Yokogawa: Future in networking

Future plant success lies within the network.
“In the future factory all information for the plant will be connected by a network,” said Isao Uchida, president and chief executive of Yokogawa Electric Corp. in Japan during one of the keynote addresses at the Yokogawa Technology Innovation Fair and Users Conference in Houston.
“In order to realize the future two key technologies will become leaders,” Uchida said before 500 people during the company’s seventh U.S. user group meeting. “One is fiber optics for transporting large volumes of data. The second is network security technologies. At Yokogawa over the years, we have acquired quite a bit of knowledge of those technologies.”
“Together with fiber optics, Yokogawa has been developing wireless technologies to cover every corner of the plant floor,” he said.
Part of staying ahead of the curve is investing to keep investing in the company and in new technologies.
“Yokogawa keeps investing in research and development even in hard times,” Uchida said.
Uchida explained Yokogawa is running 8th in Japan in research and development costs, behind 7 pharmaceutical companies.
Part of the investment is paying off for BP. Carl Sisk, program manager North American Gas for BP America talked about how his company is looking at the gas field of the future. “We have already gotten the easy gas, but how can we increase recover in the difficult areas and increase recovery?"
Part of what will make the recovery easier, Sisk said, is to bring in data and share information. “We need to work in a more collaborative environment.”
Sisk said the company has been able to “greatly reduce the amount of time that we have to drive out in the field by optimizing automation equipment. We have increased our operational efficiency and increased production from our pipeline monitoring.”