March 22, 2007 - From 108,000 people to 3 kA circuit breakers, Automation World attendees learned about unlocking the power of collaboration
From workshops to the exhibit hall floor, ABB’s Automation World demonstrated the power of collaboration. In a spirited executive forum, top industry leaders discussed the importance of collaboration to business model innovation. Thor Geir Ramleth, Bechtel Group’s Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, noted that by sharing its engineering around the world, Bechtel can literally work 24 hours a day to start up of some of the world’s largest and most complex plants in record time.
A cultural force for results
Collaboration was also discussed as a cultural force, creating an environment that encourages the risk taking necessary for innovation. Marc Chapman, the Global and Americas Leader for Strategy and Change at IBM talked about how open cultures - and the innovative technologies they produce - create powerful incentives to recruit and retain new engineering talent.
Jean-Christophe Deslarzes, Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Alcan, and Gary Steel, head of Human Resources for ABB Group also talked about unlocking the power of people. They noted that a collaborative culture and network of talent allow companies to take risks in developing and moving star performers around an organization faster. Steel remarked on Leadership Challenge, a program aimed at converting all 108,000 ABB employees into agents of cultural change.
Technologies that enable collaboration
Many innovations could be seen first hand in this year’s Automation World exhibit hall, one of the comprehensive automation and industrial power technology showcases ever held in one place. Many collaborative technologies were featured, from Industrial IT System 800xA to a new Wireless Pavilion that remotely linked a number of applications on the exhibit hall floor like field devices and control systems, vibration monitoring applications and wireless interfaces for everything from sensors to robotic arms. These devices improve productivity through installation flexibility and reduced wiring costs, as well as catering to today’s mobile and wireless worker.
ABB’s technology partners demonstrated complimentary solutions that helps prevent or reduce downtime, take better advantage of process information and improve asset performance and lifecycles in the harshest environments. The event also gained educational partner ISA this year, so attendees can earn valuable CEU credits. Some of the exhibit hall’s many other highlights include:
- Extended control system possibilities, such as 800xA’s integrated, flexible and high integrity architecture for SIL (Safety Integrity Level) applications – process safety is rapidly becoming a key performance indicator in many industries.
- New power solutions for industrial customers, like a low voltage motors to handle tough process industry power demands and the RE 610 family of multifunction relays, designed to protect critical industry application loads.
- ABB’s SCADA Vantage solution recently added historical data capabilities and enhanced connectivity to improve communications and flexibility during outages. The power of this information-rich technology is becoming popular in the pipeline industry, too.
- Services presented their new Assured Performance Agreement program, where ABB creates a comprehensive service agreement designed around a customer’s operational and plant-level objectives.
- Robotics demonstrated several new applications for first time and existing users. Aside from robots’ well-documented improvements in safety and productivity, many industries are starting to look at robots as a more flexible and agile automation tool compared to dedicated manufacturing assets.
Meeting plant and market demands for efficiency
Many of the exhibit hall technologies showcased the future of automation, and helped bridge the critical gap of
getting to the future. From life-cycle extending service programs to enhanced software solutions and equipment retrofits, many displays showed attendees how they can gain maximum productivity from assets they already own. Evolution paths that allow incremental change with reduced risk are vital to both process efficiency and capital efficiency in today’s transparent operating environment.
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ABB's Automation World.