"We have the connecting technologies that glue all these vectors together." Invensys' Rashesh Mody (foreground) and Mark Davidson explained how the company's operations management vision can help advance clients' pursuit of environmental, productivity, asset and control/safety excellence.The company's vision centers on the ability to help its clients to optimize information flows, production activities and, ultimately, operational profit, Davidson explained. And while optimization is the vision, the fundamentals of automation, instrumentation and controls are still very much front and center for the company. "We believe automation and controls are the foundation," Davidson said. "If you don't get those things right, you can't do optimization."
As Invensys Operations Management, the company's strategy and approach to execution are based on delivering platform, industry and business value, Davidson explained. A unified automation platform, which includes core control, visualization, engineering and connectivity tools, is complemented by tightly coupled Invensys applications for functions such as recipe management, process optimization and simulation. The company is moving toward "a common platform from very small systems to the very large," Davidson said.
Layered on these functional applications, in turn, are Invensys-built solutions, as well as partner-built solutions for specific industry and application needs. These applications are "loosely coupled, but tightly aligned" to the underlying architecture, Mody added. "This is where Invensys domain expertise and that of our partners comes into play."
Mody and Davidson further explained that the company will focus on two key industry sectors: the process industries, including upstream oil and gas; hydrocarbon processing; power and energy; metals, minerals and mining; and pulp and paper; and hybrid industries, including food and beverage; specialty chemical; life science; and infrastructure, such as water/wastewater treatment. Hybrid industries, in particular, are a fertile ground for exploiting the capabilities of Invensys' InFusion enterprise control system platform, Mody added. "Hybrid industries are our strongest, fastest growth area."