HPS establishes new business unit for IIoT development

April 29, 2016
The new unit will help manufacturers harness the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and more rapidly deploy technologies that will allow them to better manage and analyze data.

Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) this week announced that it has established a new business unit ─ the Digital Transformation unit.

According to HPS, the new unit will help manufacturers harness the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and more rapidly deploy technologies that will allow them to better manage and analyze data.

“Since HPS’s introduction of the modern automation control system, we have helped plants and manufacturing sites around the world use an increasing amount of data to solve customer’s productivity and safety challenges” said Vimal Kapur, HPS president. “As manufacturers are looking to take the next step to manage and exploit data across multiple sites in locations across the globe, our new business unit will be a focused resource to provide that expertise.”

Andrew Hird has been named vice president and general manager of Honeywell’s new Digital Transformation unit and will report to Kapur. Hird most recently served as HPS’s global vice president of sales, where he gained exposure to customers in industries ranging from oil and gas and mining to power generation, and pulp and paper.

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“Honeywell’s deep expertise in IIoT allows us to solve customer challenges by consolidating data in the cloud from multiple disparate systems, applying higher-level analytics and leveraging experts who are often physically remote from the customer site,” Hird said. “Honeywell is in a unique position of being the recognized leader in automation and control room solutions for a wide range of process industries, plus we have advanced knowledge in connectivity with OPC UA, cyber security and advanced software development.”

OPC UA is Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture, a machine-to-machine communication protocol.

Other Honeywell technologies that help prioritize and manage a growing amount of operational data are DynAMo alarm and operations management; Industrial Cyber Security Risk Manager, which proactively monitors and manages cyber risk for industrial environments; Assurance 360, a multi-year cooperative service arrangement to maintain, support and optimize the performance of Honeywell control systems; and most recently, Honeywell Pulse, a mobility app that allows plant managers to easily monitor real-time operations from a smartphone.