Conference attendance jumps 20%

An Emerson Process Management - User Events product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jun 4, 2003

The Manufacturing Excellence Conference was larger than ever this year: the growing reputation of this process industry automation and asset management event meant that 370 delegates attended.

The Manufacturing Excellence Conference was larger than ever this year: the growing reputation of this process industry automation and asset management event meant that 370 delegates attended - 20% up on last year.

Held at the end of April at the Tall Trees Hotel on Teesside, this larger venue attracted many new companies from the Teesside area, while retaining previous excellent attendance from companies in the North West.

Sponsored for 2003 by Emerson Process Management in co-operation with Huntsman International, Aker Kvaerner, Action Energy and the ISA England Section, the event drew strength from the diversity of interests and viewpoints represented.

Over 370 delegates registered, from 120+ organisations, with visitors from Finland, Kuwait, Denmark, Holland and Germany, as well as the UK, Ireland and the USA.

Seven separate lecture streams were available, for delegates to create their own programme and choose between speakers describing successful ideas to achieve manufacturing excellence, whether in the field of energy efficiency, safety instrumentation and legislation, or one of many different aspects of process control and process plant management.

Attention was by no means focused just on new plant, new technology or investment in upgrades: considerable time was spent discussing how to produce more product more efficiently from existing plant assets, by removing bottlenecks or by taking a new approach to the existing plant.

Interchange of user experience between industries showed remarkable similarities in the challenges and business requirements faced by process plant managers today.

Some flavour of the presentations can be seen from a few notable extracts.

Ole Abildgaard of NNE discussed the Novo Nordisk NovoSeven production plant built in Denmark within 18 months, using the NNE "Modular Plant" concept, and totally instrumented and controlled using PlantWeb with Foundation fieldbus, using around 1000 instruments.

Justin Ogleby of Solutia UK explained how energy management at his company's South Wales plant delivered cost savings of around $1 million a year, without any up-front investment.

Bob Dawe of Associated Octel gave a blow-by-blow account of the problems experienced in the first year of operation of his fieldbus-based plant in Ellesmere Port.

In one step he moved from pneumatic instruments and controls to PlantWeb architecture with DeltaV and Foundation fieldbus, in a Zone 1 hazardous area.

Andy Smith of Huntsman Petrochemicals presented a paper on his company's use of DeltaV Advanced Control to achieve better plant output and performance.

Smith stressed the usefulness of the DeltaV Historian, acting as "big brother", watching and recording plant performance, and what the operators have been doing.

But lessons can be learned by the operators, as they gain the feel of the plant reaction time: many times the plant needs to catch up with their actions, operators acting too quickly can overcorrect.

Some delegates took the opportunity of an afternoon tour around a Huntsman petrochemicals plant on Teesside, to see some of the results of the tools, techniques and ideas described later in lectures.

Lunchtimes and coffee breaks gave an opportunity to visit the manufacturers exhibiting their products and techniques in the "technology showcase" associated with the event.

This exhibition provided an introduction to nearly 30 separate manufacturers showing new techniques relevant to the industry.

A further Manufacturing Excellence event is planned to take place near Cork in Ireland in Autumn 2003, specifically concentrating on the pharmaceutical industry.

The next UK-based Manufacturing Excellence is planned for Spring 2004, again in the North of the UK - expanding further to bring in more stories of improved performance in process plants of any age.