Tokyo, Japan - September 16, 2013
Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it will begin offering Modular Procedural Automation (MPA) solutions for the standardization, automation, and supervision of manual plant operating procedures. Yokogawa MPA consultants will work with experienced plant operators to develop the solutions, which will capture current best practices and comply with the new ISA-106 standard.
The MPA solutions are being offered in conjunction with Advanced Decision Support (ADS) solutions, which are a part of the VigilantPlant Services*® and seek to improve plant operational safety and efficiency. Yokogawa will begin offering MPA solutions in the U.S. on September 16, and the plan is to roll them out in Europe in fiscal year 2014 and in all other markets in fiscal year 2015.
An MPA system screen
Development Background
Plant operational safety is a top concern in the process industry. Increasing competition, new regulations, aging assets, and a graying workforce are pushing the process industry toward the enforcement of standards on plant operations, with a special focus on high risk operations such as startup, shutdown, feed switching, and grade change that require high levels of operator intervention. The ISA106 committee* is working to standardize and automate such procedures and to introduce management guidelines that will improve plant operational safety and efficiency.
In 1996, Yokogawa released the Exapilot system to improve operational efficiency. Used to automate plant operating procedures, this system was originally developed in response to the needs of Japanese companies with older plant facilities and graying workforces that needed to make better use of the expertise of their most experienced plant operators. Yokogawa has close to 20 years of experience working with its customers on procedural automation, and Exapilot has been very well received in Japan and elsewhere in Asia. To implement MPA solutions for industry, Yokogawa has developed a structured methodology that complies with the new ISA106 standard. ISA106 is helping to increase industry awareness of the need for MPA solutions that will improve plant operational safety and efficiency.
Major benefits of the MPA solutions:
- Safer and efficient plant operations
MPA solutions capture the best practices of experienced plant operators. MPA solutions will automate and enforce such procedures, lessen the likelihood of plant accidents caused by human error, and ensure that the knowledge and expertise acquired by the most experienced plant operators is passed on to their more junior colleagues. This also improves efficiency by reducing operator workload. - Easy maintenance and verification
MPA solutions standardize and automate work procedures based on the ISA-106 standard. First, plant facilities are grouped into hierarchies, then manual work procedures are automated for each hierarchy. This makes it easy to locate, maintain, and modify the procedure for each plant facility. - Platform independent
MPA solutions are not dependent on an automation platform; they are designed to work on any Yokogawa or non-Yokogawa platform. What is required is an industry standard interface. MPA procedures that require a high speed response can be implemented directly on the automation system.
Kim Hock Teo, Head of the VP Services Business Headquarters, said, "The MPA solutions are one of three core offerings of our Advanced Decision Support (ADS) solutions, which we are advocating in conjunction with Yokogawa's operational management suite to achieve safer and more efficient plant operations. Yokogawa will continue to listen to customer and industry concerns to develop solutions, and will help customers achieve and sustain high levels of safety, reliability, and efficiency over the entire plant lifecycle."
Major applications
The automation of manual continuous process operating procedures such as plant startup, shutdown, feed switching, and grade change that are typically employed in the oil and gas, petrochemical, iron and steel, pulp and paper, and power industries
About VigilantPlant Services
VigilantPlant Services are a suite of services for achieving Yokogawa's IA and control business vision, VigilantPlant*®, which helps customers achieve ideal plant operations. There are three basic types of VigilantPlant Services: Opportunity Identification Services*®, Solution Implementation Services*®, and Lifecycle Effectiveness Services*®. Through these three solutions, Yokogawa provides a wide range of services from maintenance and inspection of instrumentation to consultation on improvement of safety and productivity.
* A committee of the International Society of Automation (ISA) that addresses the need to increase plant safety and efficiency through the standardization and automation of manual continuous process operating procedures typically employed in the oil and gas, petrochemical, iron and steel, pulp and paper, and power industries. The ISA106 committee is presently headed by an employee of Yokogawa's U.S. subsidiary.