Yokogawa successfully launches SAP

Approximately three years ago, a small, hand-picked group of Yokogawa developers called the YGSP (Yokogawa Global System Project) team, began implementing a global system project for Yokogawa business application that would help us to realize our strategic business targets.

The objectives of the team and the project were:

1.) Standardization: Standardize business rules and processes for efficiency, utilizing ERP (enterprise resource planning)
2.) Globalization: From individual management of a division, hub and are to management of the entire group of companies
3.) Visualization: Building a systems to grasp what is happening now and in the future

To implement these objectives, YGSP chose SAP (Systems, Applications and Products) as its application and YCA as the application’s first testing ground.

“On April 6, 2009,” said David Johnson, President & CEO, “YCA’s SAP went live to deliver a single global system that will be duplicated in all Yokogawa locations around the world.

“This is a great opportunity for us. However, we must set realistic expectations from the start as to when the improvement in our systems will materialize. It will take approximately six–to-nine months before we begin to realize the benefits of becoming One Global Yokogawa but, once there, there is no end to what we can achieve.”

So what is SAP?

Developed in 1972 by five former IBM employees in Mannheim, Germany, SAP is the world's largest “inter-enterprise software company”* and the world's fourth-largest independent software supplier. SAP was originally introduced to manage corporate databases for a compressive range of applications. Its capabilities include managing financial, asset, cost accounting, production operations, materials, personnel, and archived documents. It is software that provided users with a soft, real-time business application that could be used with multiple currencies and languages.

AT YCA, SAP will be replacing Times, BOSS, Solomon, Overseas Passport, and other business related sub-systems. The system includes modules such as order entry, inventory control, accounting, project management and costing, workflow, manufacturing, HR, business intelligence and reporting.

Groups working within this project include: PMO (Project Management), Accounting, Procurement & Logistics, Project Sales, Project Engineering, Product Sales, Human Resources, Service, Master PSI, Cross Function, and Infrastructure.

Have questions?

If you have any questions of how to enter data in SAP, please contact the working group as you see on the table below. YGSP group is preparing a list of teams that will assist with any questions and concerns about entering data.

Training packages? You can review all training packages among all groups buy visiting our intranet. Click here to see all training packages. You can also view the organizational chart under the YGSP site at intranet.

Yokogawa positioning as combustion total solution provider at Valero

“The Valero Way: The safety of our employees, our operations and our communities is our highest priority – Valero 2007 annual report”

Valero is constantly striving to achieve operational excellence. It is not by accident that Valero was ranked No. 1 in Fortune magazine as the best large company to work for two consecutive years. Valero was also named, Downstream Business of the Year by the 2007 Platts Global Energy Awards. When Yokogawa introduced the TDL (Tunable Diode Laser) analyzer product last year, Valero was one of the first companies that expressed keen interest in this unique combustion solution.

How can Yokogawa help Valero sustain operational excellence in the cyclical refinery business? During up cycles, most companies focus on improving safety, increasing throughput and product quality. In an economic turndown, the focus is on safety, improving efficiencies and reducing costs. Initial discussions between Yokogawa and Valero centered around TDL features and benefits. These meetings gradually evolved from product technical discussions into how a total turnkey solution for combustion management could help Valero improve the safety and fuel efficiencies of fired heaters in their refineries – even in times when capital budgets were not available.

The primary function of fired heaters is to increase the temperature of the petroleum crude before it enters into distillation columns and vessels. There are typically 30-50 fired heaters in each refinery.

In 2007, the Valero’s corporate group created a compliance document related to SIS (Safety Instrumented Systems) for fired heater units. Valero McKee refinery’s 28 fired heaters were benchmarked against this new safety standard. It was discovered that many of these aging units need improvement in safety, and fuel efficiencies. In order to comply with this new objective, Valero is expecting a total combustion solution that consists of SIS, analyzers, instruments, data acquisition, application engineering, sound project, and maintenance management. An asphalt-fired heater at the McKee refinery has been identified as the pilot project for Yokogawa’s combustion safety and optimization solution.

In addition to TDL analyzers measuring oxygen and carbon monoxide content, Valero has requested Yokogawa to provide a turnkey proposal that will include mechanical and sustainable maintenance services. An example of mechanical maintenance would be to repair the damper in the flare stack and seal the fired heater box. Typically, mechanical work does not fall within the scope of a controls project. As Yokogawa rapidly establishes its reputation as a total solution provider and a main automation contractor, we need to expand our service capability into these new areas.

Valero praised Yokogawa’s ability to listen to their requirements and were impressed by our fired heater knowledge. The Yokogawa team members involved in this pursuit are Craig Ferris, Trevor Knittel, Tadao Jo, Donald Wyatt, Terry Nelson, Maurice Wilkins, and Constantine Lau. This Valero application will provide a stepping-stone to other combustion applications such as incinerators, boilers, and burner management.

Solution selling requires listening and understanding customer’s issues and priorities, especially in an economic environment when customer-spending priorities are switching from capital expenditure to operational expenditure. As demonstrated in this case, listening and creativity allowed us to expand a TDL analyzer point application into a combustion safety and optimization total solution.

Toward one global Yokogawa Industrial Automation

A message from Satoru Kurosu - Managing Director of YEI - March 2009

As you might already know, I am leaving the Industrial Automation Business Headquarters at the end of March. Though it was for such a short period of two years, it has been a privilege working with you and I appreciate your dedicated support.

The time flew by quickly. When I was first appointed to this position, the Industrial Automation Business Headquarters was facing a major issue that impacted its ability to meet extensive customer needs in our fast-growing international business: a shortage of Research & Development personnel. We took various measures over the two years such as increasing our Research & Development staff by approximately 280 (including new recruits and the hiring of 140 developers outside Japan), establishing new organizations for Research & Development management and standardization, and fostering Research & Development leaders through educational programs. These initiatives were only the beginning. We still need to shorten our time to market. We also need to verify the results of our activities and take further measures. It is unfortunate that I will not be able to see these efforts through to their conclusion. I know that you will continue these activities under Mr. Minaki, the new head of the Industrial Automation Business Headquarters.

In April, I will take charge of the Global Business Headquarters. For the first time in ten years, I will be in a sales management position. This new sales organization is different. This is a first for Yokogawa, a unified force that brings together sales, engineering, after-sales service, and value-added consultation services, and which includes personnel from all the YEI Group companies as well as the world headquarters. With 12,000 staff working together, we aim to provide our customers around the world comprehensive value-added services that will include sales, engineering, and maintenance.

With the increasing digitalization of plant data, customers look to suppliers for integrated solutions that get more value from data and improve productivity. This also leads to more requests for support throughout the plant lifecycle, which really is a big opportunity for us. To capitalize on this, it is necessary to maintain close coordination between our Research & Development unit that develops core products and organizations such as sales, engineering, and service that supply those products as integrated solutions. In this context, it is significant that a Global Business Headquarters is being established and I am being appointed as its head after being the development director.

In closing, I would like to mention my lunch meetings with the Industrial Automation staff. Though I did not meet everyone, I was able to talk with 825 people in total. Through these conversations, I heard many engineers saying, “I am not sure if the product I developed is really useful for customers.” When development projects become too large, the division of labor tends to go to extremes. They probably feel this way because there is then less chance to have direct contact with customers. Last month I accompanied President Kaihori to a meeting and had a chance to talk with the chairman of Saudi Aramco, a fully integrated international petroleum company that has the world’s largest oil reserves. Having coffee together, we heard this person at the top of the world’s energy business say gratefully, “We can take time and enjoy coffee here because of Yokogawa’s highly reliable systems and products.” This is solid proof that the products you develop are actually helping our customers and are an essential part of an energy infrastructure that people all over the world depend on. As our business expands, people’s expectations and the pressure on us will increase. Please take this as a proof of your success and continue to make highly reliable quality products with full confidence.

We are in the middle of our voyage toward becoming the Global No.1. As One Global YOKOGAWA Industrial Automation, I will continue working with you in the global marketplace. I would appreciate your continued support.

Satoru Kurosu

YCA attends fourth ARC Forum in Orlando, Florida

Despite the dismal global outlook looming on the horizon, more than 450 attendees were present for the 13th annual ARC Strategy Forum February 2-5 at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida. The Yokogawa Electric Corporation and Yokogawa Corporation of America leadership teams used the time to meet with top Yokogawa customers like ExxonMobil, Valero, and Savannah River. Under the theme of “Winning Strategies and Best Practices for Sustainable Manufacturing,” Yokogawa's press conference and showcase table at the exhibition featured highlights of the intelligent remote terminal unit (RTU), the tunable diode laser (TDL) analyzer, and the new Real-time Production Organizer (RPO). At the showcase table, the TDL helped to attract customers such as ExxonMobil, Boeing, Hatch, and General Motors. This is the fourth consecutive year that Yokogawa has participated in the forum as a Gold Sponsor. In 2005, Isao Uchida announced Yokogawa's intention to be the global No. 1 by 2010. This began a fast-paced growth for Yokogawa Corporation of America and is felt to be the starting point for improved awareness of Yokogawa in North America. Yokogawa Corporation of America's business has been growing steadily – expanding in market share and striking fear in the eyes of our competitors. Many important Yokogawa IA marketing campaigns such as VigilantPlant®, Safety Excellence, Asset Excellence, and Production Excellence have been launched at this forum.

Yokogawa and the forum's general session

The ARC Forum's general session concluded with a very interesting CEO Q&A roundtable discussion. During this session, Dennis Sadlowski of Siemens, Mr. Kaihori, Christopher Curtis of Schneider Electric, Angel Mendez of Cisco Systems, and Franz-Josef Kersting of BASF each took turns answering a variety of end user questions from the audience pertaining to environmental and business sustainability. The questions asked included:- What technology do you see in the next 5-10 years? - What is your customer telling you and what are you doing in the next 6-12 months? - How do you reduce system maintenance costs? - Will there be any IT investment in automation? - How do you train/motivate people?

Yokogawa breakfast

End users, media representatives, and Yokogawa partners joined us at the Yokogawa Gold Sponsorship Breakfast to learn about “Solutions for Sustainable Manufacturing” from Mr. Kaihori. A total of 80 people attended the breakfast.

Yokogawa-sponsored customer dinners

Other events sponsored by Yokogawa included two customer dinners. On February 2, Mr. Kaihori, Mr. Kurosu, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Gaas, and Mr. Knittel joined Dr. J.D. Tate of Dow Chemical at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Restaurant to discuss the TDL and Yokogawa's future relationship with Dow. Dr. Tate leads technology development in the Process Analytical R&D Group at Dow, where he has oversight responsibilities for identifying gaps and opportunities for online measurement and control. Before joining Dow, he worked as a scientist at Sparta, Inc., leading research efforts involving optical biosensors for commercial and defense applications. Dr. Tate is recognized as an expert in online spectrometry, installing hundreds of analyzers used to monitor important industrial processes. Yokogawa's second dinner, the Yokogawa President's Dinner, took place on February 3 at Arthur's 27, a restaurant atop the Wyndham Hotel. Here, ExxonMobil, Savannah River, Nova Chemical, and Valero met with Yokogawa's leadership team to discuss present and future relationships. For Yokogawa, this President's dinner is one of the best customer events at ARC. This year's VIP guests included Sandy Vasser, Michael Sarli, Craig Schiro, Thomas Alloway, Stephen Russell, Jin Guram, Dale Nicosia, and Gary Youll.

Yokogawa announces the RPO™

Editors from Control Engineering, Control, Industry Week, InTech, Maintenance Technologies, Managing Automation, Manufacturing Business Technology, Plant Engineering, Reed Business Information, and many others attended the Yokogawa press conference. Mr. Kurosu presented the roadmap of the new RPO.

SCADA Center of Excellence established

The SCADA (Supervising Control and Data Acquisition) team at YCA Sugar Land was officially announcement in January 2008 when the leadership team decided to establish at the Sugar Land office a SCADA Center of Excellence (SCE). “The team was established as SCE group in North America and we are well on the way to accomplishing that” said David Mims, Engineering Supervisor, YCA SCADA Department.

In order to accomplish this, the SCADA team focused last year on the following:

Established a local sales support team in Sugar Land office managed by Sagar Patel, BP Account Manager who established a working relationship with BP in US.

To assist BP and the YCA SCADA teams in achieving their long term goal of BP technical excellence, the BP SCADA Lab was established as a facility for formulating and testing new concepts and ideas.

Identified and began implementation of training for FAST/TOOLS and STARDOM within YCA

Aligned YCA with the Stardom Technical Assistance (STA) Program as a means of decreasing response times when solving technical issues (both internally and externally) related to Stardom controllers.

Moved SCADA department members into a central location as a means of promoting team work.

Created a structured organization (within the SCADA Department) that takes into consideration the various functions required during SCADA project execution.

Created a common directory for SCADA team members and common communication channels that traverse YCA (Sugar Land) and YCA-CA (Canada) as a means of promoting teamwork across the two office locations.

Established relationships with YHQ and YEF as a means of sharing knowledge and strengthening our global FAST/TOOLS organizations and expertise.

Created SCADABOT (For more information on the SCADABOT stay tuned on the upcoming newsletter issues) and InfoWell Demos.

The SCADA team consists of 35 members which are part of the two organizations: Upstream Solution Group and YCA SCADA Engineering Department. The two core products that the SCADA team focuses on are Stardom (Yokogawa’s line of RTU’s) and FAST/TOOLS (Yokogawa’s SCADA HMI/Database application).

David Mims (working with John Noren, Makoto Suda, Hiromitsu Sonehara, Hiroki Usami and Sridhar Santhan) has developed a strong strategic plan on how YCA will develop the team necessary to achieve the YCA goal of becoming a SCADA Center of Excellence.

Moving forward into FY2009 the structure of the YCA SCADA organization will be further strengthened with new leadership positions, a comprehensive SCADA training program (built in cooperation with the YCA Training Department), integration of the DCS HMI team into SCADA organization via SCADA HMI responsibilities, developing and refining SCADA project estimation applications, and many more initiatives.

Click here to see the SCADA team organization.

Milheiser promoted to Technology Training Supervisor

The Training department is pleased to announce that Gerald Milheiser has been promoted Technology Training Supervisor. Gerald has been working with Yokogawa since June 2007 as the Systems Training Specialist. With a background in Pulp & Paper Industry, Gerald has worked with a variety of DCS and has done an outstanding job at the Yokogawa Education Center.

You may contact Gerald Milheiser at geraldo milheiser@us.yokogawa.com or

Telephone: 281-340-3800 x 1245

Yokogawa Foundation Fieldbus showcase a success

On February 8, 2009, Yokogawa Canada became the first Industrial Automation vendor chosen by the Foundation Fieldbus End User Council to host a Foundation Fieldbus demonstration.

Held at the Calgary facility, Yokogawa’s demo featured FFB H1 drops with EJA™, EJX™, PRM® and CENTUM VP® and “was as an excellent means for Yokogawa to showcase its system features to a focused group of potential end users,” said Scott Cadger, Regional Systems Sales Manager. “It was also a great place for potential end users to learn the features of each system that best meet their requirements.

“With the assistance of Amit Ajmeri, Steve Lazok and other support personnel, the meeting was a huge success. More customers than we expected -- approximately 40 -- from companies such as Suncor, Fluor, Shell, Jacobs, Neen, Conoco Phillips, DPH Focus, and many others, attended. Based on the positive responses from all attendees, Yokogawa is now making plans to deliver the same presentation in Edmonton and again in Calgary during the next few months.”

Other vendors participating in the Foundation Fieldbus demos for projects designed or built in Western Canada are below. The group will be visiting one vendor each month.

1. Honeywell
2. Emerson
3. ABB
4. Rockwell
5. Invensys
6. SMAR