Achieving Breakthrough Performance through New Processes and Technologies was the title of ARC Advisory Group's recently hosted eleventh India Forum at Hyderabad. This two-day forum attracted over 230 delegates comprising of thought leaders and decision makers from key industrial segments, end-users, technology solution providers, and the media. It provided an excellent opportunity for understanding and disseminating information and implementing best practices. The knowledge transfer came from case study presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and peer-to-peer networking.

The Forum brought together key decision makers and thought leaders from chemical, oil and gas; electric power including renewable energy; cement, metals and mining; and food and beverage and pharmaceutical industries; along with suppliers of automation systems, enterprise solutions, and manufacturing IT solutions.

The forum's focus was on maximizing productivity and increasing return on investment (ROI) by investing in technologies. And this was effectively brought out by the session topics which encompassed automation trends; energy optimization; asset performance; operational excellence and cyber security; control strategies; and enterprise and network security strategies for sustainability and growth. Speakers were from the sponsors, industry association sponsors, and invited end user speakers. There were close to 30 presentations - the core of which was implementing new technologies to forge ahead in a competitive market. Sessions ended with interactive Q&A with the session speakers on the dais.

The forum was sponsored by: Siemens; BHEL; Aveva; GE IPS; and Steag. Industry Association Sponsors: AIA; CIO Forum; NCPU; FFIC; IPA; ODVA; and Tech-Pro. Media Sponsors: A&C; A&D; Automation.com; Chemical Industry Digest; Chemical World; Industrial Automation; Industrial Products Finder; Process-India; Prime, and Search.

The Forum Begins

The Chief Guest N Murugesan said that the present economic scenario is beset with challenges and uncertainty at the global and domestic levels; but these challenges can be surmounted if new technologies and best practices are adopted to curtail costs and enhance productivity. Andy Chatha, President & CEO ARC Advisory Group, made a video presentation on breakthrough technologies and interconnected processes and devices that are dramatically altering the way businesses are conducted globally.

Keynote Addresses and Invited End User Speakers

This was followed by keynote addresses by Arundhati Bhattacharya, General Manager, NTPC and Sascha Maennl, Head of Vertical Sub Segments, Process Automation, South Asia, Siemens.

Arundhati said that automation has moved from being a problem solver to a full-fledged business tool. The presentation highlighted the importance of automation in the plant lifecycle - as an analysis tool, safety functions, fault tolerance, process control, plant operation, process monitoring for actionable information, and diagnostics. Bhaskar Mandal, Sector Cluster Lead, Industry Sector, Siemens South Asia on the challenges faced by manufacturing companies and the importance of vendor neutral platforms like the ARC forums - "In order to remain competitive in the marketplace, it is key for manufacturing companies to increase their productivity, be more flexible in responding to customer needs, cut time to market for new products, enhance quality and operate more sustainably than ever before. Hence it is important to address these challenges through vendor neutral forums where the focus is on competence building and knowledge transfer. We find the ARC forums a very welcome addition to the yearly agenda of technocrats and manufacturers who want to stay abreast of the latest manufacturing trends. Congratulations to the ARC team for the successful completion of the ARC 11th Forum and also wish them the best for the next editions."

The speaker from ONGC spoke about the types and classification of drilling rigs and the parameters that need to be monitored. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited's (BPCL), representative spoke about achieving excellence in refinery operations through automation technologies and BPCL's networked operations. National Aluminium Company Limited's (NALCO) presentation was on the journey towards operational excellence and the speaker said that there must be complete integration between managerial and technical skills. The speaker from STQC spoke about security controls to protect information - in terms of confidentiality, integrity and availability.

ARC and Invited Speakers

ARC's VP and GM, G. Ganapathiraman (shown in the picture alongside) made a presentation on automation mega trends, which are evident in control, electrical and safety systems; distributed devices; application software; infrastructure, engineering; and workforce. ARC analysts ARC made presentations on the importance of energy management and optimization to cut costs and enhance operational efficiency; asset management; industrial analytics; and the internet of things. The invited speaker from TCS spoke about the factory of the future and how we are entering the era of smart manufacturing.

He said that India's manufacturing sector is becoming more innovative and competitive as it strives for operational excellence. B&R Automation made a joint presentation with their customer Alstom Power. The core was integrated automation and networking through Ethernet Powerlink in power plants. From CLPA a presentation was made on the architecture of CC-Link networks and the link to other standards.

Presentations Made by Forum Sponsors

Siemens, the forum's Global sponsor, made three impactful presentations at the forum. The core of the first presentation was "integration." Next Siemens made a joint presentation with their customer from Projects and Development India (PDIL). They spoke about implementing advanced control solutions in the process industries with specific reference to remote support services and plant asset management for mechanical plant components. Their third presentation focused on operational excellence in the process industry.

BHEL, gold sponsor, made a joint presentation with their customer from Grasim about the successful implementation of a DCS system. They gave details about the system configuration and the salient features of the Metso DNA system, and highlighted BHEL's capabilities in providing control solutions.

STEAG, silver sponsor, spoke about advanced online combustion technologies and meeting targets of customers to increase boiler efficiency. The solutions involved various elements of hardware and software integration, process exploration, and system integration with DCS - all this was effectively shown through case studies. Aveva, silver sponsor, spoke about addressing safety risks and operational demands via the digital plant. Case studies were explained with the incident, causes and lessons learnt. According to the speaker, the top challenges when it comes to safety are: human behaviour, management of change, lack of competency and inadequate training, variation in internal standards and procedures, and such others. Elements of the ISO 55000 standard were highlighted. This helps asset management strategy & planning, and decision making.

GE IPS, silver sponsor, explained how essential it is to maximize customers' profitability to help them remain sustainable. Case studies included a large steel plant and an aviation company where the scalable, integrated and modular solutions were deployed. The performance enhancement and benefits accrued were shown diagrammatically. The value path to ROI - integrated visibility; decision support and predictive diagnosis; work process management and optimization. The presentation topics chosen by the Industry Association sponsors were both technical and informative. Listing the topics: Investing in automation skills and competency development for operational excellence; digital revolution in process automation; and Profibus technology.

Conclusion

At the end of ARC's two-day forum it was clear that although the road ahead has many obstacles, these can be overcome by adopting new processes and technologies. Both sponsors and delegates gave positive feedback about the forum. In the words of Arundhati Bhattacharya, General Manager NTPC and a speaker at the forum: It was indeed a very enriching workshop for us. All other arrangements were just perfect. Some of the end user comments were: Exceeded expectations. Sessions and presentations were apt and covered contemporary topics. Covered a wide range of end user perspectives; the case studies were in-depth. Outstanding.