Rockwell, E+H alliance strengthens

In a move to show the strength of its partnership, Endress+Hauser and Rockwell Automation held a press conference at the ARC Forum in Orlando, Fla., today to give highlights of their alliance.
The partnership, which started in 2004, centers on three areas, said Kevin Zaba, director of process automation at Rockwell. One is technology innovation, integrated asset management and coordinated engineering services.
As a part of the partnership, Endress+Hauser focuses on its core strength in instrumentation and Rockwell deals with systems issues.
There are plenty of companies that want to offer one solution, but Joe Kann, vice president of business development at Rockwell, said, “that is not the only paradigm that works.”
To ensure the instruments work out of the box, Rockwell administers an interoperability test. The goal is for the Endress+Hauser instruments meet the Rockwell system requirements.

Yokogawa names new president in Japan

Japan’s Yokogawa Electric Corp. named Shuzo Kaihori president and representative director and also named Isao Uchida chairman and representative director. The move is effective 1 April.
Kaihori earned a Master’s degree in engineering from Keio University in 1973 when he joined Yokogawa. From April 2000 to March 2005, he served as president of Yokogawa Corporation of America. He moved back to the Japanese main office where he was senior vice president.

Invensys in the loop

One year after unveiling the Invensys partnership with SAP’s NetWeaver, Invensys launched two packaged composite applications (PCAs) in an effort to push business improvements from the plant floor through the enterprise.
Invensys’s Vice President Peter Martin and Wonderware Marketing Vice President, Mark Davidson unveiled the two xMII XApps today at The ARC Forum’s in Orlando, Fla.
The two PCAs are the Real-Time Finance and the Real-Time Production Execution and they will center on the packaged goods and chemical industries.
Real-Time Finance helps align manufacturing operations to allow for real time information on production-related financial performance.
“Financial system can be used for much more than financial reporting,” Martin said.
“You are turning your front line people – the people that make or lose the most money in your operation – into business managers,” Martin said. This system “allows plant floor personnel to behave in a manner that drives business value.” Similar to a control loop, “in short, this is a business loop.”
The Real-Time Production Execution system provides a pre-integrated way to dispatch, execute, monitor, and evaluation into manufacturing production and performance in discrete, batch and hybrid plant operations.

Berra staying at the helm

John Berra has no intention of leaving Emerson Process Management. The president of the automations industry’s leading supplier said that to an audience this morning at the ARC Strategy Forum in Orlando, Fla.
The topic came about during a question and answer session with Berra and Peter Zornio, Emerson’s new chief strategy officer. One of the questions posed was if hiring Zornio was Berra’s plan for an exit strategy.
“Now is the best time to be in the automation industry,” Berra said. “Why would I want to go.”
Emerson hired Zornio away from Honeywell last year.