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Conference to showcase users' experiences

An Emerson Process Management - User Events product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team May 5, 2004

This year's Manufacturing Excellence, the process industry conference on the benefits of automation and asset management, will be held from 15th to 17th June.

This year's Manufacturing Excellence, the process industry conference on the benefits of automation and asset management, will be held from 15th to 17th June.

Last year, two conferences were held, one in Teesside and another in Cork, Ireland: this year the venue will be near Birmingham, allowing easier access from both UK and Europe.

The Manufacturing Excellence conference brings together experienced engineers and plant managers from the process industries, their contractors and suppliers, to learn, share best practice, and network with colleagues in the industry.

Driving costs down and improving performance is essential year on year, and the conference will show how this has been achieved, using modern automation and asset management techniques.

Manufacturing Excellence 2004 presents the new techniques that can make tremendous efficiencies in how our plants operate.

The conference format will feature the approach, successful over the past six years, of multiple-stream parallel presentations, enabling each delegate to choose subjects to build a unique conference relevant to his interests.

In addition attendees have hands-on access to an exhibition of products, equipment and software provided by approximately 30 suppliers, to see some of the techniques described, in action.

Key topics of the presentations this year include: plant operation and maintenance, advanced control, increasing throughput, availability and quality, safety instrumented systems - IEC61508/61511, executing projects, process automation, safety, health and environment, energy efficiency, integration with business systems, benchmarking and best practice, regulatory compliance, new technologies and methodologies.

The main sponsors of the event are Emerson Process Management, Aker Kvaerner and the Institution of Electrical Engineers, with support this year from process industry manufacturers in the form of Huntsman International and BASF.

The sponsors also appreciate the input received from quasi-government and professional bodies such as Action Energy and ISA, the UK section of the Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society.

The conference programme is being developed at present, with papers already accepted from: Ineos Chlor, on generic process control; Brunner Mond, on introducing fieldbus; Huntsman Petrochemicals, on using online spectral analysis; and BP Amoco Chemicals, on what diagnostics users would like to see developed next.

Further papers will discuss the user's view of IEC61508, the integration of reliability-based maintenance, and the security risks of cyber attacks on control systems, plus many more.

Full presentation schedules are available on the conference website.

As usual the conference dinner and reception on Wednesday 16th June will be an evening to remember: both for the discussions and networking amongst presenters and delegates, and also for the after dinner speeches.

This year's guest speaker is Sir Henry Cooper OBE KSG, the former European, British and Commonwealth heavyweight boxing champion.