Honeywell Process Solutions presents its latest innovation, which it hopes will improve plant collaboration and increase access to the visualisation of data across an enterprise
Honeywell Process Solutions' Experion Collaboration Station is, as the company states, "taking collaboration to a new level in the process industries".
The solution, which is comprised of a large-format, multi-touch display for system or plant-wide data, takes a new approach to the way industrial organisations access information and solve problems by enabling high-quality collaboration within the field or with experts in other locations.
According to Honeywell, the solution proves useful in facilitating regular plant events such as shift changeovers and operations meetings, and also when troubleshooting is needed.
The technology behind the Experion Collaboration Solution attempts to ensure that collaboration between operators, engineers, technicians and supervisors in a typical industrial plant setting is always efficient, no matter what challenges they face.
In the Experion Collaboration Station, Honeywell Process Solutions says it has developed a tool that expands the visibility of enterprise information with a common view for all those collaborating.
Honeywell Process Solutions describes the solution as the "first of its kind in the process automation world to integrate with the control system and show information from any available source". Through complete visual integration with Honeywell’s Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS), it enables plant, business and support personnel to use interactive displays, embedded video and other telecommunication capabilities to communicate, collaborate and make decisions, irrespective of whether they are in the control room, conference room, situation room or in remote locations.
The automation control firm says that Experion Collaboration Station is able to provide the means for industrial organisations to visualise data across the enterprise in a unique way. The solution has been designed to improve collaboration between multiple experts within the organisation, increasing the ease of integrating all types of overviews, alarm displays and other users’ computer screens, as well as displaying business network data and Distributed Control System (DCS) information, while sharing the same views simultaneously for enhanced decision-making processes.
Honeywell Process Solutions describes the Station as "a breakthrough initiative for process industry customers seeking to expand enterprise collaboration".
The technology can be utilised by large, highly-distributed operations, as well as multiple sites with central engineering, and Honeywell Process Solutions says it is "particularly valuable to plant and operations managers who want to track the state of their process for faster response to both routine and emergency situations", adding that it could also prove useful in the management of emergency situations.
The Station displays performance information across distributed assets such as oil and gas fields and pipeline operations, and rapidly establishes communication and collaboration between centralised operations, maintenance and specialists without having to bring them to the same location.
Experion Collaboration Station's large-format monitor features interactive displays and multi-touch gesture control capabilities. All Experion PKS displays and any application available to the user can be opened and displayed on the collaborative screen. This could include applications such as:
- Enterprise historians
- Maintenance
- Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
- Permit to work
- Production planning
- Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
- Materials management
- Reporting
Experion Collaboration Station forms an integral part of the Experion PKS architecture and includes a secure read-only Experion Station that cannot be used for actual plant operations such as performing setpoint changes.
The Station can also be configured with the latest Microsoft enterprise software technology, including the Microsoft Lync instant messaging client, and basic features include instant messaging, VOIP, and video conferencing inside the client software.
Remote participants can collaborate from their desktop by viewing information shared from the Collaboration Station or by displaying information from their own desktop on the large Collaboration Station screen.
"Users can employ new technologies enabling visualisation of multiple streams of process and business information on a large interactive display, around which many people can collaborate for rapid and effective situational awareness and decision making," Honeywell Process Solutions states.
"This solution is aimed at any organisation that designs, operates and maintains large industrial facilities where co-operation between personnel needs to be catalysed. It also helps address the challenge of skilled labour shortages by leveraging the expertise of remote experts as needed."
