Yokogawa’s OpreXTM Profit-driven Operation, is a solution for process industries that drives seamless alignment with plant management objectives across the organization, from the operations floor through to the C-suite. The solution is centered on a methodology of interrelated performance indicators distilled from Yokogawa’s extensive domain knowledge, and promotes profitability by helping to optimize the balance between conflicting objectives. It incorporates a new performance dashboard and related services designed specifically for the operations level, as well as programs provided by KBC Advanced Technologies, a wholly-owned Yokogawa subsidiary specializing in consulting and simulation for process industry management. The solution has already been optimized for oil refining and petrochemicals, and Yokogawa intends to expand its application to LNG and basic chemical plants in the near future.
“Process industry executives say that, despite considerable investment in IT, they don’t have true visibility into what is happening across their plants, and that objectives they communicate are not being clearly understood at the operations level,” said Satoru Kurosu, executive vice president, and head of Yokogawa’s Premium Solutions and Service Business Headquarters. “To help solve these critical issues, Yokogawa has constructed a cross-organizational performance metrics methodology to provide the visibility and alignment they need. The synergistic value that Yokogawa and KBC can deliver is matchless in the industry.”
Performance metrics methodology
This unique solution has been made possible by integrating Yokogawa’s expertise in industrial automation technologies with the extensive domain knowledge of experts at KBC, which has decades of global analysis and consulting experience with major energy and chemical plants. Yokogawa collaborated closely with KBC industry consultants to first define and then systematically structure several hundred metrics, which Yokogawa calls “synaptic performance indicators” (SPIs), that are collected at the plant operations, engineering, and top management levels in refinery operations, based on deep knowledge of how they affect plant performance.
Performance dashboard for operations
As part of the solution launch, Yokogawa is releasing a new performance dashboard and related services that are integrated into CENTUMTM distributed control system (DCS); [Requires CENTUM VP R6 or later] to enable plant operators to monitor in real time how their operation patterns are impacting high-level plant management objectives. When the service is implemented at a plant, optimal setpoint ranges are determined for each SPI, and then if a certain indicator moves outside the ideal range, built-in expert advice is displayed to support prompt action by even inexperienced operators. The SPIs and operator performance data are automatically accumulated to enable internal and industry benchmarking, root cause analysis, and expert consulting for continuous profitability gains.
“Plant control systems continuously receive a vast amount of information from sensors and devices, but the utilization of this big data collected in real time by the DCS has mainly been limited to front-line plant safety and line control,” said Masatoshi Nakahara, Yokogawa executive vice president, and head of the IA Systems and Service Business Headquarters. “Bringing together the DCS big data and the captured knowledge of Yokogawa and KBC experts within the performance dashboard and services dramatically improves transparency, feedback, and motivation for operators, letting them transform their work from eventdriven to being sustainably profit-driven.”
Cloud-based program for engineering
and top management The Profit-driven Operation solution portfolio also includes the KBC Co-Pilot ProgramTM, a unique package of cloud-based service offerings that displays engineering and management-level SPIs, and remotely supports assets with domain expertise and insight. In connection with this program, other KBC consulting services such as Operational Excellence and Profit Improvement are available as required.
OpreX brand
Profit-driven Operation is the first solution to bear the OpreX brand, under which all of Yokogawa’s industrial automation products, services, and solutions will be unified moving forward. It is also a flagship solution representing Yokogawa’s Synaptic Business AutomationTM concept, which underlies a process of co-innovation with customers to create sustainable value by connecting everything in their organization.
About Yokogawa
Founded in 1915, Yokogawa engages in broad-ranging activities in the areas of measurement, control, and information. The industrial automation business provides vital products, services, and solutions to a diverse range of process industries including oil, chemicals, natural gas, power, iron and steel, and pulp and paper. Yokogawa was one of the world’s first companies to develop a distributed process control system for the monitoring and control of various types of plant facilities, and has established a global reputation as a leading company in the control field. With the life innovation business the company aims to radically improve productivity across the pharmaceutical and food industry value chains. The test & measurement, aviation, and other businesses continue to provide essential instruments and equipment with industryleading precision and reliability. Yokogawa co-innovates with its customers through a global network of 112 companies spanning 61 countries, generating US$3.8 billion in sales in FY2017. Regional headquarters for Europe are based in Amersfoort, The Netherlands.
