Downturns and recessions are no match for courage
and concentration.
Despite the worst economic downturn in more than
70 years, Emerson Process Management’s executive vice
president and business leader, Steve Sonnenberg, reported
that his company is reconsidering its technologies, focusing
even more closely on how users actually use its solutions,
and is releasing dozens of targeted products based
on these reassessments. The results of this bravery might
be some of the most ground-breaking and useful products
ever introduced in process control and automation.
“Frankly, automation suppliers have not designed products
built around the actual ways projects are executed and
the ways plants are run,” explained Sonnenberg. “Advancing
products features are important, but designing products
around how people use them is critical. I’m so excited
about this week because Emerson Process Management
is introducing one of the most important advances in process
control in the past decade or more. And I don’t simply
mean the products themselves, but also the way we’re
approaching new product development. So, I’m proud to
introduce the first of many products designed with you in
mind—the new Delta V. Now things might not look that
much different from where you’re sitting, but I can assure
you it is the biggest advance in control system I/O since
the advent of bus technology. Maybe bigger.”
Sonnenberg delivered his welcoming keynote address
on the first day of the 2009 Emerson Global Users Exchange
on
Sept. 28 at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention
Center in Orlando, Fla.
Despite the severity of the world’s ongoing recession,
Sonnenberg reported that more than 1,600 people are attending
this year’s exchange, and that the week’s agenda
includes a record number of presentations and short courses. “I think the theme of ‘Engaging Minds, Amazing
Results’ is excellent because it speaks to the power of engaging
the thousands of years of experience and knowledge
of the people at this conference and applies this collective
knowledge to issues that you’re individually experiencing today,”
said Sonnenberg. “The purpose is then to translate this
knowledge into amazing results when you bring these ideas
back to your respective companies. This is the secret to the
success of this Exchange.”
However, the overall economic events and challenges
in late 2008 and the first three quarters of 2009 have been
daunting, to say the least. “ Most of us have experienced the
worst downturn of our careers,” said Sonnenburg, while saying
the worst should be over. “We feel our business is beginning
to bottom out, and that 2010 will be a year of slow recovery,”
he said “We continue to manage overall costs to enable
us to invest heavily in product development, acquisitions and
customer support activities.” He noted the new Fisher Flow
Technology Center that can accommodate up to 36-in. lines
sizes and pressures up to 3,500 psi, successful completion of
the Qatar Gas II project, which is the world’s largest LNG
project, and for which Emerson was the main automation
contractor, and the acquisition of Norway-based Roxar this
past April as examples of that.
Sonnenberg reported that the company is launching numerous
products at this week’s Emerson Global User Exchange.
These include a variety of new wireless devices;
Foundation fieldbus functionality for SCADA applications
from the company’s Remote Automation Solutions group; a
new version of AMS Suite Asset Portal, a web-based interface
for plant asset management; and Micro Motion Division’s
new Insertion Liquid Density meter, which provides improved
accuracy when measuring corrosive acids and alkalis.
Sonnenberg added that what’s most rewarding about Emerson
Process Management’s new products is the difference
they make in users’ jobs and lives. “For example, one of our
customers operates offshore platforms in the North Sea, and
one of their work practices was to manually measure annulus
pressure of the wellhead at every eight-hour shift change,”
he said. “They tested out wireless monitoring devices and recently
outfitted their platforms with comprehensive wireless
monitoring for pressure and other variables. This gives them
much more accurate and timely data, and most importantly,
it improves safety for the workers.”
However, despite these and other successes, Emerson Process
Management still had many other challenges to meet,
according to Sonnenberg. “In my first year as business leader,
I had the chance to travel the world and learn about our customers’
pain points and how the recession had affected them.
This gave me a personal context for the research we do each
year to understand how our customers use our products, and
how we can provide solutions.” he explained. For example,
Sonnenberg reported that he recently met a young CEO at
a Middle Eastern petrochemical company that was planning
a major expansion. However, he said that many of his operators
had little automation experience, and so he needed products
that didn’t require much process experience. Likewise,
Sonnenberg added that a senior manager at a large German
chemical company told him that his plants also were upgrading,
but that much of his automation expertise was leaving
due to retirements and downsizing. He said their main automation
objective was to ‘drive the car, but not build the car.’
This means Emerson should be responsible for providing our
customers with a nice, smooth and safe ride. The technology
under the hood isn’t as important as knowing if there is an issue.
And, if there is an issue what can be done about it.”
Sonnenberg believes the process control and automation field has made many advances over the years, but that it
might have paid too much attention to product features and
to little attention to how products actually get designed into
plants and how they’re used there every day. “Most of the automation
technologies developed in the past 30 years weren’t
developed based on work practices. They were developed
based on features,” said Sonnenberg. “Don’t get me wrong.
Our industry has come a long way in the past 20 years, and
we should all be proud of it. However, the vast majority of our
advances have been around technology features without considering
how users interact with those technologies and how
these products are used.”
*Reprinted from the Exchange Reporter, Septemeber 29, 2009
