Learn more about Project Certainty.
You have heard the stories — or you have told them yourself — about
capital projects burdened by startup delays and excessive costs.
Decades-old project methods are not helping anymore.
Today, successful integrated project execution—whether a greenfield
new build, a modernization, or a migration—requires all of us to go
beyond traditional thinking.
Emerson’s Project Certainty approach provides a path to better
project results by eliminating cost, accommodating late changes,
and reducing complexity. The following stories should make it easy
to envision your own future project
savings and successes.
PROJECT CERTAINTY
Expert Partnering
Early and ongoing
collaboration with experts
develops a project vision
that drives organizational
consensus. Each key
stakeholder moves forward
feeling project ownership, a
commitment to goals, and a
project strategy that will help
meet those goals.
READ MORE >
Accommodate Change
Project changes are
inevitable and frustrating. For
example, when an I/O design
change is requested a week
before system configuration,
what is the impact? With the
right strategy, you can absorb
these changes — and many
others — without impacting
the schedule.
READ MORE >
Reduce Complexity
Complexity among suppliers
and technologies drags down
progress. But by eliminating
bottlenecks you promote
concurrent work streams. And
similarly, innovative project
management technologies
mean reduced complexity in
data and documentation.
READ MORE >
Accommodate
Change
PROJECT
CERTAINTY
Reduce
Complexity
Eliminate
Cost
EXPERT PARTNERI
NG
EXP
ERT PARTNERING
Eliminate Cost
Innovative engineering
practices and design
eliminate costs associated
with hardware, the labor to
install it, and the effort to
maintain it.
READ MORE >
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Innovative and experienced partners brought to a project
early, such as in the FEED stage, can put measures in
place to drive strategic alignment. By setting the project
requirements early, application expertise and local and
global engineering teams all work toward project execution
and operations goals.
Working closely
with Emerson, Boliden
achieved a 20% increase
in production
without missing any
project deadlines.
Expert Partnering
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Time to Update
A European chemical company knew its existing control system
was being phased out. After working productively with the
Emerson team, management saw the benefit of migrating to
Emerson’s DeltaV™ distributed control system (DCS).
The facility employs a complex batch process to manufacture
plastic additives used in products such as PVC. To maintain
production, timing of the cutover and DCS migration was critical.
As the project team began considering how to reverse engineer
the system design and migrate, they were up against a very tight
15-month project schedule and a shutdown period of 2.5 weeks
for installation, SAT, and start-up. They also needed to redesign
the batch implementation to be ISA-S88 compliant.
Familiarity Breeds Ease
Thanks to past successes and good chemistry between the two
project teams, Emerson was the organization’s choice to partner
with in this migration. Management trusted Emerson to use
its expertise to assist in taming the project complexity and in
optimizing the batch strategy.
The project would include full configuration standardization with
DCS reverse engineering, configuration, virtual FAT, start-up and
commissioning, plus using DeltaV Batch Analytics for process
optimization for recipes and transitions.
Emerson’s expertise made the project
less complex and met the goal
of an optimized batch strategy.
Local and
Remote
Expertise
The Emerson
engineering work
cell, fully dedicated
to the project, based
enhancements of the complex
batch recipes on the Emerson
standards library to streamline the work
and assure the use of best practices. Expertise combined with the
library delivered a complex batch design that complied with S88.
Because the facility and Emerson teams had to work tightly together,
they needed a way to share files and communicate effectively.
Reducing the complexity of communication, Emerson’s Remote
Virtual Office (RVO) collaboration platform provided secure, reliable,
distributed engineering of automation projects on a common
infrastructure that reduced overall project schedule, cost, and
risk. Project stakeholders from both companies could look at the
configuration — facilitating adoption and reducing training.
The RVO environment was also used to complete a virtual FAT. The
project team was able to stay at the plant and continue to manage
production during the FAT. The results included reduced travel,
expert Emerson guidance, and less time away from the operating
plant for personnel. Testing was completed in segments; while
Emerson was working on the next segment of configuration, plant
personnel were testing the completed configuration. This helped
ensure consistency and maintained the pace of progress.
Expert partnering and teamwork delivered the successful project
on time.
Chemical Manufacturing (Europe)
Team Chemistry and Expertise Overcome Complexity
Learn more about Project Certainty.
A Well-Used Smelter Seeks
New Strength
The smelter in Odda, Norway has been in operation since the
1920s. Boliden, the current owner, now employs the smelter to
supply Europe’s steel industry with zinc. Always on the lookout
for improvements for their customers, Boliden planned to
reduce process bottlenecks and increase automation flexibility
in their operations through a project named P200.
Maneuverability, accuracy, and planning experience were required
to execute the automation and process improvements no matter
the level of changes throughout the project. For the sake of
customers and profits, extending the project beyond the schedule
was not an acceptable option.
A Migration, an Upgrade, and a Boost
in Output
Boliden was bold in their goals. Their choice of automation partner,
Emerson, had to be just as bold in their execution. Immediately,
Emerson gathered local and global resources to optimize the
project execution strategy; the Emerson work cell was dedicated
DeltaV™ distributed control system (DCS) migration: An outdated,
non-Emerson control system was controlling many smelter areas,
including the most critical– the roaster. Because that control system
was leading to waste, Boliden scheduled a migration to the DeltaV
DCS during a planned maintenance stop. Roaster migration had to
be complete in ten days. DeltaV CHARMs helped accommodate all
I/O changes and were installed in existing DCS cabinets. Software
testing was performed upfront.
Upgrade to latest DCS software: Meanwhile in the leaching plant,
an existing DeltaV DCS was operated from one large control
room with many smaller remote control rooms. The network was
Expertise Helps Accommodate Late Process Changes
Boliden (Mining and Metals, Norway)
complex. Boliden
requested Emerson to
complete the upgrade
to the new DeltaV
software version in a
short eight-hour stop
to the plant— including
system shutdown,
hardware swapping, and
software adjustments. No
problem. The dedicated Emerson work
cell upgraded the full system and swapped 4500 I/O in two and a
half hours.
Expand automation to boost production: As automation was
added to manual areas of the facility, Boliden optimized the plant
design through advances in techniques and technologies.
Ready for Another Hundred Years
Overall, a combination of local project execution, global support,
and close partnership between Emerson and Boliden produced
success and met the schedule deadlines. Thanks to improvements
implemented across the facility in many systems and processes,
Boliden increased Zinc production from 160 thousand tons to
200 thousand tons — a 20 percent increase in production.
“With three projects as complex as these,
missed deadlines could have happened, but
neither Emerson nor Boliden Odda would let
that happen.”
- Sverre Strand, Boliden
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Profits on a Razor’s Edge
Accuracy and speed matter in a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
terminal — an environment of razor-thin margins. Because LPG
prices can move quickly up or down, terminal operating companies
recognize their profits depend in part on the company’s ability to
move product through the terminal efficiently to meet changing
customer needs.
Seeing increases in global energy usage and geographic
imbalances between production and consumption, an LPG
terminal decided it was time for an update. They set priority
on reliability of the end process, the movement of data and
product, and the project automation team with whom they
would partner.
Improvements on the Horizon
The organization knew they could improve operations by fully
replacing the old locally built control system. They also wanted real-
time delivery data for their customers while optimizing lines to create
more efficient transfer operations for ship, truck, and rail terminals.
Complicated, yes.
Expertise and the Remote Virtual Office
Reduced Project Complexity
As the project started, a dedicated Emerson team partnered
with the LPG team to discuss goals for the enterprise and for the
project execution. Relationship and understanding the terminal
business model were important. A high-speed terminal such as
this must avoid shutdowns, so communication, expertise, and
planning were vital to prepare the team to respond to project
issues and keep the terminal online as much as possible.
In addition to preparing the team to
engineer, operate, and maintain the control
system, RVO sped up the project by removing
complications in FAT and implementation.
Reduce Complexity During and After Project Execution
Oil & Gas
Emerson’s project
execution strengths
enabled execution
with high confidence
of success. Emerson’s
local presence
and global capacity
meant a large group of
commissioning resources
were available at the right times
to work in shifts. Resource flexibility
allowed the schedule to be met.
The global project team benefitted from Emerson’s Remote
Virtual Office (RVO) — a dedicated, secure engineering
environment accessible by Emerson and its customers. Using
RVO, operators, maintenance, and technical personnel (locally
and at company headquarters) could participate in the project.
In addition to preparing the team to engineer, operate, and
maintain the control system, RVO sped up the project by
removing complications in FAT and implementation.
After 33,000 project execution hours spanning just nine months
and a 1.5-week shutdown, the LPG’s routings are safe. And the
organization can satisfy customers with real-time data and an
optimized process. Thanks to expertise and partnership.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Setting the Bar High
When an oil and gas company began developing a new offshore
platform, the organization had a very specific list of needs for a
project partner.
The company was looking for a partner that could meet its
preselection criteria to ensure the expertise necessary to help
complete the project on time and on budget. It was essential that
any partner already have a history with the organization, show
significant technical and execution differentiation, and have a
local presence for sales and service.
By selecting a company that would meet its global standards,
management set the project up for success from the very beginning.
The Benefits of Partnership
Management wanted the platform delivered on time. Absolutely no
delays were acceptable on the project, as each day past the first oil
target meant millions of dollars in lost revenue. The organization
looked to Emerson as a strategic partner.
Through numerous previous projects with the company, Emerson
had customized its Project Management Office (PMO) to create a
customized toolkit. Using this toolkit, the implementation team
was able to get a jump-start on developing documentation in
support of the FEED stage, allowing the company to reuse nearly
70% of project documentation from previous projects.
The platform design had substantial weight and space restrictions.
Any added equipment was scrutinized to the inch and ounce, yet I/O
was numerous and complicated. The company selected Emerson’s
DeltaV™ Electronic Marshalling with CHARMs technology and field-
mounted junction boxes, as they were the only equipment on the
market that could satisfy the platform’s constraints.
In addition, Emerson had already done work in the field where the
Field wiring flexibility that
the team built into its system
accommodated late receipt
of essential EPC data, with
the changes having no
impact on meeting the first
oil deadline.
Collaborating for Success
Oil & Gas
platform would be located.
The organization valued
the sales and service office
that had been established in the
vicinity, as it meant immediate access to
a wide range of subject matter experts.
Proven Partners Mean Proven Results
By choosing to work with an expert partner in its project, the
organization gained the ability to delay decisions far into the
process. In one instance, the implementation team received
essential data from an EPC four months behind the agreed project
schedule. However, the field wiring flexibility built into the system
accommodated this, with the changes having no impact on
meeting the first oil deadline.
Beyond reduction of schedule risk, management’s decision gave
the organization flexibility in project execution. Getting a jump
start on the development process provided a clearer idea of
what things would work and what ideas needed to be adjusted.
Field wiring flexibility provided the means to make the necessary
adjustments, even late in the project.
Altogether, the organization estimates that its expert partnering
choice saved the company a minimum of $10 million over the
course of the project. But even more importantly, key project
choices allowed the company to develop a state-of-the-art offshore
platform that meets each and every one of its critical requirements.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Lives Depend on the Results
A European pharmaceutical company initiated a project to bring online a
new biopharmaceutical production center. This fast-track project had to
be completed — from design to production — within two years.
Engineers designed the bioplant manufacturing operation to
include upstream and downstream processes in addition to all the
supporting processes for media, buffers, and utilities. Managing
and documenting the automatic and manual activities involved
in production would require strong integration between the
manufacturing execution system (MES) and distributed control
system (DCS) so that a single batch record could be delivered
for each complex batch run, and so that engineers could design
recipes in one system rather than in multiple.
Bringing all the data and systems together efficiently would
require assistance from an expert partner not only with
experience in the biopharma industry, but with strong success in
integrating biopharma systems.
Multiple Systems, Multiple Teams
Working as One
The company turned to Emerson for expertise and solutions in
part thanks to Emerson’s Life Sciences Industry group and their
strong track record in implementing comprehensive DCS and
MES solutions in similar conditions with similar requirements.
Emerson’s local project leadership integrated resources using
common processes and tools. Emerson expertise included
additional global engineering teams in Europe and India to meet
the requirements of a complex fast-track project.
Key also was the fact that Emerson’s Syncade manufacturing
Delivering Relief to Patients
Life Sciences (Europe)
execution system and
DeltaV™ DCS could be
seamlessly integrated.
Seamless integration
enabled the project
team to shape and use
the two systems as if they
were one — spending less
time building, implementing,
and (later) maintaining the systems
and the documentation. Not only did the
solution reduce complexity through its native integration, but
it enabled the project team to absorb last-minute changes. The
customer’s project team saved engineering time because batch
design is performed in just one system.
Success
The team completed the project in the required timeframe
and the medications were introduced to patients soon after.
Not only did the solution reduce
complexity, but it enabled the project
team to absorb last-minute changes
because the two systems were well and
seamlessly interfaced.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Underestimating task times due to insufficient,
inaccurate, or late data causes late change orders,
rework, and multiple schedule extensions. But
manufacturers around the world have found Emerson
solutions not only accommodate change, they add
speed and flexibility, while reducing project risk and
ensuring a better start up.
Choosing Junction
Boxes mounted in the
field enabled Seplat
to save in labor costs,
documentation, and
cabinet design time–a
savings of $1.4M.
Accommodate Change
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Begin by Navigation through a
Difficult Market
In the turbulent North Sea, Statoil planned to erect a fixed platform
that would extract 60K barrels of oil per day from the Norwegian
continental shelf. Global market conditions at the time tightly
squeezed the margins of oil and gas operations and significantly
constrained costs. To succeed, the project would need to include
contributions from multiple international teams and hardware
components from several remote manufacturing locations.
Though Statoil recognized that execution complexity would be high
and project changes numerous, they also knew production had to
start as soon as safely possible. Project changes must be completed
accurately. And the evolving project must meet deadlines.
Lay Solid Solution Groundwork
To ensure profitability in the tough market, goals included project
efficiency as well as long-term operational and maintenance savings.
Statoil turned to Emerson for a fully remote, integrated DeltaV™
distributed control system (DCS) and DeltaV safety instrumented
system (SIS). Attractive also was the potential for maintenance and
operational savings with 200 wireless Rosemount pressure and
temperature devices as well as AMS vibration monitoring capabilities.
To create efficient communication among global groups —
accelerating design, testing, and commissioning — Statoil chose
Emerson’s Remote
Virtual Office (RVO). With
RVO, the team could
access project resources
and expertise regardless
of location and could
reduce travel time.
By decoupling hardware
and software, the project
team could put I/O
hardware in place well
before design completion.
Accommodating Change in Rough Seas
Statoil (Oil & Gas, Norway)
Preventing
Unplanned
Changes
from Risking
Strategic
Successes
Even with everything in place and
high-quality vendors working around the
globe, the project team experienced interruptions that could have
risked derailing automation success.
For instance, control I/O hardware was required before design
was final. Without DeltaV Electronic Marshalling with CHARMs
technology, that condition might have caused delays. Instead, the
project team created and delivered I/O hardware in standardized
junction boxes without finalized software.
In addition, because Statoil had chosen wireless devices, any
placement changes could be made quickly, and the plan reduced
wiring by 9200 meters.
To make up time from delays outside the automation area,
the project team used AMS Device Manager bulk transfer for
commissioning. In fact, commissioning multiple devices at once
saved about two hours per device.
Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) was performed safely,
confidently, and virtually; running all the normal tests without any
control or I/O hardware. Emerson’s virtual FAT mobilized resources
around the world and was complete in only two days with no
hardware shipping or rigging.
Statoil and Emerson personnel stationed around the world built a
streamlined team to align purposes, overcome cultural differences,
and apply technology to succeed through difficult conditions.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Battling a Cumbersome,
Complicated System
When the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) took over the EPF-50 sour
field gas and crude plant in northern Kuwait, the organization found
that significant changes were necessary if the company wanted
to continue its expansion. The programmable logic control (PLC)
system installed in the field, with approximately 3,500 SIS signals
(overall 6,000 I/O’s equipped), needed to be replaced due to non-
segregation of ESD, DCS, F&G, and HIPPS, as well as non-availibilty of
spares for future expansion.
With existing PLC hardware spread throughout the field,
management of the upgrade had to be handled very carefully. The
risk of unexpected changes during project implementation was high
due to the high number of I/O points KOC had to accommodate.
KOC needed an upgrade plan that would protect the organization
from cost and schedule overruns due to late-project changes
common to complex overhauls.
Complicated Projects Bring
Many Changes
Seeking to meet KOC’s desire for flexibility in mid-project change
“Emerson and their local LBP made it possible
for us to make continual project improvements
without threatening our schedule.”
- Kuwait Oil Company
When Change is the Only Constant
Kuwait Oil Company (Oil & Gas, Kuwait)
requests, Emerson’s
local business partner,
Almeer Technical
Services, recommended
DeltaV™ Electronic
Marshalling with CHARMs
technology. Confidence
in Emerson and Almeer
from KOC’s top management
led to the implementation of
Almeer’s recommendations. As old PLC
hardware was removed from the field, the temporary control
room was demolished and replaced with a permanent control
center. The flexibility of CHARMs I/O allowed the upgrade team to
incorporate all field devices into the new control system without
concern for signal type, preventing I/O issues from causing
delays. Electronic Marshalling made it possible for all changes,
including ones that happened after systems were installed, to be
accommodated without cost or schedule overruns common in
large-scale capital projects.
Stay Flexible, Stay on Target
KOC’s implementation team was able to reduce marshalling
cabinet footprint and significantly limit cross-wiring and running
new cabling, allowing them to make changes on the fly. Having
the flexibility to make these changes saved money and time. In
addition, the ability to make changes to engineering while the
plant overhaul was in progress has helped the organization to
build a system prepared for future expansion.
By working with an experienced, flexible local partner, KOC
made key choices that allowed for changes on-the-fly, avoiding
extra costs and the risk of running behind schedule.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
An Opportunity for Greater Business
Conditions crystalized for Nigeria’s Seplat Petroleum
Development Company to fill a growing demand for gas to
power via the nation’s power grid. Design, fabrication, shipping,
installation, and commissioning a new 150MMscfd gas plant
– complete with preparations for three additional trains to be
added as ‘plug and play’ – was completed in 18 months. A final
shutdown of ten days enabled the new and the existing plants to
be integrated to form a single plant.
In that short week and a half, many activities had to be
accomplished, including tie in, test, and commission of more than
700 I/O for both the distributed control system (DCS) and the
safety instrumented system (SIS). All went smoothly and Seplat
could set production at maximum from day one.
Seasonal Flooding Delays Construction
Seplat knew well that the rainy season leads to high ground water
which limits the ability to construct buried services such as cables,
typical to a traditionally designed plant. To avoid that issue in
the future, Seplat chose Emerson’s DeltaV™ DCS, Electronic
Marshalling with CHARMs technology, and its field I/O solution,
which eliminates long “home run” multicore cables.
In this solution, short runs of multicore cables from field devices
are connected to CHARMs housed in field-mounted junction
Placing field-mounted junction boxes
enabled Seplat to work in the bad weather
season and realize huge savings on labor,
documentation, and cabinet design time.
The result was a CAPEX savings of $1.4M plus
lowered construction and risk.
Big Savings Thanks to a Change in Plans
Seplat Petroleum Development Company (Oil & Gas, Nigeria)
boxes. Fiber optic cable
connects the junction
boxes to the control
room. The project team
replaced 265 multicore
cables with four fiber
optic cables.
Placing junction boxes —
preconfigured and certified
for zones 1 and 2— mounted in the
field meant that Seplat no longer needed to
construct a field auxiliary building that would typically house and
protect the I/O system hardware. Expected footprint requirements,
labor costs, documentation, and cabinet design time evaporated
to produce a savings of $1.4M, but more critical to Seplat were the
enormous savings on schedule and construction risk.
Accommodating Change and an
On-Time Finish
Another advance made possible by Electronic Marshalling with
CHARMs technology is the flexibility to leave I/O undefined until
closer to DCS start-up. By separating the I/O subsystem design
from the control strategy design, the CHARMs I/O Card allows
the field instrumentation design to begin long before the control
strategy is finalized. Because CHARMs enabled the project team
to accommodate design changes late in the project, I/O signals
could be modified without expensive change orders and negative
schedule impact.
The plant was commissioned in less than ten days and has been
running for over twelve months with no major issues. The on-time
finish and great project cost savings testifies to the certain success of
this project and contributions of DeltaV and CHARMs.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Large-Scale Coordination
When an energy company began a deep water development, the
organization knew that the project would be complex. The topsides,
hull, and subsea elements of the development all had very different
design requirements, yet would need to be connected with a
standardized integrated control and safety system (ICSS).
Management knew the complex project would require a committed
partner that could ensure global coordination, keep multiple EPCs
and OEMs on the same page, and streamline the modifications of I/O
design, package philosophy, and safety philosophy.
The organization selected Emerson as its ICSS supplier early in the
FEED stage in order to standardize its ICSS and all third-party PLCs for
all levels of the project. By selecting an integrated team with global
expertise, and including them from the earliest FEED stages, the
company took the first step to ensure project success.
Success in Partnership
Working with multiple EPCs was necessary, but also increased risk.
To avoid integration issues that could delay first oil, the company
involved the same Emerson integrated project management team
on all three main contracts: hull, topsides, and subsea. By using the
same team of engineers in development of the core operating sections
of the platform, the organization was able to provide continuity and
standardization across the different elements of the project.
Because Emerson had core experience with the organization’s
upstream projects from FEED to startup, the integrated project
management team was able to establish critical technology direction in
order to deliver a DeltaV™ distributed control system (DCS) integrating
with all levels of the platform. The team created standardized template
libraries to be used by all three EPCs, ensuring that template design by
the topsides EPC didn’t cause delays with the other EPC schedules.
The project management
team gained peace of
mind, as its partnership
provided access
to Emerson’s 24/7
commissioning, startup,
and spares support,
ensuring that unexpected
changes and project
speedbumps would not
stand in the way of on-
time project completion.
A Successful Partnership
Oil & Gas
Working with Emerson, the implementation team developed a
global network management plan, creating strict guidelines for
network addressing to prevent overlap that would lead to network
communication issues. In addition, design validation tests helped
ensure that any third-party vendor design was validated in advance,
avoiding significant rework during commissioning.
Teaming up to Deliver Results
Taking advantage of an expert partner able to leverage global
processes and tools delivered many key benefits. By planning
ahead, the organization was able to create a clear set of guidelines
and templates to keep all of the pieces of the project working
together smoothly. Standardization decisions made early helped the
implementation team avoid costly late-stage changes to the project.
Most importantly, the project team was able to optimize its execution
strategy to deliver the deep water development ahead of the planned
start-up date.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Today’s automation projects involve multiple
stakeholders, engineering contractors, and suppliers.
Automation systems and field technologies can add
frustrating roadblocks. But methods exist today to break
through the blocks — teams can achieve full project
success working together.
Thorough
documentation
planning led by Emerson
saves significant time
during I/O migration.
Reduce Complexity
Learn more about Project Certainty.
One Critical Decision can Lead to
Many Benefits
A European chemical manufacturer had been operating with a
legacy control system, that no longer met the company’s evolving
needs. The control system did not have the necessary features
to allow the organization to follow its new philosophy of putting
operators back in charge of production, helping them better
understand the processes they run.
Management knew that truly reducing complexity of operations
would empower operators to be engaged decision makers, but
they only had a 14-month window from design to delivery.
Doing More while Saving Time
Using Emerson’s Remote Virtual Office (RVO), team members
were able to connect to each other and to technology experts
around the globe. More than 20 worldwide project team
members could communicate and contribute remotely through
cloud engineering and virtual factory acceptance testing (FAT).
This environment not only saved on travel time and expense,
but also allowed the implementation team to perform FAT while
simultaneously redesigning process sequences to put operators
back in control of production.
Throughout the project, global contributors were able to keep a
close eye on each engineering step, ensuring that the new system
would deliver all the features the organization needed while still
streamlining and simplifying the human-machine interface the
operators would rely on.
The company chose to implement Emerson’s DeltaV™ distributed
control system (DCS) with Electronic Marshalling to simplify
conversion in the field, and to provide operators the full-
With operators fully
trained on plant startup
before commissioning,
the commissioning
period was reduced
to 4 weeks for a
project with over 4,000
I/O points.
Empowering Operators
Chemical Manufacturing (Europe)
featured toolset they needed.
The organization moved to a
decentralized structure, doing away with the auxiliary room and
implementing Electronic Marshalling with CHARMs technology
in field shelters, speeding up implementation by allowing the
transition team to avoid concern for I/O signal types.
Finding Solutions through Simplification
The migration solution that management chose allowed the
organization to simplify both the turnaround process and overall
operations at the plant. The transition team not only managed
to complete the entire project in its 14 month window, but also
managed to see higher output, more reliability, and lower costs.
Moreover, making smart choices that accelerated implementation
allowed the team to ensure that operators were fully prepared for
the transition. Operator training coupled with HMI improvements
reduced control system complexity, with the result that control
room staffing was reduced from 2 operators per room to 1.5,
freeing operator hours for other important plant tasks.
In any project, critical decisions made early can have significant
impact on success. By streamlining project management and
simplifying implementation in the field, the organization was able
to implement its operator-centric DCS without running over time.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Planning for Growth
To meet their customers’ needs for seasonal agricultural fertilizers,
a chemical manufacturer in the United States had to be ready for
the growing season. They planned for a facility expansion to supply
agricultural fertilizers, and if start-up was delayed by complications
or costs, the company would miss the season, miss opportunities,
and miss profits.
Commissioning Saves Time
and Money
As the company began planning their automation solution,
they recognized the success they had at other facilities using
Emerson’s DeltaV™ distributed control system (DCS) and AMS asset
management software. Emerson’s user-friendly and robust solution
was a natural choice for their current project.
Commissioning went much faster and easier than anticipated thanks
to Smart Commissioning. Before the new AMS Device Manager bulk
commissioning, the company used to commission devices manually —
one at a time for hundreds of devices. Multiple employees used to be
paid overtime to complete commissioning on time.
In the current project, however, HART devices were automatically
sensed with AMS Device Manager through the DeltaV DCS. Then,
The Season for a Less Costly, Less Complex Expansion Project
Success was driven by cost
savings and simplification made
possible by Emerson and AMS Device
Manager bulk commissioning.
Chemical Manufacturing (U.S.)
using AMS Device
Manager bulk transfer,
an implementation
team defined
configurations for
devices via templates
based on existing
devices. Configurations
were defined once and were
used many times on devices
throughout the expanded facility,
driving ease and consistency in
the process.
For loop checking, the combination of the DeltaV DCS and AMS
Device Manager meant that a single technician at a control room
workstation executed loop checks — without another technician
working in parallel in the field. The system automatically
documented all the steps and saved reporting time.
Time Enough for Unexpected
Extra Production
With their new capabilities, the organization completed activities
in one day that previously would have required a week. Ultimately,
commissioning was completed ahead of schedule with no project
overruns. Project resources could then be allocated to other tasks
on the project.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Ensuring On-Time Delivery
Mahou-San Miguel needed to modernize the control system it used
for reliable operation of its largest factory to face the challenges
of Industry 4.0. The brewery, the second largest in Europe, was
essential to the delivery of the top-quality beers customers had
come to expect from Mahou-San Miguel for the last 125 years.
Prior to the control system change, Mahou-San Miguel had to
invent various complicated methods to share data, making it
difficult to trace maintenance issues throughout the software and
to monitor and solve production issues quickly. The organization
wanted a control system that would be open for the easy exchange
of data with other systems.
Though Mahou-San Miguel knew it needed a change, the company
could not afford an extended outage that would disappoint
loyal customers. Over the entire three-phase, 5-year project, the
organization would have only a single shutdown window of one
week. All other programmed shutdowns would occur in phases
during weekends.
Make it Simple
Mahou-San Miguel selected Emerson after an in-depth study of
the state-of-the-art in automation technologies. Emerson’s expert
knowledge and DeltaV™ distributed control system (DCS) with
Electronic Marshalling and CHARMs technology, would allow the
company to plan a complicated control system migration, and
deliver it without extended production upset.
Implementing DeltaV and wireless communication allowed Mahou-
San Miguel to introduce flexibility into the installation of the brewery’s
control system. Electronic marshalling simplified the configuration of
I/O enclosures and prevented I/O problems from causing delays and
extending the planned shutdown window of the plant.
“By taking advantage of expert knowledge and key
technology, we were able to shorten our stoppage window
significantly. This meant we could deliver the upgrades we
needed without disappointing our customers.”
- Santiago España, Industrial Automation Systems Manager,
Mahou-San Miguel
Maintaining a Legacy
Mahou-San Miguel (Food & Beverage, Spain)
Emerson wireless
technologies enabled
the commissioning and
start-up of valve nodes
in the field, rather than in
the control room, saving
significant commissioning
time, and allowing Mahou-
San Miguel to maintain its short
downtime window.
Quality Results
Because Mahou-San Miguel couldn’t afford to extend its shutdown
or project deadlines, the plant’s upgrade project had to be done
right the first time. A great deal of effort and resources were
devoted to FAT testing, resulting in success.
By creating a detailed and personalized FAT procedure focused
on critical functions, and working with Emerson control systems
specialists and Mahou-San Miguel process specialists, the
organization completed its migration project within its short
shutdown window, in three different phases, without changes in
the budget or schedule.
A satisfied project schedule and no risk of product shortage
ensured that there would be only satisfied customers drinking
Mahou-San Miguel in Spain and across the globe.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Southern States cut
construction and wiring
costs by 40% over
what they would have
been with traditional
marshalling cabinets.
Increasing pressures require a more holistic look
at project costs. Emerson’s innovative services and
technologies find methods that reduce more than just
equipment cost, they eliminate work, improve efficiency,
and right-size engineer to reduce cost. In the end, your
project risk shrinks, as do overruns and lost revenue.
Eliminate Cost
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Samsung Builds for Flexibility
and Quality
Large pharmaceutical companies face manufacturing challenges due
to the difficulty in scaling production to adapt to changes in product
demand. Understanding those challenges, Samsung Biologics designed
a facility that would provide their contract manufacturing customers
flexible, reliable, one-stop services for process development, quality
control, and production manufacturing at reduced price, while
maintaining high quality and regulatory compliance.
Because Samsung needed to take advantage of market conditions,
the project schedule from system design to startup was very tight.
As they considered automation partners, Samsung valued Emerson’s
global project references, execution organization, and capability
in Korea, Asia Pacific, and globally. Samsung recognized the
opportunity to benefit from the DeltaV™ distributed control system
(DCS) and flexible DeltaV technology such as CHARMs.
Solution in the Field and in the I/O
Emerson and Samsung saved project time and costs by
implementing strategic technologies. In fact, by choosing DeltaV
Electronic Marshalling with CHARMs technology, and configure-to-
order I/O enclosures, the team reduced the project schedule and the
cost consequences resulting from late I/O changes at the site.
• Installation of field-mounted I/O enclosures: Wherever possible,
Samsung standardized on a specific I/O field enclosure design
to reduce engineering and installation work. Additional savings
came from reduced wiring required to connect junction boxes
to devices.
• Reduction in loop check and commissioning: Only one person
(rather than two) per instrument was needed to perform this
task, thus saving schedule time and labor cost.
Opportunity Becomes Value
Samsung Biologics (Pharmaceutical, South Korea)
• Reduction in late
changes to wiring: For
any late changes in
I/O design, CHARMs
simplified reassigning
I/O, Electronic
Marshalling meant less
rewiring and conduit,
and field enclosures reduced
the cost to run changes to the
control system.
• Reduced FAT time: Samsung successfully used a phased approach
for the FAT. Hardware and software testing was performed
separately as the engineering personnel were available, then the
tested elements were delivered as the site became available.
Don’t Meet the Budget, Beat it
Overall, the CAPEX savings was approximately $3M with project
schedule reduction totaling about 7800 hours and field installation
savings of 6000 hours.
Samsung realized that not only could they meet time and cost goals
for the facility start up, but future process operation and changes
would meet fluctuating customer demands. Electronic Marshalling
and CHARMs have proven to streamline changes and the junction
boxes in the field mean lower continued wiring costs.
“Our Emerson solution — completed under
budget and within the schedule — fully supports
our goal to offer flexible, reliable, one-stop
contract manufacturing services.”
– Samsung Project Team
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Letting Go of the Legacy
A global Life Sciences company wanted to take advantage of the
improved reliability and control possible in newer distributed
control systems (DCS). However, the operating system (OS)
running the DCS was no longer supported, and the old server
hardware wouldn’t allow for an OS upgrade.
Because of the high costs of production downtime required to
take the DCS completely offline for replacement, the company
found itself chained to old software and hardware. They needed
an updated solution that would not only deliver the newest
version of DeltaV™ distributed control system, but also allow
the company to implement future upgrades without concern for
hardware requirements.
Downtime means lost revenue. When forced to choose between
the systems they want and the uptime they need, many plants
simply make do with less. This company found another way.
Unchaining Hardware and Software
through Virtualization
The project team chose Emerson’s DeltaV Virtualization solution
because of the cost savings and opportunity to significantly
reduce downtime during migration. The move to virtualization
would dramatically reduce the company’s hardware footprint, and
would decouple hardware and software, allowing the organization
to easily perform updates and upgrades in the future. Workstation
and server failures would no longer be a concern, as new
virtual machines could be easily recreated in minutes, and
all management could be performed from a central location.
Virtualization would also increase disaster recovery capability and
improve availability site-wide.
The Virtual Solution to Real Cost Reductions
Life Sciences (U.S.)
Eliminating
Costs by
Eliminating
Hardware
By running DeltaV in
a virtual environment,
The organization was able
to eliminate project costs by
removing unnecessary hardware. Not
only was the company able to save hardware purchasing costs,
but the reduced footprint of the control system hardware meant a
savings in cabling, power, and cooling, as well as avoidance of the
need for a costly data center expansion.
More importantly, virtualization provided the organization with
the ability to build a test environment that ran parallel with
the legacy DCS equipment, meaning the plant could perform
its downtime tasks that required the old control system while
the upgrade team implemented the new one. Overall, the
virtualization initiative delivered the best of both worlds: avoiding
costly investments in data center and hardware expansions while
delivering improved performance and reliability.
Workstation and server failures
would no longer be a concern, as
new virtual machines could be easily
recreated in minutes.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Going Green with a Greenfield Plant
Wilmington, N.C.-based Southern States Chemical planned to
build a new, state-of-the-art facility on a neighboring site to
meet EPA regulations and expand production capacity. In order
to do away with manual operations, the organization would also
upgrade to an automated system.
As with any large-scale capital project, the greenfield plant
needed to be built to the best possible specifications while also
keeping down the expense of building a brand new facility. By
making some key choices in the early stages of the project,
Southern States was able to do just that.
Finding Savings in Flexibility
In the early stages of planning the new plant, Southern States
made a key decision. The organization found that it was able to
recycle major plant components from a nearby decommissioned
government munitions plant. By recycling components, Southern
States would be able to save an estimated 20% on the cost of
the new facility. However, in order to preserve this cost savings,
Southern States needed to ensure that integrating the old
equipment (and its variety of I/O types) with newly purchased
equipment would not delay startup or increase costs.
In order to keep down costs and risks of integration while not
sacrificing on performance, Southern States chose Emerson’s
Southern States cut construction
and wiring costs by 40% over what
they would have been with
traditional marshalling cabinets.
Cutting Costs by Thinking Ahead
Southern States Chemical (Chemicals, U.S.)
DeltaV™ Distributed
Control System
(DCS) with Electronic
Marshalling for its
control system needs.
Later in the project,
Southern States made
another key decision.
The organization chose to
implement Electronic Marshalling
with CHARMs technology, the first of
its kind in North America. Adding the flexibility of Electronic
Marshalling with CHARMs allowed Southern States Chemical to
terminate all plant I/O in 10 junction boxes located around the
plant. These junction boxes connected to the control room via two
Ethernet cables, significantly decreasing the necessary field wiring.
The flexible I/O of CHARMs offered the additional benefit of
allowing late engineering changes. In a number of cases, an
I/O point ended up in a different cabinet from the one that was
originally planned. Using CHARMs, the implementation team could
easily relocate the I/O module without added difficulty or cost.
Translating Choices into Savings
By choosing Emerson’s DeltaV, Southern States was able to
eliminate a number of project costs. Overall, the project’s capital
cost savings were significant. Southern States cut construction
and wiring costs by 40% over what they would have been with
traditional marshalling cabinets. In addition, the organization
was able to make a number of late-stage changes to the project
without incurring cost overruns.
Learn more about Project Certainty.
Project Certainty
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PROJECT CERTAINTY
Emerson’s Project Certainty approach provides a path to better project results by eliminating cost, accommodating late changes, and reducing complexity. The following stories should make it easy to envision your own future project savings and successes.