Invensys introduces world's first ''enterprise control system''.

FOXBORO, Mass. -- Invensys

New "InFusion" offering combines Invensys' industrial-strength automation technology with advanced information technology to create a unified real-time control, information, and application environment across virtually all plant and enterprise systems

Invensys today introduced the world's first industrial system that goes beyond the plant or other industrial operations to provide a true enterprise view. The new InFusion(TM) enterprise control system combines industry-leading capabilities from across Invensys with advanced enterprise information and integration technologies from both Microsoft and SAP to dramatically reduce integration costs. With InFusion technology, most existing plant floor and enterprise systems can now be cost-effectively integrated into a common system. In conjunction with a suite of new performance services, Invensys' InFusion system will help industrial enterprises more effectively align plant operations and maintenance departments with the business to optimize overall asset performance management.

"The InFusion enterprise control system that we're introducing today is as revolutionary as our ground-breaking Foxboro I/A Series(R) automation system and Wonderware InTouch(R) HMI software were when first introduced," said Mike Caliel, president of Invensys Process Systems. "By combining the latest capabilities from across Invensys into one unified architecture, Invensys has realized a step change in the utilization of open technologies and standards in a fully industrial system. By dramatically reducing both plant and enterprise integration costs, InFusion will help our customers finally break down stubborn technical and organizational barriers, while preserving and extending their equity in existing automation assets."

Innovative technology yields unique capabilities

With more than 60 issued and pending patents/patent applications, the InFusion enterprise control system delivers a unique set of capabilities not previously available from any single automation or information system. These include:

--Unprecedented integration across virtually all existing plant floor systems (DCS, PLC, etc), subsystems, and intelligent field devices, regardless of vendor or protocol

--Low-cost, standards-based information interoperability between plant floor, manufacturing execution (MES), and enterprise systems

--A unified engineering and support environment across both plant floor and MES systems, plus a powerful application object model that simplifies the creation and re-use of innovative new equipment-, unit-, and plant-level strategies, while dramatically improving engineering productivity

--Real-time visibility into both the plant and the business with a unified view across operations and maintenance domains to help align overall plant performance with business objectives

As introduced today, InFusion unifies Foxboro's industry-leading process control capabilities with Wonderware's industry-leading HMI, plant intelligence, and device integration capabilities into a new, ArchestrA-based system. (ArchestrA(R) is Invensys' fully industrialized software architecture built on .NET and other Microsoft technologies.) InFusion also incorporates additional Invensys and third-party capabilities as needed, including:

--Triconex triple modular redundant (TMR) safety and critical control

--Foxboro remote terminal units (RTUs) and intelligent SCADA applications

--SimSci-Esscor advanced control, simulation, and process optimization 

--Avantis real-time condition monitoring and enterprise asset management

--Foxboro intelligent pressure, level, flow, and electrochemical transmitters, valve positioners, and advanced, FDT-compliant diagnostic tools

--A comprehensive managed approach to wireless technology that makes it practical and cost effective to incorporate new wireless measurements into the system

InFusion reduces the cost and effort required to integrate intelligent plant floor devices and systems via standards such as OPC and an unmatched portfolio of device drivers. Process control, MES, and even ERP applications can be brought together into a common data model and a common best-in-class HMI to deliver timely, in-context information to all plant personnel.

The InFusion Collaboration Wall, a new concept in human interface, can also be used to provide plant operators, maintenance technicians, engineers, and managers with a shared view of process control, maintenance, performance, and business application displays to encourage and facilitate creative collaboration.

"Maximizing the performance of your manufacturing assets requires a two-pronged strategy: utilize real-time information from every area and plant to inform people and your business systems; and provide a dynamic feedback mechanism to allow you to swiftly respond to changes to optimize business performance throughout the enterprise," said Greg Gorbach, vice president of collaborative manufacturing research at ARC Advisory Group. "Invensys' Enterprise Control System is designed to work with existing enterprise and plant systems (Invensys or otherwise) to enable this strategy. The ultimate goal is to provide closed loop control for your business processes. At ARC, we believe that this is exactly what manufacturers are looking for."

Plant floor-to-enterprise interoperability

Invensys has worked closely with technology partners such as Microsoft and SAP to be able to dramatically reduce the time and effort previously required to integrate real-time plant systems with transactional enterprise systems. This is accomplished using a modern, platform-independent, Web Services-based enterprise architecture approach.

InFusion uses key technologies and standards such as Microsoft .NET and BizTalk Server 2004, SAP NetWeaver and xMII, ISA S95 (for manufacturing-to-enterprise integration), MIMOSA (for maintenance-to-enterprise integration), and OPC (for real-time connectivity). InFusion also represents the first major implementation of Open O&M (Operations & Maintenance), the industry-standard convergence of OPC, ISA S95, and MIMOSA. This approach eliminates the need to use conventional point-to-point solutions that are costly to implement, costly to maintain, and inherently inflexible in nature, and helps to ensure that the right information is delivered to the right people, at the right time, and in a meaningful context.

John Snodgrass, Advanced Process Control Leader at Chemtura Corp., a global specialty chemical company, commented, "Finally, a system that will connect all my control systems and all my business systems without requiring the prohibitive investment to build a bridge. This is something I have been hoping to see for a very long time."

Unified engineering and application development environments

InFusion provides an engineering environment that dramatically reduces the time and effort required to configure and support intelligent devices and systems and implement innovative control and information strategies. The InFusion engineering environment includes both a unified, systemwide Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and powerful, object-based Equipment, Unit, and Plant Application Object Models.

These "nested" application objects can be configured, instantiated, cloned, and re-used with minimum time and effort. Objects can also be bundled and reused within and across multiple plant sites, allowing for the capture of knowledge and consistent use of best practices.

The InFusion Field Device Manager utilizes the latest FDT and Enhanced EDDL technologies to allow device vendors to program graphically rich applications that can be easily plugged into the InFusion environment. Plant maintenance staffs call up these applications when they want to analyze the health and performance of a specific model of field device, or to run comprehensive diagnostic tests and archive the test results.

Asset performance management services

By reducing the cost and effort required to integrate existing plant and enterprise systems into a unified enterprise control system and providing an object-based environment for application development, deployment, and reuse, the new InFusion enterprise control system represents a major leap forward for the automation industry.

To help process manufacturers obtain maximum business advantage from this advanced platform, Invensys offers a number of different asset performance management consulting services. These include pre-packaged, base asset-level services such as loop monitoring, alarm management, and equipment condition monitoring; unit-level process optimization solutions; and plant-level business optimization consulting services. All are designed to help today's industrial enterprises optimize the performance of their existing automation, information, production, and human assets.

For more information, readers should contact their local Invensys representatives, call 1-866-746-6477 ([phone] outside the US and Canada), or visit www.InFusionECS.com.

About Invensys

Invensys is the world leader in industrial asset performance management. In addition to its rapidly expanding Global Solutions and Performance Management services groups, Invensys' automation businesses includes industry-leading brands such as Foxboro, Triconex, SimSci-Esscor, Wonderware, and Avantis, whose products are installed in more than 100,000 plants across the world. These range from small hybrid and batch plants to the world's largest upstream projects, refineries, gas plants, petrochemicals plants, power plants, and pulp and paper mills.

The Invensys Group (www.invensys.com) is headquartered in London and is listed on the London Stock Exchange, with approximately 30,000 employees working in 60 countries.

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