Positive About Process

As GE Fanuc Automation launches Proficy Process Systems, Stephen Ryan, Director of Marketing, Global Process Solutions, tells CE Asia how the company intends to tackle the lucrative process sector with its new offering.

CEA: You spent many years at Rockwell Automation before moving into your current position at GE Fanuc two years ago. Why the switch?

Ryan: My whole background has been in manufacturing and automation, the majority of that on the process side. Over my 15 years at Rockwell I had a number of different roles – sales, engineering, services, product management, marketing – and was particularly involved in its process industry initiatives, including the acquisitions of Sequencia Assets, Propack Data, and Interwave Technologies

GE Fanuc is a tremendous company and was looking to move ahead significantly in the process space. The opportunity aligned with my own aspirations and my passion – I love the process space – and it was also an acknowledgment that GE was stepping up its focus, investment and commitment to the process industries.

CEA: What are some of the key challenges in the process sector?

Ryan: I would say that there are more pressures on the sector to achieve world class levels of manufacturing than ever before. But also, technology has emerged that allows us to do things that were not able to be done in the past. Overall, it’s an extremely interesting time in manufacturing – more so that any other time in my career.

Summarizing some of the major issues: having the necessary visibility to compete in the global economy; needing to plug into a global supply chain; increasing regulations requiring recall, track and trace capabilities; ongoing demands to improve efficiency and reduce variance; demographic changes necessitating the embedding of knowledge into systems as plants face the loss of expertise and experience; and the increasing need to conform to environmental expectations and legislation.

CEA: What was the trigger to launch Proficy Process Systems?

Ryan: Process is not something new for GE Fanuc; we do have a heritage in the sector. You can see this through our installed base, in recognized product offerings such as the CIMPLICITY and the PACSystems platform, and notable acquisitions like Intellution and Mountain Systems over the last few years.

The hardware and software technology that we have invested in over time really set us up to offer and deliver a systems approach to the process sector, in addition to our existing product approach. Hence, the evolution to Proficy Process Systems.

CEA: So you put together the existing GE Fanuc component offerings to create a system?

Ryan: What we did not do was just combine a bunch of products and call it a system. Proficy Process Systems (PPS) is a true systems experience – from the way it was developed, to how we market and sell it, and how we support the customer.

When the product was still in the design phase, we conducted a tremendous amount of “voice of customer” research – going out to industry to understand the critical-to-quality parameters that a process control system needs to drive. The feedback that came back was for a system that delivered results and enabled the freedom to configure and implement the in a flexible way.

Taking proven component technologies and building in system features was the core of the development approach. For example, for visualization, we can sell iFIX as a separate product but when part of PPS, it’s truly connected to the global namespace and our integrated alarm strategy. And for the PACSystems controller, we can build in the ability to do process control within the firmware, and this is enabled when it’s within PPS.

CEA: For process plant customers familiar with the likes of ABB, Emerson, Honeywell, etc, you can now offer a DCS equivalent to satisfy process control needs?

Ryan: Yes, absolutely. That’s why Proficy Process Systems is such an important launch for us. Adding system features to proven components has enabled GE Fanuc to come up with a very competitive process control system and one that delivers significant value to customers.

What we are not offering is a monolithic DCS. While we certainly have the capabilities of a DCS, there is differentiation in the openness, flexibility, scalability that allows us to address us to effectively address applications from batch through to continuous process.

CEA: How do you view the process control competitive landscape and GE Fanuc’s positioning?

Ryan: Competitors in this space are in two categories: those that come from the traditional DCS perspective, and those from a PLC perspective with roots in factory rather than process automation.

When I look at the DCS providers I sense that they are trying to scale down their systems but are having a lot of difficulty in doing so. It’s not just a technology issue – it’s about constructing a business model that puts customers in control and gives them flexibility and freedom, which were paramount in our development of Proficy Process Systems.

Then you have PLC heritage companies (like ourselves) coming in to address the process space. We differentiate here in two key ways: through offering a truly contemporary controls technology –compare the performance specs of PACSystems against competitive technology that is much older; and through tight integration of the information-automation layers. The latter, especially, has been a challenge for some of our competitors – trying to link disparate applications together is quite different to our ability to collapse the information and control architecture in a unified approach.

CEA: This push into process is a part of long term game plan or an opportunistic ride on booming industries like oil & gas?

Ryan: GE Fanuc and the broader GE have considerable knowledge and experience of the process sector, so while we acknowledge that the current period represents an appropriate window of opportunity, we’re certainly not just jumping on any bandwagon.

Rather, it’s a cumulative consequence of the investments in organic technology development like PAC; in acquisitions – the high speed reflective memory used in PPS comes from one of those embedded system company purchases; and in adopting technology – such as APC (advanced process control) – from other GE divisions.

We’re emerging at a time when a lot of customers are looking to replace older systems and if they look out to see what’s available on the market, it’s quite different compared to 5-10 years ago when running a temperature or flow loop was pretty much all that was expected of a process control system. And to meet the challenges I talked about earlier, they need optimization, they need multidisciplinary control for hybrid (discrete, batch, continuous) manufacturing environments, and they need that tight integration of information and automation.

CEA: Do you have target industries for Proficy Process Systems?

Ryan: We target both the hybrid and continuous process industries with emphasis on some key applications. In Life Sciences, these include biotech and solution prep; Food & Beverage – mixing, brewing, fermenting; Oil & Gas – pipelines, gas plants, and LNG terminals, with a stress on the upstream side; Power – balance-of-plant applications. Other major focus areas are Water/Wastewater, Metals, and the Ethanol industry.

It’s not a case of being everything to everybody. You may not see us in large complex process applications to begin with, but more in the small to medium and we will then go on and grow from there.

CEA: What has been your own personal experience of working for GE Fanuc?

Ryan: Words like excellence and professionalism come to mind. GE is a data driven organization with great processes in place, and I like that. The environment is all about fast paced growth and the level of people is really top notch. Overall, it’s been very positive and I’m truly enjoying the experience.

CEA: And the future ambition for GE Fanuc in the process sector?

Ryan: The message is that we’re here to stay in this sector. It’s about longevity and providing continued value to customers; it’s about spending time listening to and watching the market; it’s about lining up contemporary technology offerings to meet the needs of customers.

And as markets continue to shift –demographically, geographically, technologically – it’s about being able to reflect those trends. I’m excited and confident about the Proficy Process Systems launch and I believe we have a great value proposition and future ahead.

Stephen Ryan