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The Chairman's Message
January, 2001
This
is the official web page of the Fisher-Rosemount Systems Users Group. If
you're a member, welcome to your web page. If you’re not a member, look
around and see what you’ve been missing. Each month we will be posting
information about your user’s group and highlight a member of the user
board of directors. The board is comprised of user representatives from
each of the Fisher-Rosemount product lines (RS3, PROVOX, and
DeltaV).
Throughout the year we will be adding information to make your web page
more helpful. So don’t be bashful and tell a board
member what you want to see!Well the year 2000 is behind us. It was some year! It began with numerous "watch to see if the plant is still going to be running parties" and ended with one of the most unusual Presidential election is US history. I heard only a very few war stories about Y2K "problems" so we must have done a good job. I also learned that wonderful stuff that came from the holes in the computer punch cards we used to use to decorate each others offices is called a chad . Along the way we saw natural gas and crude oil prices skyrocket. This has created greater challenges for all of us.
That brings me to the user’s group. We set new records for attendance both with users and the product showcase. We saw the future and it’s today. As a users group we share our experiences and all benefit. Sometimes knowing what will not work is just as important as what will. Come join us in New Orleans and share with others your concerns, needs, successes and yes, even failures.
We are excited about this year’s conference and learning what others have done with their PROVOX, RS3 and DeltaV systems. It does not have to be experiences with the latest and greatest Fisher-Rosemount product. We are just as interested with what you may have done with existing products. How can we get more out of what we have? If you have "pushed the envelope" with either newly released products or time honored systems we would like for you to join us in New Orleans. As I mentioned in December’s newsletter the conference fee for speakers is waived. I’m sure that your company would not mind you getting to come to the user’s group and they only had to pick up your travel expense and meals to and from. So contact your Fisher-Rosemount local representative or board member soon. If you are unable to contact anyone else, please feel free to contact me (jdmont@solutia.com). There is only a certain number of speakers we can fit into the time, so don’t wait.
I wonder how many of us sat
down after we left high school and said "I want to spend my career
working with distributed control systems". I know I did not. It just
sort of evolved. The same is the case for our featured board member for
January. Jim McKenna has taken a somewhat unusual route to the field of
process control. He received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, and spent the
subsequent seven years doing process research and development in the
flavor and fragrance industry. As a number of his research projects
developed into construction of new production facilities, he slowly
migrated to process plant design and startups, and then to process control
and automation.
Jim
has been Process Control Manager at Firmenich’s Port Newark facility for
the past sixteen years. He has been working with PROVOX since the days of
the original UOC. His PROVOX systems have since followed the typical
migration paths, including Univox, Recipe Manager, and DeltaV. So he knows
what we have gone or are going through with migration issues.
Firmenich is a world leader in the flavor and fragrance industry. They have a number of production plants throughout the world; Port Newark is the main bulk fragrance chemical manufacturer. Port Newark is also assuming a role as a corporate engineering center, so Jim’s duties extend to a number of plants in North America and Asia. In addition to PROVOX and DeltaV, these plants have given Jim experience with Moore APACS and PLC’s.
In addition to his process control responsibilities, Jim was a member of Firmenich’s corporate Y2K committee, and is currently responsible for developing corporate engineering practices.
Jim is a member of the World Batch Forum, and a senior member of ISA.
David Montgomery
Chairman
>> Read more from our Chairman Message
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