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?