Tuesday, August 31, 2010

From 8/31 blog am I to understand that Sabee will no longer be President EPM for Asia Pacific effective Oct 1st? What's his new role going to be? I am assuming Mike Train returns back from USA to take over that position. Correct?

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Sayonara Sabee. Times are improving fast and vacancies in job market available. Still - Emerson still has my vote for best automation company around. A pity indeed. Division President's in US to the rescue to stop the deterioration ? Give AP VP's some spine? Guess not.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Sabee's reign has brought about a negative vibe in the atmosphere and division VP's are not taking a stand strong enough to negate it. More so when Sabee takes on this role after the much appreciated Mike Train who coincidently will be his new 'Boss' beginning Oct 1! More exodus of staff expected end year where many have tolerated enough. Its a sad situation even though I've left 2 months back and do symphatize with my ex-collegues. Its not much better in the country level where the GM's are just not strong enough to shield the negativity around. Look at the people Sabee promoted along in the past year. Sad indeed. Being with Emerson for 8 years, how true when one mistake of someone like Sabee can be so disastrous. Just compare the financial performance and working environment of Sabee vs. Train.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

As cross-divisional president, Sabee cannot cut people. He does not have any people to cut. Sabee's job is symbolic. Everybody in Emerson knows that the accountability and therefore the real power is with the divisions. Sabee can do his little rain dance as many times as he pleases. He cannot do anything without the support of the divisional president, or in his case, the local Rosemount, Fisher and System Vice Presidents. One day Sabee will realize that bouncing around like a mad dog on steroids is not getting him anywhere. The divisions all laugh behind his back.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - In reply to: ex-laid off Emerson staff in 2009:

There is no delay effect in Asia. The salaries of the local people will hardly effect the bottom line. The North American lay-offs are not only funding the "talented" expats in AP, but also the "best cost" engineering offices in "low cost" countries. Every laid off US citizen is replaced by 10 "best cost" staff. Cost ratio US employee/AP employee = 10/1. This also applies to the AP President who is of Indian nationality and local. It does not apply to expats. Cost ratio US employee/US expat = 1/4.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Sabee is opening 5 completely new offices in China. Shanghai continues to function as Headquarters for China. How does this improve bottom line? Unless the last blogger is wrong, somebody will have to pay the price for Sabee's madness. I doubt it will be Sabee himself.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - from: ex-laid off Emerson staff in 2009:

It seems like EPM Asia Pacific is doing a "delayed effect" of what EPM in North America has done in the 2009. I will not be surprised that the first to be "let go" will be the "locals". The expat managers(which what the locals calls these foreign managers - in which 99% of them do not speak or understand fully the local languages) will not leave so fast as there are not much jobs back in North America, Europe and elsewhere. These "talents" were put there with the "blessings" of Emerson Head Offices. In that manner, Sabee is also an "expat". If he does not do something on the bottom line, he also gets the "chop".

A word to those EPM AP locals - read the common words used in the last few postings in this weblog are. I was caught off guard in 2008. I was let go in "2009".

Friday, June 25, 2010 - from Emerson Asia:

Q3 closing. Miles behind the target. Wireless failing despite huge marketing budget. China being reorganised in Sabee style: Choas strategy. Mix - Wirble - Throw in Air - wait to see who falls off the table. The wounded get shot. Awaiting new wave of lay-off in July. Hoping to fall in the Siemens ABB RA safety net.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

On site we have 3 types of DCS and 2 types of Safety Systems. Delta V and Delta V SIS are one of each. We are very pleased with the performance of Delta V and Delta V SIS. There are many benefits in the integrated concept. These however should always be put in second place after the safety requirements. Safety always goes first.

Emerson has designed Delta V SIS to meet the requirements of the chemical industry. Delta V SIS is perfect for smaller applications with SIL 1 or SIL 2 rating.

Due to the physical system limitations, the required engineering efforts increases fast with higher complexity or bigger size systems, but also because of the flexibility of Delta V SIS. On larger projects, too much flexibility will work contra-productive. For example: 1) Each Delta V SIS function block has more than 100 parameters. The configuration of these parameters in Delta V SIS have to verified manually. With each function block used, 100 parameters need to be checked. 2) Delta V SIS can not handle our standard cause and effect. Each end user will have to decide on the IO size pain-point for Delta V SIS.

SIL 3 applications? The SIL rating is a function of the failure rates and the proof test frequency. For Delta V SIS, a proof test means a shutdown. Better failure rates result in lower proof test frequencies. Per the safety manual, all safety system vendors ensure a minimum of 10 year of proof test interval, even for SIL 3 requirements. With Delta V SIS, the proof-test frequency is a lot higher (more often) than the other safety systems due the not so good failure rates. The proof test must be calculated using the formulas in the safety manual. For a SIL 3 with Delta V SIS, the user has to shutdown at least (best case) once per year. Good engineering will not improve this number as it is a characteristic of Delta V SIS. The user will need to balance the cost of a yearly or half yearly shutdown of the SIL 3 loops against the benefits "easy" of Delta V SIS.

Some of our internal guidelines:

• Any project above 100 IO requires financial and technical justification to use Delta V SIS.
• Any project with SIL 2 and SIL 3 loops requires financial and technical justification to use Delta V SIS. Prooftest calculations shall be performed as part of the justification.
• It is not permitted to use Delta V SIS in F&G projects
• It is only permitted to use Delta V SIS in combination with Delta V

Thursday, June 24, 2010 - In response to ..."To the safety engineer IEC 61511 = job security":

Finally somebody starts making sense. Do not let the IEC 61511 stand in the way of your professional engineering judgement. The IEC 61511 is not the law. It is only a guideline. Following the IEC 61511 does not guarantee safety.

Due to the high quality of DeltaV we decided to put the SIL 1 loops in DeltaV. Product limitations: No more. The DeltaV and DeltaV SIS are closely integrated, so you can even mix if you like. Emerson (PCE) in STL was not overly excited with the idea but Austin marketing overruled, and STL implemented for us (Emerson did not allow us to do engineering). The system works great - we never had any issue. No system out there can beat the DeltaV - DeltaV SIS combination. But agreed, you need to have an engineering head on your shoulders.

In anticipation for FF-SIS, Emerson is currently monitoring several FF SIL 1 applications they implemented a few years ago in Africa. Soon they will be able to sell FF SIL 1 as prior use. Again Emerson is far ahead of the competition.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

To the confident engineer:

Write again after you ran out of secure parameters, or after you find out you can only meet safety with monthly shutdowns, or after you did not meet process safety time, or after you had to install inverter relays for F&G, or after you ran out of money to install this product. Even the best engineers cannot deliver miracles. Bet they pampered you well during the last Emerson Exchange.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - To the confident competitor:

Dude, do you not keep up with current events? Look at what BP and Toyota are having to do now to make us think they are serious about safety. It’s not exactly the right time to use that tactic.

You sound like the guy who sold the blowout preventer on the Deepwater Horizon well. “The user of our BOP has no responsibilities. You don’t need to test it, you don’t need to check the batteries. It will just work.”

It looks to me like the Emerson safety manual is mostly referring to the safety engineering requirements from the standards. There are user responsibilities throughout the standards. To the safety engineer IEC 61511 = job security. Engineers welcome user responsibilities, up to a point. Give us some credit. We’ll look beneath the surface to see which safety system makes a difficult job the easiest. From what I can tell, the Emerson safety system has more built-in capabilities than the other systems I have worked with. A serious manual about a serious subject is not going to discourage me.

Take some advice. Be more like the Emerson sales people. Just tell us what’s good about your product. And pretend we know something about our job.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Confident competitor? Right! Good try! If you can't move things from the inside, try applying some external pressure. It shows you care. However, Emerson might not appreciate your passion and efforts.

Monday, June 21, 2010 - From a confident competitor:

How to discourage potential end-users from buying DeltaV SIS? Use the safety manual. This masterpiece is freely available and can be downloaded from the Emerson website. The IEC 61511/S84 defines the safety manual as the manual which defines how equipment can be safely applied. So we ask the potential customer to browse for "MUST" and "REQUIRE" words, indicating the responsibilities for the user. Case closed.

Sunday, June 20, 2010 - In response to : Sunday, June 20, 2010 - Question for 16 June blogger:

You are right and you are wrong:

Correct, the scantime of one DeltaV SIS is 50ms. The response time does not equal scantime. The response time depends on the number of PLC’s used, and the location of these PLC’s on the DeltaV network. The response time of one PLC is 575ms (see DeltaV SIS Safety manual). For 2 DeltaV SIS connected to different DeltaV controllers, the response time is more than one second (add 575ms per PLC used). So if more PLC’s are involved, the worse case response time can be several seconds.

Correct, the MTBF of one redundant DeltaV SIS PLC with 16 IO is 3000 years. The MTBF of 10 redundant DeltaV SIS PLC with 160 IO is 300 years. The MTBF of 100 DeltaV SIS PLC with 1600 IO is 30 years. The MTBF of a TMR with 3000 IO is still 3000 years.

Correct, although I could not find any description, you can add hardware IO online. However there is a limitation on the communication signals between the DeltaV SIS PLC’s (secure parameters). Once these secure parameters, 512 in total, are used up, you can add the hardware, but are not be able to program any software in the PLC’s. We quickly reached the limit of our secure parameters and had to reconfigure the complete logic to squeeze in the program. Emerson has no tool available to predict the loading and use of secure parameters. Emerson preaches scalability and distribution but in reality, the more you distribute the more intercommunications between the PLC’s, the faster you reach the DeltaV SIS limits. Any additional change will result in re-programming the logic solvers. Is this Emerson’s definition of flexibility?

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Many of us are fooled by the PlantWeb vision. It took me a while to understand that PlantWeb is not a product, it is a virtual concept created in the minds of marketing people for the purpose of selling products.

For those who read “Performance without Compromise” -- I received a free copy while visiting the PlantWeb demo room -- understand that Emerson is not interested in selling solutions. Emerson delivers products, not solutions. There is no such thing as a PlantWeb division in Emerson. Rosemount, Fisher, DeltaV are accountable for their own profit and loss. The “PlantWeb Solutions Group” is just a new name for the old PSS or DeltaV group.

If you understand that Emerson has no intention of selling solutions, you will easily see that the vision created by the PlantWeb demo room and reality are not the same, and you can avoid a bad hangover. I am not saying there is anything wrong with Emerson products, on the contrary, we are quite pleased with the quality and performance of our 3051. However, if you allow PlantWeb to raise your expectations, if you believe that it is all so easy, that it is all plug and play, you will be disappointed.

The solutions have to be created solely by the user, without any support from Emerson nor PlantWeb. In vain, you will look for a “How to implement PlantWeb” guide. There are no engineering or maintenance manuals in Emerson. You will find plenty of product datasheets and customer quotes (Regrettably, to protect the customer, contact numbers are not available).

Without the PlantWeb story, Emerson would be just another product supplier. The Products are good. Do not expect anything more, and you will not be disappointed.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Watching out for the limitation faced in the DeltaV SIS also include the other Emerson DCS, i.e. the Ovation, which is only used mostly in the Power Generation industry. End-Users has also got to beware of a so called "independent" "Leading research and advisory firm for industry and infrastructure."

Their editors and writers could have been "commissioned" by Emerson to write about favorable research and "visionary" papers on the DeltaV and the DeltaV SIS. Reports from "research and advisory firms" have to be bought. But strangly these reports are usually downloadable for free at the DeltaV websites...

End-users just be wary. Read it with a big chunk of salt or suffer the consequences like what my current plant has to live with.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

In a perfect world: Customer pain translates into the specification of new products leading to new technologies sold by expert sales closing the small innovation gaps, supported by to-the-point marketing.

In the Emerson Process Management systems world – Product Management is King: Customer pain reported by Sales and the Service department is ignored by product management. Products are specified by in-experienced product managers based on brainstorm ideas. A solid and strong technology department has no choice but to realize the futuristic designs. The same product managers develop the marketing campaign “It’s never been done before” to sell their ideas. The Sales team is trained to sell to the customer what he did not ask for. The unsuccessful sales-team is scolded because they are not selling.

How can Emerson check the sincerity of the above statements?

1. Interview your sales and service staff on the knowledge and responsiveness by product management, preferable nameless, or sign a paper that there will be no repercussions for honest answers.
2. What is the process of feeding back customer pain? If you find one, will you be surprised when it is controlled by product marketing?
3. What hands-on experience would you expect of staff that defines the future product direction of this product company? How close should the staff be with the market they serve? What would you tell the shareholders? 2 years relevant experience? 10 years? 15 years? When was the last time your product managers were involved in real plant applications? Or if this not important and we can close the discussion right here.
4. So verify the credentials of your product management staff against the benchmark you set above. Will you be surprised when most product managers have zero experience when entering the job? Will you be surprised that their only experience is the one gathered in their current role? Do you really expect them to even understand real life customer requirements?
5. Your sales and service people are facing customers on a daily basis. How come your product managers brand them as whiners and idiots? Did it ever occur to you that sales might be right and is just trying to help?
6. How come there are so many "It’s never been done before's"? Did it ever occur to you that this is because you are doing stuff that nobody really wants?

In the meantime, the Emerson product marketing folks will continue their game as they do not have the knowledge to do otherwise. And who will the Emerson Management turn to for advice: you guessed right: Product Management.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

I stand in awe for the never ending flow of marketing material produced by Emerson Process Management. I am a big fan. It is very entertaining. It never ceases to amaze me that it actually works. The process industry, myself included, have fallen for the "marketing spin". From the mouth of an Emerson Marketing VP: "Sex sells", and Emerson Process Management products truly are "sexy".

Doubts, and fear, creep in when this brilliant marketing machine is going after safety in the process industry. While we are trying to process the devastating consequences of a horrible oil disaster in progress, Emerson Process Management publishes the new safety brochure. The tone is clear:

"Emerson enable safer plants!"
"Emerson simplifies regulatory compliance!"
"Emerson is certified for safety!"

Dear Emerson, I really hope you know what you are doing.

Sunday, June 20, 2010 - Question for 16 June blogger:

I do not understand your blog.

• DeltaV SIS has a fixed response time of 50ms.
• The MTBF of a redundant DeltaV SIS is more than 3000 years.
• There are no IO expansion limits since I can add as many SLS 1508 as I please, even online.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

In support of previous blogs, I strongly advise to do a reality check before buying any DeltaV kit. What seems easy in the Plantweb demo room can become a nightmare. For DeltaV SIS, Emerson shows you the features of one little box with 16 IO. I strongly advise to verify the communication limitations between the PLCs, ask for guaranteed response time, ask for guaranteed MTBF, ask for guaranteed IO expansion. A little issue with 16 IO can became a major one with 100 IO or more.

Monday, June 14, 2010 - from a current DeltaV end-user who cannot get rid of the plant DeltaV system...

Being a technology marketing company, I was wondering if Emerson likes this sort of "publicity" that it is being given in this Weblog recently for the past few months.

True to my expectation, their marketing machinery put up two locations in the internet - making sure everyone knows the number of registered end-users subscribers at each of these locations... There is a hidden message here. If you look closely at the DeltaV basic hardware offerings, the I/O modules, controllers, power suppliers etc... There are not many ways to design a DI module or AI modules. Really there is not very much differences from other DCS vendors. What is the differentiator ? Marketing machinery and EPM's business model -using Local Business Partners (LPBs). A great piece of marketing spin is on the PlantWeb, impressive Plant Web demos rooms, glossy brochures, You-tube videos, facebooks, linkedlin.

Future users who are being taken into Emerson's spin - beware... The DeltaV control system including the DeltaV SIS - on a big picture looks "exciting" and really "futuristics". The main internal DeltaV's "core" is still the same. It looks like there it has a lot to offer BUT there is alway a catch somewhere down the road like their infamouse Emerson dongles, the DST counts, the restrictions in DeltaV SIS secured parameter passing etc...

Control engineering desgin team - just beware. It is going to "bite" your commissioning, installation and maintenance cost and expenditure down the road.

Monday, June 14, 2010 - Jim Cahill [Jim.Cahill@emerson.com]:

For the questions about DeltaV below, you might also try two of the DeltaV communities. The DeltaV Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=21266817522 currently has 1199 members, and the DeltaV LinkedIn group http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1270757 currently has 1824 members.

Monday, June 14, 2010 - RE: Electronic Marshalling:

You are pretty much right about the new Emerson Concept. The concept is to replace existing DCS wiring termination boards with the new Electronic Marshalling concept using "Charm" modules. So basically you are retrofitting one wiring base with a new wiring base and then plugging in the appropriate I/O, or "Charm" module based on DI, DO, AI, AO, etc. the wrinkle (and what spooks me) is that the connection from the base module(s) back to the Delta V is an Emerson proprietary, ethernet type network connection. Further, the new concept is only available for the new Delta V "S" series. I'd be more inclined to go with a remote I/O solution and get rid of the large marshalling room were I to do a DCS migration. I'd be interested to know if any of the readers would like to share their experiences?

Saturday, June 12, 2010

The DeltaV PlantWeb demo room sure looks great. I was also impressed by it. The "vision" that they painted and all the "savings" that it will bring to plants. To me it was a nice "spin". Let me put it this way...if one talks about "scalability", this does not represent a plant at all. "REEL life" plant and REAL life plant is vastly different! No matter what other says, Emerson is a first and formost a marketing company with so-so products.

Saturday, June 12, 2010 - Back to basics:

What is Marshalling?

The wiring on one side matches the field cabling. The other side of the cabinet would be wired in order of the Control equipment IO. Marshalling is where the cross wiring matches the input/output from the IO card to the cable/pair combination carrying the device signals from the field device.

Why Marshalling?

• To build, wire, programm and test the complex, sensitive control equipment in a controlled, air-conditioned, clean environment
• To start field device installation and wiring simultanuously and without worrying about control equipment thus improving project schedule
• To have a clear cut of responsibilities between control equipment side and field side.
• It is cheap and does not require the use of a PC

Instead of making a natural split between control equipment and field equipment using a cross wire, the control equipment is split into Controllers and IO. IO controllers are sent to site for field equipment wiring while controllers are programmed in the factory. After completion of the cabinet built and programming, the controller cabinet is shipped to site and linked to its IO using system cable. The field equipment is hooked up using software.

Considerations

• Hooking-up to the electronics IO on site, so part of the delicated system wiring, and testing has to be done on site
• The electronic cross-wiring happens in the software on site, and must be done outside of the software engineers natural environment
• There is an additional step of plugging in the right chip in the correct terminal block, thus it requires testing, on site, using PC instead of Ampmeter
• Who is responsible for hooking up the IO, plugging in the chip and testing? It is a challenge to split responsibilities.
• Since Controller and IO are split, do I always require 2 cabinets
• Is it cheaper to connect a crosswire with 2 terminal blocks than to use electronic IO with CHIP and software IO assignment
• What is the influence on the project schedule.

Friday, June 11, 2010

I am being forced into being interested in this electronic marshalling. I am struggling with the concept and need some help. So far I understood: Instead of IO cards on the backplane, there is a bus-like link to a terminal block. Each individual terminal can be any IO depending on some CHIP I plug into the individual terminal. The software will recognize which type of CHIP I plugged into the terminal.

Some question I have:

Since my terminal blocks are being wired on site, do I have to skip a hardware FAT?
Suppose our policy can be changed and I skip the hardware FAT, at some point I need to plug in my IO CHIP. Do I have to handle 1000 of those little IO CHIPS for a 1000 IO system nicely wrapped up in 1000 individual boxes on my construction site?
Suppose I manage properly, at some point I need to connect the right IO CHIP to the right software block. Instead of giving my (expensive) software specialist an airconditioned environment to work in, I send him on the construction site to connect and test the IO?
Is this really easier than changing a wire? All I need is a screwdriver.

Does anybody have some serious feedback? Anybody in Emerson maybe?

Friday, June 11, 2010

For DeltaV questions Email: AskDeltaV@emerson.com

Thursday, June 10, 2010 - Re: "Why not Profibus?"

Great comment, but Delta V does support ProfibusDP and there is quite a lot of PDP Remote I/O in the field coming into Delta V. Most Delta V customers have not bought the FF Koolaid and are using PDP for the process I/O. What I want to know is whether or not the new Delta V PDP Dual Master supports DPV1 or only DPV0? Any other known defects with the master?

BTW, we have heard from another plant running the DPV0 PDP Master thru a P&F DP/PA coupler and are bringing Profibus PA signals into Delta V? Strange but true!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Why does Emerson not tell you the other half of the truth? I bet Emerson would not tell you that:

• WIRELESS: ...when the Rosemount VP of Technology presented the wireless soluton to David Farr, John Berra, Steve Sonnenberg, and 300 other Emerson VP's during a top meeting in Hawaii, IT FAILED. Luckily the VP was able to blame it on DeltaV. Ask yourself: If Wireless does not work, after numerous rehearsels, in front of the CEO, what are the chances of it failing on a rig?
• DELTAV: ... because commissioning one fieldbus device takes only 3 mouseclicks, you will be clicking 300 times when applying 100 devices. Of course you do not find 100 devices in the PlantWeb demo room. Ask yourself: If DeltaV is not the SAME, does it fit my application?
• Smart SIS: ... the SIS experts in US have all vanished in thin air. Ask yourself: If the Emerson SIS experts do not trust their own system, should you?
• ELECTRONIC MARSHALLING: ...a 100% marshalling free solution is not possible because not all signals are available, so eventually you end up with a complex and more bulky hybrid solution. Ask yourself: Is it really necessary to replace a simple wire by complex and less reliable electronics?
• EDDL: ...EDDL is not really better, but it happens to be where we invested our money, and it helps us to sell more products. Ask yourself: What do I really need in my application?

1. The shareholders
2. The shareholders
3. The shareholders

Although the Emerson marketing machine will try to convince you of the opposite, you will find very little PlantWeb solutions in the field. As soon as you ask for personal contacts, the system breaks down. You will find plenty of videos. Just check who was the editor.

Loyal to its product selling history, the Emerson ranks are filled with marketing and technology people to support the shareholder value mission. You will fail in finding industry experts with real application knowledge. So why act surprised when the Emerson products looked fantastic in the PlantWeb demo room, but somehow do not seem to fit your application? Why act surprised when you find out that really there is no Emerson, but still a collection of many different division who somehow do not seem to be able to talk together?

Does Marketing really rule the world?

Thursday, June 10, 2010

The PlantWeb Demo room rocks! Bringing a plant engineer to the PlantWeb demo room in Austin is like bringing a redneck to a tt-bar. Impossible to resist and addictive. Guess what he will tell the management?

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Profibus would open up the F&B market for DeltaV. Surely not something we would want.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Why not Profibus? Because John Berra is the Chairman of the Foundation Fieldbus. Never mind your career, if you value your life, you better not mention the word "Profibus" around John. There will be only one. Sad case of management believing the half truths told by marketing.

In the same category of half truths: Wireless, Electronic Marshalling, smart SIS, EDDL. All great marketing stories but quite useless when trying to apply beyond the scope of the Plantweb marketing demo room.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Does anyone know if the new ProfibusDP Dual master for the Delta V platform support DPV1? If not, why not?

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

I am an Emerson employee and huge fan of this blog. I know I am not alone. Reading the negative stories posted by the employees of competitors somehow brightens up my day. The grass is not greener on the other side. Or they are all the same, right? I would expect more Emerson people to come forward. Funny that. It is definitely safer than the pantry chats. The walls have ears. Maybe one day the few bloggers will find the courage, or better, a good reason to publish their names. I guess we all need to pay our bills.

Friday, May 28, 2010 - from a laid-off ex-Emerson employee in North America:

I have been to the Singapore Emerson office in West Coast Road a couple of times. Let me put it this way to the people in the Singapore office. This is a rude wake up call.

Emerson is first and foremost :

• A profit making company that only wants to pay dividends to their share holders as it has been doing since inception
• A marketing company with okay, so-so products
• The management is human, and they will first-and-foremost look after themselves. If they don't chop you, they get chopped. It is a number game.

Anyway, you know the current situation. All these expats will not leave suddenly. There are currently no jobs in North America and Europe. It is time to do some planning to look after yourself. Nobody will do it for you, despite what they tell you during webcasted town-hall meetings.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - Singapore:

Expats are no more and no less useful/useless than Singaporians. So why pay so much money? Austin, this might come as a surprise:

• The first language in Singapore is English
• Singapore is not a part of China
• NUS is ranking above many universities in US
• We have McDonalds, KFC, Guiness and Coca Cola.
• And yes, you cannot eat chewing gum in Singapore

Monday, May 24, 2010 - Reporting from Singapore:

Many good people were asked to leave. The usefull?/useless? expats with their expansive condos (10k per month), fancy cars (200k) and costly international schools (50k per child) are still here. How many Asians does one have to fire to compensate for one expat?

What happened to the team spirit? I guess it disappeared together with the people. Fear rules but who will notice? Austin is far away. Austin does not care. Austin has lost so many good people also.

Business in the region has picked up. We do not to get our piece of the pie. I wonder about the excuses to management. The resource gaps are becoming visible. More good people are leaving as Rockwell, ABB and Honeywell have started their hunt for talent. This week, two of our best sales people left. A change for the better? Who will know? The atmosphere cannot get any worse but at least the pay is better. And they know where it will hurt us most. Nevertheless we understand and wish them all the best.

Friday, May 14, 2010

I was sincere on my survey. If you thought differently, obviously you did not pay any attention during your ethical courses. If it sounds like a duck...

Friday, April 30, 2010

If you really think that you are getting sincere survey results about necessary changes after a layoff, you are not being honest with yourself or anyone else. Fear of retribution, especially with HR and management direct oversight, will only assure positive responses. If the survey were done anonymously and in private, do you honestly believe the results would be the same?

Friday, April 23, 2010

I used to work for Honeywell. My personal experience: Emerson is so much better. Yes, Emerson did cut deeper to protect and secure the future jobs of the remaining employees. I welcome this management style. As manager, I confirm that dedicated and talented people will not be made redundant. If you were laid off, you yourself will know the reason. I also contradict the cheating with the evaluations. We diligently completed the exercise, and our results match: No changes required.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

For the past 6 years with Emerson, when I get up in the morning, I really wanted to get to work. The company was not all that perfect, but I didn't have any ill of bad feelings until what happened last year during the surprise great cull.

Emerson has been praised by shareholders and analysts, as it has been giving shareholders dividend for the past many, many years. First and foremost to keep to this "tradition", I am not surprised at what Emerson corporate had done with lay-offs. I bet you that Emerson will not make any apologies for that.

The "cut" was executed with stealth, speed and precision. I heard that some Emerson offices took the "smart decision" to cut "deeper" than required. Cutting deeper isn't that smart, becasue I have experienced some remaining individuals may not have the product knowledge or skill sets to do the jobs left behind.

Recently we got to do the bi-annual Emerson confidential survey and rating. This exercise was a joke to me becasue the remaining employees who survived the cull were all cramped into a small area to fill up confidential survey forms. We were sitting side-by-side on a small table, with a pencil. I ccould almost peep over to see people's pencil-mark on the survey form. The Emerson people and HR people who were managing this survey were walking around, looking over and smiling.

My local Emerson office expects 100% participation. I guess this is an important exercise after the cull because Emerson corporate wanted to gauge what the feeling on the ground is like. I was equally surprised when the survey results were released. I feel that people were not telling the truth, becasue the results say that Emerson Management absolutely did not have to do anything to change. To me the results do not gell. This is not the feeling I get when I talk to my remaining fellow collegues.

It is a cold hard fact that first-and-foremost sharholder value DOES come first, despite what was said during the quaterly townhall meetings before the big surprise "cull". Emerson through their great "marketing machinery" in promoting and touting their products - at the end they are really no better than the rest of the automation vendors. It is people that makes the products look good and not the other way round.

I had the illusion that I can stay on for long time with Emerson. Like what the previous blogger had stated - whether you have 1 year or 100 years of service, when the pink slip have your name on it, you have to go. I will re-evaluate my choices now as the economy improves.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Dear frustrated ex-Emerson employees. Yes, Emerson is no better than the rest of the lot. Consider this realisation a benefit and opportunity. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The last two blogs shows that the highly respected Emerson is finally being haunted by the last great layoffs exercise in 2009. Management Planning, I believed, already started in late 2008 or perhaps earlier. Execution of the layoffs in North America begun in Feburary 2009 (if I can stil remember it correctly). I believed that an engineering office in Atlanta was also closed?

I remembered that fateful day when I lost a BIG group of ex-collegues of 1 year to 23 years of services with the company. Subsequent there were two or three more smaller layoffs throughout the next few months, until we have no more people to layoff. This engineering office simply cannot function because there were still on-going projects but the individuals that survived did not have the correct skill sets to do the work.

I recognised that layoffs is a fact now, even for well run companies like Emerson. I know that it may happen to me also. Fortunately it did not. I do hope that it will not. I know that layoff can be "blind" to whatever contribution an individual of 1 year or even 100 years of services has made to the company. When the pink slip was issued with your name on it, off you go. The survivors were left picking up the bits and pieces to keep our job going. One or two individuals that survived the layoffs should have been be laid-off in the first place. But layoffs are finally decided by humans. Were these "incumbents" who should be "protected"? I have no answer.

I remembered the Vice President (who was subsequemtly asked to go later) praised his HR director that he did a good job in finding a HR management company that will help these laid-off collegues. The remaining people who survived the "cull" were explicitly told not to give references to those who were laid-off. The HR company will manage them. I am not sure why Emerson cooperate has decided on this approach. But I look at it simply that if you push people onto the ground now, and then, why you subsequently kick them in the teeth again?

This HR management company only does the very basic for the laid-offs. Resume writing, advice and general councselling. It offers papers and printers to print your resume for a limited period of time. Every so often for this limited period of time, it calls on you to check on your staus (that you are alive) so that they can use the number to report to Emerson. I think the local government run unemployment office does a better job. At least it offers a job list or job placement.

A year or so has passed. We were told to forget the past. We look forward to new roll-outs. Emerson has announced through their "marketing machinery" of new "cutting edge" wireless technology, no hard-wire marshalling, micro-process controlled marshalling racks, new DeltaV version, etc. all to wow end-users.

The economy is now starting to show signs of pick up. Some laid-off ex-colleagues have found jobs. Some have basic problems even landing an entry level engineering job.

I want to tell Emerson higher-up people that what you had done has a "karma". What goes out comes back around. The "back-lash" may start from those who were ex-collegues, who are now employed or soon to be employed finally. Some of them will finally end up in job positions of power and financial control. I already have heard it from one or two of them. The way you treated some of them will come back to haunt this company in using your products.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Following the numerous lay-offs - does anybody have the number of people laid of in Emerson over the past year? It is difficult to swallow the comments of the "it is great to be here" blogger.

I am happy that you have managed to keep your job. However, there is no need to back-stab with your comments the many great colleagues we lost during the past down-period. While eliminating our service capabilities, we have lost most of our industry and application experts.

One day, our management might realize that, in order to sell new technologies, customers have to start working differently, and it takes experts to convince them.

To Mr. Berra - our so knowledgeable leader:

If you want to get rid of the roads (wires) by offering airplane technology (Wireless transmitters, Electronic Marshalling, etc.) you have to convince people that flying is reliable, convince customers to rebuild the garage so the wings will fit, that flying is cheaper...

It is easy for people to see the benefits of flying when trying to reach distant locations. But when it comes to driving the kids to school, I need more than a glossy picture of an airplane saying "flying is easy". My car has been doing the trick for the past 30 years. Surely it will work for the next 30 years.

Dear Mr. Berra, we have lost the experts to help sell our indeed advanced technology; we have lost the experts to help teach people how to fly, to help explain why flying is reliable, to help remodel the garage so the plane will fit. We are left with people with very little substance but the ability to tweet and market themselves. Sooner or later, even you will catch on. If not, the shareholders definitely will.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

I am not sure why this person (previous blogger) from Emerson has posted this weblog. Anyway, I know you sure feel lucky. It is because you were not laid-off. Last year, Emerson quietly closed down an engineering office in North America. One Emerson office laid-off close to 40% of its staff. A couple of people I know are still on unemployment benefit. They have problems landing a basic engineering job. Their benefit is going to run out soon. I don't think Emerson's leadership appreciate this sort of "bragging".

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Working for Emerson since 2001. It's been nothing but a good thing. Well run, by management who understand our business. Unlike another Automation company I worked for in the late 80's and early 90's. It's a great place to be.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Oct. 6, 2009 Avocet Corporation (NASDAQ: AVCT) is surging on already double a full day’s volume. At 8:17 AM EST we have seen 710,000 shares traded and the stock is up 20% at $24.80. Emerson (EMR) is paying $1.2 billion, or $25.00 per share, to acquire the company. Avocet closed at $20.52 yesterday and trades only 317,000 shares on an average day. Today will be exponentially above that figure on trading volume. The prior 52-week high was $21.38. This will be part of Emerson Network Power.

Oct. 22, 2009 Emerson Process Management said Thursday it acquired Missouri City, Texas-based EIM Controls Inc., a maker of valve actuators. EIM Controls will join the company’s Valve Automation division, expanding Emerson’s electric actuator offerings. EIM Controls generated sales of about $43.3 million in the year ended Sept. 30. It has 168 employees in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Monday, August 17, 2009 - from Conrad Acker [Conrad.Acker@Emerson.com]:

Replying to the July 21, posting:

Answer: Ovation provides I/O redundancy utilizing on-board diagnostic switchover for AO, DO, DI, and high speed turbine application modules. For AI modules, external automated switchover is used.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The issue of I/O module level redundancy is never mentioned in any of the manuals of Ovation system. How is that accomplished? I know this is an essential feature in Honneywell, Foxbooro, Yokogawa and even Delta V. These guys have a diagnostic based switchover from faulty to healthy I/O modules and that does not use any external HI/Lo selectors etc. for AO. Could anyone help and throw some light on this?

Monday, July 20, 2009

I've been with Emerson for 8 years, after 14 years with Honeywell, and the difference couldn't be greater. Emerson sticks to it's business - serving their customers - while Honeywell is embroiled in internal political machinations. Emerson's R&D is huge and new products are introduced all the time. I love my job and enjoy my work. Something I could never say at Honeywell.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

the blogger of Sunday, July 5: "This weblog for Emerson is questionable. The rest of companies featured on your weblogs all have comments. It seems overall that this website is very biassed towards Emerson."

Clearly you work for a competitor of Emerson, that is not performing quite as well, and perhaps you wish you could work here. The biggest reason that there is very little in the way of complaints on the Emerson blog is that the company is extremely well run and we have a continuous stream of exciting new products to bring to the market. We spend our time focusing on our customer's needs - not wondering how the company we work for has managed to slide down the tubes. Maybe you should send your resume - though I doubt you would make the cut here at Emerson. Good luck!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 - from Conrad Acker, [Conrad.Acker@Emerson.com]:

In reply to questions asked in July 13 post.

Q. What % split of the R&D Spend does EPM traditionally spend on the two DCS platforms, DeltaV & Ovation?

A. It would be difficult to assign a percentage split between the two systems since there are significant joint R&D efforts and technology sharing in areas such as bus technology, AMS, wireless and SIS that leverage Emerson’s R&D dollars across both platforms. In general, R&D spending for both Ovation and DeltaV are comparable given their served markets and targeted industry applications. Remember, Ovation is designed specifically for only two markets – power generation and water/wastewater treatment – with application development tightly focuses on those markets. DeltaV on the other hand has much broader application across many industrial processes necessitating more industry-specific development. There is no question that Emerson continues to make significant R&D investment in both the Ovation and DeltaV systems.

Q. Also, do any "savvy" technical users have any reservations for using a "Pentium" based DCS controller in their "critical" applications?

A. Absolutely not. The Intel Pentium processor is a highly reliable platform. Some assume that a “Pentium Processor” equals an MS operating system. That is not the case. The Ovation controller utilizes Wind River Systems VxWorks, a hard real-time operating system, which along with the Ovation controller software, provides a highly robust, reliable and fully redundant controller platform.

Q. Does the Ovation Platform provide for "true" Redundant I/O scheme as I know DeltaV can?

A. Yes.

Q. Where is the SOE time stamping accomplished? DI card or Ovation Controller? What is the SOE stamping resolution? Someone told me that the Ovation system has 125ms SOE time stamping.

A. SOE timestamps are generated in the Ovation SOE DI I/O module. The SOE module resolution allows input to be time tagged to within 125 ěs (microseconds) or 1/8 ms (millisecond), with 1 ms system-wide resolution.

Q. Also does the Ovation Controller Redundancy Scheme provide for a "Redundant Backplane" or not?

A. Not quite sure what this question is about. Redundant Ovation controllers (primary and backup) communicate basic status to each other via a passive backplane in the controller base. Each controller in a redundant pair has constant communication with the I/O and network assuring that the backup controller is at exactly the same point in the process as the primary controller. In the event of a failure of the primary controller, a ‘bumpless’ automatic transfer to the backup controller occurs with no delay or impact on the process. Upon restart, the repaired controller will detect that its partner is in control and assume the backup role. The processor in control will detect the presence of the backup processor and adjust for redundant operation.

Monday, July 13, 2009

What % split of the R&D Spend does EPM traditionally spend on the two DCS platforms, DeltaV & Ovation?

Also, do any "savvy" technical users have any reservations for using a "Pentium" based DCS controller in their "critical" applications?

Does the Ovation Platform provide for "true" Redundant I/O scheme as I know DeltaV can?

Where is the SOE time stamping accomplished? DI card or Ovation Controller? What is the SOE stamping resolution? Someone told me that the Ovation system has 125ms SOE time stamping. Can someone verify that

I am a big fan of DeltaV but I keep hearing all these limitations with the Ovation system.

Also does the Ovation Controller Redundancy Scheme provide for a "Redundant Backplane" or not?

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Actually, Emerson IS a very well run (and diversified) business. Some of Emerson's products in the automation market are growing a bit long-in-the-tooth, but there seems to be a genuine commitment to customers and a steady-as-she-goes approach to maintaining a profitable business that has enabled Emerson to avoid many of the machinations and gyrations that their competitors have felt. ABB and Siemens, also diversified companies, are in a somewhat similar situation. One trick ponies such as Rockwell or two-trick ponies such as Invensys have not been as lucky.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

This weblog for Emerson is questionable. The rest of companies featured on your weblogs all have comments. It seems overall that this website is very biassed towards Emerson. Is this website a marketing mechanism for Emerson to hide all things flawed? I can’t believe that Emerson is a truly great company!

Thursday, May 07, 2009 - from Conrad Acker [Conrad.Acker@Emerson.com]
Re: The comment posted on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 - "Hearing that Emerson is discontinuing sale of the Ovation product...":

Absolutely untrue!

I am an Emerson insider. We have had feedback from several members of our sales force in recent weeks that a certain competitor is telling prospective customers that Ovation will be discontinued by Emerson. There is absolutely no truth to this rumor.

Since 1998 with the Emerson acquisition of the Westinghouse Process Control division and the Ovation product line, both Ovation and DeltaV have seen wide acceptance in their respective markets, Ovation for the power generation and water/wastewater treatment industries, and DeltaV for the process manufacturing industries.

Ovation was designed specifically to meet the needs of large utility operations. It is the power industry market leader in the US with power plants that combined represent over 300,000 MW of generating capacity relying on Ovation control systems. Ovation is also being installed in 20 of the 25 new coal-fired power plants currently under construction in the United States.

Internationally, Ovation controls are installed on an additional 330,000 MW of generation capacity in Europe and Asia. It is the market leader in the booming China power generation market with nearly 300 Ovation systems operating in 128 plants with a combined capacity of 162,000 MW. In China’s new 1000 MW Supercritical class of plants, Ovation has been selected for 22 units, more than all other competitors combined.

In addition, Westinghouse Electric has standardized on Ovation for controls and plant computer systems for both the modernization of existing nuclear plants, but also as the primary control and data acquisition system for their new AP-1000 nuclear plant. Four AP-1000 plants are currently on order or under construction in China and additional eight orders / notice of intent have been received from US utilities, pending NRC license approval.

In the water and wastewater segment, Ovation is operating in many of the largest municipal treatment facilities in the nation including the cities of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, San Diego, Detroit, Seattle, and Pittsburgh. Combined, Ovation control systems are relied on by these municipalities for the treatment of billions of gallons of water per day.

For the above reasons alone – a very large and growing installed base in critical infrastructure segments combined with loyal customers around the world -- it would make absolutely no sense for Emerson to abandon the very successful Ovation product line.

Emerson has also made major technology investments in Ovation over the years. Recent introductions include a new control builder, enhanced Fieldbus, Profibus and DeviceNet interfaces, direct wireless connectivity, redesigned controller and I/O modules, advanced control algorithms, a new process historian, enhanced SCADA capabilities and virtual simulation technology. And there are always more developments in the pipeline.

Again, as an insider in this division (and an ‘old-timer’ who goes way back to pre DCS days) Emerson corporate management has been totally supportive of this division and the Ovation product line. They have encouraged and supported our ongoing technology development with both funding and expertise allowing us to assure that Ovation remains a best in class product.

In response to these rumors being spread, we have issued letters in the last few days assuring potential customers that Ovation has Emerson’s full support and long-term commitment. We will put the same in writing to anyone who wishes.

If some salesman tells you different, don't believe him!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Emerson Expects Slow Recovery To Hold Down '10 Sales - Dow Jones News Service, 5 May 2009 (extracts):

Emerson Electric Co. said Tuesday its sales could fall by 10% next year, as end-market demand recovers slowly in Europe and North America. Emerson reported a 32% drop in fiscal second-quarter earnings on slumping sales. The company has repeatedly warned of deteriorating business conditions in recent months and has aggressively reduced its inventories and its work force in response. Chairman and CEO David Farr said he doesn't expect a full recovery in the business to occur until 2011.

Emerson reaffirmed its 2009 earnings outlook of $2.40 to $2.60 per share. The company also said it expects its operating margin for the year to be about 15.7% as expense cuts and inventory reductions begin taking effect later this year.

Operating margin in the fiscal second quarter was 14.1%, down from 16.4% a year earlier. Revenue fell 16% to $5.09 billion, nearly one-third of which was due to the stronger dollar. The most severe reductions occurred in Emerson's appliance and tool segment where sales dropped 24% from a year ago; and climate technology, where sales fell by 23%.

In 2008, 54% of Emerson $24.8 billion sales were generated outside of the United States.Shares of Emerson ended the day down 1.5% at $36.79 a share. The stock has rebounded from a five-year low in March.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Hearing that Emerson is discontinuing the sale of the Ovation product. Sticking with DeltaV only.

Monday, April 20, 2009

At least someone out there is finally waking up to the fact the Emerson is a first and foremost a "marketing company" first then a technology company.

The DeltaV system costing is based first and foremost DST. The costing of the DeltaV system is primarily based on DSTs counts and its licensing. End-user who are not careful will find this a "big pain". Understanding DST licensing can be a pain at times.

If you do look carefully, everything in the DeltaV is to make sure that end-users will increase the DST counts. At one stage of time, Emerson marketing people and their project teams were trying to discourage my plant from continuing using OPC and instead use the Mynah interface modules. I know that OPC having its own issues but the Emerosn marketing were "relentless" in quietly trying to promote their VIM products. I felt that they were not doing justice and were biased towards OPC. They were actually doing it more the increase the cost to the project. This statement - I guess will get a flat denial from Emerson.

I think that will set up a lot of reactions and maybe Emerson will start another mini-marketing campaign from Emerson "marketing people" to quench the bad press here, especially in such lean time of declining projects.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

As a customer of Emerson, I fell trap to their strategy of giving away a system up front and then screwing us with very expensive annual contracts for every I/O point that we decide to add to the system. The sooner we rip out this Delta V the better. Looks great in the demo, but the system crashes far too often. Being that Emersons policy of even making their own control system changed several years ago, the MTL I/O system has much to be desired.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Doesn't look like there's much conversation on the Emerson weblog lately. Well, here's a very negative one.

Emerson has decided to close its Atlanta Industry Center. This effectively kills all the company expertise in Pulp & Paper and Industrial Energy. On a larger scale, Emerson corporate has announced that 10% of the workforce (14,000 people) will be laid off this year. Much of this may have taken place already. This comes after multiple management communications in the last few months stated that Emerson was in a great cash position and had a good backlog. "We couldn't be in a better position to ride out this economic downturn" was the exact quote. Look at the company fundamentals; there aren't many large corporations with better financials. So apparently it is really all about looking good for Wall Street and analysts; if you aren't laying people off, you aren't being fiscally responsible. I understand fiscal responsiblity, but Emerson did not have a reason to do this. There is something unethical and almost immoral about doing this. Emerson could have accepted slower growth and reduced earnings and still been profitable. What does it say about a company that puts 14,000 people out of work in the current environment?? They ought to be ashamed.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Buy Wonderware? They just sold Intellution like 3 years back... Emerson is just not comfortable with software business. Design, manufacture and sell STUFFS, THINGS, Hardware...They are one of the best on the planet. Software...how do you have LEAN software engineering? How to measure inventory and squeeze buyout vendors? They are just awkward with it.

Sunday, December 14, 2008 - Re: Emerson buying Wonderware:

Do you remember Intellution? Emerson does not have a good track record with software companies. More importantly, Wonderware would most likely be part of a "package deal" for all of Invensys. Invensys is now legitimately "in play" with the announcement of Nigel Rudd as chairman of the board. Emerson (the overall, diversified entity) may have interest in the entirety of Invensys.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

May I suggest that Emerson should buy WonderWare?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Besides Emerson and Rovisys, who's capable of handling a multi-million dollar pharma DeltaV integration projec? For that matter, does any competitior other that Rovisys have System Integrator dongles?

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Did anybody attend Emerson Exchange this week? What a shining example of what a company should be. One billion dollars in growth last year (not through acquisition).

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Same happened with Schneider last quarter - seems Automation isn't sexy anymore in the stock market, when there's so much more profit to be made by these bankers elsewhere.... Solid growth, real profits, actual cash generation, no complicated debt-ridden refinancing vehicles - none of these seem to count on the stock market floor anymore!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Emerson 9/9/08 reported sales and profits meet or exceed forecast, and yet the stock sinks .... Do the analysts know something beyond the Quarterly filing?

Monday, June 23, 2008 - Dave Harrold [DDHarrold@gmail.com]:

I'm afraid I don't understand why anyone would make a "long in the tooth" comment about DeltaV or any of today’s modern control systems, for that matter.

Several decades past users kept insisting they wanted and needed control systems built on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software. Eventually manufacturers abandoned their all proprietary distributed control systems and began offering end-users exactly what they asked for. Of course it wasn't too long before those same users began complaining that these COTS based control systems required regular patches and updates to Microsoft’s operating system software.

Today I would remind those talking about "long in the tooth" products to be aware that the use of COTS technologies allows modern control systems, such as DeltaV, to live and grow almost indefinitely. The fact of the matter is that DeltaV is simply a brand name and a 2008 version of DeltaV has very few similarities to its 1998 great grandparent.

Arguing that Emerson Process Management isn't investing heavily in the development of DeltaV improvements simply doesn't understand 21st century control systems.

Oh, and before you ask, I am not an Emerson employee; in fact I'm retired but remain in touch with an industry that helped me afford to retire.

Monday, June 23, 2008 - from Jim Cahill: [jim.cahill@emerson.com] - responding to the weblog June, 12 08, below:

I checked with DeltaV SIS Product Manager, Mike Boudreaux, on the three assertions below and have posted a detailed response on the Emerson Process Experts blog.

Click to read:Emerson Process Experts

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The DeltaV SIS is a nice little system. Despite all its nice features like integrated alarms etc., we just discovered that it has some short comings:

1. You can only at this moment transfer 8 digital bits of peer-to-peer between nodes. The Emerson sales person argued that this is all you need if you design your SIS nicely. Personally I seek to differ from this. I do want to go into an argument with him. This is a very expensive way via a pair of fiber optics cables to only have 8 bits. I heard that the real issue was due to a system design limitation.
2. The electronics takes only low powered inputs. You can only have at max 8xDOs (at max 500 mA per DO point) on a single DeltaV SIS module - which has 16 configurable IO points.
3. It suits nicely into a small system type of expansion. At its gets larger and larger and becoming more complicated, it can become an engineering nightmare.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Looking at Delta V from another angle: Emerson has poured in much money into DeltaV Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) and it has not sold much yet. So while the return from that has not come in, they will continue to make DeltaV relevant...in order not to derail the SIS.

Friday, May 23, 2008 - from Randy Pratt [randy.pratt@emerson.com]:

The "bit long in the tooth" comment would sound like its coming from a competitor trying to spread fear, uncertainty & doubt. As a long time factory service engineer in our Advanced Services group, I can tell you that it’s a pleasant and challenging experience to keep up with the innovation occurring in our product lines. There is plenty of new functionality coming to fruition (as has been the case over the entire history of the DeltaV system!).

One such advancement that is already public knowledge; wireless technology looks like it will be a big thing. There will be new native wireless functionality on the next release of DeltaV but take note that we are as willing to install and maintain our open standards wireless solutions on a competitor’s system as we are on our own systems.

And how confident am I in my statements? Note this weblog entry isn’t anonymous.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Please read the news and be updated. Version 10.3 is coming soon with Native wireless Field device integration and much more to offer. Wait for few more months... Lots of R&D are underway with a future vision beyond 2012. DeltaV is really getting more and more interesting and has lots to offer.

If you are an Emerson Person, hold on to watch more wonders happen. If you are a competitor, I am really sorry you would be upset more.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Isn't DeltaV getting a bit long in the tooth? What's next for Emerson Process? Has there been any R&D recently? Or just monetizing DeltaV as long as possible?

My apologies. Due to spam filters and other reasons, the weblogs have been blocked. The problem has now been corrected, and your comments are now coming through. Please continue your weblogs.

Jim Pinto

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

I worked for Emerson and later worked for Invensys. Because of the culture and the trouble to do engineering with the Invensys DCS, I came back to Emerson. Now I am really happy to see DeltaV back. Here, I see a lot of improvement in 1.5 years and dedicated to providing the best.

Emerson is really comitted to its customers. My request for our esteemed customers would be that they highlight any issues to the Emerson Team or the 24 hr support and we would try our level best to resolve the issues ASAP.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

I had started my career with Emerson and later on went on to work with Rockwell. I was so frustrated with Rockwell (and their process control solutions or lack of it) that I consider that as my poorest decision. I am back with Emerson and I am quite comfortable with what we are doing.

I believe that the company does try its sincere best to provide best to the customers (not without gaining the best, but that's okay, after all, we have to be paid for what we do and how well we serve our customers.)

We had a problem on a DeltaV system recently (not due to our fault as we found out in the end, it was one of the Fieldbus Device Manufacturers which created the whole problem) and the company pulled all the stops to ensure that the problem gets sorted out. The company invests in many internal initiatives to provide best value to their customer. And I feel that many emplyees like me feel proud to be part of that delivery process in achieving as much customer satisfaction as possible.

There are lots of efforts that go in to ensure that we deliver the PlantWeb and Foundation Fieldbus solutions without causing any problems. Emerson was the first to test the thrid party devices with DeltaV to ensure that they work in Fieldbus network as desired.

I am quite happy and I would encourage all those talented, young, experienced Engineers to join us. We may not be recognised as the best pay masters in the world but add to it the tremendous satisfaction of being the part of the process which provides best value to our customers.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Ref. weblog of 4 Nov. 06: "Given that DeltaV isn't actually the most stable, reliable, well supported project around, how long before it really backfires and gets refitted with the competition?"

Looks like its started and gaining momentum. Wonderware's ArchestrA seems to be the new player in town. WW used to be lucky to book 10 big pharm projects a year - let alone a month. Who's putting it in you say? Disgruntled DELTAV partners for one from what we see...

Monday, January 8, 2007

Whilst Emerson hold themselves up as a leader in the Industrial Automation market, at the end of the day their growth strategy seems to rest with poaching engineering and sales staff from other control system vendors, through offers of a 10% uplift or equivalent. This is a short term focus, I believe, with long term consequences, driving a spiral upwards for all. My advice is 'beware the worm that turns'!

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Jim, Just ready your Emerson article... excellent!

I'm a new Emerson employee.. only 3 months.. but a 25 year Electrical industry veteran from 3 other large corporations. After reading your article, I feel good about my decision to join Emerson and hope to last 10-15 years until retirement.

Click to read:Corporate Culture Series - The Emerson Difference

Saturday, November 4, 2006

Congratulations to Emerson for an excellent marketing program with DeltaV. Have your distributor give away the software and subsidized engineering to price out any hint of competition from integrators of ABB or GE or Siemens.

Is this really a good idea though? I keep meeting really angry integrators and VARs who don't want to even sell the hardware such as flow meters anymore because they lost yet another process control job to Emerson's own people.

And, given that DeltaV isn't actually the most stable, reliable, well supported project around, how long before it really backfires and gets refitted with the competition?

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Having been a customer of Emerson (with Delta V), we also have been disappointed with the technical support (or lack thereof) for the system that we have purchased. As more and more of the technical support moves overseas, it seems that the providers are less inclined to provide quality support. This alone has diminished further chances of Delta V being installed at our company.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

I was interested to read the article on Emerson culture and don't doubt their sincerity. My experience of Emerson is not so positive however. We are building a plant in NZ (Oil & Gas industry) and the DCS implementation is one of the worst projects I have been involved with. Emerson need to understand that the success or otherwise of a DCS project is dependent 80% on engineering, 20% on technology. The Emerson technology is fine, but their project management and technical support is sorely lacking. Friends overseas have had similar (though not quite so extreme) experiences.

Monday, May 22, 2006

With the recent acquisitions of Mobrey and Bristol, Emerson Process Management (EPM) appears to be fortifying it's position in the industrial control market. Will these acquisitions have a role in the future of the Brooks Instrument division, which appears to be "playing" to markets outside the EPM core?

Friday, April 21, 2006

For all the success of Emerson I still find it amazing that they get away with disastrous software implementations. I have come across several DeltaV projects where the software cost has escalated by hundreds of percent whilst not even achieving all they should have. Their marketing is marvellous though.

Sunday, March 19, 2006 - from Larry Bolton [larry.bolton@emersonprocess.com]:

Emerson Acquires Bristol Babcock - Acquisition Expands Portfolio of Measurement and Control Products, Technologies, and Services for Process Industries Worldwide.

Emerson today announced it has acquired Bristol Babcock from FKI plc (LSE: FKI) of Loughborough, England, for $121 million. To be renamed Bristol, it becomes part of Emerson Process Management and adds industry-leading measurement and control products, technologies, and services for oil, gas, power, water, and wastewater industries worldwide.

Headquartered in Watertown, Conn., Bristol Babcock has annual revenue of approximately $80 million. Bristol products and technologies include remote terminal units, flow computers, transmitters, and distributed process controllers. It has manufacturing facilities and offices in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada with additional offices in Mexico, the Middle East, Australia, and China.

The acquisition complements the Emerson business unit's established measurement brands that include Rosemount®, Micro Motion®, Daniel®, and Mobrey®.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - from Dr Jay Bayne:

I recently heard that some key ABB managers have been jumping ship to join the old Westinghouse Process Controls group. It seems Emerson just continues to build momentum in the automation business!

Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - Dewey [darrin.kuchle@emersonprocess.com] re: DeltaV SIS & TUV approvals:

I think if you took the time to refer back to April 13 2005 weblog, you would see that the architecture was approved by TUV, not the product. This was a key design hurdle that would have been a make or break for the entire development project.

The distributed nature of this SIS makes it quite different from any other I've seen in the past. This unique approach was viewed by many as a radical departure from the norm and as such it was extremely important to obtain TUV's approval of the design long before actually finishing the product. That's what the letter was about. It was actually a bigger deal to get that approval, once it was obtained the actual certification was a foregone conclusion and even a little anti-climactic.

I should mention that we received the official TUV certificate last week.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Direct from Pat Kennedy: "OSISoft is 25 yrs old and these kinds of rumors have been around for for about 20 of them. We are not for sale."

Thursday, May 19, 2005

News is that Pat Kennedy is readying OSISoft for sale. It has certainly been discussed/confirmed in some circles. It will be interesting to see who potential suitors might be. Emerson, and Rockwell are certainly possibilities. The deal would carry a hefty price tag. Anyone on this weblog with more insights?

Monday, April 18, 2005 - Regarding the last post on DeltaV SIS and TUV approval:

The Emerson schedule for formal release of the SIS remains as September 2005. This release will also include TUV certification. Emerson will stand behind this commitment to TUV certification with a performance bond as well.

If in doubt, please contact your local Fisher-Rosemount representative for more details.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

The Emerson brass band is certainly in full swing about their new DeltaV SIS. However the statements by Emerson that they have TUV approval are not true. If you check the wording in the TUV letter you will find that the truth is that they do not have TUV certification and the letter comments states that it still subject to verification and investigation, all thats been done is that they have read the documentation. Emerson is clearly under market pressure to come up with this as a "certified product".

Friday, February 25, 2005 - from ex-Emerson employee, on the Emerson culture:

I started at Micro Motion but left another division of Emerson Electric. During my tenure, I was able to witness Chuck Knight in action during the planning review. I was impressed with his drive, but not his propensity to use the F word, etc...

However, there was a "dark side" of Emerson. Using lawyers and lawsuits to attack the R&D budgets of competitors and the stifling of innovation within the "division" was not appreciated. Ask ex-employees and you find that many had experience with Emerson "agents" that were chartered with intruding into their personal lives.

Monday, February 7, 2005 - from Kirk Abraham [kabraham@mrindianapolis.com]:

I appreciate your article and wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. Emerson is a model that any American business should strive to attain. One of my very best clients...

Monday, February 7, 2005 - "The Emerson difference"

JimPinto.com eNews, (7 Feb. 2005) has a detailed review of the Emerson cultiure.

Click to read:What does it mean to be Emerson?

Monday, December 06, 2004 - from OSI-Soft:

It was announced at the Emerson User Conference, that they decided to build their own version to run inside the DCS, but will offer PI as a VAR.

Monday, December 6, 2004 - from Randy Pratt [randy.pratt@emersonprocess.com]:

Yes there is a new historian. See: http://www.easydeltav.com/pd/PDS_ContinuousHistorian.pdf

Thursday, December 02, 2004 - Scott_Kobler@Merck.com [Scott_Kobler@Merck.com]

Is it true that Emerson is going to write their own historian to replace the OSI Embedded historian?

Friday, January 16, 2004 - Emerson response to previous weblog:

There was a splinter group in Houston that is being split up and the people shifted to our main facility in Houston and some sent to our facility in Calgary. We are also adding a large number of people beyond this to the Houston Center to provide even better support to our customers and bring project management close to these folks.

Friday, January 16, 2004

I understand that Emerson is closing their Oil & Gas Division in Austin and relocating it to Calgary. Will their staff relocate or will they be let go? Either way (if this is true) it cannot be a good sign for their Gulf Coast customers.

Friday, January 2, 2004 - On the subject of Ovation:

Ovation may not be the most friendly system in the world to engineers, but it has still got many things going for it. Features and applications designed specifically for the Power Industry are the key selling points.

IMO, ease of engineering/user friendliness is often an over-rated virtue preached by the marketeers. Give me Solid/Reliable performance with easy OPERATION anytime. Anyway, they are NOT going to dump Ovation for now. I saw them showing Web Access and Fieldbus features on Ovation last month in Vegas. Looks like money still flowing.

Friday, December 19, 2003

For the person wondering is this is the end of Ovation. It should be! I suffered through the interminable 3-week factory training and what should have been a very simple project with Ovation. In my humble opinion, the whole product line should be unceremoniously dumped. DeltaV is so much superior in every important way that holding on the the old system would be just bad judgement.

Sunday, December 07, 2003 - from an Emerson person:

Ann Pauley is the sister of Jane Pauley. She is joining her sister on a TV talk show. This has nothing to do with any Emerson reorganization real or imagined.

Friday, December 5, 2003

Ann Pauley, President of Power & Water Solutions left the company effective 12-31-03. Guess she wasn't part of the re-org of the Emerson Process Managent organizational chart. Things should get interesting for this division as it is going to become more like Emerson and less like the old Westinghouse. Is this the beginning of the end for Ovation?

Thursday, November 20, 2003 - from an Emerson employee:

The Nov 04, 2003 posting on the Emerson Weblog has some inaccuracies that should be corrected:

• The product is named DeltaV SIS.
• The release date cannot be set until certification and approvals are completed.
• We have received preliminary approvals on the architecture, but final approvals aren't possible until product certification is completed. This is under the control of the certification agencies and is not expected until mid-2004, at the earliest.

Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - from an industry analyst:

Honeywell was first into the DCS era with TDC2000, which enabled them to dominate the market for the best part of 20 years while everyone else played catch-up. Similarly while Emerson's strength is undoubtedly due in part to its superior management, it's currently built on Delta V and the fact that, alone of the majors, it has world class instrument and valve businesses to complement it.

Friday, November 14, 2003 - from an Emerson insider, responding to the plea for Emerson to buy Invensys ICC:

I doubt it. Yurko used to run these units.

Friday, November 14, 2003 - From an Invensys blogger:

Does Emerson have an interest in ICC (specifically, the "Barber-Colman/ Robertshaw/ Wonderware" of ICC Americas)? In other words, from ICC to Emerson: "Help!, Save us from the Yurkos of the world!!"

Realistically, I see that the product fit would be good with Emerson, I guess Emerson would be wondering, however, if it would be worth the time having to institute such a large scale purge of deadwood within the organization in order to restore profitability to ICC.

Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - response to the uninformed Emerson source who thinks the 848 is a PLC. (Laughter here)

The one thing that DeltaV does NOT do well is high-speed machine automation. The best scan time available is 100 ms. There is also no embedded vision capability that I am aware of. While PLC's are misapplied many times in the process industries, touting the 'death' of the PLC is more than a litle premature.

Monday, November 10, 2003 - brand and company re-naming:

It doesn't always work out that the "family name" is a boon for marketing or brand recognition, particularly in the case of acquisitions.

Witness the application of the GE "meatball" to Intellution and Mountain systems. A clear net negative. Feedback from customers, distributors, and partners of the Intellution and Mountain Systems organizations have been uniformly negative post-GE. Granted, the issues are much, MUCH deeper than simply naming/branding (GE's much vaunted management abilities surely aren't manifesting themselves here, though their bean counting skills are being applied in force).

Friday, November 07, 2003 - response about brand-name strategy, from a senior Emerson manager:

Renaming has turned out to be a real boon because of the universal respect for Emerson.

With regard to PLC functions: We have PLC functionality in DeltaV and in most of our products. This will rapidly accelerate and substantially increase in functionality over time. We also have a unique field mounted device range including blocks of high performance I/O and function blocks. These are rugged devices. This is the 848 line including temperature, 4-20, pressure, flow - and will also be enhanced to include pH, conductivity etc. All "speak" Foundation Fieldbus, HSE, wireless etc.

It is my belief that PLC's are dead having been replaced at the top end by scalable DCS offerings and eaten at the low end by smart devices lik the 848.

Thursday, November 06, 2003

Your article and the Emerson weblog mostly talk about Emerson Process but what about Emerson's Industrial Automation division?

I agree about Emerson's strong & intelligent management. But what about their brand-name strategy? Fisher-Rosemount is/was a strong brand and Emerson has decided to rename everthing Emerson Process. What are they planning concerning for their Industrial Automation brands like Control Techniques or Leroy Somer? These are strong brands but not as strong as Fisher-Rosemount. So will they be renamed Emerson Industrial Automation?

Another point : How can Emerson become a major player in Industrial Automation without a PLC manufacturer or an HMI manufacturer?

Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - from Emerson, about Delta V safety systems:

We are already selling this, and will make a full release in January. DeltaV-Safe is fully approved by all relevant agencies both in the US and internationally. It is fully compatible with DeltaV and is tightly integrated and yet has the necessary isolation for safety purposes.

Tuesday, November 4, 2003

Does anyone have inside info on the impending release of the DeltaV safety systems controller? Most of the extant systems (i.e. Siemens and Honeywell) are awfully clunky and old-fashioned. I'd like to use something a little more modern when it becomes available.

Monday, November 3, 2003 - re: OSI and Emerson:

Excellent news! OSI is the big hitter in the historian space. GE's thing seemed like a bit of a toy in comparison.

Monday, November 03, 2003 -a knowledgeable Emerson staffer responds about OSI:

Quite the contrary, we are now using OSI PI for all applications, have embedded it fully, have signed a new exclusive (for them) agreement and have agreed to work jointly on all projects.

Monday, November 3, 2003 - First post on the Emerson board! Hooray!

I've been told that Emerson is close to replacing OSI's PI with GE's iHistorian as the historian of choice for Delta V. This would seem a big change of direction, particularly given the long relationship with OSI. Any insights?