Automation Portals
- Automatic Identification
- Design & Simulation
- Digital Factory
- Electrical & Control Panels
- Embedded Automation
- Factory Automation
- Fieldbus Networks
- Flow, Level & Process Inst.
- Fluid Power, Valves & Pumps
- HMI & Operator Interfaces
- Industrial Communications
- Industrial Computers
- Industrial I/O
- Machine Control
- Machine Safety
- Manufacturing Intelligence
- Motion Control
- OPC
- Plant Management & Maint.
- PLCopen
- Process Control
- Process Safety
- Programmable Controllers
- Robots & Robot Controllers
- SCADA & RTU
- Security
- Sensors
- Systems Integration
- Test, Measurement & LIMS
- Vision
- Wireless Connectivity
- Network Portals
- EtherCAT
- EtherNet/IP
- PROFINET
- Industry Portals
- Building Automation
- Chemical
- Food & Beverage
- Machine Tools, CNC & DNC
- Material Handling
- Oil & Gas
- Packaging
- Pharmaceutical
- Power & Energy
- Transportation (Microsite)
- Water & Wastewater
- Event Portals
- Hannover Messe
- Industrial Automation NA
- ISA Automation Week
Invensys Process Systems 2008 North American Client Conference
October 28, 2008
By Bill Lydon - Contributing Editor
Invensys... Extreme Makeover!
After attending the IPS North American Client Conference it is apparent that the company is reinventing itself with a clearly defined strategy.
The IPS (Invensys Process Systems) view of the major challenge faced by industry was summarized by Paulett Eberhart, president and CEO of IPS in her opening remarks:
"Industrial business is now a real-time business, and the only way to effectively perform in a real-time business is in REAL TIME."
The organizational changes are designed help clients achieve this objective.
Jump to:
Key changes
Relocation
The Company’s headquarters has been relocated to Plano, Texas.
New Leadership
Paulett Eberhart, President and CEO of IPS
It is hard to change the character of a company without changing the leadership. IPS has done just that with the appointment of Paulett Eberhart as new president and CEO in January 2007. Paulett has over 25 years of experience at EDS (Electronic Data Systems) where she was President of EDS’s largest operating unit, the Americas, which had revenues in excess of $8 billion. Ms. Eberhart holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University. Steve Blair was appointed President of IPS North America
Steve Blair was appointed President of IPS North America in August 2007. Steve has been with IPS since May 2003 and has held numerous roles, including Sales and Marketing Director for IPS (UK) Ltd, Vice President of Project Operations EMEA, and Vice President of Sales in EMEA. Before joining IPS, Blair served as Sales and Marketing Director and Petrochemical Systems Manager for Silvertech Ltd. Prior to that, he held various positions at Computing Devices Co. Ltd., including Marketing Manager, Business Development Manager, Team Leader and Design Engineer. He holds a Bachelor of Electronic Engineering degree from the University of Sheffield.Peter Martin is Vice President of Strategic Ventures
Peter Martin is still highly visible as Vice President of Strategic Ventures for IPS. Peter is a veteran and is a recognized control industry expert. Peter joined Foxboro in 1970 and worked in a variety of positions until he left to become Vice President at Intech Controls and subsequently joining Automation Research Corporation. He returned to Invensys process Systems in 1996, where he assumed the position of Vice President, Marketing, for Foxboro and then Chief Marketing Officer for Invensys Manufacturing and Process Systems before moving into his current position.Nathalie Marcotte, Vice President of IPS Global Consulting
Nathalie Marcotte was appointed Vice President of IPS Global Consulting in September 2007. This is a key role in the IPS focus of consulting services as described at the conference. Nathalie has held various other roles at IPS, including Vice President of Engineering and Customer Services, Vice President of Project Operation and Vice President of Performance Services. Prior to joining IPS, Nathalie spent almost a decade at ABB Canada. She holds a master's degree in Applied Sciences and a bachelor’s degree in Engineering."Global technology, software and consulting company enabling performance enhancements in process manufacturing, plant optimization, business operations and enterprise performance."
The IPS consulting group was formed in September 2007. The organization integrates consulting talent from IPS brands to help clients make improvements in enterprise performance based on strategic business metrics and implementation of operational intelligence solutions; operations performance, including operator and engineering effectiveness; and asset performance, including maintenance effectiveness, critical equipment and instrument management.
The IPS goal is to be a trusted advisor to help create value for clients. Steve Blair stated it this way, "Fundamentally we want IPS to work differently with our clients." "We want to build on the client care model, we want to have a business conversation, and we want a consultative interaction...we don’t want to wait for an RFQ, ...we want to have a different conversation, and we want to get involved with you ahead of time to understand your problems, and offer potential solutions in partnership with you." (Steve did clarify that IPS will still respond "gratefully" to RFQ’s!)
"Fundamentally we want IPS to work differently with our clients."
Steve Blair, President of IPS North America
This business model includes consulting, product sales, system integration, and services. IPS will also integrate products from other vendors to meet customer needs. Paulett punctuated the IPS scope of business as, "ability to implement not just to advise." In addition, IPS will service equipment from other vendors in order to provide one stop shopping for customers.
"ability to implement not just to advise"
Paulett Eberhart, President and CEO of IPS
The management team is committed to carrying forward the company’s products. Steve Blair positioned it this way, "Balancing between moving to a Service Company and Products Company...(IPS) Products are crown jewels." Infusion is a key component of this business strategy based on its capabilities:
-
Vendor independent platform
-
Integration of different components, from different vendors, over different vintages
-
Real-time information leading to operational business solutions
-
The business impact of every activity, in every plant, is visible and measurable in real-time
Customer Interface
Consistent with the new consultative business model, clients will have a single sales contact that will orchestrate IPS resources for the customer to eliminate the confusion of multiple sales people calling on a customer. Paulett states it succinctly, "one voice, one face to the client." This approach fits well with a consultative sales method allowing account executives to focus on the customer’s major challenges and opportunities rather "pushing" a particular product.
Consistent with the new consultative business model, clients will have a single sales contact that will orchestrate IPS resources for the customer to eliminate the confusion of multiple sales people calling on a customer. Paulett states it succinctly, "one voice, one face to the client." This approach fits well with a consultative sales method allowing account executives to focus on the customer’s major challenges and opportunities rather "pushing" a particular product.
"one voice, one face to the client"
Paulett Eberhart, President and CEO of IPS
Standards & Other Religious Issues
It is worth noting that as a result of the change in focus, I did not hear strong arguments lobbying for any particular industry standards such as device networks, wireless; etc. The focus is on how IPS can help clients efficiently achieve their goals. This is an indicator of the change in focus to providing customers solutions to solve their problems.
I sat down for a discussion with Dr. Peter Martin during the conference - conversation which is always enlightening.
Peter is a world renowned industry expert who holds multiple patents, including patents for dynamic performance measures, real-time activity-based costing, closed-loop business control, and asset and resource modeling. He was named a Hero of U.S. Manufacturing by FORTUNE magazine and was recognized as one of the 50 Most Influential Innovators of All Time by the Instrument, Systems and Automation Society (ISA). Peter has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Science degree in Mathematics, a master’s degree in Administration and Management, a Master of Biblical Studies degree, a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies. He has authored and published numerous articles and technical papers and has written two books: "Bottom Line Automation" and "Dynamic Performance Management: The Pathway to World Class Manufacturing." He is also a contributing author to “A Guide to the Automation Body of Knowledge."
Peter has come to the conclusion that engineers are underappreciated in companies because engineering is perceived as a cost without linking it to benefits. IPS has developed an approach for real-time, finance-based performance measurement that can be used to show the value of engineering and to drive asset performance optimization.
"Our job is to convince the business management at clients that we can deliver real business value."
Peter Martin
Peter states automation can impact three critical variables to increase business value:
- Production
- Feedstock/Materials
- Energy
Peter continued by stating, "We need to look at the business problems our clients have and then figure out how to improve customer performance." "Clients need to optimize and improve performance based on the performance in their industry. For example, in mining and mineral processing today, there is no question, production is it. When copper is selling at $4 a pound and the production cost is about 80 cents a pound, there is no question about the priority." In this case, increasing production is the best goal for the business.
Peter provided a good summary of the transformation of the company. "There are a lot of folks we brought in from EDS - it is the world they deal in (business), this is the world we deal in (controls & automation). I often think of one of the comments Peter Drucker made in his book Innovation and Entrepreneurship that 99% of innovation in the world occurs when two separate things come together, and what we are doing is taking the business view of EDS plus the engineering view of IPS and all of a sudden those two have come together..." Peter added, "The real-time business measurement and real-time accounting that we have invented is very unique to us and it is patented by IPS - using that to do empowerment is also patented."
"I often think of one of the comments Peter Drucker made in his book Innovation and Entrepreneurship that 99% of innovation in the world occurs when two separate things come together, and what we are doing is taking the business view of EDS plus the engineering view of IPS and all of a sudden those two have come together..."
Peter Martin
Peter recommended that I attended the Sasol presentation to learn how customers benefit from this approach.
Hannes Mittermaier of Sasol and Russ Barr of IPS presented a case study on the IPS consultative approach with a client applying Dynamic Performance Monitoring (DPM). Sasol is an integrated oil and gas company that produces products such as: chemical feedstocks, gasoline, diesel, ethylene, polyvinyl chloride, mining reagents, waxes, and fertilizers with revenues of $14.5 billion.
Hannes Mittermaier is in the Information Management (IM) group at Sasol, which is the interface between the production plants and the IT Service Providers. They applied the DPM process to identify opportunities:
- Structured Interview sand Data Gathering
- Strategic, Operations and Financial Analysis
- Roll-out and Implementation of Performance Metrics
- Roll-out and Implementation of Dashboards
- Baseline and Validation
Based on this analysis, the first application was to improve operations at two steam plants. In the past, demand for steam was high - especially among companies involved in coal reformation - so maximizing output was vital to profitability. As coal began to lose favor to imported natural gas, however, steam demand declined, so SASOL shifted its focus to minimizing costs. SASOL with IPS developed a set of performance and financial metrics that calculate in real time the exact amount and cost of energy being used. Plant personnel, both operators and managers, monitor these metrics through electronic dashboards on PCs. This information provides operators an easy to understand visual to make manual control decisions to optimize energy use balancing efficiency and cost.
The result, according to Hannes Mittermaier, is a real-time system that aligns the company's manufacturing strategy with its financial goals. The solution provides real-time measurements of plant performance information to accounting, engineering, management, operations, and maintenance. This information across business functions provides a clearer understanding of operations and a basis for improving other area of the business.
When it first installed the performance management system at two of the five plants located at the Sasolburg site, SASOL expected it to generate the equivalent of (U.S.) $400,000 in the first year. After the first month, the actual savings already had totaled (U.S.) $230,000. That total included a 6-percent savings on energy feedstock and a 4-percent savings on electricity costs in the two plants - and the numbers showed progressive improvement in the second and third months. The savings stem from more consistent fuel oil usage and overall tuning of the boilers. Peter recommended that I attended the Sasol presentation to learn how customers benefit from this approach.
After the first month, the actual savings already had totaled (U.S.) $230,000.
Sasol Operator Dashboard
Easy Visual Information for Operators
As I talked with people at the conference, I realized there is definiltely a new energy in the company .