Press Release
Yokogawa releases VigilantPlant Services(TM) solutions package
Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces the release on February 8 of VigilantPlant Services(TM), the first-ever comprehensive package of automation service solutions that help manufacturers achieve safe, environmentally friendly, and profitable plant operations in line with the Yokogawa VigilantPlant(R) concept. From design through project execution, operations, and maintenance, VigilantPlant Services provide manufacturers the support they need to achieve Operational Excellence over the entire plant lifecycle.
Development background
Manufacturers today are looking to improve the safety, efficiency, and reliability of their operations while keeping quality high and costs low. At the same time, they face tough global competition.
To achieve these aims and ensure their survival, companies must identify improvements that can be made to their operations and draw up a master plan for their implementation. This has been made difficult, however, by a lack of broadly experienced lead engineers due to retirement and the fact that engineers today tend to be more specialised and have fewer opportunities to refine their knowledge by following up on the automation platforms that they have installed. And even when companies have identified the issues that need to be addressed, they may have lost through repeated personnel cutbacks the expertise required to select and implement the necessary platforms and practical methodologies. And finally, it may be more difficult for them to sustain the results that have been achieved through such improvements due to a lack of maintenance personnel or because the organisation takes a one-off approach in implementing these activities.
It is with these needs in mind that Yokogawa has developed its VigilantPlant Services concept.
VigilantPlant Services overview
Yokogawa provides a wide variety of automation platform solutions that help companies protect health, safety, and environment (HSE), optimise production, improve asset utilisation, and maximise plant uptime. Over the past 20 years Yokogawa has gained rich experience in providing operations improvement services to major companies in many different world markets, including Japan.
Yokogawas reorganisation of its operational and consulting services business under the VigilantPlant Services name is based on the belief that manufacturers require a comprehensive package of services and solutions to support their continuous improvement activities throughout the plant lifecycle.
VigilantPlant Services bring Operational Excellence by improving the effectiveness of automation platforms. There are three basic types of VigilantPlant Services:
1. Opportunity Identification Services(TM)
To identify new improvement possibilities and optimum solutions, Yokogawa provides Free Plant Analysis, Comparative Effectiveness Analysis, Management Seminar, Master Planning, and Improvement Leader Development programs.
2. Solution Implementation Services(TM)
To effectively implement identified solutions, Yokogawa provides Asset Management, Safety Management, Production Management, and Plant Lifecycle Management programs.
3. Lifecycle Effectiveness Services(TM)
Following the implementation phase, Yokogawa continually maintains and re-evaluates these solutions for its customers to ensure that they remain effective throughout the plant lifecycle.
Yokogawas VigilantPlant Services go beyond the scope of conventional consultation services to address the sustainability of improvement initiatives. The program includes the actual training of customer engineers in understanding the methodology behind these improvements. Yokogawa also pays careful attention to the quality and reliability of its automation platforms. To this end, Yokogawa has implemented a variety of quality management measures in the VigilantPlant Services package.
VigilantPlant Services benefits
* Compliance with HSE standards
* Maximum asset availability
* Optimal plant productivity
Conventional maintenance and repair services are typically reactive in nature; in contrast, VigilantPlant Services take a proactive approach to maintenance that reduces the total cost of ownership.
Major target markets and applications
Plant production management in industries such as oil & gas, petrochemicals & chemicals, power, fertiliser, and mining
VigilantPlant Services: background informationVigilantPlant Services(TM) is a suite of comprehensive services that realise Yokogawa's VigilantPlant concept, helping manufacturers to achieve safe, reliable, environmentally friendly and profitable plant operations. From design through project execution, operations and maintenance, VigilantPlant Services make it possible for manufacturers to maintain Operational Excellence over the entire plant lifecycle.
The packaged solutions provided by VigilantPlant Services are aimed at supporting manufacturers in their continuous improvement activities throughout a plant's lifecycle. These services focus on adding value within the operations domain in today's always challenging and competitive business environment to ensure that plants remain safe and environmentally friendly while operating with optimal profitability.
VigilantPlant Services takes into consideration the current stage of development and the range of each customer's existing continuous improvement programs, and is divided into three categories:
* Opportunity Identification Services(TM) to identify new improvement possibilities and proper solutions
* Solution Implementation Services(TM) to implement already identified improvement solutions
* Lifecycle Effectiveness Services(TM) to sustain and enhance existing solutions.
Opportunity Identification Services(TM)
Opportunity Identification Services(TM) are positioned as the first step for clients to identify potential areas of improvement which will generate the fastest return on investment. They provide a phased approach tailored to individual customer needs such as the following:
* Identifying opportunities for improvement prioritising
* Those opportunities based on fastest return on investment (ROI)
* Assessing the weaknesses, threats and risks to the success of an identified opportunity
* Selecting a best-in-class, effective solution
* Best-practice training services for effective solution implementation
* Master plan creation including budget planning and ROI targets
* Project leader training and mentoring services for customer staff involved in these projects.
VigilantPlant Services(TM) that address the above needs include:
* Free plant analysis, a service that identifies high-level opportunities
* Comparative effectiveness analysis, a benchmarking service to identify operation improvement opportunities.
* Yokogawa management seminars to provide high-level idea/opportunity stimulation
* 'Master plan': a consulting services to generate the investment justification case
* Improvement leader development: training services to educate customer staff.
Solution Implementation Services(TM)
Wherever an opportunity for improvement has been identified, Solution Implementation Services(TM) are available to realise those opportunities. Solution Implementation Services are packaged consulting and/or engineering services that help clients implement an effective solution based on standardised methods and practices. Yokogawa has adapted the 'Six Sigma DMAIC' best practice approach to develop a standardised implementation methodology that guarantees project success. The Six Sigma DMAIC steps are as follows:
* Define the target to be achieved
* Measure the necessary information
* Analyse measured information to identify root causes and countermeasures
* Improve identified issues using selected solutions
* Control the achieved improvements.
Solution Implementation Services(TM) achieves its key aims as follows:
* Ensuring HSE: Regulatory control stabilisation; best practice pilot; alarm rationalisation; incident analysis
* Maximising asset availability: Field digital baseline tuning; control valve diagnostics; heat exchanger diagnostics; pump diagnostics
* Optimising plant productivity: Advanced process control, covering multivariable control and blend property control; control room design
* Enhancing business agility (using Yokogawa's Real-time Production Organizer(TM)): Business workflow standardisation and optimisation using Workflow Composer VP(TM); production schedule coordination using Production Coordinator VP(TM); task execution assistance using Production Instructor VP(TM); performance monitoring and analysis using Production Supervisor VP(TM); on-demand production tracking using Production Tracker VP(TM).
Lifecycle Effectiveness Services(TM)
Lifecycle Effectiveness Services(TM) are the third and final step of VigilantPlant Services(TM). This is the maintenance phase in which Yokogawa helps clients sustain the effectiveness of their implemented solutions. These services help clients who want to maintain effectiveness throughout the plant lifecycle and identify when improvements need to be made. Key elements are:
* Service and support, including 24/7 response, with a single contact for all customer service needs
* Maintenance management, with vigorous maintenance plans and support for all unique needs, along with pinpoint identification of problems using condition-based maintenance
* Operator effectiveness, supported by a wide range of training courses to meet all needs
* Inventory management, including parts stocking for emergencies, allows users to minimise capital investment by parts management programmes and operate their plants and equipment with the latest hardware and software
* Regular effectiveness analysis, to provide clients with an opportunity to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of their implemented solutions. A Yokogawa consultant visits the client site on a regular basis - typically once a year - to obtain the latest information on the installed solution so that its effectiveness can be evaluated. In cases where degradation has occurred, Yokogawa offers its Solution Implementation Services(TM) to restore effectiveness.
* Migration support, to minimise the threat of diminishing resources and parts obsolescence, and to use a proven migration roadmap to reduce the risk of operating older control systems.
Adding value
Each aspect of VigilantPlant Services is designed to deliver one or more of the following benefits:
* To ensure health, safety and environment (HSE)
* To maximise asset availability
* To optimise plant productivity.
VigilantPlant Services will provide value to any manufacturer who wishes to:
* Identify new opportunities for operational and business improvement
* Implement cost-effective solutions that deliver on promised return on investment
* Sustain and enhance the effectiveness of existing solutions to deliver continuous benefits.
All these elements are achieved by utilising Yokogawa's products, knowledge, experience, methodologies, skills, and quality-driven ethos.
About VigilantPlant
VigilantPlant is Yokogawa's automation concept for safe, reliable, and profitable plant operations. VigilantPlant aims to enable an ongoing state of Operational Excellence where plant personnel are watchful and attentive, well-informed, and ready to take actions that optimise plant and business performance. This initiative eliminates unplanned downtime, improves asset utilisation, and allows businesses to adapt to shifting market conditions quickly and efficiently. Based on this concept, Yokogawa launched Safety Excellence solutions in 2005, Asset Excellence solutions in 2006, and Production Excellence solutions in 2007.
About Yokogawa
Yokogawa's global network of 19 manufacturing facilities and 85 companies spans 40 countries. Since its founding in 1915, the US$4 billion company has been engaged in cutting-edge research and innovation, securing more than 8,000 patents and registrations, including the world's first digital sensors for flow and pressure measurement. Industrial automation and control, test and measurement, information systems and industry support are the core businesses of Yokogawa. For more information about Yokogawa, please visit the companys web site at www.yokogawa.com.
About Yokogawa Europe B.V.
The European headquarters of Yokogawa were founded in Amersfoort in the Netherlands in 1982. Throughout Europe Yokogawa has its own sales, service and engineering operations. This dedicated network has been extended to Central and East Europe and Southern Africa to further enhance the coverage and support associated with serving the process control and automation market place. Yokogawa develops and produces flowmeters at Rota Yokogawa in Germany and liquid analysers and industrial safety systems in the Netherlands. In addition to this dedicated network of Yokogawa subsidiaries, a select organisation of Test & Measurement (T&M) subsidiaries and distributors is established in certain areas to support the specific customer needs of this continuously developing and specific market of T&M instrumentation.
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