Emerson launches ‘iOps’ control room
22 Apr 2014
Emerson Process Management earlier this month introduced its Integrated Operations – or iOps – initiative to its European, Middle East, and African customers at its Users Exchange event in Stuutgart, Germany.
The Integrated Operations control room allows plants in tough or remote locations to be controlled remotely through technology such as video conferencing.
“Running safe, profitable production operations, is becoming increasingly challenging in the locations our customers are working in,” said Peter Zornio, chief strategic officer of Emerson Process Management.
“These locations are sometimes referred to as the `Four D’s’: dull, distant, dirty and dangerous. These are often places few people want to go. The cost and scarcity of skilled workers just compounds their challenges.”
The real opportunity is the formation of cross functional collaboration centres that bring together decentralised expertise
Emerson’s Jim Nyquist
To overcome these challenges, he said manufacturers were turning to a new model called Integrated Operations (iOps) – defined as co-location of cross-functional teams based in more desirable locations, collaborating with tools such as video conferencing and other applications, accessing real-time process and asset data.
To address this market, Emerson has developed a real-world lab called the iOps Centre, with which it combines consulting services to help customers envision, plan and execute their own iOps strategy.
“Customers have steadily seen operational improvement for years by deploying smart automation technologies that provide them more data ? more visibility ? into what’s really happening,” said Jim Nyquist, group vice president for Emerson’s Process Systems and Solutions business.
“But data alone isn’t enough. The real opportunity is to imagine new organisational workflows, like the formation of cross functional collaboration centres that bring together decentralised expertise to enable better, faster decision-making. That’s iOps.”
