Knowledge Sharing with ISA Mentor Program

Posted Today, under Education
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Gregory K. McMillan


I’m lucky enough to be on the email distribution list for the ISA Mentor Program where automation hall of fame legend, Greg McMillan, shares some of the work he continues to offer well into his golden years. Greg and Hunter Vegas started this program in 2011 with the intent to transfer knowledge between seasoned automation veterans and engineers newer in their careers.

I bring all this up because there was a great question asked by one of the program’s protégés/protégées. In the blog post, How to Improve Loop Performance for Dead Time Dominant Systems, Greg wrote:

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More Sustainable Food and Beverage Production

Posted Yesterday, under Food & Beverage
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Emerson's Melissa Stiegler


More sustainable manufacturing means different things for different industries. For many food & beverage manufacturers, achieving more sustainable production means reducing water usage, waste, and carbon emissions.

Emerson’s Melissa Stiegler shared three ways technology has helped play a role in improved sustainability for food & beverage producers.

These ways include more efficient clean-in-place (CIP) operations, real-time mass balance calculations, and energy optimization.

Efficient Clean-in-Place

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Biopharmaceutical Single Use Measurement and Control

Posted 4 days ago, under Life Sciences
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A recent Biopharm International article, Single-Use Bioprocessing Equipment Trends and Adoption by CMOs highlighted this trend:

Single-use systems (SUS)—bioprocessing equipment designed for one-time use or a single product manufacturing campaign—has become the leading paradigm for pre-commercial (preclinical and clinical supplies) manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products (1).

At this past autumn’s Emerson Exchange conference in San Antonio, Texas, Emerson’s Michalle Adkins demonstrated single use manufacturing measurement and control devices and how they could be used to measure and control biomanufacturing operations in a single use environment.

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Integrated Simulation for Power Generation Digital Transformation

Posted 5 days ago, under Power
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Emerson's Bob Yeager


We hear the phrase “Digital Transformation” bandied about across the manufacturing industries. For each segment it can mean something different.

At this past December’s Power-Gen conference, president of Emerson’s Power & Water Solutions business’ Bob Yeager gave the keynote address. In his presentation, Digital Transformation of Power: From Concept to Reality, Bob described 3 key reasons why electrical power producers undertake digital transformation initiatives.

Here is Bob’s 20-minute presentation. His part begins at 25:40 into the video.


Forward the video to 25:40 for Bob’s presentation.

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Improving Quality for Food and Beverage Producers

Posted 6 days ago, under Food & Beverage
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Emerson's Christian Grossenbacher


Consumers have come to expect only the highest quality when it comes to the food and beverages they purchase. Automation has driven the variability of the products way down over the years. But even with these improvements, the average food & beverage producer takes almost a full day to respond to shipments with quality issues.

The key to improving quality is to measure quality parameters on-line to address issues before off-spec products are created. Avoiding the quality excursions during production also heads off costly recalls after the fact.

I caught up with Emerson’s Christian Grossenbacher about ways food & beverage manufacturers can better address these quality issues. He described three areas to help ensure on-spec products and guard against costly losses.  Continue Reading ▶

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