Yokogawa claims ambitions on track

Prague – Yokogawa Electric Corp. is on schedule with its previously stated plan to become the world’s largest supplier of industrial automation (IA) in its target sectors by 2010, officials claimed at its recent User Conference in Prague.

Harry Hauptmeijer, president of Yokogawa Europe BV, said the event, on 24-27 Oct, was attended by around 150 end users — up from 25 at the first staging in 2002. The rising attendance, he said, was “almost parallel" with the company’s business growth in the company’s key markets — oil & gas, LNG, refinery supply, chemical plant, life science and power plants.

According to Satoru Kurosu, vice president of marketing for the group’s IA business, first quarter orders came in at Yen58.11 billion (Euro385 million), 40% above the prior year level, while first quarter sales were 7% higher at Yen47.9 billion. He forecast that the Tokyo-headquartered company would hit its target of 10% growth per annum throughout this fiscal year to March 2007.

"Over the past two years, we are getting confidence from clients and then getting orders. In the US, which is the most competitive markets, we are [currently] getting a $100-million order, which is quite a significant order," the Yokogawa VP stated.

Yokogawa, continued Kurosu, is now automating some of the largest oil terminals in Europe -- including the UK and Italy -- and growing its presence in the US sector. The progress, he claimed, reflects Yokogawa’s strong technology position developed over the years in Japan, which imports a lot of energy.

The Europe petrochemical sector represents another growth area for Yokogawa, which has established business with majors such as Sabic Europe of The Netherlands and Degussa in Germany, he added.

"Generally speaking, the economy is good for all of the sector but on top of that we are now ready to market ourselves worldwide. To achieve a large client base needs a lot of support and we now are ready to offer this support," stated Kurosu.

About a year ago, the company reported IA sales from 2005 of just over $1.9 billion (Euro1.5bn), comprising 55% from Japan, 23% elsewhere in Asia, 14% Europe and 8% the Americas. By 2010, however, the share of sales in the domestic market is targeted to fall to 30%, under the Japanese group’s global expansion plan.

At this year’s event in Prague, Yokogawa highlighted its launch of two technologies; the development of CENTUM CS 3000 R3 Release 3.08, and the Consolidated Alarm Management Software for Human Interface Station (CAMS for HIS).

The CENTUM CS 3000 R3 Release 3.08 represents an updated version of the company’s flagship integrated production control system. This features enhanced functionality, which allows the integrated use of data from throughout a plant and eases the task of creating an environment for monitoring plant operations.

The new version also features an alarm & event integration function that is designed to sends only optimal alarms to the right person at the right time. This, said Yokogawa, can counter the increased number of alarms that are generated as a result of system integration.

Yokogawa’s new alarm management software is based on the Consolidated Alarm Management System (CAMS) concept. This development, the company claims, offers a real-time alarm management function that works in harmony with a DCS and provides multiple approaches to alarm management.

Manufacturing plants are increasingly suffering from alarm overload, with operators having to monitor wider areas and deal with more alarms. Without rationalisation, alarm flooding becomes a real danger, increasing the risk of safety and environmental incidents.

Yokogawa claims its CAMS for HIS software offers a new approach for creating an environment in which operators “can see clearly, know in advance and act accordingly.” Operating efficiency, it said, should be improved under normal conditions, with operators freed from tedious, repetitive tasks.

The real-time system is designed to integrate the acquisition of all alarm and event (A&E) data, then normalise and reclassify it to eliminate any incompatibility. It also allows users to add useful alarm attributes such as names, alarm purposes and allowable time before action.

The A&E data is consolidated, with removal of redundant alarms and suppression of nuisance alarms, and enables the operator to focus on important alarms through filtering, sorting, eclipsing, shelving and load shedding, said Yokogawa.

The new CAMS concept provides bottom-up flexibility without denying users a top-down approach to design by defining good alarms with attributes such as purpose, consequence and priority, the company added.

According to company officials, the alarm management system offers “a practical and sustainable environment where operators can see clearly, know in advance, and act with agility.”

The CAMS concept embodies this new approach and helps customers avoid potential safety and environmental incidents caused by alarm overload. It also enables customers to improve operational efficiency under normal conditions, freeing the operators of tedious repetitive tasks and allowing them to focus on true process concerns.