Sunday, October 25, 2009

Oct. 6, 2009 Avocet Corporation (NASDAQ: AVCT) is surging on already double a full day’s volume. At 8:17 AM EST we have seen 710,000 shares traded and the stock is up 20% at $24.80. Emerson (EMR) is paying $1.2 billion, or $25.00 per share, to acquire the company. Avocet closed at $20.52 yesterday and trades only 317,000 shares on an average day. Today will be exponentially above that figure on trading volume. The prior 52-week high was $21.38. This will be part of Emerson Network Power.

Oct. 22, 2009 Emerson Process Management said Thursday it acquired Missouri City, Texas-based EIM Controls Inc., a maker of valve actuators. EIM Controls will join the company’s Valve Automation division, expanding Emerson’s electric actuator offerings. EIM Controls generated sales of about $43.3 million in the year ended Sept. 30. It has 168 employees in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Monday, August 17, 2009 - from Conrad Acker [Conrad.Acker@Emerson.com]:

Replying to the July 21, posting:

Answer: Ovation provides I/O redundancy utilizing on-board diagnostic switchover for AO, DO, DI, and high speed turbine application modules. For AI modules, external automated switchover is used.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The issue of I/O module level redundancy is never mentioned in any of the manuals of Ovation system. How is that accomplished? I know this is an essential feature in Honneywell, Foxbooro, Yokogawa and even Delta V. These guys have a diagnostic based switchover from faulty to healthy I/O modules and that does not use any external HI/Lo selectors etc. for AO. Could anyone help and throw some light on this?

Monday, July 20, 2009

I've been with Emerson for 8 years, after 14 years with Honeywell, and the difference couldn't be greater. Emerson sticks to it's business - serving their customers - while Honeywell is embroiled in internal political machinations. Emerson's R&D is huge and new products are introduced all the time. I love my job and enjoy my work. Something I could never say at Honeywell.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

the blogger of Sunday, July 5: "This weblog for Emerson is questionable. The rest of companies featured on your weblogs all have comments. It seems overall that this website is very biassed towards Emerson."

Clearly you work for a competitor of Emerson, that is not performing quite as well, and perhaps you wish you could work here. The biggest reason that there is very little in the way of complaints on the Emerson blog is that the company is extremely well run and we have a continuous stream of exciting new products to bring to the market. We spend our time focusing on our customer's needs - not wondering how the company we work for has managed to slide down the tubes. Maybe you should send your resume - though I doubt you would make the cut here at Emerson. Good luck!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 - from Conrad Acker, [Conrad.Acker@Emerson.com]:

In reply to questions asked in July 13 post.

Q. What % split of the R&D Spend does EPM traditionally spend on the two DCS platforms, DeltaV & Ovation?

A. It would be difficult to assign a percentage split between the two systems since there are significant joint R&D efforts and technology sharing in areas such as bus technology, AMS, wireless and SIS that leverage Emerson’s R&D dollars across both platforms. In general, R&D spending for both Ovation and DeltaV are comparable given their served markets and targeted industry applications. Remember, Ovation is designed specifically for only two markets – power generation and water/wastewater treatment – with application development tightly focuses on those markets. DeltaV on the other hand has much broader application across many industrial processes necessitating more industry-specific development. There is no question that Emerson continues to make significant R&D investment in both the Ovation and DeltaV systems.

Q. Also, do any "savvy" technical users have any reservations for using a "Pentium" based DCS controller in their "critical" applications?

A. Absolutely not. The Intel Pentium processor is a highly reliable platform. Some assume that a “Pentium Processor” equals an MS operating system. That is not the case. The Ovation controller utilizes Wind River Systems VxWorks, a hard real-time operating system, which along with the Ovation controller software, provides a highly robust, reliable and fully redundant controller platform.

Q. Does the Ovation Platform provide for "true" Redundant I/O scheme as I know DeltaV can?

A. Yes.

Q. Where is the SOE time stamping accomplished? DI card or Ovation Controller? What is the SOE stamping resolution? Someone told me that the Ovation system has 125ms SOE time stamping.

A. SOE timestamps are generated in the Ovation SOE DI I/O module. The SOE module resolution allows input to be time tagged to within 125 ìs (microseconds) or 1/8 ms (millisecond), with 1 ms system-wide resolution.

Q. Also does the Ovation Controller Redundancy Scheme provide for a "Redundant Backplane" or not?

A. Not quite sure what this question is about. Redundant Ovation controllers (primary and backup) communicate basic status to each other via a passive backplane in the controller base. Each controller in a redundant pair has constant communication with the I/O and network assuring that the backup controller is at exactly the same point in the process as the primary controller. In the event of a failure of the primary controller, a ‘bumpless’ automatic transfer to the backup controller occurs with no delay or impact on the process. Upon restart, the repaired controller will detect that its partner is in control and assume the backup role. The processor in control will detect the presence of the backup processor and adjust for redundant operation.

Monday, July 13, 2009

What % split of the R&D Spend does EPM traditionally spend on the two DCS platforms, DeltaV & Ovation?

Also, do any "savvy" technical users have any reservations for using a "Pentium" based DCS controller in their "critical" applications?

Does the Ovation Platform provide for "true" Redundant I/O scheme as I know DeltaV can?

Where is the SOE time stamping accomplished? DI card or Ovation Controller? What is the SOE stamping resolution? Someone told me that the Ovation system has 125ms SOE time stamping. Can someone verify that

I am a big fan of DeltaV but I keep hearing all these limitations with the Ovation system.

Also does the Ovation Controller Redundancy Scheme provide for a "Redundant Backplane" or not?

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Actually, Emerson IS a very well run (and diversified) business. Some of Emerson's products in the automation market are growing a bit long-in-the-tooth, but there seems to be a genuine commitment to customers and a steady-as-she-goes approach to maintaining a profitable business that has enabled Emerson to avoid many of the machinations and gyrations that their competitors have felt. ABB and Siemens, also diversified companies, are in a somewhat similar situation. One trick ponies such as Rockwell or two-trick ponies such as Invensys have not been as lucky.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

This weblog for Emerson is questionable. The rest of companies featured on your weblogs all have comments. It seems overall that this website is very biassed towards Emerson. Is this website a marketing mechanism for Emerson to hide all things flawed? I can’t believe that Emerson is a truly great company!

Thursday, May 07, 2009 - from Conrad Acker [Conrad.Acker@Emerson.com]
Re: The comment posted on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 - "Hearing that Emerson is discontinuing sale of the Ovation product...":

Absolutely untrue!

I am an Emerson insider. We have had feedback from several members of our sales force in recent weeks that a certain competitor is telling prospective customers that Ovation will be discontinued by Emerson. There is absolutely no truth to this rumor.

Since 1998 with the Emerson acquisition of the Westinghouse Process Control division and the Ovation product line, both Ovation and DeltaV have seen wide acceptance in their respective markets, Ovation for the power generation and water/wastewater treatment industries, and DeltaV for the process manufacturing industries.

Ovation was designed specifically to meet the needs of large utility operations. It is the power industry market leader in the US with power plants that combined represent over 300,000 MW of generating capacity relying on Ovation control systems. Ovation is also being installed in 20 of the 25 new coal-fired power plants currently under construction in the United States.

Internationally, Ovation controls are installed on an additional 330,000 MW of generation capacity in Europe and Asia. It is the market leader in the booming China power generation market with nearly 300 Ovation systems operating in 128 plants with a combined capacity of 162,000 MW. In China’s new 1000 MW Supercritical class of plants, Ovation has been selected for 22 units, more than all other competitors combined.

In addition, Westinghouse Electric has standardized on Ovation for controls and plant computer systems for both the modernization of existing nuclear plants, but also as the primary control and data acquisition system for their new AP-1000 nuclear plant. Four AP-1000 plants are currently on order or under construction in China and additional eight orders / notice of intent have been received from US utilities, pending NRC license approval.

In the water and wastewater segment, Ovation is operating in many of the largest municipal treatment facilities in the nation including the cities of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, San Diego, Detroit, Seattle, and Pittsburgh. Combined, Ovation control systems are relied on by these municipalities for the treatment of billions of gallons of water per day.

For the above reasons alone – a very large and growing installed base in critical infrastructure segments combined with loyal customers around the world -- it would make absolutely no sense for Emerson to abandon the very successful Ovation product line.

Emerson has also made major technology investments in Ovation over the years. Recent introductions include a new control builder, enhanced Fieldbus, Profibus and DeviceNet interfaces, direct wireless connectivity, redesigned controller and I/O modules, advanced control algorithms, a new process historian, enhanced SCADA capabilities and virtual simulation technology. And there are always more developments in the pipeline.

Again, as an insider in this division (and an ‘old-timer’ who goes way back to pre DCS days) Emerson corporate management has been totally supportive of this division and the Ovation product line. They have encouraged and supported our ongoing technology development with both funding and expertise allowing us to assure that Ovation remains a best in class product.

In response to these rumors being spread, we have issued letters in the last few days assuring potential customers that Ovation has Emerson’s full support and long-term commitment. We will put the same in writing to anyone who wishes.

If some salesman tells you different, don't believe him!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Emerson Expects Slow Recovery To Hold Down '10 Sales - Dow Jones News Service, 5 May 2009 (extracts):

Emerson Electric Co. said Tuesday its sales could fall by 10% next year, as end-market demand recovers slowly in Europe and North America. Emerson reported a 32% drop in fiscal second-quarter earnings on slumping sales. The company has repeatedly warned of deteriorating business conditions in recent months and has aggressively reduced its inventories and its work force in response. Chairman and CEO David Farr said he doesn't expect a full recovery in the business to occur until 2011.

Emerson reaffirmed its 2009 earnings outlook of $2.40 to $2.60 per share. The company also said it expects its operating margin for the year to be about 15.7% as expense cuts and inventory reductions begin taking effect later this year.

Operating margin in the fiscal second quarter was 14.1%, down from 16.4% a year earlier. Revenue fell 16% to $5.09 billion, nearly one-third of which was due to the stronger dollar. The most severe reductions occurred in Emerson's appliance and tool segment where sales dropped 24% from a year ago; and climate technology, where sales fell by 23%.

In 2008, 54% of Emerson $24.8 billion sales were generated outside of the United States.Shares of Emerson ended the day down 1.5% at $36.79 a share. The stock has rebounded from a five-year low in March.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Hearing that Emerson is discontinuing the sale of the Ovation product. Sticking with DeltaV only.

Monday, April 20, 2009

At least someone out there is finally waking up to the fact the Emerson is a first and foremost a "marketing company" first then a technology company.

The DeltaV system costing is based first and foremost DST. The costing of the DeltaV system is primarily based on DSTs counts and its licensing. End-user who are not careful will find this a "big pain". Understanding DST licensing can be a pain at times.

If you do look carefully, everything in the DeltaV is to make sure that end-users will increase the DST counts. At one stage of time, Emerson marketing people and their project teams were trying to discourage my plant from continuing using OPC and instead use the Mynah interface modules. I know that OPC having its own issues but the Emerosn marketing were "relentless" in quietly trying to promote their VIM products. I felt that they were not doing justice and were biased towards OPC. They were actually doing it more the increase the cost to the project. This statement - I guess will get a flat denial from Emerson.

I think that will set up a lot of reactions and maybe Emerson will start another mini-marketing campaign from Emerson "marketing people" to quench the bad press here, especially in such lean time of declining projects.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

As a customer of Emerson, I fell trap to their strategy of giving away a system up front and then screwing us with very expensive annual contracts for every I/O point that we decide to add to the system. The sooner we rip out this Delta V the better. Looks great in the demo, but the system crashes far too often. Being that Emersons policy of even making their own control system changed several years ago, the MTL I/O system has much to be desired.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Doesn't look like there's much conversation on the Emerson weblog lately. Well, here's a very negative one.

Emerson has decided to close its Atlanta Industry Center. This effectively kills all the company expertise in Pulp & Paper and Industrial Energy. On a larger scale, Emerson corporate has announced that 10% of the workforce (14,000 people) will be laid off this year. Much of this may have taken place already. This comes after multiple management communications in the last few months stated that Emerson was in a great cash position and had a good backlog. "We couldn't be in a better position to ride out this economic downturn" was the exact quote. Look at the company fundamentals; there aren't many large corporations with better financials. So apparently it is really all about looking good for Wall Street and analysts; if you aren't laying people off, you aren't being fiscally responsible. I understand fiscal responsiblity, but Emerson did not have a reason to do this. There is something unethical and almost immoral about doing this. Emerson could have accepted slower growth and reduced earnings and still been profitable. What does it say about a company that puts 14,000 people out of work in the current environment?? They ought to be ashamed.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Buy Wonderware? They just sold Intellution like 3 years back... Emerson is just not comfortable with software business. Design, manufacture and sell STUFFS, THINGS, Hardware...They are one of the best on the planet. Software...how do you have LEAN software engineering? How to measure inventory and squeeze buyout vendors? They are just awkward with it.

Sunday, December 14, 2008 - Re: Emerson buying Wonderware:

Do you remember Intellution? Emerson does not have a good track record with software companies. More importantly, Wonderware would most likely be part of a "package deal" for all of Invensys. Invensys is now legitimately "in play" with the announcement of Nigel Rudd as chairman of the board. Emerson (the overall, diversified entity) may have interest in the entirety of Invensys.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

May I suggest that Emerson should buy WonderWare?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Besides Emerson and Rovisys, who's capable of handling a multi-million dollar pharma DeltaV integration projec? For that matter, does any competitior other that Rovisys have System Integrator dongles?

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Did anybody attend Emerson Exchange this week? What a shining example of what a company should be. One billion dollars in growth last year (not through acquisition).

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Same happened with Schneider last quarter - seems Automation isn't sexy anymore in the stock market, when there's so much more profit to be made by these bankers elsewhere.... Solid growth, real profits, actual cash generation, no complicated debt-ridden refinancing vehicles - none of these seem to count on the stock market floor anymore!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Emerson 9/9/08 reported sales and profits meet or exceed forecast, and yet the stock sinks .... Do the analysts know something beyond the Quarterly filing?

Monday, June 23, 2008 - Dave Harrold [DDHarrold@gmail.com]:

I'm afraid I don't understand why anyone would make a "long in the tooth" comment about DeltaV or any of today’s modern control systems, for that matter.

Several decades past users kept insisting they wanted and needed control systems built on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software. Eventually manufacturers abandoned their all proprietary distributed control systems and began offering end-users exactly what they asked for. Of course it wasn't too long before those same users began complaining that these COTS based control systems required regular patches and updates to Microsoft’s operating system software.

Today I would remind those talking about "long in the tooth" products to be aware that the use of COTS technologies allows modern control systems, such as DeltaV, to live and grow almost indefinitely. The fact of the matter is that DeltaV is simply a brand name and a 2008 version of DeltaV has very few similarities to its 1998 great grandparent.

Arguing that Emerson Process Management isn't investing heavily in the development of DeltaV improvements simply doesn't understand 21st century control systems.

Oh, and before you ask, I am not an Emerson employee; in fact I'm retired but remain in touch with an industry that helped me afford to retire.

Monday, June 23, 2008 - from Jim Cahill: [jim.cahill@emerson.com] - responding to the weblog June, 12 08, below:

I checked with DeltaV SIS Product Manager, Mike Boudreaux, on the three assertions below and have posted a detailed response on the Emerson Process Experts blog.

Click to read:Emerson Process Experts

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The DeltaV SIS is a nice little system. Despite all its nice features like integrated alarms etc., we just discovered that it has some short comings:

1. You can only at this moment transfer 8 digital bits of peer-to-peer between nodes. The Emerson sales person argued that this is all you need if you design your SIS nicely. Personally I seek to differ from this. I do want to go into an argument with him. This is a very expensive way via a pair of fiber optics cables to only have 8 bits. I heard that the real issue was due to a system design limitation.
2. The electronics takes only low powered inputs. You can only have at max 8xDOs (at max 500 mA per DO point) on a single DeltaV SIS module - which has 16 configurable IO points.
3. It suits nicely into a small system type of expansion. At its gets larger and larger and becoming more complicated, it can become an engineering nightmare.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Looking at Delta V from another angle: Emerson has poured in much money into DeltaV Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) and it has not sold much yet. So while the return from that has not come in, they will continue to make DeltaV relevant...in order not to derail the SIS.

Friday, May 23, 2008 - from Randy Pratt [randy.pratt@emerson.com]:

The "bit long in the tooth" comment would sound like its coming from a competitor trying to spread fear, uncertainty & doubt. As a long time factory service engineer in our Advanced Services group, I can tell you that it’s a pleasant and challenging experience to keep up with the innovation occurring in our product lines. There is plenty of new functionality coming to fruition (as has been the case over the entire history of the DeltaV system!).

One such advancement that is already public knowledge; wireless technology looks like it will be a big thing. There will be new native wireless functionality on the next release of DeltaV but take note that we are as willing to install and maintain our open standards wireless solutions on a competitor’s system as we are on our own systems.

And how confident am I in my statements? Note this weblog entry isn’t anonymous.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Please read the news and be updated. Version 10.3 is coming soon with Native wireless Field device integration and much more to offer. Wait for few more months... Lots of R&D are underway with a future vision beyond 2012. DeltaV is really getting more and more interesting and has lots to offer.

If you are an Emerson Person, hold on to watch more wonders happen. If you are a competitor, I am really sorry you would be upset more.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Isn't DeltaV getting a bit long in the tooth? What's next for Emerson Process? Has there been any R&D recently? Or just monetizing DeltaV as long as possible?

My apologies. Due to spam filters and other reasons, the weblogs have been blocked. The problem has now been corrected, and your comments are now coming through. Please continue your weblogs.

Jim Pinto

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

I worked for Emerson and later worked for Invensys. Because of the culture and the trouble to do engineering with the Invensys DCS, I came back to Emerson. Now I am really happy to see DeltaV back. Here, I see a lot of improvement in 1.5 years and dedicated to providing the best.

Emerson is really comitted to its customers. My request for our esteemed customers would be that they highlight any issues to the Emerson Team or the 24 hr support and we would try our level best to resolve the issues ASAP.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

I had started my career with Emerson and later on went on to work with Rockwell. I was so frustrated with Rockwell (and their process control solutions or lack of it) that I consider that as my poorest decision. I am back with Emerson and I am quite comfortable with what we are doing.

I believe that the company does try its sincere best to provide best to the customers (not without gaining the best, but that's okay, after all, we have to be paid for what we do and how well we serve our customers.)

We had a problem on a DeltaV system recently (not due to our fault as we found out in the end, it was one of the Fieldbus Device Manufacturers which created the whole problem) and the company pulled all the stops to ensure that the problem gets sorted out. The company invests in many internal initiatives to provide best value to their customer. And I feel that many emplyees like me feel proud to be part of that delivery process in achieving as much customer satisfaction as possible.

There are lots of efforts that go in to ensure that we deliver the PlantWeb and Foundation Fieldbus solutions without causing any problems. Emerson was the first to test the thrid party devices with DeltaV to ensure that they work in Fieldbus network as desired.

I am quite happy and I would encourage all those talented, young, experienced Engineers to join us. We may not be recognised as the best pay masters in the world but add to it the tremendous satisfaction of being the part of the process which provides best value to our customers.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Ref. weblog of 4 Nov. 06: "Given that DeltaV isn't actually the most stable, reliable, well supported project around, how long before it really backfires and gets refitted with the competition?"

Looks like its started and gaining momentum. Wonderware's ArchestrA seems to be the new player in town. WW used to be lucky to book 10 big pharm projects a year - let alone a month. Who's putting it in you say? Disgruntled DELTAV partners for one from what we see...

Monday, January 8, 2007

Whilst Emerson hold themselves up as a leader in the Industrial Automation market, at the end of the day their growth strategy seems to rest with poaching engineering and sales staff from other control system vendors, through offers of a 10% uplift or equivalent. This is a short term focus, I believe, with long term consequences, driving a spiral upwards for all. My advice is 'beware the worm that turns'!

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Jim, Just ready your Emerson article... excellent!

I'm a new Emerson employee.. only 3 months.. but a 25 year Electrical industry veteran from 3 other large corporations. After reading your article, I feel good about my decision to join Emerson and hope to last 10-15 years until retirement.

Click to read:Corporate Culture Series - The Emerson Difference

Saturday, November 4, 2006

Congratulations to Emerson for an excellent marketing program with DeltaV. Have your distributor give away the software and subsidized engineering to price out any hint of competition from integrators of ABB or GE or Siemens.

Is this really a good idea though? I keep meeting really angry integrators and VARs who don't want to even sell the hardware such as flow meters anymore because they lost yet another process control job to Emerson's own people.

And, given that DeltaV isn't actually the most stable, reliable, well supported project around, how long before it really backfires and gets refitted with the competition?

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Having been a customer of Emerson (with Delta V), we also have been disappointed with the technical support (or lack thereof) for the system that we have purchased. As more and more of the technical support moves overseas, it seems that the providers are less inclined to provide quality support. This alone has diminished further chances of Delta V being installed at our company.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

I was interested to read the article on Emerson culture and don't doubt their sincerity. My experience of Emerson is not so positive however. We are building a plant in NZ (Oil & Gas industry) and the DCS implementation is one of the worst projects I have been involved with. Emerson need to understand that the success or otherwise of a DCS project is dependent 80% on engineering, 20% on technology. The Emerson technology is fine, but their project management and technical support is sorely lacking. Friends overseas have had similar (though not quite so extreme) experiences.

Monday, May 22, 2006

With the recent acquisitions of Mobrey and Bristol, Emerson Process Management (EPM) appears to be fortifying it's position in the industrial control market. Will these acquisitions have a role in the future of the Brooks Instrument division, which appears to be "playing" to markets outside the EPM core?

Friday, April 21, 2006

For all the success of Emerson I still find it amazing that they get away with disastrous software implementations. I have come across several DeltaV projects where the software cost has escalated by hundreds of percent whilst not even achieving all they should have. Their marketing is marvellous though.

Sunday, March 19, 2006 - from Larry Bolton [larry.bolton@emersonprocess.com]:

Emerson Acquires Bristol Babcock - Acquisition Expands Portfolio of Measurement and Control Products, Technologies, and Services for Process Industries Worldwide.

Emerson today announced it has acquired Bristol Babcock from FKI plc (LSE: FKI) of Loughborough, England, for $121 million. To be renamed Bristol, it becomes part of Emerson Process Management and adds industry-leading measurement and control products, technologies, and services for oil, gas, power, water, and wastewater industries worldwide.

Headquartered in Watertown, Conn., Bristol Babcock has annual revenue of approximately $80 million. Bristol products and technologies include remote terminal units, flow computers, transmitters, and distributed process controllers. It has manufacturing facilities and offices in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada with additional offices in Mexico, the Middle East, Australia, and China.

The acquisition complements the Emerson business unit's established measurement brands that include Rosemount®, Micro Motion®, Daniel®, and Mobrey®.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - from Dr Jay Bayne:

I recently heard that some key ABB managers have been jumping ship to join the old Westinghouse Process Controls group. It seems Emerson just continues to build momentum in the automation business!

Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - Dewey [darrin.kuchle@emersonprocess.com] re: DeltaV SIS & TUV approvals:

I think if you took the time to refer back to April 13 2005 weblog, you would see that the architecture was approved by TUV, not the product. This was a key design hurdle that would have been a make or break for the entire development project.

The distributed nature of this SIS makes it quite different from any other I've seen in the past. This unique approach was viewed by many as a radical departure from the norm and as such it was extremely important to obtain TUV's approval of the design long before actually finishing the product. That's what the letter was about. It was actually a bigger deal to get that approval, once it was obtained the actual certification was a foregone conclusion and even a little anti-climactic.

I should mention that we received the official TUV certificate last week.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Direct from Pat Kennedy: "OSISoft is 25 yrs old and these kinds of rumors have been around for for about 20 of them. We are not for sale."

Thursday, May 19, 2005

News is that Pat Kennedy is readying OSISoft for sale. It has certainly been discussed/confirmed in some circles. It will be interesting to see who potential suitors might be. Emerson, and Rockwell are certainly possibilities. The deal would carry a hefty price tag. Anyone on this weblog with more insights?

Monday, April 18, 2005 - Regarding the last post on DeltaV SIS and TUV approval:

The Emerson schedule for formal release of the SIS remains as September 2005. This release will also include TUV certification. Emerson will stand behind this commitment to TUV certification with a performance bond as well.

If in doubt, please contact your local Fisher-Rosemount representative for more details.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

The Emerson brass band is certainly in full swing about their new DeltaV SIS. However the statements by Emerson that they have TUV approval are not true. If you check the wording in the TUV letter you will find that the truth is that they do not have TUV certification and the letter comments states that it still subject to verification and investigation, all thats been done is that they have read the documentation. Emerson is clearly under market pressure to come up with this as a "certified product".

Friday, February 25, 2005 - from ex-Emerson employee, on the Emerson culture:

I started at Micro Motion but left another division of Emerson Electric. During my tenure, I was able to witness Chuck Knight in action during the planning review. I was impressed with his drive, but not his propensity to use the F word, etc...

However, there was a "dark side" of Emerson. Using lawyers and lawsuits to attack the R&D budgets of competitors and the stifling of innovation within the "division" was not appreciated. Ask ex-employees and you find that many had experience with Emerson "agents" that were chartered with intruding into their personal lives.

Monday, February 7, 2005 - from Kirk Abraham [kabraham@mrindianapolis.com]:

I appreciate your article and wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. Emerson is a model that any American business should strive to attain. One of my very best clients...

Monday, February 7, 2005 - "The Emerson difference"

JimPinto.com eNews, (7 Feb. 2005) has a detailed review of the Emerson cultiure.

Click to read:What does it mean to be Emerson?

Monday, December 06, 2004 - from OSI-Soft:

It was announced at the Emerson User Conference, that they decided to build their own version to run inside the DCS, but will offer PI as a VAR.

Monday, December 6, 2004 - from Randy Pratt [randy.pratt@emersonprocess.com]:

Yes there is a new historian. See: http://www.easydeltav.com/pd/PDS_ContinuousHistorian.pdf

Thursday, December 02, 2004 - Scott_Kobler@Merck.com [Scott_Kobler@Merck.com]

Is it true that Emerson is going to write their own historian to replace the OSI Embedded historian?

Friday, January 16, 2004 - Emerson response to previous weblog:

There was a splinter group in Houston that is being split up and the people shifted to our main facility in Houston and some sent to our facility in Calgary. We are also adding a large number of people beyond this to the Houston Center to provide even better support to our customers and bring project management close to these folks.

Friday, January 16, 2004

I understand that Emerson is closing their Oil & Gas Division in Austin and relocating it to Calgary. Will their staff relocate or will they be let go? Either way (if this is true) it cannot be a good sign for their Gulf Coast customers.

Friday, January 2, 2004 - On the subject of Ovation:

Ovation may not be the most friendly system in the world to engineers, but it has still got many things going for it. Features and applications designed specifically for the Power Industry are the key selling points.

IMO, ease of engineering/user friendliness is often an over-rated virtue preached by the marketeers. Give me Solid/Reliable performance with easy OPERATION anytime. Anyway, they are NOT going to dump Ovation for now. I saw them showing Web Access and Fieldbus features on Ovation last month in Vegas. Looks like money still flowing.

Friday, December 19, 2003

For the person wondering is this is the end of Ovation. It should be! I suffered through the interminable 3-week factory training and what should have been a very simple project with Ovation. In my humble opinion, the whole product line should be unceremoniously dumped. DeltaV is so much superior in every important way that holding on the the old system would be just bad judgement.

Sunday, December 07, 2003 - from an Emerson person:

Ann Pauley is the sister of Jane Pauley. She is joining her sister on a TV talk show. This has nothing to do with any Emerson reorganization real or imagined.

Friday, December 5, 2003

Ann Pauley, President of Power & Water Solutions left the company effective 12-31-03. Guess she wasn't part of the re-org of the Emerson Process Managent organizational chart. Things should get interesting for this division as it is going to become more like Emerson and less like the old Westinghouse. Is this the beginning of the end for Ovation?

Thursday, November 20, 2003 - from an Emerson employee:

The Nov 04, 2003 posting on the Emerson Weblog has some inaccuracies that should be corrected:

• The product is named DeltaV SIS.
• The release date cannot be set until certification and approvals are completed.
• We have received preliminary approvals on the architecture, but final approvals aren't possible until product certification is completed. This is under the control of the certification agencies and is not expected until mid-2004, at the earliest.

Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - from an industry analyst:

Honeywell was first into the DCS era with TDC2000, which enabled them to dominate the market for the best part of 20 years while everyone else played catch-up. Similarly while Emerson's strength is undoubtedly due in part to its superior management, it's currently built on Delta V and the fact that, alone of the majors, it has world class instrument and valve businesses to complement it.

Friday, November 14, 2003 - from an Emerson insider, responding to the plea for Emerson to buy Invensys ICC:

I doubt it. Yurko used to run these units.

Friday, November 14, 2003 - From an Invensys blogger:

Does Emerson have an interest in ICC (specifically, the "Barber-Colman/ Robertshaw/ Wonderware" of ICC Americas)? In other words, from ICC to Emerson: "Help!, Save us from the Yurkos of the world!!"

Realistically, I see that the product fit would be good with Emerson, I guess Emerson would be wondering, however, if it would be worth the time having to institute such a large scale purge of deadwood within the organization in order to restore profitability to ICC.

Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - response to the uninformed Emerson source who thinks the 848 is a PLC. (Laughter here)

The one thing that DeltaV does NOT do well is high-speed machine automation. The best scan time available is 100 ms. There is also no embedded vision capability that I am aware of. While PLC's are misapplied many times in the process industries, touting the 'death' of the PLC is more than a litle premature.

Monday, November 10, 2003 - brand and company re-naming:

It doesn't always work out that the "family name" is a boon for marketing or brand recognition, particularly in the case of acquisitions.

Witness the application of the GE "meatball" to Intellution and Mountain systems. A clear net negative. Feedback from customers, distributors, and partners of the Intellution and Mountain Systems organizations have been uniformly negative post-GE. Granted, the issues are much, MUCH deeper than simply naming/branding (GE's much vaunted management abilities surely aren't manifesting themselves here, though their bean counting skills are being applied in force).

Friday, November 07, 2003 - response about brand-name strategy, from a senior Emerson manager:

Renaming has turned out to be a real boon because of the universal respect for Emerson.

With regard to PLC functions: We have PLC functionality in DeltaV and in most of our products. This will rapidly accelerate and substantially increase in functionality over time. We also have a unique field mounted device range including blocks of high performance I/O and function blocks. These are rugged devices. This is the 848 line including temperature, 4-20, pressure, flow - and will also be enhanced to include pH, conductivity etc. All "speak" Foundation Fieldbus, HSE, wireless etc.

It is my belief that PLC's are dead having been replaced at the top end by scalable DCS offerings and eaten at the low end by smart devices lik the 848.

Thursday, November 06, 2003

Your article and the Emerson weblog mostly talk about Emerson Process but what about Emerson's Industrial Automation division?

I agree about Emerson's strong & intelligent management. But what about their brand-name strategy? Fisher-Rosemount is/was a strong brand and Emerson has decided to rename everthing Emerson Process. What are they planning concerning for their Industrial Automation brands like Control Techniques or Leroy Somer? These are strong brands but not as strong as Fisher-Rosemount. So will they be renamed Emerson Industrial Automation?

Another point : How can Emerson become a major player in Industrial Automation without a PLC manufacturer or an HMI manufacturer?

Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - from Emerson, about Delta V safety systems:

We are already selling this, and will make a full release in January. DeltaV-Safe is fully approved by all relevant agencies both in the US and internationally. It is fully compatible with DeltaV and is tightly integrated and yet has the necessary isolation for safety purposes.

Tuesday, November 4, 2003

Does anyone have inside info on the impending release of the DeltaV safety systems controller? Most of the extant systems (i.e. Siemens and Honeywell) are awfully clunky and old-fashioned. I'd like to use something a little more modern when it becomes available.

Monday, November 3, 2003 - re: OSI and Emerson:

Excellent news! OSI is the big hitter in the historian space. GE's thing seemed like a bit of a toy in comparison.

Monday, November 03, 2003 -a knowledgeable Emerson staffer responds about OSI:

Quite the contrary, we are now using OSI PI for all applications, have embedded it fully, have signed a new exclusive (for them) agreement and have agreed to work jointly on all projects.

Monday, November 3, 2003 - First post on the Emerson board! Hooray!

I've been told that Emerson is close to replacing OSI's PI with GE's iHistorian as the historian of choice for Delta V. This would seem a big change of direction, particularly given the long relationship with OSI. Any insights?