daniel service technicians collected maintenance logs using their Customer Ultrasonic Interface software (CUI) and sent it to the support team in Houston for detailed analysis. The team verified that the meter was working correctly for both liquids. They deduced that the flow was being diverted somehow during the transmix, or product switchover, where both products are flowing through the pipe until the switchover has been completed. This was possible because of the meters ability to accurately measure both flow rate and speed of sound of the liquid passing through the meter with extremely high accuracy.

The refiner verified that this is what indeed was happening where this transmix was being routed away through a smaller pipeline for further reprocessing. With the age of the refinery and the retirement of experienced operators, the current operators had not been able to see this transmix operation occurring in their process. The refinery engineers were impressed that the team in Houston could deduce this from their analysis of the data.

The refinery engineers involved in this project are presenting a workshop at this year's Emerson Exchange in late September. If you face similar challenges, you might want to catch this one.

In one of those hallway conversations, Chuck Miller reminded me of a workshop at last year's Emerson Exchange. Chuck, well known for his safety instrumented system and safety compliance expertise, co-presented with a process manufacturer on the topic of cyber security in the control domain.

Automation systems have gone through quite a change from the '70s and '80s to our current decade. The architecture changed from proprietary data highways separated by gateways from operation stations, and separated from the enterprise local area network by another gateway--if they were connected at all. Using the ISA-95 (S95) model to describe the various levels of the architecture, the automation systems evolved where Ethernet/IP addressing is used between levels one and two, and between levels two and three. This move from proprietary technologies to commercially available technologies means that the issues with cyber-security must be considered and addressed.

The presenters defined risk as likelihood multiplied by consequence. Likelihood was defined as threat, vulnerability and target attractiveness multiplied together.

The process manufacturer described their risk assessment/reduction process. It included a risk assessment phase, risk reduction workshop phase, development of a risk reduction plan, and implementing that plan. Two key tenets of this process were that only the site personnel had the knowledge to assess the risks to their plants and their systems and that each site would use a risk assessment tool to develop a site risk profile. ISA-SP99 can help in the elements involved in this risk assessment.

Security levels were assigned based upon the consequences of a successful attack. Considerations included the level of hazard associated with the process or product, the location of the plant, and applicable federal critical infrastructure processes. The last consideration impacts the target attractiveness part of the risk equation.

They discussed the areas of the automation system that need to be addressed including the control of network access, user access and physical access. A key point is multiple layers of protection must be considered. Their analogy was a medieval castle protected by a moat, then by a drawbridge, then by a portcullis, then by murder holes, then by the outer walls and finally by the keep. Not all these layers of protection made castles impenetrable, but certainly extremely difficult to "hack into".

An automation system has points of entry that must be addressed by the security plan. These include the connection to the plant network or other external networks, modems, CDs, floppies, USB devices, equipment on the level-one control network between the controllers and PCs and underneath from the I/O subsystems.

One example, the control network, should require that no devices other than the controllers and PCs running operator, engineering, and applications be permitted to connect. Also, controller firewalls can be added between the PCs and controllers. These function to protect the controllers that are installed on the secure side of the firewall against message flooding and denial of service attacks. This firewall is in addition to the router/firewall above the PCs between the automation system and level 3 applications.

In the case of this process manufacturer, this router/firewall was managed by the operations organization. They created a DMZ above the automation system, which contained an anti-virus server, data server, and historian server. Above these was another router/firewall, managed by the IT organization, which connected to the plant local area network.

The presenters also discussed anti-virus strategies, security bulletins, and disaster planning. They summed up the presentation with elements that should be in the plan. These include:

• Assess the risks
• Define the critical systems
• Mitigate for (at least) the high cyber security risks
• Test the plan on a regular basis
• Train the users in the plan
• Get stakeholder signoff

This whole security risk assessment process is not easy, but like process manufacturers' safety risk assessments, is critical. For other automation system cyber security considerations, take a look at best practices in cyber security that is written around Emerson's DeltaV system.

My colleague Deb Franke and I have again submitted abstracts for the Emerson Global Users Exchange, which will be in Washington D.C. September 29 through October 3. Our topics are both on the use of social media technologies, with one being a hands-on session. Last year we did a Web 2.0 discussion, which we archived here.

Now, there is no guarantee that the presentations for this year will be accepted, since they are chosen by the Emerson Exchange Board of Directors, which is a mix of process manufacturers, Emerson, and Emerson local business partners. We'll find out in April if none, one or both have been accepted.

One of social media applications I've started to use is Twitter. You basically have 140 characters to say whatever it is you want to say at the moment. Think of it as instant messaging, except that anyone in the world can follow your posts. My twitter page is twitter.com/JimCahill.

I was prompted to write about this when I saw Gary Mintchell ask the question on his blog today, Any manufacturing twitterers out there? I responded, and if you have a Twitter account, I hope you'll respond, too so that we can begin to build a circle.

The Twitter application seems to be gaining momentum. Participants at the recent SXSW Interactive conference here in Austin used it extensively. People used it to say what they were doing or planning to do, to ask questions of their circle, to answer others questions, etc. With only 140 characters to work with, you have to be brief or use something like TinyURL to squeeze down the size of a long URL at which to point. You can post from your mobile phone and if it has mobile web capabilities, you can view posts from Mobile Twitter.

I bring all this up because I think there would be applicability for automation professionals. Not only might this be useful at trade shows and events like the Emerson Exchange for impromptu gatherings and updates, but also in your daily course of work.

For example, if you have responsibility for working with a particular automation system and you have an application question, you could post it and see if your circle knows the answer. Of course, this only works if the circle, or extended circle, grows sufficiently large. Unlike instant messaging, the circle expands beyond who is in your list, i.e. friends of friends. This expanded circle is one of the benefits of these social media-based applications.

Please let me know if you give it a try and establish an account so I can follow you. I'd like to see how this might be used in our industry, so I can share some of these findings in the possible Emerson Exchange presentations, as well as future blog posts.

Update: This was too good not to share. Thanks to local Austin author and About.com Entrepreneur Guide, Scott Allen for pointing out this great Lee LeFever YouTube video explanation of Twitter (with apologies to those with repressive IT departments):

I of course found out about this video from a Twitter tweet from Scott.

Emerson's Mike Schmidt, a principal safety consultant in the Refining and Chemical industry center, presented Beyond 2oo3: Multi-sensor Architecture in SIF Design at the Emerson Exchange. You may recall Mike from an earlier post.

Mike discussed several cases and applications where more than three sensors are used in safety shutdown applications. Redundancy was his first example where more than one sensor is being used for the exact same purpose. An example is separate temperature sensors installed on the inlets to multiple reactors, perhaps because of fears of common cause failure. In fact, all three of these sensors measure the same thing. The inlet temperature is coming from the same header, so it is the same for all three new sensors.

Separate hazards are those serving unrelated purposes or are at independent points in the process. There is no redundancy here. The only possible architecture for the sensors is to have three separate instances of one-out-of-one (1oo1) voting.

Mike built the case of three tanks with three inlet temperatures sensors coming off a common header and said it could be argued that the three could be considered redundant. However, three sensors on the tank outlets could not be considered redundant since they are monitoring for separate hazards.

When evaluating fault tolerances, it is important to consider the number of success paths. Parallel paths provide redundancy where serial paths with multiple elements have single points of failure. If you have three identical temperature sensors in parallel, it is like having a path with three in parallel in series with common cause failure. Using different types of sensors greatly reduces this common cause failure to provide much lower probabilities of failure on demand (PFD_AVG).

Mike discussed the case of a packed-bed reactor. These may be instrumented with ten or more temperature sensors to provide a temperature profile. The safety trip will be based on an abnormal profile. With advanced logic solvers, it is possible to perform the calculations necessary to reduce several measurements to profile parameters that can be used to trip a safety instrumented function (SIF). The profile is 1oo1 voting, but a rule might be that 8 out of 10 temperature sensors must be working to be considered a valid profile, so the PFD_AVG is based on 8oo10 fault tolerance.

A separate issue to consider from a safety mitigation standpoint is multiple sensors for localized problems, like hot spots or leaks. Considering packed bed reactor hot spots, it sounds right to say we do not want to trip the reactor based on a single temperature sensor fault. Although this may sound right, Mike explored the math behind determining the PFD_AVG. The example here is for an array of sensors installed to detect a hot spot within the packed bed, but it could just as easily be an array of analyzers around the outside of a piece of equipment installed to detect a leak of flammable or toxic gases.

He discussed the concept of the temperature sensors located next to the failed one. The sensors are primary for their respective zones and secondary for their neighboring zones. The key is to set up a separate safety instrumented function for each zone, which contains the primary sensor and the neighboring secondary sensors. This allow the reactor not be treated as a single SIF where any one sensor failure can trip it.

The math works out that no matter how many transmitters, and surrounding zones, the PFD_AVG calculations are based on primary and one secondary, even in the case of multiple secondary zones. The voting is one out the number of surrounding zones plus the one primary zone, and the PFD_AVG is always based on 1oo2 fault tolerance. No credit is taken for any of the additional secondary sensors in the PFD_AVG calculations.

Mike summarizes these concepts by saying the number of sensors required for a SIF can be optimized to achieve the necessary coverage and the required redundancy. Using more than three sensors for redundancy does not really help. It may be necessary for coverage based on the geometry of the vessel, but not for increased redundancy.

John Dolenc, a principal consulting engineer in Emerson's advanced applied technology organization whom you may recall from earlier posts, presented Estimating Benefits from Process Automation at the Emerson Exchange.

John began by discussing what types of activities are performed during a process automation modernization feasibility study. Project justification is one of the most difficult steps to complete.

Start with looking at the plant as a financial asset. Perform a financial balance across a process unit in the same manner as performing a material and energy balance. Capital enters a process unit in the raw materials, net utilities, operating expenses, and maintenance expenses. Value is added within the process unit. Capital flows out in primary and secondary products as well as the waste streams. After identifying the financial streams, identify areas that need improvement and determine whether better process automation can help.

Capital projects are justified by either increasing the revenue of the plant or by reducing the costs to manufacture the products. Revenue may be increased through increasing production capacity (if additional product can be sold), and increasing the yield of more profitable products while reducing lower grade product and waste streams. Look for capacity increases through being able to run closer to constraints by reduced process variability. Can you reduce unproductive time such as grade changeovers, off-spec blending and downtime for cleaning through better process control? Can you reduce cycle time for batch processes by better control of reaction conditions and eliminating wait time for operator actions?

Another method of increasing plant profitability is by working with the marketing and sales force to understand what your customers' value about your product. Can price be slightly increased if the product consistently meets specification and delivery schedules and emergency production is provided when needed?

Reducing costs are a big area of value creation. Some areas to look for cost reduction opportunities include increasing feedstock yield, reducing energy consumption, better use of direct and indirect labor, and limiting off-spec material, abnormal events, demurrage and maintenance.

These are the opportunities for automation project financial justification. So what are some benefit estimation methods you can employ? John mentioned the best operator method, data reduction method, and percent limit violation as three methods of estimation. The best operator method considers historically identifying key performance indicators at their optimum point. What are the "best operators" doing to make this happen? The key is to look for how to automate these best practices. Your project justification is the difference between operating at the "best operator" condition versus the historical average condition.

John went through an example of looking at batch cycle times, throwing out outliers caused by extenuating circumstances, and digging into the process automation that can be done to move from the average cycle time to the best cycle time.

He discussed the other methods, data reduction method and limit violation methods. With the latter, conceptually the results of the automation project are to reduce overall variability. This means you can run closer to your process or specification limit. This means operating set points can be set closer to these limits, thus reducing costs such as product giveaways and excess energy usage. The presentation includes some of the statistical methods to build your financial justification. John offered a rule of thumb that you would reduce standard deviation by at least 50% by improving overall control performance.

John summarized his presentation with these key points:

• Justification is difficult, but necessary to receive approval for automation projects
• Historical data collection is vital
• Build a base case
• Some "prediction" of results is necessary

I've highlighted the topic of plant turnarounds (planned downtime for maintenance) a few times in the past. Back from the Emerson Exchange, here's my take on the Smart Turnaround workshop. For continuous processes that run for years, this turnaround provides opportunity to update, fix, repair, and replace a host of plant assets including instruments, valves, electrical distribution equipment, connectors and cabling, and the overall performance of the process.

The Emerson presenters looked at the advanced planning that can be done from these various perspectives. From these diverse areas of expertise, diagnostic testing helps develop a turnaround plan that prioritizes critical asset work, defines the scope of work, develops the schedule for the work, and identifies the parts and people required to best get this difficult work done.

Chris Forland an operations consultant whose work I've highlighted in earlier posts kicked off the session discussing some of the challenges of the turnaround process. A big one is finding problems you didn't expect while in the turnaround. These unexpected problems cause extra charges and delays. Chris discussed ways that Emerson turnaround specialists can help with the detailed planning to make sure the work is efficiently performed during the turnaround. He noted that less time to plan mean less flexibility as the turnaround date approaches. Other challenges included maintaining compliance with safety and regulatory compliance, working with budget constraints, reducing process variability, losing experienced personnel due to infrequency of turnarounds, and pressuring of short turnarounds due to sold out condition of produced product.

Scott Grunwald, a turnaround business manager in the Instrument & Valve Services business, recommended that with the valves and instruments, you start by building the plan based on the benefits to be achieved the roles of all participants in the maintenance activities, and the prioritized list of activities and anticipated timelines. The process starts with a walk down of the facility. Next, FlowScanner is used to measure internal valve conditions to identify problems to address during the turnaround. When it's time for executing the turnaround, only valves needing significant work are removed. Other valves are repaired in place.

The team often brings an on-sight mobile trailer that is a self-contained workshop to rework the instrument and valves right on-site. This helps to expedite the repair process.

Looking at turnarounds from an electrical reliability perspective, Steve Metzger described the goal--to prioritize and focus the resources by pre-diagnosing troubleshooting, followed by the planning of the repair services and parts required to get the lead times properly. The key is to do as much pre-work as possible, fix what's possible, and remove it from the scope of the turnaround to lessen the pile of work to be done.

On-line partial discharge testing before the turnaround detects cables with degrading insulation that could cause short circuits and unexpected downtime. This testing helps determine which cables are OK and which need to be replaced during the turnaround.

James Beall, also highlighted in earlier posts, summed up the goal of a Smart Turnaround--to identify the items you can fix in advance, and prioritize what can't be in the turnaround plan. James and the variability management consultants look at the control performance and opportunities to reduce process variability through better tuning. James gave an example of a mixing temperature control loop where the deadtime was nine minutes between a change in setpoint and response the temperature was changing. The problem was not in the loop tuning but rather in the lag caused by the temperature transmitter being located 250 feet from where it should have been. Finding this early in the process allowed this installation mistake to be scheduled and fixed during the turnaround.

Chris closed this presentation with how you can look at the return on investment to help justify the experts required to make the planning and execution of the turnaround a success. It's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario since you don't know what type of ROI this turnaround planning can create without having the experts come in to begin the process of identifying improvement opportunities.

Chris has developed a model based on turnaround experience with typical costs from each of the aspects of turnaround planning and typical costs for the maintenance activities. This model is in an excel spreadsheets so that the assumptions can be easily changed to fit the unique aspects of each process manufacturer. Both cost avoidance and increased revenue from improved plant performance is calculated, each based on the size of the process and amount of equipment considered.

By taking a comprehensive planning approach, and getting an early start, turnarounds do not have to cause quite the number of gray hairs that they have traditionally been known to cause.

Update: Mitzi Amon, director of marketing for Emerson Electrical Reliability Services team adds that the prioritization is accomplished by performing online diagnostic testing prior to the turnaround to determine what electrical equipment needs to be serviced during the turnaround. This helps clearly define maintenance work scope during the turnaround and what can be done prior to the the turnaround.

I really enjoy getting the chance to present to at the Emerson Exchange. This year, I teamed up with Emerson e-Marketing manager, Deb Franke, to discuss the emergence of Web 2.0 applications and technologies. Deb and I have teamed on many initiatives over the years, including nagivating the path to make the Emerson Process Experts blog a reality.

Our presentation was entitled, Getting the Most Value from the Internet: How New Web 2.0 Tools and Techniques Can Help You Innovate. We have embedded voiceover notes in the presentation and separately in a presentation transcript.

Both sessions of the presentation were very well attended, even surprisingly, the 8 am Thursday morning session. These late-week, early morning sessions can get dicey given the catching up process with friends and acquaintances which have been known (I'm told) to carry on into the wee hours.

The premise of our discussion is that the web has been changing from a one-way monolog (Web 1.0) to dialogs or many-to-many conversations (Web 2.0). We explored two paths, information consumption and information production. From an information consumer standpoint, Deb discussed ways to be more efficient in finding the information you need to be more effective and innovative. The presentation includes short screencasts (no audio) showing how to subscribe to RSS feeds using Google Reader and how to get a jump-start in subscribing to all the automation feeds on my blogroll on the right side area of this page.

I discuss the information production path, discussing ways to un-trap the wisdom that is often locked in our email inboxes and sent items folders. One of the applications described is Del.icio.us, which also has a screencast demo.

In the spirit of contributing to those who could not attend, we've captured everything we discussed as well as the questions and answers from both sessions. These are available on an Emerson Exchange Resources page on this blog. We also include participation tips if you're ready to share your expertise with the world. If you have questions after seeing the presentation and other materials, join the conversation and add a comment.

For those planning to attend next year's event in Washington D.C., keep me posted on your Web 2.0 experiences, and perhaps we can jointly present.

As I did with the recent Live at the Emerson Exchange post, here is a roundup some of the posts from the final few days of the event.

Walt Boyes and the ControlGlobal.com team, provides a day three recap including an interview video with Lubrizol and Emerson technologists on embedding batch process analytics into the DeltaV system in real time. And the Sound Off blog has more on thermocouples and power plant modernization.

Gary Mintchell does a podcast that includes his impressions on the Emerson Exchange. This part begins at 8:50 seconds into the podcast. Gary discusses the keynote presentations from David Farr and John Berra, the press announcements on the smart turbomachinery health monitoring and its integration with automation systems like the DeltaV system to perform controlled shutdowns. He also discusses the wireless and Cisco partnership press announcement.

Peter Welander provides a day four recap that highlights the PlantWeb feedback process and how it is used to improve the product components of the PlantWeb architecture.

Dave Harrold of the AFAB Group offers another view on the value of the knowledge in the "graying workforce." He writes:

Most of the worthwhile knowledge among most of the gray haired individuals still working in the instrumentation and automation industry is the stuff they have learned in the past five or so years.

While I do agree that I have collected a lot expertise that is now not too valuable to others (older operating systems come to mind), I do think that we more "seasoned" professionals can recognize some approaches that may work better than others may. This wisdom can save quite a lot of wasted time and effort for less experienced automation professionals.

Whew, what a week! There was so much exchanging of wisdom by end users, Emerson local business partners, and Emerson technology and marketing folks. The queue is full as I look to share some of their expertise with you in the coming weeks.

Update: The ARC Advisory Group has nice summaries of the wireless and turbomachinery protection press announcements.

I'm in a standing-room-only session of Emerson's Marshall Meier's Web 2.0 in the Plant presentation. I'd mentioned this presentation in an earlier post. It's great to see the interest by the user community in this topic.

Marshall opened it up by discussing cool technologies that are coming on-line that you can use in your job in the plant. He defines Web 2.0 being about interactivity of the web sites, ease of use, and collaboration.

Marshall discusses the social bookmarking site, Del.icio.us and how you can easily tag content that interests you and discover what others have tagged. His example was tagging the ControlGlobal.com site. He next showed how you could explore what others who had tagged the same site, also were interested in. It's a way to discover new content from those sharing the same interest as you.

Really simple syndication or RSS was the next area he covered. He showed Bloglines.com as a web-based application to manage your RSS subscriptions. I was pleased to see Emerson Process Experts in his subscription list.

Next was a quick review of Wikipedia and the wealth of information it contains by the contributions of people around the globe. YouTube.com provides user generated video content.

Google Maps is an example of dynamic page content which size, scales, drags without having to reload the page.

Next was a quick demo of Flickr, a photo sharing site which also has tagging and RSS subscription capabilities.

After this quick tour, Marshall focused his presentation on how these could be used in a plant. Here's a few thoughts he suggested. Store your plant procedures on a Wiki. Bookmark procedures with a social bookmarking website. Another thought was to bookmark to links within your web-based process control and asset management applications.

Another idea Marshall had was add training videos on an internal video sharing/uploading site. He then opened up the floor to ideas from the audience. Collaboration using wikis seemed to be a popular discussion area. Given the technical expertise that automation professionals posess, this seems to be a natural path to explore.

This week I'm in Grapevine, Texas just north of the DFW Airport for the Emerson Exchange. In addition to the posts I'll be doing this week we have some esteemed bloggers including:

• Automation World's Gary Mintchell
• Control Engineering's Peter Welander
• Control magazine's Walt Boyes
• Intech's Greg Hale

There are more I'm sure and I'll do my best to keep track of them.

You can too by subscribing to this Google Blog search or Technorati Search, searching on the phrase "Emerson Exchange".

Update: Here's some links to good recaps of day one:

• Peter Welander's day one recap
• Walt Boyes' recap of David Farr's and John Berra's presentations.
• Gary Mintchell's recap on the keynote presentations and the press announcements.

Update 2: Here's the ControlGlobal.com day 1 wrapup including a video interview on a PAT-based bioreactor model partnership between Emerson and Broadley-James.

Update 3: I'm tremendously impressed with the editors/bloggers attending this event. My fond hopes for posting more often is tempered by the fact that it's very difficult for me to distill the wisdom I listen to in these sessions and make it understandable. The editors seem to do it with ease. I'll be cleaning up many partially written posts in the coming days and weeks as I review them with the presenters so that I can hopefully convey some of their wisdom.

Check out Peter Welander's day two recap, Gary Mintchell's wireless and asset optimization recap, Greg Hale's Cisco and keynote recap, and Walt Boyes' engineering revolution, Cisco announcement, and asset management. And, here is ControlGlobal.com's day two recap.

As reported in the DeltaV News RSS feed recently, Automation World magazine's C. Kenna Amos wrote an article, Getting Projects Approved. I know from my days as a systems engineer, that financially justifying a capital project was not nearly as fun as executing the project. Most engineers enjoy the action of seeing their work come to life more than convincing others to approve the capital to get the project going. They also are not typically versed in the language of financial analysis.

The article captures the wisdom of Emerson's Doug White, a vice president of advanced automation services. Doug and his team often assist process manufacturers in ways to help quantify return on investment for automation and advanced automation projects.

In the article, Doug notes:

The project has to be very attractive to be funded, because it will compete with others. The project has to show a clear and compelling return on investment.

Easy enough, but the trick is how to do this. Doug recommends that engineers work with the financial group to understand their selection criteria for capital projects. Basics for most projects include cash outflow analysis and when the return on investment begins. This is the basis for the payback calculations. Also, the capital proposal should include key non-quantifiable benefits often found in health, safety, and environmental (HSE) considerations.

The closer you can tie your proposal to key organizational initiatives, the more the proposal will be noticed more than others will. When it comes to presenting your proposal:

Begin by first defining the problem, then telling them why your project is important and giving reasons why it needs to be done, he emphasizes. Then--and only then--go into financials, beginning with the most likely scenario.

Doug has captured much of his experience in a whitepaper, Calculating ROI for Automation Projects. It comprehensively goes through the components of return on invested capital and how to calculate each component. Give this whitepaper a thorough review and you will be better prepared to have that conversation with the financial group.

For those of you going to the Emerson Exchange next week in Dallas, make sure to catch Doug's short course, How To Find The Economics For Process Automation Investments that will be held Tuesday at 2:15pm and repeated Wednesday at 8am. Here's the abstract for this presentation:

This session presents realistic approaches to automation project economic analysis and justification. The viewpoint is that of the business financial analyst. Specific areas where automation affects the business results are identified and quantified.

In an earlier post, I had mentioned that my colleague Deb Franke and I will be presenting at the Emerson Exchange (September 10-14, Dallas TX.) The topic is how new Web 2.0 tools and techniques can help you innovate (presented twice--Wednesday 3pm / Thursday 8am.)

There must be something to this topic, because I discovered that we're not alone. Emerson's Marshall Meier, a project manager for Foundation fieldbus projects involving Rosemount FF transmitters, is presenting the topic, Web 2.0 in the plant. You can bet I'll be at one of his two sessions (Tuesday 10am / Wednesday 8am.)

Marshall indicated the goal of his presentation is to introduce the audience to various Web 2.0 technologies, and give them some ideas on how those technologies could be used in a plant. Here's his submitted abstract:

In 2006, Time Magazine said YOU were the Person of the Year. "You" being one of the millions, maybe billions, of people in the world who are building Web 2.0. The web is no longer read-only medium, rather an interactive environment where the users both generate and consume the content. This workshop will introduce you to some of the most interesting Web 2.0 technologies out there.

Marshall plans to cover the definition of Web 2.0, various examples like RSS, social bookmarking, wikis, video sharing, maps, and photo sharing. These will include possible applications in plants. He'll be looking to have a very interactive session to explore other potential uses for these people-connecting technologies.

Marshall also shared that like me, he's a huge fan of RSS for its ability to bring information to him based on his interests.

The Emerson Global Users Exchange, or Emerson Exchange for short, is coming up once again. This year it is a month earlier than normal, September 10-14. I wanted to give it a mention here so you can make your plans to attend. On-line registration is now open. Two benefits of acting early are that you can save over 25% on the conference fees through July 30th and you can reserve your room in the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center and not be in an overflow hotel near the DFW Airport.

Like in years past, I expect that late night, spirited discussions will happen around some of the Gaylord Texan watering holes. It's much better if you don't have to leave the hotel to return to your room if you join in these.

I'll have an opportunity to present for the second year in a row, this time with Deb Franke who was instrumental in helping me get this Emerson Experts blog approved and launched. Our presentation is entitled, Getting the Most Value from the Internet: How New Web 2.0 Tools and Techniques Can Help You Innovate. The synopsis:

Explore the personal impact of the internet's latest communications technologies, dubbed Web 2.0. This session includes:

• A basic overview of each technology, its benefits and steps to give them a try
• Lessons learned from individuals and organizations already using Web 2.0 applications
• How to enhance your reputation by sharing you sharing your expertise through blogs, wikis, and tools

The presentation will cover some of the ways the internet is changing the way we consume and produce information and how we can use this to our advantage. It is becoming easier than ever for us to discover expertise via search and to make our expertise available. Given there are all kinds of innovations happening on a daily basis, we'll focus our discussions on what we have personally used and find valuable. We hope you'll join us.

Please add a comment or send us a note if you are using any of the tools dubbed Web 2.0 and find them valuable. We're always looking for good ideas to improve our presentation!

Also, check out this spreadsheet of over 300 workshops, short courses, and industry business forums that will take place. There is definitely something for everyone. Later this summer as the times and rooms are set and available on the EmersonExchange.org site, you'll want to map out what would be most valuable to you to make the most of the exchange.

I'm playing catch up this week after returning from a very successful Emerson Exchange meeting last week. I'm thankful that the board accepted my presentation, Finding What You Need Faster Via RSS and Blogs. One of the points I made is that we all have quite a bit of expertise that we can share.

Events like the Emerson Exchange allow us to come together one week out of the year to share this expertise with one another. That leaves an opportunity for 51 other weeks. Blogging is a way to share your expertise year round and to invite others to join in the conversation through your blog's comments.

It was fantastic to receive an email from Dave Harrold of the AFAB Group that he was inspired to share his wisdom with us in the blogosphere. Dave has vast experience as an automation engineer, with one of Emerson's local business partners, as a senior editor with Control Engineering magazine, and now as a freelancing writer.

Check out his maiden post, AFAB Group in now blogging and consider subscribing. I've also added Dave to the right-side blogroll as another member of our growing community of process automation and process industry bloggers.

As I also mentioned in the presentation, if subscribing via RSS is something foreign to you, spend five quick minutes with our RSS Starter Kit.

Now, back to catching up!

Todd Ham and Dan Lorenzo from Emerson's Life Sciences Industry center presented a workshop entitled, Large Project Execution. The focus is on sharing best practices for successfully executing large projects.

They define a large project as 10 or more engineers with more that 5000 engineering hours. The project schedule is typically measured in years and tends to have high visibility with upper management.

Far and away the most important aspect to success is the team leadership. Team leaders should possess technical expertise, managerial competence, and the ability to attend to problems early. Many different styles of leader can be successful, but setting upfront expectations is critical. Dan cites a balanced leader that is knowledgeable, but non ego driven, is willing to make and stand behind tough decisions, knows when to defer to the team, and provides an environment for the team to explore new ideas. This leadership style gives the project its best chance of success.

The next important step is to create a common message to breakdown the project complexities, to provide a clear, cross-functional set of objectives, and to help everyone understand their roles in achieving these objectives. Todd made it clear this is not "rah-rah" motivational sayings on wall posters, but rather a clear vision such as a world-class biotech facility.

The makeup of the team is very important. Most teams have a mix of experience and inexperience and personalities. It's important the leadership be engaged, reinforce the common message and direction, and deal with people issues head-on and early. Build a team with a balance of skills and personality.

Project indicators that things are going well include new ideas being suggested, measured progress being made, and people on the project generally seem happy. On the flip side, indicators that things are not going well include people acting differently in the presence of team leadership, the leadership being unaware of major issues, and people hoarding information and knowledge. It boils down to reinforcing practices that are yielding good results.

Finally measure and monitor what makes sense for the project. Items that are measured will get better. Too many metrics can do more harm than good and not move the project forward toward the intended objectives.

In addition to the many presentations and demonstrations Terry Blevins and Greg McMillan have been giving this week, they have also gotten out some more jewels on their ModelingAndControl.com blog. Greg has also been showing fresh off the press copies of his new book, Bioprocess Modeling and Control: Maximizing Process Analytical Technology Benefits.

Terry offers up a Basics of Advanced Control post including the overview from his award-winning Advanced Control Unleashed book. He notes that the proceeds from this book go to "universities, consortia, and educational programs to promote and enhance the development and use of advanced process control."

Greg tackles the issues associated with measuring pH in his post, Techniques to Improve pH Measurement Performance. He includes his thoughts on improving pH electrode performance and his unique humor on the top 10 signs of a rough pH startup. I like seeing his natural sense of humor coming early in the life of this blog. Keep it coming!

It's great to see this wisdom put out in blog posts and books. Check out their posts and add your wisdom in the comments section.

Here at the Emerson Exchange we're now into the workshops where process automation professionals, Emerson technologists, and Emerson industry, project, and application professionals share some of their experiences.

Dave Horan, has 17 years with Emerson's Rosemount division. Dave works with many of the engineering contractors on large projects on their instrumentation requirement. His presentation is on a shallow-water offshore project off the coast of Venezuela.

The project had a floating storage offloading, central processing facility and wellhead platform. The central process facility (CPF) basically cleans up and separates the produced fluids from the wellhead platform. Produced water and some gas is re-injected to the reservoir to help keep the production flowing.

The largest problem in this project was 40 skids coming from 23 vendors located on 2 continents. The number of possible permutation in types of instruments is huge given so many skid suppliers. This would create a real training and maintenance headache to support these once the CPF was started up. The challenge was to manage the skid vendors to standardize on a set of instrumentation to reduce the permutations.

For the Rosemount transmitters, up front planning was done with the oil producer's engineering team to pre-select appropriate instruments that could be used by all the skid vendors. For this project, all skid vendors had the same project manager in Emerson's Rosemount organization, to specify and purchase the transmitters. Standardization was enforced for model numbers, materials, mounting brackets, and local indicators to name a few instrument selection parameters.

The project management group provides project managers, engineers, project documentation, quotations, data entry, logistics and other functions/deliverables required to achieve the project milestones.

The goal to reduce the variations of instrumentation was achieved meeting the project objectives of an on-time project and minimizing training and ongoing maintenance.

We're off to a great start at this year's Emerson Exchange 2006 at the Garylord Opryland in Nashville.

To see some excellent summaries from the leading journalists in our industry, check out these blogs:

• Walt Boyes' Sound Off!!!


• Greg Hale's Talk to Me


• Gary Mintchell's Feed Forward