Energy Grabs Keynote Focus at WBF Event

TheWBF（www.wbf.org.)2009年取消了其年度北美会议，涉及去年的广泛旅行预算限制，以及WBF组织本身从一个不合适的伙伴关系中恢复的事实国际自动化协会（ISA，www.isa.org). But the WBF 2010 North American Conference rebounded strongly this year with a May 24-26 program at the University of Texas in Austin. About 105 engineers and managers were on hand at the event, but many agreed that the quality of the presentations deserved several times that attendance.

WBF-生产技术组织（以前称为世界批量论坛），致力于支持流程制造中技术和管理专业的过程自动化和运营需求。WBF促进了信息和知识的交换和发展，以帮助其成员成功并对行业产生积极影响。它被称为美国国家标准协会ANSI / ISA88批量控制标准的支持者，以及开发B2MML—Business To Manufacturing Markup Language (B2MML)—an XML (eXtensible markup language) implementation of the ANSI/ISA95 family of standards.

做你的一部分

Dr. Thomas Edgar, professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at the德克萨斯大学(www.utexas.edu), gave the conference opening keynote on Energy Awareness. After reviewing the state of energy systems, he raised a number of points aimed at challenging attendees to contribute to the work of building a more energy-responsible world:
•工程部门需要增加工程毕业生的能源智商。没有教导的课程，这么少了解所有技术和问题。
• The chemical industry needs to use renewables.
•工程师有很多机会为能源技术做出贡献。
•这是一个缓慢的过程;我们现在需要开始。
• Further, we need to develop a culture of personal responsibility vs. personal freedom for energy consumption in the United States (referring to how there used to be a culture of saving vs. the current culture of consumption).

Patrick Kennedy, chief executive officer and founder,oIlysoft Inc.(www.osisoft.com)历史学家和相关软件的San Leandro，历史学家和相关软件的供应商，给了第二天主题演讲。他的谈话也集中在能量上，然后搬到了project management. One takeaway is this observation, “The new (smart) grid is really about bidirectional communication between electricity generators and electricity consumers. The problems of solar and wind are that they are intermittent and require peaker generation for instantaneous smoothing of the supply, so power control in the larger scope is a dynamic control problem.”

Beyond the energy focus, other speakers homed in a variety of topics of importance to process engineers. Following is a sampling.

Ed Brown, project leader,Avid Solutions Inc.（www.avidsolutionsinc.com),基于Winston-Salem，N.C.的系统集成商，谈到“实施”Manufacturing Operations Management“妈妈是旧术语MES的ISA95描述，为制造执行系统. Big Bang is the usual implementation design, in which professionals swoop in and install a complete suite of MOM applications. This forces culture change in the organization; that is, it says to employees and managers, “You must change the way you work when you use this system.” It’s also expensive, running $250,000 for a plant and $10 million or more for a corporation.

But Brown provided an alternative to a Big Bang approach, suggesting that companies consider an evolutionary approach to MOM installations. The latter method has potential to reduce capital investment requirements. It allows companies to develop capabilities that best reflect business goals and objectives.

Jorgen Beck, automation specialist,NNE Pharmaplan., (www.nnepharmaplan.com.)a Denmark-based global consulting and engineering company, talked on “Fast & Reliable ISA88 Implementation of a Greenfield Facility.” Some benefits of thinking about your design based on an ISA88 model include: equipment is always in a well-defined state; phases are easy to design; different unit classes can use the same phases (as designed); and, you don't have to think about common resources.

Real knowledge

自动化供应商的高级批处理顾问Wayne Gaafar霍尼韦尔工艺解决方案（http://hpsweb.honeywell.com), Phoenix, presented “Using ISA88 to Automate Procedures at Continuous Processing Facilities.” He noted, “Real knowledge is in the collective intelligence of the operators.” Continuous plants have elements of batch, Gaafer said—just don't call it that—that include sequence, phase and transition. UsingISA88to define these helps document these pieces of the process, which is good, because out-of-date documentation is still a problem.

例如，在重组蒸馏火车启动时，将其分解为ISA88分析将有助于工程师找到改进启动时间和其他领域的机会。GaAfar观察到，您可以在整个工厂进行过程标准。您可以捕捉到标准化和降低可变性的知识产权。捕获这一点的原因不是通过自动化摆脱运营商。“我们永远不会摆脱运营商，我们不想。”

杰瑞桑托，顾问，乔治桑托咨询仪表, Saginaw, Mich., presented, “How To Implement MES Without Making a MESS.” Much of implementing MOM has nothing to do with technology, he said. Working with people and understanding processes is key.

Mark Weinmann, senior project manager for oil and gas companyChevron (www.chevron.com)，埃里克浓度，自动化供应商的应用工程师横河川公司（www.yokogawa.com/us), presented “A Well Oiled Interface—A Lubricants Manufacturer's Slick B2MML Solution.” B2MML makes a reliable interface, changes are handled more easily, and interface and message data “openness” allows for re-use on other projects, said the pair.

Robert Wojewodka, technology manager at specialty chemical卢布里兹尔公司(www.lubrizol.com), Wickliffe, Ohio and Dawn Marruchella, Delta V Batch product marketing manager at Austin, Texas-based controls vendorEmerson Process Management (www.emersonprocess.com.), discussed “Benefits Achieved Using Online Analytics in a Batch Manufacturing Facility.” There is much talk about alarm management, but what about analyzing the process to prevent alarms in the first place, the pair suggested. Use many statistical analyses, such as Dynamic Time Warping and other multivariate analyses, to send results back in single variables that operators and engineers can understand easily. In their project, the algorithms were done in the MOM software.

Discrete diversion

Systems Integrator的总监Chris Monchinski奥特曼ated Control Concepts Inc. (www.automated-control.com.), Neptune, N.J., moved the conference direction to discrete manufacturing from batch and continuous, during his presentation, titled, “ISA95 Enables Flexible Discrete Manufacturing.” Conjuring shades of StarTrek, he dubbedISA95the “Universal Translator.” In a project he just worked on, Monchinski convinced a client’s engineering department that ISA95 was the way to go as the model for design, but then had to go to the information technology (IT) department. He said it took a little convincing, but noted that “when you can gather engineering and IT around a table and each sees the benefits of moving data this way, it's good for the company.”

David Strobhar, chief human factors engineer at engineering services firmBeville Engineering Inc. (www.beville.com), Dayton, Ohio, and a member of the操作员性能中心(www.operatorperformance.org)是一家位于Dayton的Wright State University的财团，售前）在“操作员性能作为报警速率和界面设计的函数中，提出了一些研究的结果。自动化世界provided an early look at that report in the May issue(www.myenum.com/news-6951), with an additional podcast with Strobhar(www.myenum.com/podcast-6946.).

Other speakers at the conference included Dennis Brandl, BR&L Consulting Inc.; Dave Chappell, chief technology officer, Complete Manufacturing Associates; Niels Christian Andersen, specialist, NNE Pharmaplan; Ragunathan Kanagavelu, senior consultant, IBM; Marcus Tennant, principal systems architect, Yokogawa Corp of America; John Robert Parraga, global process technical consultant, Rockwell Automation Inc.; Joseph Maguire, lead automation engineer, Bristol-Myers Squibb; and Christie Deitz, senior principal engineer, Emerson Process Management.


奥特曼ated Control Concepts Inc.
www.automated-control.com.

Avid Solutions Inc.
www.avidsolutionsinc.com

Beville Engineering Inc.
www.beville.com

操作员性能中心
www.operatorperformance.org

Chevron
www.chevron.com

Emerson Process Management
www.emersonprocess.com.

Honeywell Process Solutions
http://hpsweb.honeywell.com

International Society of Automation
www.isa.org

卢布里兹尔公司
www.lubrizol.com

NNE Pharmaplan.
www.nnepharmaplan.com.

oIlysoft Inc.
www.osisoft.com

德克萨斯大学
www.utexas.edu

WBF.
www.wbf.org.

Yokogawa Corp. of America
www.yokogawa.com/us

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