Here is the first part of my interview with former head of Emerson Process Management, John Berra. Today is his last day on the job after 41 years in the industry. I hope you’ll hear more from his perspective as an industry leader in the future. The interview went longer than that, and you’ll see more in a couple of days here and at Automation World.
Many of you have heard by now that the founder and publisher of Automation World passed away Wednesday. Dave Harvey was a leader and well known fixture in the controls and automation space. He fought a courageous battle with cancer. He’ll be missed by us all. He’s also the person who took a chance on this country boy to build his magazine. For that, I’ll always be grateful. Here’s the tribute the staff wrote and a link to an online memorial for those who knew him and can’t make it up for the wake or funeral.
If you prefer to download audio, here’s that version of my essay taking off on the BP safety oil rig situation and the worm that attacked Siemens’ HMI/SCADA.
OK, my wife doesn’t read any of my blogs (thank God), but still I have to wish her happy anniversary for putting up with me for 40 years as of today (yes, we married right out of grammar school :-). All of you who know me can sympathize with her. (Yes, I remembered to get a card even though I’ve been traveling. And yes, I bought a present–thanks to Internet shopping. I’m not a complete social misfit–just partial. Yes, I’m taking her out for dinner. In return, I get to watch soccer.)
The June 2010 issue of Automation World is live on the Web. The first issue was June 2003. Can’t believe I’ve had this job for over seven years. It’s almost the longest tenure I’ve had in my career–and the longest time I’ve had the same position.
I’m home for a couple of days. I’ll recap the RSTechEd event in the next post with a caveat from Wes Iversen who attended the Siemens Industry event in North Carolina. I’m interviewing a bunch of people today to wrap up an article on real-time decision making.
During my visits this week, I was asked what makes AW different from the engineering magazines in the field. My first response which is actually the same idea we started with is that we look at the Why of automation. Engineering magazines are often product-centered. They tell you What. Sometimes they may get into How. But with the expansion of the Web that can give you What and companies more and more issuing papers on How, the independent voice explaining to the broader manufacturing engineering and management population Why you should look at new technologies and systems is the key. We started that way, and I still believe that we’re on the right track.
About 4,000 attendees greeted ABB Chief Executive Officer Joe Hogan as the Zurich, Switzerland-based diversified power and automation systems and components supplier kicked off its annual user conference, Automation and Power World. “There is hope at last (about the economy),” stated Hogan in his keynote address. “We are in a recovery, but it is still tenuous in the developing world.”
Hogan began with the state of the company in broad terms. He had reorganized the company about a year ago into five divisions. To get a sense of the size of the company just in the automation market, the “discrete automation” unit is at about $5.4 billion in sales–more than competitor Rockwell Automation in total, for example. It process automation unit adds another $7.8 billion to the corporate top line.
Much of Hogan’s talk, as well as many sessions and exhibits in the 100,000 square foot exhibition hall, focused on power and enery efficiency. The theme begun last year at the merged “Power World” and “Automation World” conferences continued this year–the confluence of power and process automation. This fact was backed up by Chief Technology Officer Peter Terwisch’s presentation at the press briefing where he threw in one process automation comment at the end of an otherwise power and energy focused talk.
While there was some talk of the recent acquisition of Ventyx acquisition, said to give ABB the tools to help manage energy better, the only news release was the announcement that ABB will invest $90 million in the United States to build a factory that will produce high voltage AC and DC cables. Executives hastened to explain that these aren’t your father’s cables. They are specially designed for such applications as moving electricity from remote power generation sites–for example wind turbine farms far out at sea–to places in the electric grid robust enough to handle the load.
Terwisch’s one comment about automation at the press briefing was to note the company’s virtualization technology for the 800xA platform. Later I got an indepth look into the new, but as yet not formally announced, cpmPlus History–a new historian that not only is capable of acquiring tremendous quantities of data, but also has built-in tools for analysis and scripting capability for development custom analysis built on more complex math and algorithms if required by the customer application.
In another presentation I was able to attend, Clovis de Almeida from Petrobras in Brazil explained a substation project at a refinery using the IEC 61850 protocol. The valuable thing about project leaders sharing experiences is that he could provide details about places where things didn’t go as planned and how they were able work through the challenges. Although he was also quick to say that many problems came from suppliers other than ABB at a couple of points.
I think the size of the event reflects the growing recovery. While this one was a record, some credit probably goes to planners who located it in Houston enabling many engineers a better opportunity to drive in for a day or two rather than having to submit a travel budget for air fare and hotel for several days. As I continue on the spring tour of conferences, we’ll see how widespread this surge is.
