Reliance Eyes Big Cost Savings from New Technology

Some recent news hit the press in India on dnaindia.com about FOUNDATION for ROM. The news piece was written following the Automation 2013 Mumbai Conference in India.



A brief yet thorough write up on the article can be found on dna's website here:
http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-ril-eyes-big-cost-savings-from-new-tech-at-jamnagar-1893559

The event was a great success overall. In fact, Larry did a good write up right here in the blog about it on October 2nd. Click here: http://foundationfieldbus.blogspot.com/2013/10/foundation-for-rom-at-automation-2013.html

You can also find more about F_ROM by visiting our ROM webpage HERE. 

FOUNDATION for ROM at Automation 2013 Mumbai

We had a great week in Mumbai, India last week as we unveiled our FOUNDATION for ROM demonstration at the Automation 2013 trade show.  India has one of the largest installed bases of FOUNDATION fieldbus on a country by country basis.  Reliance refinery in Jamnagar, for example, is our largest installation in the world, with over 30 thousand fieldbus devices, many thousands of segments, all done with nearly flawless project execution in cooperation with major engineering and construction partners like Bechtel. Many other industries in India have FOUNDATION fieldbus installed as well, including metals, power chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and more.  This is one of the primary reasons the Fieldbus Foundation held our General Assembly in India in 2011.

The ROM demonstration was great but that was only part of the picture.  Monday September 23rd was the first day of the show and included keynote presentations from Dr. Peter Martin of Invensys, Dr. Gunther Kegel, CEO of Pepperl+Fuchs (also chairman of the board of the Fieldbus Foundation), Larry O'Brien, global marketing manager of Fieldbus Foundation,  and Mr. Nandakumar, founder of Chemtrols, a major Indian solution provider to the process industries.

Tuesday we began to discuss FOUNDATION for ROM and overall FOUNDATION fieldbus technology in earnest with a full day seminar that attracted close to 200 attendees, most of them end users, from the Indian process automation business.  Mr. B.R. Mehta, senior vice president of Reliance Industries and Chairman of the FOUNDATION Fieldbus India End User Council, began the seminar with some opening remarks about the significant presence of FOUNDATION fieldbus in India. Other presentations included the effect of fieldbus on cyber physical systems by Dr. Gunther Kegel and the FOUNDATION for ROM business value proposition, development roadmap, and demo program by Larry O'Brien.  Several presentations from our key supplier sponsors for our live demo project were also given, including Ravi Venkatramana of Invensys, Jonas Berg from Emerson Process Management, Prasad Samudrala from Honeywell, and Andre Fritsch from Stahl.

Wednesday and Thursday we delivered presentations on ROM at the booth, which included a live demonstration of FOUNDATION for ROM technology with the full range of devices integrated, including WirelessHART devices, ISA100.11a devices, H1 devices and electric actuators, remote I/O, the ROM devices themselves, and the wireless backhaul network based on HSE, all hooked up to an Invensys host DCS.

We were also very fortunate to win the Technology Advancement Award at the show for our ROM booth!

You can access my presentations from Automation 2013 at the Fieldbus Foundation Slideshare account here:

http://www.slideshare.net/Fieldbus-Foundation/foundation-for-rom-2013-14-presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/Fieldbus-Foundation/automation-mumbai-2013-fieldbus-update

http://www.slideshare.net/Fieldbus-Foundation/automation-mumbai-2013-presentation

A big thanks to our FOUNDATION Fieldbus India Committee (FFIC) for helping us organize this event. Thanks to our FOUNDATION for ROM sponsor companies for helping us get the booth organized.  Thanks to IED Communications for helping organize the show, and our very active end users in India who are the reason we are doing all this in the first place!

Link to Flickr Photoset of ROM Booth and Seminar at Automation 2013 Mumbai

Support End User Training in Pune, India, By Donating Your FOUNDATION Fieldbus Equipment

As you know, the Fieldbus Foundation is committed to delivering not only the best in technology, but also the essential training that allows end users to get the most out of the technology. That is why we developed our FOUNDATION Certified Training Program (FCTP), which ensures consistency and quality in training at some of the world's leading technology and industrial educational institutions around the world.

We are pleased to announce that we have added a new FCTP partner site for end user training in Pune, India, which as you know is one of the fastest growing markets for adoption of fieldbus technology. UL is a well-known supplier of automation training solutions to our industry, with an excellent reputation for quality and highly qualified personnel. 

The Foundation would like our manufacturing members to be part of the success of this important new training site by providing hosts, devices, physical layer components, and cable to properly equip the site to deliver vendor neutral, first class training to end users across a wide range of industry segments.

Think about it. Every day that an end user is in class, they are becoming more knowledgeable and comfortable with the quality products your company provides. What better way to market your automation solutions then to provide your customers and potential customers with hands on knowledge of your products? 

Many of you may know Mr. B.R. Mehta, Senior Vice President of Reliance Refining. Here is what Mr. Mehta has to say about the importance of high quality training:

"When we began our search for the automation technology essential to build the largest refinery in the world, it was obvious that to maximize our return on this significant investment, Reliance would need to educate their operating personnel in engineering, operations and maintenance. We recognized FOUNDATION fieldbus as the technology of choice, and we also recognized that for ongoing success, India needed a dedicated training institute to support an ever growing economy. The Fieldbus training site at UL Group in Pune is the culmination of that dream and the result of more and more end user demand."

Each contributing company will have their company name proudly displayed on a high visibility plaque in multiple locations within the facility. There will be no doubt as to your support and commitment of the technology and the trust you have in your products and the training center itself.

Please consider a donation of FOUNDATION-based products to our newest training center at UL Group, Pune, India. Download the equipment donation form and return it to Dileep Miskin (ff@ulepl.com) of the UL Group at your earliest convenience. If you need more information, Dileep can be reached by email or at +919970006819.

Interesting Interview of India Process Automation Pioneer P Mahajan

P Mahajan is one of the leading process automation professionals in India and provided the keynote address at our Mumbai General Assembly back in March.  Mr. Mahajan is technical director for Engineers India Limited (EIL), and is basically one of the fathers of process automation in India, introducing the concepts of electronic instrumentation and intrinsically safe systems in electrically hazardous plants to India in 1974.  This is a very good interview from A&D India of P Majahan by Soumi Mitra on some of the key automation trends in India, including fieldbus. 

Soumi Mitra Interviews P Mahajan on Process Automation Trends in India