Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces the release of CENTUM VP, a new integrated production control system that will become the flagship platform for the VigilantPlant Operational Excellence initiative.
VigilantPlant is Yokogawa’s automation concept for safe, reliable, and profitable plant operations. VigilantPlant aims to enable an ongoing state of Operational Excellence where plant personnel are watchful and attentive, well-informed, and ready to take actions that optimize plant and business performance. This initiative eliminates unplanned downtime, improves asset utilization, and allows businesses to adapt to shifting market conditions quickly and efficiently.
Based on this concept, Yokogawa launched Safety Excellence solutions in 2005, Asset Excellence solutions in 2006, and Production Excellence solutions in 2007. The launch of the CENTUM VP takes the VigilantPlant initiative to its next evolutionary step, integrating the three excellence solutions into one Operational Excellence platform.
CENTUM VP is the 8th generation of the CENTUM series, and succeeds the CENTUM CS 1000/CENTUM CS 3000. While securing clear backward compatibility and consistency with previous CENTUM systems, CENTUM VP redefines the role of a production control system, commonly known as a DCS.
Going beyond the traditional DCS function of controlling and monitoring a plant, CENTUM VP integrates plant information management, asset management, and operation support functions, achieving a unified operating environment. CENTUM VP provides a foundation for operational excellence by delivering information in context and allowing easy role-based access to all key information.
Satoru Kurosu, Senior Vice President of Yokogawa’s Industrial Automation Business Headquarters, says: “CENTUM VP is designed to empower real-time decision makers at all levels of a plant’s operations. A significant improvement in information efficiency enables our customers to enhance both plant safety and business agility.”
Key advantages of the CENTUM VP system are as follows:
UNIFIED ARCHITECTURE BASED ON A SINGLE REAL-TIME PLANT DATABASE
Plant operations require various functional components such as production control and monitoring, plant information management, asset management and operation support. Usually these functions are handled by a variety of products from different suppliers. This means the plant is operated by a patchwork of disparate systems, leaving gaps and barriers that constrain smooth and integrated operations.
In contrast, Yokogawa’s CENTUM VP establishes a single real-time plant database that serves all of these key functions in real time, setting the foundation for a unified operating environment. This unified architecture improves information efficiency and enhances the safety and agility of plant operations.
With this unified plant database, CENTUM VP enables single-source seamless integration of advanced applications that manage plant information, stabilize processes and improve operational efficiency. Quick and flexible deployment of these applications enables the user to improve the safety, availability, and profitability of a plant on an ongoing basis. This also simplifies change management, thereby minimizing the life-cycle ownership cost.
CONTINUED HIGH RELIABILITY AND COMPATIBILITY
CENTUM VP utilizes Yokogawa’s unique Pair & Spare reliability technology that leaves no single point of failure and maintains an industry-leading seven 9s (99.99999%) system availability. In addition, CENTUM VP is fully backward compatible with the CENTUM CS 1000/CS 3000 systems and secures a smooth and flexible migration path to all previous CENTUM series DCSs. It allows customers to maintain existing systems while expanding their plant or systems with a new DCS. Without losing consistency or continuity, Yokogawa continues to deliver innovative solutions based on the latest technologies, protecting customers’ assets and investments.
INTUITIVE HUMAN MACHINE INTERFACE (HMI)
Yokogawa enhanced the functions of the Human Interface Station (HIS) for CENTUM VP. While maintaining full compatibility with the CENTUM CS 3000, the new CENTUM VP HMI introduces a unified and intuitive operating environment.
The new screens are ergonomically designed and arranged to reduce operator fatigue and discomfort. The HMI is also designed to facilitate easy access to the right information. Another key philosophy behind this new HMI is the visualization of operational know-how and consideration of information users’ mental models, enabling everyone to work smarter. This unified and intuitive HMI is essential for harnessing the power of the integrated production control system. It ensures that information users get prioritized, actionable information instead of a flooding of data.
MAIN TARGET MARKETS AND APPLICATIONS
Process control and monitoring of plants in industries such as oil and gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, power, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, food, iron and steel, waste, and water and sewage treatment.
YOKOGAWA’S COMMITMENT TO THIS FIELD
Ever since Yokogawa introduced the world’s first distributed control system in 1975, more than 19,000 systems have been delivered around the world for use in all types of process plants. Yokogawa continually endeavors to meet its customers’ needs by providing highly reliable enhancements to the CENTUM series based on leading edge technology.