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Safety Can Be Profitable

Gary Parr | October 17, 2018

Schneider Electric, at its 2018 Triconex Users Group conference in Galveston, TX, demonstrated how it enables customers to extend real-time control from only operational efficiency to include operational safety, security, and profitability. By applying new, stronger and secure process safety systems and components, Schneider Electric customers are better able to mitigate risks, eliminate incidents that lead to downtime, and safely drive measurable operational profitability improvements.

“Through our EcoStruxure Triconex systems, solutions, and software, Schneider Electric is focused on helping our customers ensure a safer, more profitable operation,” said Mike Chmilewski, vice president, Process Safety, Schneider Electric Process Automation.

“By leveraging our innovative applications and analytics, which take advantage of secured connectivity, digitization, and big data, our Triconex customers are better able to exploit their business and operating data so they can better understand the impact safety has on the real-time profitability of their operations.”

The Power of Digitization

According to a recent ARC Advisory Group study, 92% of respondents in global manufacturing organizations strongly support the use of robust and capable devices to enable real-time decision making, with near-unanimous agreement about the concept. Users have long recognized the value of being able to process data and execute programs as close to the manufacturing process as possible, with the aim of maximizing process efficiency and reducing or virtually eliminating the time between acquiring data and acting on it. This requires manufacturers to digitize their operations so they can benefit from increased access to and visibility into operating and business data.

Using EcoStruxure Triconex technologies, as well as the company’s patented real-time accounting models and dynamic-performance measures, the industrial workforce is now capable of analyzing past, present, and even future incidents to improve safety risk, which significantly heightens their ability to eliminate unscheduled downtime.

EcoStruxure Triconex Advantage

At the heart of Schneider Electric’s safety capabilities is the Triconex Tricon CX, the company’s most powerful, secure, safety system. Along with stronger cybersecurity features and enhanced performance, Tricon CX v11.4 features include:

• A high-performance 1GB I/O bus and fiber-optic adaptors that allow distances to 20 km, greater system flexibility, and enhanced end-to-end performance.

• A smaller footprint and flexible architecture that, together with Triconex Safety Intelligent Enclosures and Tricon CX Universal Safety I/O, significantly reduce system engineering and installation costs, while shortening project schedules and reducing risk.

• A new version of TriStation that allows the Tricon CX safety system to be engineered and configured faster.

• Triconex Diagnostic Expert that resolves maintenance issues faster and more accurately, including:

• Enhanced Diagnostic Monitor that makes it quick and easy to understand system health and identify issues;
• Sequence of Event recorder and playback for faster event analysis and identification of process upsets and outages;
• High-speed data logging for quick and accurate resolution to operational issues.

If It’s Not Secure, It’s Not Safe

“The global manufacturing and critical infrastructure industry is faced with increasingly frequent and sophisticated cyberattacks, which are occurring across all geographies and segments, regardless of which control and safety systems the end users have installed,” Chmilewski stated. “To help our customers combat these dangers, we applied the unique insights, expertise, and knowledge we acquired in the past year to enhance the Tricon CX so that it is able to withstand multiple threats and attack methods.”

Tricon CX is compliant with the IEC 62443 cybersecurity standard and is certified by TÜV Rheinland for use in safety applications up to Safety Integrity Level 3. It is also ISASecure EDSA Level-1 certified, the industry’s leading cybersecurity certification for industrial control and safety systems and components. This has resulted in further security enhancements in Tricon CX v11.4 to mitigate sophisticated methods of attack.

“Strengthening the Tricon controller continues the security journey we committed to when we were the first to receive safety and cybersecurity certifications from TÜV Rheinland,” said Chmilewski. “With its recent security enhancements, dual certifications and standards compliance, and because it was designed in accordance with our recognized Security Development Lifecycle process, Tricon CX remains highly secure while also delivering the highest degree of operational availability of any safety system. It keeps customers on a path for a safer, more secure future, and it serves as the best example of how Triconex safety systems—the most dependable in the industry with more than one billion hours logged without dangerous failure—are helping our customers drive measurable, real-time improvements to their operational profitably, safely and securely.”

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Gary Parr

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