Last Seminar of the Year next month being held in the Houston Area - Sign up today!

Next month (November 6-7th to be exact) will be the last seminar of the year in North America and we'll be in the Houston area. One of our prestigious certified training centers, Lee College in Baytown, TX has chosen to host us for our event. We look forward to this really great opportunity.

Lee College offers certified training courses of varying lengths and depths of study and is the only one in the Southern united states to offer this type of vendor-neutral excellent training.

Our day-long seminar on November 6th will focus on the applications side of FOUNDATION technology and how the technology unlocks more power for your process so you can spend more time at operational efficiency and less time in unexpected shutdown. In case you have not ever attended one of our seminars, you definitely don't want to miss it. Some of the best and brightest minds in FOUNDATION fieldbus are in attendance sharing their knowledge and experience. The best part of it too is that it's completely FREE for all attendees. You can find out more information as well as register on our website: http://www.fieldbus.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=136&Itemid=371

Typical seminar format

Following the end user oriented seminar, we have a Sales Force Training seminar on November 7th that is geared towards salespeople of FOUNDATION fieldbus. The class is a half day training session on the latest news of the technology and how it can be a major part of a customers next installation. The course gives market data and figures for FF as well as some great resource material to help guide you and your customer on every aspect of FOUNDATION technology. Learn how the latest FOUNDATION for Remote Operations Management can help your customers see further into their process by reaching out to remote assets and integrating them into their control systems and how they can integrate wired HART, WirelessHART and ISA100.11a into their existing FF infrastructure! Also come hear about our latest announcement on Project Gemstone and how FOUNDATION fieldbus is the only open system out there focusing squarely on making the user experience easier and more intuitive, including device replacement.

We understand how valuable salespeople's time is so we'll have everyone out of the training day before noon so you can still make customer calls and site visits. Sign up today to refresh yourself on the latest FOUNDATION fieldbus has to offer!
http://www.fieldbus.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=136&Itemid=371

Be sure to check out our Twitter page for announcements on the seminars @FieldbusEvents. You can also view videos from previous seminars on our YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/FieldbusFoundation.

Fieldbus at Emerson Exchange

Fieldbus is featured at Emerson Exchange in a big way this week through October 4 at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine, Texas. Emerson is one of the strongest supporters of FOUNDATION technology, with a full spectrum of registered devices, host systems, and applications.  They have some truly knowledgeable people using their products, and some of the best and brightest are at the Exchange this week talking about their experiences with fieldbus and best practices.  Our End User advisory Council Chairman John Rezabek of Ashland Chemcial is there along with EUAC member Rong Gul of Shell, and fieldbus expert Jonas Berge of Emerson.  Stephen Mitschke, Director of Products at Fieldbus Foundation, is also in attendance.

These experts and others such as Alan Dewey, Klaus Erni, and Marcos Peluso of Emerson comprised the panel of fieldbus experts at the "New Generation of FOUNDATION Fieldbus Solutions" technology forum held on Tuesday afternoon, and again today from 1:15 to 2:45 PM.

A quick look at the conference catalog reveals all the FOUNDATION fieldbus related sessions.  Stephen Mitschke's session on enhancing fieldbus usability and the Gemstone continuous improvement project was held Tuesday:

6B-5013 - Leverage the Benefits of Intelligent Devices with FOUNDATION fieldbus through Enhanced Usability

Project Gemstone, a new Fieldbus Foundation initiative, provides a short and long term vision for users to achieve the benefits of intelligent devices by simplify engineering, commissioning and maintenance workflows. New specifications make device configuration easier with vendor supplied device templates. And, when the device needs to be replaced, a device with a newer revision can automatically be commissioned with an existing configuration. Future directions including ITK 7, ISA 108 and FDI make it easier and more effective to manage automation assets.

Rong Gul of Shell and Bob Lattimer of Emerson were co presenters in this session.  Our Project Gemstone is a continuous improvement project at the Fieldbus Foundation focused in improving the usability of the technology, helping the user realize the true economic potential.  Gemstone is making things like device replacement easier.  We have already made device replacement quick and easy for "like for like" devices in the latest revision of our Interoperability Test Kit.  

Al Dewey knows a lot about portable tools and has a great session on that as well.  Making templates for fieldbus devices is a great way to provide consistency and save time during the commissioning process, and there is a session on that led by Sarah Hough, Scott Hokeness, and Rong Gul.  There's just too many other sessions to list them all here, but we'll provide you with a report after the show.  

Introducing Project Gemstone: Making Fieldbus Easier and more App Centered!

The Fieldbus Foundation today announced a new technology development initiative—Project Gemstone—intended to make the digital fieldbus automation experience easier than conventional analog control systems in every conceivable way, from device setup to device replacement and daily maintenance practices.

Encompassing a wide range of FOUNDATION™ fieldbus development efforts, Project Gemstone covers many of the initiatives the Fieldbus Foundation is already working on today. This includes FOUNDATION for Remote Operations Management (ROM), Field Device Integration (FDI) Cooperation, and ISA108 intelligent device management.

FOUNDATION for ROM technology allows users to integrate their WirelessHART®, wired HART®, ISA 100.11a devices, remote I/O, and Modbus communication into the FOUNDATION fieldbus managed infrastructure. FDI is working towards a single device integration package that will provide all the benefits of Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) and FDT/DTM technology. The ISA108 standards effort is defining recommended work processes for intelligent device management, regardless of communication protocol. The foundation's new usability team is also focusing on how to make fieldbus devices easier to specify, set up, configure and maintain.

According to Fieldbus Foundation President and CEO Rich Timoney, "Our goal at the Fieldbus Foundation has always been to listen to the industrial marketplace and provide a managed infrastructure for process automation that allows end users to focus on their processes and their plants, not the technology tying everything together behind the scenes. For this reason, we have undertaken a number of key projects centered on making fieldbus automation solutions more user-friendly and compatible with other technologies."

Today's control technology should be easy to use and interoperable, and allow results to be achieved quickly, but end users need the right work processes to guide them in its successful application. For example, plant engineers want to be able to combine devices from different networks and manage them effectively, with minimal effort.

Experienced automation professionals in the process industries have taught us a lot about the implementation of fieldbus and how to make it better," said Timoney. "As an end-user-driven organization, we are taking all of this feedback from our dedicated end user customers, suppliers and engineering partners and driving it into a continuous improvement process to make the technology easier to use in a wide range of applications.  Many of the recent advancements we have made in our specification are geared not just toward the user. They allow process automation suppliers to create more effective applications as well. If you are a small supplier just starting out today, you can really use the FOUNDATION fieldbus specification to create an entire control system offering.

Project Gemstone will drive an innovation strategy enabling plant owners to focus more on what technology can do for them and their business, versus how they manage the technology itself. The project's focus on standards-based solutions will also make it easier for automation suppliers to develop new fieldbus-based products and applications. In addition, the Fieldbus Foundation's testing and registration process is designed to ensure FOUNDATION fieldbus devices, systems and components all work together as they should.