EMEA Fieldbus

Fieldbus Foundation reflects over positive marketing achievements in EMEA

Papers maybe downloaded from the Fieldbus Foundation Site here.
The Fieldbus Foundation, conducting a press briefing at the SPS/IPC/DRIVES exhibition in Nuremberg (D), reflected on its marketing achievements throughout the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region during 2008/2009. Key elements of the EMEA marketing strategy included the continued establishment of regional marketing committees; an extensive program of end user training seminars; participation in international and regional trade exhibitions and conferences; the hosting of the Fieldbus Foundation 2008 General Assembly in Antwerp, (B); the hosting of FOUNDATION™ Safety Instrumented Functions (FF SIF) technology demonstrations at Shell Global Solutions, Amsterdam (NL), BP Gelsenkirchen(D), and Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; and the coordination of the control in the field (CIF) studies and evaluations.

The development of a formal marketing committee for the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region in October 2008 represents a significant step forward for the Fieldbus Foundation’s EMEA Steering Committee. Working closely with the established Hungarian committee, the Fieldbus Foundation CEE marketing committee (FFCEEMC) is responsible for marketing activities in fifteen CEE countries. The FFCEEMC joins eleven other Fieldbus Foundation marketing committees already active in Germany, France, UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Middle East, the Commonwealth of Independent States & Baltics (CIS&B), Norway, Sweden and Southern Africa.

Each group is committed to the promotion of FOUNDATION fieldbus technology throughout their region through a range of local activities including end user seminars, supplier training, trade show participation and technology demonstrations. All committee members are active suppliers of FOUNDATION devices, host systems, tools and services, and represent many of the world’s leading automation equipment suppliers - working together with the support of the Fieldbus Foundation EMEA Steering Committee and Fieldbus Foundation EMEA Executive Advisory Council to implement the Fieldbus Foundation’s EMEA marketing strategy.

As a cornerstone of the Fieldbus Foundation’s EMEA marketing plan and that of each regional marketing group, an extensive program of training seminars/conferences was held throughout the last 18 months that included events in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Hungary, France, Italy/Sicily/Sardinia, Algeria, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, and several locations throughout the Middle East. Seminar delegates typically include both current and prospective engineering contractors and users of FOUNDATION technology who are able to enjoy technical presentations about the technology and its implementation, practical demonstrations and panel discussions in local languages.

Taking the benefits of FOUNDATION technology to a wider audience, EMEA marketing committee members participated in numerous exhibitions and specialist conferences in 2008/2009 including the Process Management Academy, Düsseldorf, Germany; Interkama, Hannover, Germany; ACHEMA, Frankfurt, Germany; ITF conference, Stockholm, Sweden; HET Instrument, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Instrumentation Scotland + Offshore Systems, Aberdeen, Scotland; DCS 15, Hungary; mcT, Milan, Italy; and Process Teknik, Göteborg, Sweden.

Several years of dedicated work by the Fieldbus Foundation’s Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF) demonstration project working group culminated in a successful live technology demonstration of FOUNDATION SIF technology at the Shell Global Solutions technology centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for process automation end users and equipment suppliers from around the world. Presentations by representatives of Shell Global Solutions, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; BP, Gelsenkirschen, Germany; and Chevron, Houston, Texas, USA, described the implementation of FF SIF in a wide range of industrial safety systems applications. Since the demonstration in May 2008, new device development solutions for SIF have been released including the final technical specification package, SIF Interoperability Test Kit, and an updated Device Description (DD) library with SIF function blocks.

A white paper by ARC Advisory Group titled, "FOUNDATION Fieldbus Instrumented Functions Forge the Future of Process Safety".

The EMEA Steering Committee worked closely with UK company Industrial Systems and Control Ltd, (ISC), a specialised engineering company with close links to the Industrial Control Centre at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, during its formal, quantitative evaluations to analyse the performance benefits of control in the field (CIF) with FOUNDATION™ fieldbus. These findings form the basis of the new ARC Advisory Group’s white paper, The Business Value Proposition of Control in the Field.

Marc Van Pelt, Vice-President - Fieldbus Foundation EMEA Operations, welcomed the progress made by his colleagues during the last 18 months. “I am delighted that the marketing groups are becoming more active year on year. As process automation users throughout the EMEA region continue to embrace the technology - it is critical that we support them in their local language wherever possible.” He continued, “We are increasing the number of proposed end user seminars and exhibitions supported throughout the region, and we are enhancing the Fieldbus Foundation’s website though the development of local language web pages. Also, local language translations of Fieldbus Foundation technical and sales documentation are becoming more readily available to end users and member companies”.

With an increased focus on the benefits of FOUNDATION technology as an automation infrastructure for operational excellence, the emphasis on end user focused marketing activities will continue throughout 2010. EMEA marketing committees are formulating their plans for 2010 which will include end user seminars across EMEA and participation in several trade shows and conferences.

As the demand for specialised FOUNDATION technology training continues to increase, more educational institutions will apply to become certified under the rigorous FOUNDATION Certified Training Program (FCTP) which has been introduced by the Fieldbus Foundation to establish uniform standards for fieldbus educational curriculum around the globe, and defines acceptable levels of learning for students of the technology. STC Brielle, (NL), is one of the first educational establishments worldwide to offer FCTP certified training courses and the University of Miskolc (HU), is currently undergoing the rigorous certification process in order to become the preferred site for certified Fieldbus Foundation training for the Central & Eastern European region.