Security module launches

Keeping the plant system secure and up and running is a key driver throughout the automation industry and that is why MTL Instruments and Byres Security Inc. today launched at 2008 ABB Automation World Conference & Exhibition in Houston a loadable security module (LSM) for the Tofino Industrial Security Solution that discovers and identifies what devices are on the network and creates the firewall rules to control the traffic flowing to them.
Called the Tofino Secure Asset Management module, it locates devices and generates rules simply by analyzing the traffic on the network.
Asset management tools in the IT world have been available for over a decade, but all are based on the principle of sending probing messages onto the network to discover what is out there. The problem is there have been cases where these types of messages have caused SCADA and process control systems to crash.
The difference with this product is the module does not probe control devices. Rather, it listens for traffic and then uses special characterization techniques to determine the types of control devices on the network. When it discovers a new device, it prompts the system administrator to either accept its deductions and insert the new device into the network inventory diagram, or flag the device as a potential intruder.

No one way street, collaboration is key

It is all about collaboration. That is if you talk to the folks at ABB.
They say the key to success in the automation environment these days centers around partners working together without any agendas other than to get the job done. Pure collaboration.
“Collaboration is the key engine of our success,” said Michel Demare, chief executive and chief financial officer at ABB Ltd. during the opening session today at the 2008 ABB Automation World Conference & Exhibition in Houston. “Collaboration is around us all the time. Online is the ultimate collaboration. Online collaboration allows for sharing ideas around the world.”
Success does not come from any one superstar with the organization, but rather through constant communication and discussion amongst workers and partners.
“Most real innovation is not the result of a few geniuses, instead it comes from collaboration,” Demare said.
One of ABB’s partners, IBM, agrees.
“Technology is the easy part, it’s all about how you collaborate,” said John Brantley, general manager, global chemical and petroleum industrial products industries at IBM.
“If you don’t want to collaborate, there are companies out there right now seeing how they can knock you off your perch and make more money that you can,” he said.
Brantley talked about a survey IBM conducted with chief executives and they found 76% feel you have to collaborate to be successful. “Where I have seen (collaboration) fail is where the top is not committed,” he said.
“Long term meaningful relationships will help put distance between you and your competition,” said Neil Duffin, president ExxonMobil Development Co.
He laid out a matrix for key focus areas for success centered around working together. Those six areas are safety leadership, execution excellence, technology, local investment, education and training, and environment.
“Power of collaboration is all about relationships,” said Mark Taft, group vice president process automation global control system business at ABB. “There are two main reasons for this, one being the decision to buy (a system) is the beginning of a relationship that lasts 10-20 years. The second is the technology is changing frequently. It is important that customers and suppliers work closely together.”
“As we work together there are three things you have to believe. You have to believe in your goal; you have to believe the goal can be achieved, and you have to believe in the other members of your team.”

Energy conservation talk of the town, show, world

Energy and how to save it, how to use it and how to generate it seems to be on the mind of a majority of show goers at the Hannover Fair in Hannover, Germany this week.
At a show as huge as Hannover Fair, it is very difficult to come up with a theme since you have just about every different type of manufacturer and end user in the world walking the miles of halls. But Energy conservation seems to hold the lead in areas of focus.
During the show, politicos, energy industry experts and manufacturers from across the globe were coming in to hold the World Energy Dialogue.
With huge countries like China and India expanding, the demand for energy continues to increase globally along with the demand for services that depend on energy such as heating and cooling systems or communication systems.
This meeting will not necessarily come up with any solutions, but it may lead to a more stringent strategy to offset the increased demand in energy in the years to come.
Even this year’s winner of the Hermes Award, a €100,000 prize awarded by an independent jury of experts, went to a company focused on energy conservation. Rheinbach, Germany-based Zenergy Power Co. won for developing its induction heater, which makes extruded metal components used in the automotive and aerospace industries. The usual induction heaters generate electromagnetic eddy currents using copper coils and alternating current, but lose more than half the energy deployed. The Zenergy heater has superconducting coils that allow for an energy coefficient of over 80%.
In short, an induction heater with a heating performance of 500 Kw can save the annual energy requirements of 850 households.

WirelessHART products out and on the way

Wireless devices based on the WirelessHART standard are just beginning to hit the market now, with a bigger push by suppliers to get more out later on this year.
“We launched WirelessHART products in March and we have a new pipeline of products that support WirelessHART on the way,” said David Dunbar, president of Emerson Process Management in Europe during a HART Communication Foundation press conference today here at Hannover Fair in Hannover, Germany.
The WirelessHART standard won approval in June 2007 and released in September 2007, said Ron Helson, executive director of the HART Foundation. Since then staffers have moved to create test specifications and testing tools for products.
One of the benefits with wireless, Helson said, is a user will gain new connectivity to intelligent device information. Essentially the wireless device, through an adapter, can pick up data from an installed HART device. HART has over 24 million devices installed throughout the world.
“We see wireless moving industry to provide information by getting access to existing HART devices,” Helson said.
“We very much support the idea of creating a single standard for wireless,” said Hans-Georg Kumpfmuller, division president for sensors and communication at Siemens.
“We didn’t want wireless to have proprietary technology,” said Dr. Gunther Kegel, chief executive at Pepperl+Fuchs. “In the wireless world, we need interoperability with a wireless standard.”
Down the road, Kegel said, the next step is for the industry to figure out the power consumption issues for wireless devices.
Meanwhile, HART is also part of a new wireless cooperation team to create an interface specification for a gateway between WirelessHART and Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus and Profinet communication technologies.
They want to create a common set of compliance guidelines to incorporate into product registration procedures.

EC cultivates small, medium businesses

As it is in the United States, the European Commission has a plan to work with small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Couple the government’s involvement and add in some help from businesses, then you will have a plan. As it is here, that is a big hurdle to cross.
“If you are a small company, you don’t have the people to help, we are trying to help SMEs do better in Europe and globally,” said Francoise Le Bail, SME envoy of the European Commission and deputy general of DG Enterprise and Industry, who gave a keynote address during today’s Global Business Forum entitled, “Small Business Act for Europe – The new EU Commitment for SME during today’s opening day at Hannover Fair in Hannover, Germany.
“SMEs are creating the most jobs in Europe today. We are trying to help them compete in Europe and on an international front,” she said.
Le Bail said the top issue for SMEs is the bureaucracy they have to deal with. They said they have too much paperwork to fill out, too many rules. “It adds a burden for them to concentrate on their businesses,” she said.
She also said it is very difficult for business to operate in member EU states. “The EU wants to help small businesses to cut through the red tape so they can operate in member states,” Le Bail said. “As we all know, if you don’t innovate you are in great danger.”
One of the areas that will allow SMEs to jump into the global playing field is working in an e-marketplace.
That is where Brian Wong, senior director of global operations for Alibaba, an e-marketplace vendor, comes in.
“SMEs are truly the backbone and driver of economies. There is great potential for SMEs to trade in Europe and globally,” he said.
Wong said there are 42 million SMEs in China, 23 million in Europe and 22 million in the United States. The Internet, he said, will allow all these companies to come together and potentially work together.

Japan, Germany work for stronger collaboration

In the global economy, there are problems for sure, like the weakening U.S. dollar, the subprime crisis among other things, but that should not deter Germany from continuing its movement forward, said German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel at the opening ceremonies for Hannover Fair in Hannover, Germany last night.
“Leading institutions have lowered the growth rates; this is not good, but we have to look at the right numbers,” she said. It has taken a little while for German companies to get accustomed to operating in a global environment, “but it is now starting to pay off,” she said.
When it comes to globalization there are fears jobs will be lost to other nations, but Merkel does not think so.
“There is always a worry that globalization will hurt our affluence. I don’t agree with this. We can be winners in globalization, but we have to be willing to invest and have a strong commitment. Here we can work together with Japan.”
“Germany is an important strategic partner for Japan,” said former Japanese prime minster Shinzo Abe, who represented his country during the opening ceremonies as a special envoy for current Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. “Germany is our most important trading partner in Europe. Many companies like Volkswagen have come to Japan. Hopefully, we will have many more exchanges. Hopefully, (Hannover Fair) will lead to cultural advances. Companies working together will lead to greater technological innovation.”
Partnering with Japan for business exchanges in one thing, but energy conservation was also on Abe’s mind.
“Under the leadership of Merkel at the last G8 meeting in Germany, we established solid plans,” said Abe, who was elected prime minister 26 September 2006 and then resigned 12 September 2007 and replaced by Yasuo Fukuda. “Now, the meeting is going to Japan, now it is our responsibility to keep moving forward.”
In terms of saving energy, Abe talked about some of the leading technologies his country developed.
“We have had innovation technologies with the hybrid, but we have to do more. For energy conservation, we need to create new and innovative initiatives.”
While Abe focused his talk on energy, Merkel wanted to ensure the industry she was on top of the financial situation.
Merkel fended off critics that claim the German economy is in crisis.
“We don’t have a crisis in our system,” she said. “The social forces have to be better explained to citizens. The social market economy must be our joint opportunity to give our people and Europeans a sense of security. Financial markets have to learn their lessons to what happened. There needs to be more transparency in financial markets.”
Merkel also talked about the country banding together to try and reenergize students to gain a stronger interest in math and science so they can look to technical careers.
“We need new technical talent. It would be fatal if we suffered from demographics. We need to attract young people,” she said.
While Merkel wants to attract younger technical workers, she also wants to hang on to the more experienced workers.

Government and a secure control system

When it comes to securing your plant and systems, end users have a huge task in front of them.
That is where the Idaho National Laboratories come in.
“We want to make you aware of the challenges ahead of you,” said Robb Hoffman, who runs the control system security program of the National Cyber Security Division. Hoffman gave a keynote address during the Yokogawa Technology Fair and 2008 User Conference in Houston today.
The government set up various areas to help manufacturers be aware of potential security hazards, avoid security pitfalls, and be able to test their systems to keep them up and running despite attempted cyber attacks.
Security hasn’t really been at the forefront of control engineers’ minds because it as been a part of IT, Hoffman said.
“I think you will see over the next couple of years that will change,” he said. “You have to go out and educate and show people the tools they can use to mitigate problems.”
While the government sometimes does not have the greatest reputation for getting things done in a timely manner, Hoffman said the good news is various departments are working together side by side to solve issues and ensure there is no duplication.
Among the myriad things they work on is to offer technology assessments.
“We take technology and work it over and run attacks against it and then send a report back offering an assessment,” he said.

People will lead a company, not managers

Desire and passion can move any company from worst to first. If you don’t believe that, just sit down and listen to Gordon Bethune for a couple of minutes.
Bethune, the former chief executive and chairman of Continental Airlines, said during his keynote address at Yokogawa’s Technology Fair and 2008 User Conference today in Houston he was able to take a company on the brink of shutting its doors to being the top airline and one of the top companies in the world.
“When I started working for Continental, the board came to me and asked me what the company should do,” Bethune said. “I came up with a plan.”
Managers are the airline managed the company, and employees did not think about being the best, but rather just coming in and punching the clock.
“We decided to write a business plan that had four parts. It was called the Go Forward Plan. The four parts centered on product, financial, people and product integrity,” he said.
In short, he said a company has to play to its strengths.
“We had three flights a day going from Greensborough, NC to Greenville, SC,” Bethune said. “Why would you want to do that?” He asked. Instead, “we put our product in places where people wanted to buy it. You have to focus on the customer and what they want to buy.”
The company had to figure out what its strengths were and also what its customers wanted.
“What do passengers want?” Bethune asked. “They want to get safely from point A to point B on time with their underwear. We had to get to the top of the reliability charts.”
Just as important, he added, was people had to enjoy coming to work every day.
“You need to invest in employees to get the needed results in the workplace. Treat employees with dignity and respect. Everyday there is a communication about what is happening at the company or about what is happening in the industry.”
David Johnson, president and chief executive at Yokogawa Corporation of America, also talked about the communication issue during his keynote at the user group meeting.
The reason, he said, we are able to grow at the pace we are at is because the company is truly listening to its customers.
“Tell us what you are looking for, tell us what you need. We are going to design and build. We need your information.”
The company is continuing its quest to become the number one global automation supplier by 2010.
When I started with Yokogawa in 1988, we had about 90% or our sales were in Japan. You look at the organization today, 53% of Yokogawa’s sales are outside Japan. “I am not Nostradamus, but by 2010, we will have 80% of our business in industrial automation will be outside of Japan.”

Yokogawa deals for gas analyzer firm

Doing something it hasn’t done in about 10 years, Yokogawa Electric Corp. will acquire gas analyzer maker Analytical Specialties, Inc. (ASI).
“Every now and then something comes along and the time and energy it would take to develop that product would be two or three or four more years,” said David Johnson, president and chief executive for Yokogawa Corporation of America at the company’s Technology Fair and 2008 User Conference today in Houston. “This is going to give us all kinds of different applications in different areas. This takes our analytical product line and shifts it into a whole new gear.”
Yokogawa will now add the TruePeak Tunable Diode Laser Gas Analyzers to its analyzer product line.
"One of the exciting things in this deal is the tie into advanced process control with Yokogawa," said Trevor Knittel, the former president of 14-year-old ASI and now general manager of laser technology anyalytical business unit at Yokogawa. The 15-employee ASI will meld into Yokogawa.
Sensors are key to maintaining optimal combustion by constantly monitoring the concentration of oxygen and carbon monoxide. Gas analyzers with high performance can accurately measure this in real time.
Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscopy (TDLS) Technology TDLS sees use in measuring oxygen and carbon monoxide concentrations for combustion control, detecting ammonia and hydrochloric acid in exhaust gas, and monitoring moisture levels in natural gas pipelines. These gases absorb infrared light at specific wavelengths unique to each gas, and it can then measure their concentrations by illuminating them with a laser and analyzing the absorbed wavelength in the spectrum of the transmitted light.
TDLS enables the direct high-speed measurement of combustion and other process gases. Laser gas analyzers with high performance and real-time measurement capability have entered the mainstream of the gas analyzer market.
"This fills a gap in our product line, but it does not complete the line," said Jon Pecchia, general manager analytical business unit North America for Yokogawa.