Research Triangle Park, NC (April 16, 2007) - WBF's upcoming North American Conference will feature 25 technical presentations, selected for their ability to deliver best practice experience on many automation topics, including industrial wireless, mining in batch alarm records and the quest for the perfect batch. The sessions, focused on offering tips and advice for "getting it right the first time," are intended to address the needs of conference attendees based on surveys from previous events. "This year's selection committee focused on papers that gave 'how to' and 'lessons learned' advice, because we've talked to users, and that's what they need.
We used past conference survey results to help us select papers and topics that allow an attendee to return to their facility equipped with knowledge from other industry professionals who have walked the talk and are willing to share their valuable experience," said conference chair Bill Stewart of The Dow Chemical Company. In the session "Quest for the Perfect Batch: A batch Distillation Real Life Case," for example, Ellen Murphy and Manual Florez of Millennium Specialty Chemicals, a Lyondell Company, discuss the need to eliminate wasteful and inefficient operating practices. The need for optimum performance on a batch-by-batch basis drives the effort to achieve a repetitive "perfect batch," according to the authors.
The presentation presents a real-life batch distillation case for which performance was driven from a state of frequent batch failures to one that has not seen a batch failure in over a year. In addition, the process performance in the case study has been improved to the point that average batch cycle times have been cut by 15% and first time right batch yields have been increased by 208%. Process analysis methodology and actual process data will be featured in the presentation.
Likewise, Hesh Kagan of Invensys Process Systems and Peter Fuhr, Ph.D. of Apprion will present "Industrial Wireless: A WINA Reality Check" where they give users coherent, non-marketing-based assessments of current and future trends in the various flavors of industrial wireless technologies and product offerings. This presentation provides an accurate, current, and unbiased assessment of all aspects of wireless - past, current and near-term future. "The WBF 2007 North American Conference is the only conference of its type - focusing on automation standards, practical experience, and advice that can have an immediate impact on bottom line performance.
No other conference provides the opportunity to network with industry professionals that have experienced the benefits of implementing powerful automation standards. Our focus continues to be on best practices, lessons learned, and those technologies critical to the reliability and automation of batch and continuous processes," said Stewart. Attendees will learn practical information about new ISA-88 and ISA-95 specifications and how they can help lower your operating cost and improve operations. Technical papers on such timely topics as B2MML, Make2Pack and XML will be presented by industry professionals who have implemented these strategies, sharing their experiences and results.
About WBF
WBF provides an open forum for the exchange of information related to the management, operation, and automation of manufacturing processes. Created in 1994, members of the non-profit, professional organization include end-users, vendors, consultants and academics. WBF provides organization, management, and structure to facilitate networking among its members and sharing of knowledge and information related to manufacturing processes. WBF documents best practices and guidelines for implementation of standards that apply to batch control and the exchange of batch data, as well as conducting technical conferences and technical training programs. WBF is a founding charter member of The Automation Federation.
