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Weblog Archives - Emerson Process Management
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Weblog Comments - EmersonWeblog comments will include date of submission, most recent first.Tuesday, May 31, 2011 DeltaV SIS tripped our offshore terminal multiple times, including 2 evacuations. Each time the issue was related to the integration with DeltaV. We installed an upgrade to fix DeltaV issues causing the DeltaV SIS to trip. The persistent denial from the experts in Austin was stunning. Loads of explanations why it could not have happened, followed by detailed questioning of what we done wrong. The fix - downgrade to previous version until next major overhaul - leaves a bitter taste and a hole in our wallet. The issues are logical consequence of integrating control and safety. Integration influences the whole cycle from product development, Sales, Engineering to Services. We see the same with the Emerson competitors. After the integration of Honeywell-FSC, Invensys-Triconex, Siemens-Moore, Yokogawa-proSafeRS, Rockwell-Invensys... the level of sales support, engineering support, services dropped noticeably, and all product developments on the safety side came to a stop. The announced innovation for DeltaV SIS have nothing to do with safety. HIMA is the only remaining independent company investing in safety technology and people. They are up against the massive integration marketing and it's questionable if HIMA can survive. The compelling and easy-to-sell arguments for integration reduce the safety focus, hence budget. The management of a profit oriented control company does not speak safety language. It is natural to listen, understand and decide in favor of the pro-integration arguments. Control will always overrule Safety, on all levels. Emerson is going down the same path. The massive exodus of the experienced Emerson safety personnel is a sign on the wall. Abnormal situation prevention does not seem to work in Emerson internally. Rejection of common sense and denial are easier-to-use. My two cents on the Emerson Safety processes. The safety process itself is fine. The issue is that it is cast in stone. Despite obvious mismatch with reality, there is zero room for dialog which led to a lot of frustration during implementation. If processes are used a shield to cover against legal liabilities or as a means to control the engineers, they will not last. Sunday, May 29, 2011 To the previous blogger "We do not engage in any safety consulting activities - period !" It looks like it has been posted by an Emerson employee or an Emerson LBP. I am an end-user, whose site has safety systems including the DeltaV SIS. I know that Emerson is proud of their safety processes. It IS NOT true to say that other vendors like Triconex or Honeywell do not not have any. Emerson has spent a lot of money in having this safety process. Most end-users hated it because in the first place, the company has never in one instance consulted the end-users in coming up with this process. S, don't again blame, the end-users, as it is over the top for us. Emerson so far gave us only an explanation (by words) of why the DeltaV SIS has tripped my plant after installing. We have a lot of "irrelevant LBP" VPs, managers and "so called experts" who have visited my plant to do damage control.The top echelon relevant "safety system experts" have avoided coming to my plant, including a recently "promoted" Emerson person that twitted a lot and even had the nerve to post on Linkedlin. So I guess these people "avoided" trouble. I don't understand this. If Emerson don't engage in safety consulting activities, using your so called Certified safety consultants (CFSE) to support us end-users in meeting regulatory compliance - isn't this also some sort of a "consulting activity" ? What are the differences there ? Friday, May 27, 2011 - Re: "We do not engage in any safety consulting activities - period!" This is not correct. To control the launch of DeltaV SIS, consultancy and engineering activities were limited to a select group in Emerson and totally off-limits for End Users/SI. The restrictions are gone and the PMO SIS processes are no longer mandatory. The customer decides if ISA/S84 has to be followed. A minority of end users follow S84 compliant processes. Frankly, the majority of end users find the safety standards "over the top". There is no budget to produce the additional engineering input information required by S84. None of the SI, and some of the traditional SIS Vendors like Triconex, do not have certified processes at all. For the customers that decided to start investing in safety, we employ a large number of Certified safety consultants (CFSE) to support customers in meeting regulatory compliance. More details here:
Friday, May 27, 2011 It looks like we need a certified professional to vet the blogs here. As usual, the objective observer is incorrect on many points. No personal identify means no need to get the facts right either. The level of noise on this blog hit the fan a long time ago. Thursday, May 26, 2011 The recent social network posts create the false image that Emerson is doing nothing else but. Nothing is further from the truth. The level of noise within our organization is close to hitting the fan. The objective observer will notice that 90% of the twittering is done by one person from Austin Marketing - Jim Cahill. Jim is highly respected in Emerson, at all levels. He is not only a nice, reliable and down-to-earth person, but also a true professional recognized for his marketing efforts in Emerson and beyond. He is actively involved in working groups, promoting and educating the mass on the use of social network. He has published several white papers and is regularly invited as keynote speaker. Jim has confirmed that Emerson has not yet published any policies for use of social networks. Says Jim, this is "just a matter of time".
The remaining 10%, a handful of individuals, have jumped on the Jim Cahill train, and use the social networks to cover up Emerson's product/services deficiencies including their own lack of knowledge. "If we write about it often enough, we create the perception of expertise". A regular source of confusion/deception are the numerous safety blogs posted by individuals without the required Emerson safety qualification or any other industry safety certification. Our management directives are clear and written down in our MANDATORY safety processes: "We do not engage in any safety consulting activities - period!". Per management directive, we are not allowed to perform HAZOPs, LOPAs, Safety Loop designs, etc... So why blog about it? It is the Emerson certified engineers that have to manage the perception and customer expectations. Time to control or put a lid on the counter-productive blogs before St.Louis lawyers do it for us. Prevent Jim from blogging, and the Emerson would lose a valuable source of information. The Emerson score would drop below the level of the competition. Block, or as a minimum, have certified professional vet the 10% "others", and the noise, distractions and potential liability risks will disappear. Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Here's Glassdoor's full list of companies with the best work-life balance.
Emerson is NOT on this list. Wonder why? Wednesday, May 25, 2011 The increasing use of social networks in business raises a number of issues, many of which are yet to be fully tested or resolved. Both Emerson, and the trigger-happy tweeter, should consider the potential areas of risk. Twitter is public. Your one-to-one conversation is viewed by the whole world, not only your followers. Imagine... ... the frustrated customer, experiencing an unplanned shutdown caused by a DeltaV SIS upgrade when the DeltaV SIS tweet on "unlimited upgrade and extensions online in smart SIS" arrives. In his frustration, he vents his truth about DeltaV SIS. Twitter could be the outlet to vent his frustration and can do more harm than good against Emerson, but also the tweeter. Twitter becomes an uncontrollable archive of words that can cost Emerson its reputation and the tweeter his job. ... the innocent tweeter broadcasting exploded Emerson results.This could include a breach of duties to disclose accurate information to the shareholders and to the market generally. Is the gullible tweeter aware that extreme care is required if posting information on corporate results, corporate forecasts or planned transactions? Does he/she know that care should be taken to ensure no actions contravene insider trading and market manipulation rules? ...the Emerson lawyer preparing his defense in a pending lawsuit when hit by hundreds well-meant social network contributions by Emerson employees. History shows that tweets have been successfully used in court. Any non-vetted statements in tweets, technical or emotional, by Emerson labeled "expert" employees will be used and admitted in court. It's just a matter of time. ... a quick tweet before supper, directing to a site containing false or misleading statements about the goods or services of a competitor that cause or are likely to cause the competitor harm. This may be grounds for action under the Trade Practices Act. If Emerson continues to use twitter is an inexpensive marketing tool, they are strongly advised to put in place safeguards have to be in place to protect against the undiscovered liabilities. This could be the creation of a written policy for employees that sets out clear guidelines how to use social networks for business and that raise awareness about possible pitfalls. ...on the personal and private level. Your customer just faced a personal loss and is grieving when a tweet "Life in Austin is great and wonderful" intrudes his grieving process. In a social environment this causes very little damage. On the business side you might have just made an enemy for life. Personal messages in a business environment can be humorous but not always appreciated. The higher the group of followers, the more sensitive the tweeter should be about publishing personal and emotional information to avoid the previously published annoyance. ...an unethical competitor, joining the group of followers, closely monitoring the contributions of the 100,000 Emerson employees and their customers on the social networks, waiting for the right tweet. Will not happen you say? Ask the editor of this blog how often he has to censor sensitive information. In twitter, this is totally uncontrolled. Emerson should consider establishing terms of use and post appropriate disclaimers that limit it's business's liability for third-party statements and other claims, and including the essential elements required by the federal Privacy Act. Emerson should regularly monitor all employee posts on content that violates terms of use, employee policies or applicable laws, and archiving all communications content in a well-organized and readily available form. Emerson spent a lot of time and money on building the brand. Writing "Delta_V" instead of the correct "DeltaV" resulted in a bollocking for the employee, and a lecture to the customer. With Twitter, all the rules or overboard. The easy-to-use social network marketing might turn out to be very costly after all. Not all Emerson employees are as smart as the systems. Monday, May 23, 2011 The massive amounts of e-information is annoying indeed. As long as there are filters, there are ways around them. I do not have a twitter account, but they pop up on my Linkedin anyway. I used to find my mailbox at home (the real one, not the e-version) stuffed with junk, brochures, advertisements: all stuff I did not ask for. Eventually I stopped caring about the coupons, and dump the lot straight into the bin, with the risk of important letters hidden in the pile. Eventually I locked my mailbox, and picked up my mail at the post- office. My neighbor uses his as a flower pot - I was not the only one with the issue. History is repeating itself with the e-version. Similarly, eventually people will shut down. Maybe a tweeter is not talking to me, but he is looking to be heard. I like to decide myself who to talk to. I still find strangers who address me, usually to sell something, annoying and rude. I prefer to visit independent sites, such as this one, where I can decide when to read. No vetting required. What are the motives for tweeting if not for personal/organizational benefit? History repeats itself. Monday, May 23, 2011 - from Jon DiPietro [jon.dipietro@gmail.com] the author of the JimPinto.com eNews item on Inbound Marketing, responds to previous weblog: The blogger who takes Emerson Process Experts (and others) to task identifies some important challenges we face today. I have some thoughts and suggestions:
#1 - "It's not information overload, it's filter failure." A blog post, Tweet or Facebook update cannot possibly force itself upon you. A huge difference between the good old days of mass media and today is that social media is 100% opt-in. You get to choose who you follow and connect with. If your Twitter stream is full of noise, then it's your own fault for following the wrong people. However, the commenter makes a good point in the sense that it is still easy to get overwhelmed. But thought leader and author Clay Shirky insists that this is not a case of information overload, but of filter failure. He makes the analogy that nobody loses sleep over the fact that their local library contains more books than they could ever possibly read. Yet, we are quick to complain that today, "quantity has its price." Rather than complaining about an overabundance of information, we need to create better filters that can pre-qualify stories and separate the wheat from the chaff in our information streams. Bottom line: It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools, so if you are overwhelmed in social media then learn how to use your tools more effectively.
#2 - Prolific does not equal expert. Bottom line: There has never been a bigger case of "buyer beware" in the history of mankind than social media. Reputation and vetting are important aspects to be considered, but the advantage is a higher degree of transparency then we've ever had.
#3 - They're not talking to you. Bottom line: If you don't like what someone's saying then stop listening.
#4 - Heal thyself Bottom line: In the world of social media, the users are also the owners. I think it's pointless to have a debate over quality because one person's "nonsense" is another person's job-saving tip. And so, if the conversation isn't going in the direction you'd like, then either steer it that way or move on to the next one. Better, yet... start your own! If the landscape is as bleak as the commenter presents, that means there is a tremendous opportunity out there for someone. Saturday, May 21, 2011 - Re: Inbound - Outbound Marketing: Over the past years, the amount of information that forces itself upon me has exploded. Tons of tweets, facebook, youtube... are waving on my screen every minute of the day. More does not mean better. The quantity has its price.The quality of information disappears faster than the explosion of tweets. I have stopped scanning the Emerson Process "self announced" expert blog a long time ago due to lack of substance. The "expert" scratches the surface of a technical topic, ensuring that many tags are attached, and refers to previous or other "expert" blogs for more details. For your convenience, various links are added. You click your way thru to find yourself at the same spot you started the wild goose chase, and none the wiser. So you pick up the phone and call for help. A computerized voice guides you thru the various options. I always end up pressing "0" to speak to an operator. "Joe", "Mike", "Jack" or any person with US sounding name and funny accent will gladly assist after answering the mandatory questions. There is a reason why it is called "SOCIAL" Networks. It works well if my son wants to meet his friends for a beer. That's what it has been designed for by students to stay in touch, to chit chat. If suitable for business, it would be called "BUSINESS" Networks. Does anybody remember the good old business cards, real persons, that help you solve problems? Where have they gone? Too old fashioned? I still have a phone with pushbuttons, so my son calls me a dinosaur. Fact of the matter: A touchscreen does not work for me so why should I use it? If the means become more important than the message, where is the value? A good example is the recent hype around US students falling behind in international comparisons. The Wiki-effect is named as one of the causes. Massive amount of information, regrettably incorrect because posted by individuals and organizations pushing their own interests. I see the same happening in our industry with blogs such as Emerson process expert blogs. If you read in detail, it is loaded with nonsense, and very often, like Wiki, completely missing the point. Luckily we have THIS blog where folks can post their concerns. Is it coincidence that the number of concerns are growing at the same rate as the intrusions by tweets, Google, youtube, linkedin... It is ludicrous to measure the level of expertise by Google factor or number of tweets. This is madness plain and simple. So back to my starter question: If the quality of the contents continues to drop, even the highest score will still be "problematic". Of course not for Emerson marketing. It is obvious why they like "inbound" so much. This is their territory. A lot of air with no content. Friday, May 20, 2011 JimPinto.com eNews, 20 May 2011, has this item:
Extract: Emerson has a tremendous lead due to their multi-year efforts at generating content and creating an engaged audience. The rest of the industry has a tall hill to climb and few of them have even started. Monday, May 16, 2011 - Great MUST READ from the Honeywell blog:
Monday, May 16, 2011 Replacing locals with US/European types is the Emerson way of paying it's "loyal" employees back. It's a expense account type of living that is really financially lucrative. They have been doing it for years but that does not make it right. Remember the current fearless leader did his time in areas all over the world. So why would the locals be loyal to outsiders? Sunday, May 15, 2011 Comments: I was visiting the EMERSON Middle East and Africa HQ a few weeks back and find out that during the last 2 years a decision was taken to kick out all the senior management in that world area whom were from India/Pakistan and replaced with others mainly from US and Europe. Saturday, May 14, 2011 Good for ABB & Rockwell that they still value the Life Sciences. Ironic that EPM's DELTA V was instrumental to the success of the Irish Viagra plant and now EPM is impotent in Ireland. Friday, May 13, 2011 The Sunday Safety blogger is right. The Monday shoveler is the naive boss blinded by yes-men. To sell this sad excuse for a safety system you have to be really blur. Smart on glossy "predicting trouble". So why is my plant shutting down so often? And I don't care to hear: "At least it was safe" This never ever happened with Triconex. Operations have dreams about the Triconex days. The posts confirm the whispering from a former safety experts, and friend, on the real reason for exiting the safety group: "The daily frustrations and headaches of babysitting a stuck up, slick, no experienced, self absorbed, backstabbing, useless, egocentric, booksmart, VP-Pet MBA with open door to the misinformed and manipulated management. No light at the end of the tunnel." A big claim to cover production losses will open Emerson's eyes. Accidents are unlikely to happen as the system has enough practice in shutting down plants, even when there not needed. Friday, May 13, 2011 Maybe the UK/Irish management need to read the book that the salesman read about safety. Friday, May 13, 2011 Remember this when you are given the list of excuses for your poor raise, your reduced bonus, the reduced value of your your stock option packages, etc.
In the boardroom, it's as if the Great Recession never happened. CEOs at the nation's largest companies were paid better last year than they were in 2007, when the economy was booming, the stock market set a record high and unemployment was roughly half what it is today. I don't see this same scenario for my compensation package history, do you? Friday, May 13, 2011 ABB and Rockwell eating our systems business in the UK now. Lack of Leadership and Sales Management is helping the slide in numbers. Meeting after meeting is draining everyone especially when the leaders are out of ideas. Customers are not listening to the hype anymore, mangers leaving and jumping ship to others positions, moral at a low, no marketing. HELP! Friday, May 13, 2011 So if I read a book on how to be a CEO can I get David Farr's job? Should be easy if it goes as well as it did for the salesman that became a safety expert! Friday, May 13, 2011 I must respond to a Monday, May 9, 2011 post: "The salesman has closed his knowledge gaps in no time": This response is simply laughable. Enough said! Nobody is buying what you're shoveling. Wednesday, May 11, 2011 In order to have open and honest communications with your employees you have to be open and honest with yourself first. The problem starts at the top and trickles down to us peons that get beat on the head daily with the executive hammer. I need to start wearing a helmet to work. Wednesday, May 11, 2011 Open and honest communications with non-executive level employees, now that would be a novelty at EPM. Tuesday, May 10, 2011 Building a dam to generate and concentrate power breaks the natural flow of things. Big areas are flooded at the cost of population and environment. It works as long as the people who suffered from the dam get something in return. What flows in must flow out or there will be an overspill. Trying to stop the communication does not work. The water will leaks out somewhere else beyond the control of the dam operator. In this case - this weblog. In a way this helps the dam operator as some of the pressure is released. It indicates to the operator that something is amiss. It gives him the opportunity to react. If the leak is ignored, and the root cause of the problem is not fixed, more leaks will appear. Let nature take its course and eventually all water will flow to the sea, even when Emerson decides to fill up/shut down the hole caused by the communications. Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - Re: Continuous source of entertainment. Our Management here in the UK are very much aware of this site and its content. They are not very amused at all. I wonder why ! Monday, May 9, 2011 Some food for thought. Accidents are real - watch the news. It's a risk of the trade. And when the blame game starts, the prospects of ducking the million dollar fines will not look good if the decision maker has no practical insight in safety. In light of casualties, environmental damages and public opinion, the argument "our lead safety expert has read many books on safety, and twittered about it constantly" will not be a sufficient line of defense. Any half baked lawyer will shred that to pieces. If you disagree, think again. Get your facts straight. Check and double check whether you have done everything within your power. Monday, May 9, 2011 It is a continuous source of entertainment that people keep posting anonymously, calling out somebody else for posting anonymously. News flash! This is an anonymous site. You never know who is posting anything here. There are a few rules of logic that must be followed here:
If you're really smart and on your game, you'll reply to this by calling me out for posting anonymously. That would be really fun and add to the enjoyment for all. Monday, May 9, 2011 Hell will freeze over before any "management" puts their name to anything on this blog. That would be admitting that they actually read it. All they do is protect each other and hire yes-henchmen to do their dirty work. Monday, May 9, 2011 - Re: "customer satisfaction, sales results and team spirit have never been better." If they feel so confident, then why doesn't this person reveal who they are in their post? Someone in "management" posted this to cover their you-know-what. It would be nice if management could post responses, without remaining anonymous. This would demonstrate their pride in being management. Monday, May 9, 2011 Has anyone ever met a really competent HR manager - one that really stood up and spoke their mind, versus the hand puppets I have dealt with all of my professional life? Monday, May 9, 2011 I read the blogs with a shovel of salt. For reasons unknown, the facts are blurred, twisted and taken out of context. At first glance the facts in the walk/talk post seem to add up. It is true that the original DeltaV SIS team were hardened safety experts. It is true they struggled with seeing the product capabilities, causing a lot of stress. It is true that not a single one endured, all have/were moved. It is true that a seller of bulk chemicals, with no track record in automation or safety, was catapulted in the seat of global leader. It is however incorrect to conclude that this has weakened the team, degraded the quality or damaged the business. The salesman has closed his knowledge gaps in no time to great satisfaction of the management. The customer satisfaction, the sales results and the team spirit have never been better. Sunday, May 8, 2011 - "Bigwigs buy into the dope" Sellers of Vision are selected because of, and not despite of, their lack of business understanding. Practical knowledge or technical expertise is a limiting factor when selling visionary systems different from existing practices. The hands-on Emerson Safety Expert would not endure selling "unleashed powers" he fails to envision. Similarly, the experienced customer safety engineer is not capable of understanding the visionary improvements to his plant. By the time he caught up, his management is "addicted to the dope". Our management is careful to select business leaders who can TALK the talk, preferably without relevant competence. To prevent any legal consequences, the incompetent leaders are not allowed to WALK the talk - especially not for safety systems. On the other hand, our management has taken appropriate steps to ensure that the Emerson safety engineers follow strict competency guidelines. As the Bigwigs buy into the dope - The strategy works. The risk of not delivering on promise is calculated: Even when the TALK does not match the WALK, once the safety systems are ordered, the Bigwig is hooked for the next 10 years. The last thing on the Bigwig's mind: admit to a mistake. Of course HR are limited to pushing papers. Hiring incompetent Emerson leaders would contradict the professional ethics of real competent HR managers. Saturday, May 7, 2011 Two recessions, a couple of market crashes, and stubbornly high unemployment are all wreaking havoc on America's middle class. Sherle Schwenninger is director of economic growth and American strategy programs at the New America Foundation. His recent report "The American Middle Class Under Stress" has some stunning facts that highlight the struggles the average American is having getting a decent-paying job and keeping up with rising cost of living. Read the sobering facts in this interview:
Saturday, May 7, 2011 - RE: There is still plenty of work to do for HR: HR decides nothing, They are paper pushers. It's the "management" that decides everything and that is why EPM is in a decline. It starts at the top. Friday, May 6, 2011 David Farr had time and money to take his executives and their spouses to Hawaii, but he has no time to fix the Irish problem. That says a lot right there. No reply at all - just like the old Genesis song lamented. Friday, May 6, 2011 Why are Emerson letting the UK wind down the Life Sciences business in Ireland? If this true, it seems to be very short sighted. Thursday, May 5, 2011 You should see what working at EPM in Austin has done to my spouse. This is a changed person and not for the better. I keep telling my spouse get your resume to a competitor. My spouse has a horrible boss who is one of those who do not know people. Help! Thursday, May 5, 2011 In response to an Emerson blogger comments : "Independent assessment of our MBA directors would result in rejection - hence not an option." There is someone doing the excessive "LinkedIn"-ing and "Twitter"-ing about safety constantly. What the blog says is true... he has "no hands on experience"; don't think he had never programmed, installed and commissioned a safety PLC. I bet you he does not know how to use a Fluke multi-meter effectively to measure 4-20mA ... Anyway, there are lots of these MBA employees in EPM. I suppose they are kind of like "seller of visions". But bigwigs of large companies buys into their "dope". The lower-echelon people are sometimes struggling with EPM's so-so product and having to deal with an Asian call center that tries to emulate speaking with an funny western twang. Thursday, May 5, 2011 -Re: Excellent article on the MBAs: The drive, ambition and desire for power are not limited to MBAs only and are not problems in themselves. Properly managed, these are desirable traits in anyone trying to get ahead in the organization and help their colleagues to achieve excellence. The real disturbance are the devious, dirty and underhanded ways some characters apply to get what they want. The ultimate goal is to seek personal power and dominance over others. The means justify the end and people are pawns in their game. They are deceptively civil, they know how to look good and win over anyone. "Sucking up to the boss" is part of their strategy, until the boss becomes the target. Look around you: do you know any coworkers which make you feel uncomfortable, despite their perceived value in Emerson? You intuitively know that it would be unwise to challenge them, but you cannot point out anything specific to justify this gut-feeling? Trust your gut-feeling and watch your back. In the strive for power, market leaders such as Emerson, work as a irresistible magnet. How many of these people that make you feel uncomfortable, joined Emerson after achieving leadership? How many hard working colleagues in Emerson got manipulated out of their job after they joined? Several redundancies in the recent years caught me by surprise. I personally witnessed following cunning scheme: a few years ago, a recent hire lacked the necessary experience and expertise, despite his MBA. He relied completely on the support of others to fulfill his role. Towards the boss he would, quote, "the idea of X is admirable but maybe short-sighted, underdeveloped and impractical. Not to worry, I will do my best to make it work." The reaction on the dismissal of a young talented employee who was naive enough to support him, "He was a great guy, he helped me a lot and I really enjoyed working with him. I am not sure if his divorce caused his value to deteriorate so rapidly, but we cannot spend time worrying. We have a business to run." It made me sick to my stomach. I could not react because nothing was openly said or done wrong. Failing to react to these practices will have destructive effects on the performance of Emerson in the long run. The opposite is happening in Emerson. Today, these practices go unnoticed and are rewarded with promotions. There is still plenty of work to do for HR. Thursday, May 5, 2011
David Farr, are you aware of the Irish problems? Please sort out the on going issues here! Thursday, May 5, 2011 As an Irish Customer, it is a disgrace that the UK Management are allowed to get away with what seems to be a cultural mis-management for years now. It is no secret in the market place that the UK Management team have run the Irish office into the ground on many occasions. The UK influence from what I have seen over the years goes right to the top in Europe - poor performers in general. We will be upgrading our old Emerson systems soon to either ABB or Rockwell. This has already been signed off in Corporate Engineering in the US. Wednesday, May 4, 2011 How long has the UK/Ireland problem been on this blog & still not fixed? Why? Because the leaders don't think they ever do anything wrong. Arrogance, ego, disaster. Wednesday, May 4, 2011 Must be a new phase of the Emerson Process Management management process. Up is down, down is up, good is bad, bad is good - they have all floated to the top. Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - Re: UK / Ireland issue: We need to get our own house in-order in the UK and then Ireland. The Management here are in turmoil; the leader is out of his depth and has no feel for the Emerson business. We are now developing people that have failed in weaker companies. Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - Re: "independent assessment of MBA directors": In the list of personal assessment characteristics you neglected to include the overwhelming trait for success - sucking up to the boss. On the negative traits front, you are so on target but you left out the obvious and perhaps most important tool for self preservation: never take blame; blame others at all costs. They can never even fathom the notion of it ever being possible that they could be wrong or should be held accountable for, or responsible for mistakes. They disperse, dispense & deflect blame in any direction they can. They look down at all others, yet they think they are admired by their peers and more so by their underlings. They really think that people at work, from the secretarial help to their top 'yes' people, really like, admire and respect them. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Tuesday, May 3, 2011 Any news on the UK / Ireland issue. I heard from another customer that the support is after getting worse on the systems side. We changed over from RoseM to E+H and the headaches are almost gone. Easy to order from a local E+H office and deliveries that are realistic. The real bonus is that you don't have to call the UK every time you have a problem. Tuesday, May 3, 2011 Yes, yes and yes again to the ego post. I posted a week or so ago about my ego boss thinking he is single handedly responsible for EPM's success. Can't wait for him to fall. Fall hard. Tuesday, May 3, 2011 HR's pretty good at helping me with problems with medical claims that's about it. They are very nice people but I am not sure what they do all day. Tuesday, May 3, 2011 HR is useless. They are part of the problem not the solution. Layers and layers of useless employees, useless policies and a knack for making excuses to cover the you-know-whats of the "leaders". Tuesday, May 3, 2011 Cronyism is the Emerson way and it starts with David Farr. Need I say more? Tuesday, May 3, 2011 Emerson clearly has Ego-problems. Ego leads to the ultimate destruction of empires. This piece says it all. I can name names but you know who you are:
If you look at leaders in real life, you'll discover that some people in leadership roles maintain their effectiveness over time, but that others go from being effective to becoming ineffective, sometimes becoming destructive forces in their organizations. How can this be? One common cause of this kind of negative shift involves the ego (or sense of self-importance) that can occur when someone is in a leadership position and loses perspective about his or her role in the organization. It's not uncommon for someone who has power and authority to come to believe that he or she is far more important, knowledgeable and able then is really the case. In common language, we can call this "believing the press clippings". It's not surprising. A successful leader tends to garner large amounts of praise and recognition for successes both from those outside an organization, but also from followers within the organization. This is particularly problematic in situations where the leader sets up an internal organizational culture that supports communicating about positive things, and sweeping bad news under the rug. In these situations the leader does not receive the kinds of feedback about what he or she needs to do differently, and comes to believe in his or her infallibility. Apart from inadequate feedback from followers, another cause of ego sabotage comes from what we call misattribution of success. It is common for human beings to use the halo effect, and attribute success to leaders, when in fact, that success is not do to the specific leader, but to a large variety of other factors. Misattribution attributes cause and effect to the wrong sources. It is true that some leaders succeed (at least for a while) due to being in the right place at the right time with the right skills. However, as situations change, leaders who do not change along with the situations (due to ego) will tend to self-destruct. Is it surprising that leaders who are elevated to legendary status start to believe in their own perfection? As evidence for the effects of misattribution, it's interesting to look at leaders who are effective in one organization, but fail badly when they move to another. Finally, and perhaps most important, leaders who allow their egos to run rampant will tend to stop doing what made them successful in the first place. For example, a leader may succeed because he or she created good relationships with those around him or her, listening, responding, and so on. With success (and the belief that it's the leader that is creating great success), some leaders will stop listening, and become out of touch. Tuesday, May 3, 2011 Independent assessment of our MBA directors would result in rejection - hence not an option. Personal assessment: positive: strong upward communicators - perfect networking capabilities in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter - excellent self-marketeers. Negative: Egocentric - can not admit to faults, fast to take credit - no hands on experience, lots of air, vindictive to peers/subordinates who get credit. Monday, May 2, 2011 As Emerson old timer, I can relate to your frustration. Emerson is no longer the underdog. We are No.1. The values needed to become and REMAIN the industry leader are no longer obvious. Experience, expertise have been replaced by complacency. Cronyism rules in the appointment of directors to protect established kingdoms. HR is politically smart enough to interfere. Are director positions not important enough to allow for independent assessment of the candidates? Sunday, May 1, 2011 An article by JOHN WARRILLOW - On MBAs: Want to build a truly entrepreneurial team? Screen out the MBAs. That's my second piece of advice as I offer a six-part series on how to build an entrepreneurial culture. My first recommendation was to scan rˇsumˇs in search of candidates who display a competitive streak - the raw material needed for entrepreneurial drive. Here is the link to the newspaper:
Saturday, April 30, 2011 I'm in my mid 60's with 40 years process control experience, and I have to "report" to an MBA that is in his 40's and obviously does not have the real world customer experience I have. It's a good thing I don't have a dog, I might have to kick it when I get home every night. I'd like to see my MBA "boss" put in the hours I do, ha! Thursday, April 28, 2011 MBA's are to blame for the demise of our country. Make money at any cost. Get the company to pay for your useless part-time MBA so that some Marketing VP that doesn't even have a MBA can flaunt his MBA flunkies as some sort of process expert. MBA runs Emerson now after roaming the world cutting US jobs. It's a vicious cycle. Thursday, April 28, 2011 Transfer of knowledge is the worst thing we have done. Why should US Universities continue to educate foreigners? We do have intelligent and capable US students that can go on to earn higher degrees in science, engineering & technology. It all comes down to the CEOs & BOD's. They have sold the USA out for pennies. The sooner we all realize this the better. And let's not even go there with useless rhetoric blaming Obama for all this. It's the CEO's & no one else is to blame. Each one of us needs to look in the mirror. Thursday, April 28, 2011 The greater evil is the transfer of knowledge. Transfer of technology to China or India is totally different from a back office producing engineering hours to save costs. How will we compete against equal technology at much lower costs? Are we making ourselves obsolete? Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Utter silence from the myriad of MBA's regarding Emerson Process Management's Management Process. Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Please check out Tuesday, April 26, 2011 Honeywell blog: "As I see it, 90% of the US domestic problems that dominate the news can be traced back to US multinationals' offshoring practices." Monday, April 25, 2011
So when will each one of us stand up to become a patriot for a protectionist nation? It's all about the USA being a "corporatism". Corporate Oligarchs that only care about pennnies versus being a patriot. So when the US oligarch "corporatisms" leaders be held up for what they have done to our country for the almighty profit to the shareholders?href Monday, April 25, 2011 Read all about Emerson Process Management's Management Process, at least how it is outlined in theory: I don't think that many leaders in Austin are abiding by these rules! Saturday, April 23, 2011 By far the largest deficit in competency is our management's recognition of their disability to distinguish between real and fake talent, and the disability to allocate talent where it is most productive for the company. The recently appointed VP BD is another example of wasting talent where it is not required, and potentially hurtful to our business in the long run. Having a great track record in product marketing, is no garantee for success in a project environment. The last one to recognize this will be the VP BD himself. Not knowing the project business requirements, he will inevitably surround himself with worshippers without any business development track record. Disaster waiting to happen. At the same time, our marketing is dying in the hands of the least creative VP ever, who would be better positioned anywhere as long as far away from marketing. Saturday, April 23, 2011 I found these comments about the vital value of the life sciences to EPM in 2004, it highlights Ireland and that's ironic considering EPM no longer considers Life Sciences to be a money maker:
"A third industry is life sciences. We're a major supplier for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. For example, we're the chosen supplier for the Wyeth Enbrel project outside of Dublin. It's a huge project, with virtually all Emerson automation. We've also had great growth with other leaders like Merck and Pfizer. And we're honored that Biogen was so happy with the results we've given them that they featured our automation in their annual report." Friday, April 22, 2011 My "boss" in Austin thinks he has single handedly made EPM a raging success. Can you imagine having to put up with that ego on a daily basis? Worse yet all his underlings kiss up 24/7. I hate my job. Thursday, April 21, 2011 As long as Emerson UK are involved in GSK Ireland, we will never switch to Emerson Engineering Services and will persevere with the product in the short team. Can't make it any clearer than that! Thursday, April 21, 2011 Up until now I have only been a reader and this is my first post, so forgive its crude nature. But, as a person vested in the future of Emerson (and it's stock price as part of my retirement) I think this blog is a great place to clear the air; anonymous or not, it is a step in the right direction to create dialogue. For me, I feel the best way to improve in the short and long-term is to ensure the walking and talking are aligned. That is a competency I would like to see across the board and at all levels. On the other hand, the get-results culture I think does have a lot of positive contributions to the long term health of the company... Adaptability maybe? Where does everyone else think? Where are we competency-deficient? Proficient? Wednesday, April 20, 2011 EPM-ers go check out Honeywell's blog. Rumblings about H'well bringing some manufacturing back to the USA. Sunday, April 17, 2011 I think that it's more accurate that EPM is using GlaxoSmithKline to try and rescue their reputation in Ireland. Sunday, April 17, 2011 Is this a brand new project or merely a continuation of a decades old project? Friday, April 15, 2011 GlaxoSmithKline in Ireland still using EPM? Tuesday, April 12, 2011 We common folks will remember the Hawaii trip when salary excuses roll around next time. Tuesday, April 5, 2011 I wonder if the current GM went on the Emerson Hawaii trip that all the big bosses went to last week. We are told to cut costs and they go on a boondoggle trip. Go figure. Tuesday, April 5, 2011 As a loyal Emerson customer over the years, I have now come to dislike the product and the people. I had enough of the UK and the arrogance they displayed on a regular basis in Ireland. I have never met the current GM, but he has quite a reputation on the Irish sites and one I guess he or Emerson will never recover from here. Our business in Ireland will come around again and it will be interesting how Emerson approaches it then. Wednesday, March 30, 2011 After reading the glassdoor comments on working at Emerson pro's & con's, it sure looks like low salary and lack of appreciation of job efforts are common problems. Sunday, March 27, 2011 Check it out: Read them and you'll recognize them all.
Sunday, March 27, 2011 The Irish need to sit this one out. The Northern European VP responsible for Ireland has some poor history in Ireland. I have experience of dealing with him on the customer side and was one of the main reasons that Emerson fell on a big project in Grange Castle. I think he also spent some time as a manager in the UK. He will be no help to the Irish customer base. Saturday, March 26, 2011 I am putting a blog out to vent my frustration that my plant's top leadership are not really listening. Emerson marketing people and the LBP must have sold them some "dope" to keep using Emerson products. Even then, some of my colleagues kept complaining a lot about Emerson control system; but when crunch time came to give their feedback, most of them did nothing. The DeltaV SIS tripped my plant, NOT ONCE but several times after we installed a mandatory quick fix in the KBA. We did not know initially what caused it, but finally we figured that out - thanks to ourselves that the mandatory DeltaV SIS quick fix patch was the cause. When we reported it, EPM Call Centre Manila has no clue what happened. The LBP was equally clueless, and was so arrogant to say that this could not have happened. I still do not understand and am very surprised that there are so many software fixes appearing for the DeltsV SIS. These quick fixes appeared in forms just like the DeltaV DCS. As marketed by Emerson, the DeltaV SIS was to be independant of the DCS. If anyone bothers to look at the KBA DeltaV SIS patches closely, in my opinion, it does not seemed to me that way that the DeltaV MD controller and the DeltaV operating system DOES affect the DeltaV SIS. EPM can argue this out - that I am "mistaken". My reply will be: why so many of these DeltaV SIS quick-fixes are "non-mandatory"? And that this involved issues like DeltaV time sync etc. After we complained, my control room became crowded, swamped with a few of the LPB people and an EPM expert in a "cover up" mode, with no real solution to offer. We went through the pain of downgrading the DeltaV SIS firmware. Now, EPM has offered us a new "mandatory" patch again. The LBP told us that this has all been fixed. Our operations people have no faith in downloading this quick fix. I have not heard any complaint, or a great inquest, or reports. We were not told of the responses from EPM. EPM marketing and the LBP must have done their homework with my plant's top management people. I am impressed - that we can lose plant production and yet everything was "silent"... I have heard from my LBP, deliberately boasting about the EPM DeltaV roadmap with DeltaV SIS with CHARMS. I have lost faith, not only in the DeltaV SIS as a product, but equally about the EPM way of handling safety system issues and fixes. EPM likes to keep it very "secret", in order to boost its image of "robustness". Bread and butter issues forced me to use EPM products. If I have a choice and am part of the the decision-making delegation, I will give EPM's competition another try. I do not want be seen in "bed" with EPM - so much for my current company's laid down "ethics and integrity" practices. Saturday, March 26, 2011 Checkout the Honeywell and other company blogs. See, the grass is not greener on the other side. Survival mode is necessary to get by until retirement. Wednesday, March 23, 2011 Australia does sound like a wonderful option. Getting away from the home office sure does look good. Not having to go to a 3rd world country sounds even better. Wednesday, March 23, 2011 Why not come to Australia? Customers are in growth mode and well educated, there is plenty of business if you want to work for it and put in the hard yards, and we could use some clear thinking people here at the moment. Wednesday, March 23, 2011 If I were the boss, I would not agree with sending jobs overseas. That would make me a short lived boss @ EPM. How do these bosses sleep at night? Especially the older ones; their future is safe & secure, while us youngsters are in a state of panic about our future employment here in the USA. I don't want to live in India, China, Singapore; maybe Costa Rica would be OK. Tuesday, March 22, 2011 Why is the person who posted, "Irish are not capable" afraid to reveal their identity? It's sure easy to make anonymous statements, isn't it? Perhaps it's one of the Austin MBA-ers? Monday, March 21, 2011 If I were the boss, I would fire the person that posted that the "Irish are not capable". That is so unprofessional. (Of course, it could have been posted by an anonymous trouble-maker? Competitor?) Monday, March 21, 2011 The comment about the Irish not being competent is very insulting to the Irish. Can the poster please identify themselves? If you feel so strongly about the Irish, let us know who you are. We can then deal with you directly. Let's decide who is the most competent. Monday, March 21, 2011 Which level of VP's offer their continuing support of Irish customers? Are you referring to the Austin VP's, the St Louis VP's, the Swiss VP's, etc...? Or perhaps some retired high-paid consultant has given their blessing. Is this Austin's Human Centered Design approach? Don't compliment yourself so much on the Irish customers coming back for support. What do you expect them to go to a competitor for support of Emerson products? Arrogance eventually results in failure. Monday, March 21, 2011 It wouldn't make a difference. The Irish are not capable of running their country and need UK's guidance and support to run their customer base. It might be harsh but that is the way it is. The Irish customers are always moaning but come back on a regular basis for support. We have the full support of all the Emerson VP's to continue supporting the Irish. I hope this issue is now closed. Monday, March 21, 2011 Bet ya that the UK GM is getting promoted to another level of incompetence. Sunday, March 20, 2011 Does the Emerson Board of Directors read this blog? Anyone know? Saturday, March 19, 2011 Yes, sure, they are all happy. I went over the blog's and there is more disatifaction in the UK organisation about the present GM than from the Irish.. Customers losing millions over the years - and it is all fixed by a few blog's. But one positive: we heard the UK General Manager is moving on! Thursday, March 17, 2011 Sounds like the Irish are happy - we haven't heard any complaints since the new guy took over. This is a good thing. Thursday, March 17, 2011 The "when I joined Emerson UK" blogger needs to get out of the past and accept the harsh realities of the now and the future. No one in management cares about the past or any particular employee. Thursday, March 10, 2011 When I joined Emerson UK it was still Fisher-Rosemount. The drive, the pride and the capability were obvious to me from the day I joined and our customers bought from us because everything we did was what was required; best systems, best people. As the market leader since the 80's, we have dealt with competitors with varying degrees of success (mostly success!) but still remained at the top of the tree. In the late 80's, early 90's, we saw Smar off, despite them offering transmitters at 50% less than we did. The same for Siemens, but we also hired their sales manager to soften the impact. Our biggest threat in the mid 90's, up until a few years ago, was Yokogawa on instrumentation. They grew at almost everyone's expense but, as has been said elsewhere on these blogs, the systems business was always 'special pricing' (same as Invensys?) that few could compete with (or would want to). You know things are bad when now we are losing out to Invensys and Honeywell. ABB are a decent competitor, but we thought we had blown Invensys and Honeywell away years ago, and now we are fighting Rockwell for business and are losing our best managers to them. In my opinion, the UK GM is at fault; but more at fault are his bosses. We hire people in senior positions that have worked in companies that have been going downhill for years, who come to expect failure as normal. It's what they are used to and don't know any different. It's a mindset and they can't cope, or don't see the problem. This sets up an expectation level of failure or accepting second best with the staff. To be fair, the problem in Ireland is not of his making; it's been downhill since the Proscon fiasco. But his attitude, ignorance of what we do, and dismissive approach to Irish customers does not help matters. I'm not a manager and don't want to be one. But I do know what is good management looks and feels like. I can't see anyone I know internally who can rejuvenate us who has not been damaged by this losing mentality from our current management. Time for new blood from the outside, or Austin perhaps? I hope management are reading these blogs. Thursday, March 10, 2011 A saying comes to mind: "The customer is ALWAYS right". Tuesday, March 8, 2011 From a customer's view point, I firmly believe that the Emerson presence in Ireland will never work under the present structure and Management. I like Emerson as a company, and there are some great people working there. But the Irish customer-base like the interaction that the local people bring. The Irish customers buy from people, and the relationship between vendor and end-user is key here. The UK guys in the Emerson Ireland operation are more office-based and don't have the interaction skills needed for the Irish Customer base. This is a common trend in Ireland and not specific to Emerson. Unfortunately, I experienced the same interaction with the current GM as another blogger at the Irish user conference. The interaction was very degrading to the Irish customers at the event and didn't help the Emerson cause. It was very unusual, and many of us never experienced anything like it before. It was so bad, I am not sure the guy even realized what he was saying. This is my main point: you need to understand the people here. Monday, March 7, 2011 - Re: "taking action in Ireland." So is this blog the official place to voice concerns and problems so that they are addressed in a timely & meaningful manner? Sunday, March 6, 2011 IMHO, if it wasn't for this blog then there would not have been any action taken. Sunday, March 6, 2011 So it took public blogging by customers and employees to get some "action". That's what you call competent management? Sunday, March 6, 2011 Same old cover up in Ireland; nothing has changed. Director is still reporting into the UK Management. Will not be accepted in the market place over there. We will be sure to mess it up again, especially with the present UK Manager. I wish we would leave the Irish off on their own. Saturday, March 5, 2011 It seems, Emerson shocked bloggers into silence by showing they do care by taking appropriate action in Ireland. This is what makes Emerson such a great company. Thursday, March 3, 2011 Fortune Magazine just released it's latest list of The World's Most Admired Companies:
I did not see any of the automation companies on the list. Check out all the lists that rank for criteria from innovation to global competitiveness. Tuesday, March 1, 2011 I am encouraged about a new Director for Ireland; let's give him a chance. He will need a massive PR campaign and expense account to help woo the Irish customers back into EPM's fold. What about the UK? Any changes in EPM "management" across the Irish Sea? Tuesday, March 1, 2011 Over the years the UK have turned over the Irish Director's position at a rate I found difficult to keep pace with. I seem to have a different face visiting me every few months. When it seems as a Director is settling in a new one turns up. It seems difficult one to balance the customer base and the UK management. Monday, February 28, 2011 Owen Bonner has a tough job in front of him - he has to try and convince potential Irish customers & existing Life Sciences customers that EPM now officially cares about them. Monday, February 28, 2011 - from Eoin O'Riain [readout@iol.ie]: Cometh the hour, cometh the man! I had hardly written my comment on UK lack of interest in the Irish market - and Emerson are by no means the only, or indeed the worst, culprits - when the news broke that they have appointed a Sales & marketing Director for Ireland.
More on my blog:
Friday, February 25, 2011 It appears to be quite evident that management has not resolved the UK problem because we keep reading more posts about the problem. Let's just fix this mess and move on. Why is this so difficult? Thursday, February 24, 2011 Answering some questions from a customer:
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Austin did not step in because of the "leadership" in Austin. It's a new era in Austin, so I expect to see the old era problems finally acknowledged, addressed and solved to the benefit of both the customer and EPM. The blame game no longer cuts it in Austin. Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Some questions from a customer.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Amen to the last post! Let's move onwards to even more greatness. Monday, February 21, 2011 I want to see a very swift and discrete solution to the problems identified on this blog. We all have work to do. Sunday, February 20, 2011 Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with a particular fact or reality, or being in accord with the body of real things, real events or actualities. The last blogger is afraid of something and he / she does not like the truth. Guaranteed there will be managers questioned and moved on based on some of the customer complaints here. This is very high profile now, and from what I hear the wheels are in motion to find out why so many customers are unhappy with the attitude of some of the management. Sunday, February 20, 2011 Definition WHINE - v. whined, whin-ing, whines; v.intr.
Sunday, February 20, 2011 Extract about David Farr related to previous expat posts: The foreign experience changed his life. "That gave me the opportunity to develop as a broad-thinking individual. It gave me a much broader perspective on life". Sunday, February 20, 2011 The problems in Emerson UK Systems go back as far as when we last had a Managing Director - which was good, we now have downgraded GMs. We hired the guy from Yokogawa who was causing us the most pain. We were successful, he drove us to achieve and then because of his success, he was poached to revitalise Transmitton. He replaced the current Emerson UK GM who was a total failure at Transmitton. Transmitton was owned by those so called vulture capitalists at Alchemy, but they recognised a BS merchant when they saw one and fired the guy. He then ended up at Emerson because of his connections with senior VPs here that used to work with him at Rockwell. So now we know the formula, hire your mates from Rockwell and Honeywell or any other failing company you can think of. As to promoting from within, I worked for a "Director" in systems who also was ex-Yokogawa but from down under; he is as successful as the current Aussie cricket team, but talks the talk and survives through the BS stratagem. Promotion from within is nigh on impossible; you need a structured talent-development program to achieve this, and that doesn't exist here. The Irish customer's comments about the current UK GMs technical ability ring true; he's sitting out for his pension. When I first joined Rosemount, we annihilated Foxboro to steal their market share. Now we have turned into them, with cronyism and inbreeding. Not a happy situation. Sunday, February 20, 2011
Extracts:
"What do you think I'm going to do?" Farr asked the audience. "I'm not going to hire anybody in the United States. I'm moving." Does he believe that today? "You have to understand my style," says Farr. "I have a tendency to push on the edge." He added: "I had a very strong message that, if they don't change policy, I will never invest in the United States again. ... Never is a stupid word, because I invest today. I hire people in the U.S. But I still have the same message today." Sunday, February 20, 2011 Everyone knows that all expat salary and compensation packages were not created equally. I will concur that the days of the sweet-deal expat packages are long gone. As for "get real" - it is real. The detail of the post regarding "get real" makes one ponder who posted this type of detailed response alluding to inheritance, or the laughable lottery win theory. Basically, if you are not presently in an overseas assignment you better give up any chance of career advancement. I conclude that you still have a chance if you want to be the global leader in India, China, Philippines or Russia. You can prepare for this type of assignment by watching "Outsourced" a comedy on NBC. Sunday, February 20, 2011 Emerson reimburses the expat for costs in the host country upto a certain amount, while the US costs (mortgage, taxes, etc) remain for account of the expat. Contrary to peoples beliefs, salary does not increase, unless there is a promotion involved. The cost of living calculator is very Emerson-biased, hence costs are only partially covered. Unlike other international companies, there are no risk reimbursements or other incentives. You will struggle to break even, let alone make money for a house on the lake. A lottery win or inheritance sound more plausible. The worst part of the deal is that Emerson does not guarantee you a job upon returning home. You'd better perform, and make management aware of your performance, or you go out empty at the end of the assignment. On top of the family issues in the new environment, this is above average pressure for the expat to deal with. The expats that hold their ground are worth their weight in gold. Being an expat is the perfect, and should be mandatory, training for any senior management position. Many of the current MBAs who sneaked their way in, in the absence of the expat, would not last 1 year in Russia, India, China or the Philippines. Sadly enough expats are becoming a rare species in Emerson. Loads have been laid off to reduce cost. Local contracts are preferred, increasing the gap between the US head office and the rest of the world. "House by the lake" - Get real! Sunday, February 20, 2011 Multiple years of overseas experience in a global company should be a requirement for any global role. Leading a global program without understanding the cultural intimacies is doomed for failure. Everything however has it's price. Moving to a different cultural environment, working under different unwritten rules, dragging the wife and children away from family, school and friends, learning new languages, finding out that US citizens are not welcome everywhere - is not evident. It is easy to see the money on return, while ignoring the sacrifices expats very often have to make. It is not abnormal that the divorce rate amongst expats is extremely high. Expats can rely on a personal network that links not only countries but also the different divisions. They can anticipate situations the local "global" program manager would never think of. Emerson should cherish its expats for their information knowledge alone. The opposite is true. As expats are expensive - not because of salary but because of housing, cost of living, international schools, double taxation - they were the first to be chopped off. A waste of knowledge beyond measure. New expats deals are no longer promoted. Emerson is pushing for local deals. Better think twice before entering on an adventure without return ticket to the US. Local "global" program managers are running the show, very often acting like a bull in a china shop. How can you make them understand that appearing in front of a customer, wearing a cheap DeltaV polo shirt is an insult in some parts of the world. How can you explain that Europe is not one country? How can you explain that yes/no does not always mean yes/no? The regular trips around the globe also cost money and the air miles are a welcome plus to fill the holidays. It is unbelievable that this has been allowed to happen. Saturday, February 19, 2011 Wise words from Honeywell blogger: "Never let a company determine what your value is and always be in a position to determine your own destiny". Too many Emerson ego's would be totally thrown of the tracks without the precious title and logo on the business card. I speak from experience. Emerson ran my life before they spit me out. Despite public image, Emerson does not tolerate criticism. So I walked the talk, very often against my own professional judgement, caught by the "everything we do is great" wave, enjoying my status, proud of being part of Emerson. This creates an army of yes-puppets echoing the opinions of an elite minority who determine the direction of the company. Culturally, the Indian engineers fit like a glove. This is not a coincidence. It might work as a business model, but kills all technological creativity and progress. This is not a unique Emerson syndrome. The company that manages to collect, to listen to the voices of the street workers, a company that truly encourages any form of feedback, will top any competition. Companies where the size of the business card defines the weight and volume of decisions, and Emerson is an honorable member of this club, end up wondering what went wrong. Same as all the replaced puppets like myself. Saturday, February 19, 2011 The previous blog said all is eventually controlled out of the US so if there is a problem, any problem - for example with UK dealings with Irish customers and employees then the US should be fixing the problem. It appears to me that one has to do some time overseas to get past a lower level VP position @ EPM. Guess the ex-pat package is a good one because when some overseas people come back to Austin they can afford a 7,456 sq foot, multi-million dollar lakefront home. Friday, February 18, 2011 The facts are being twisted. The president in Europe, Bob Sharpe, is a US citizen. So was David Dunbar and Jim Nyquist before him. Below the president there is a small, highly competent team of VPs and Directors, mostly Europeans. The fact that Programs in Europe are adopted in Emerson worldwide is a proof of their competence and has nothing to do with patriotism. British work alongside Germans and French to meet the goals set by the US. US calls the shots - no doubt about that. The fact that US programs are not so successful is a result of lack of global cultural understanding on the part of many US employees. Our presidents got their position because they lived and worked in various world areas. Next to business integrity, they understand the cultural differences, and are able to translate them into the Emerson US business environment. This makes them the most suitable persons for the job. The Irish example shows how important culture can be. An Irish president might solve the Irish issue, but might create one or two issues elsewhere in the world. Thursday, February 17, 2011 Seems like the major decisions are made out of Barr. The Global project Management office is developed and led in Europe by a British VP, also out of Baar. Why isn't the entire project management function not completely outsourced, like so many other parts of EPM's operations? Sounds like Baar needs to be outsourced next. Thursday, February 17, 2011 Emerson's Northern European Management are weak and do not understand the cultural difference between the UK and Ireland. From my experience the present lead in Europe is being lead by the UK, and until he moves on the situation will stay the same. Thursday, February 17, 2011 As a PSS team member in the UK, it is unfair to generalize systems here. We have a very weak GM who has no competitive history the systems business. Lets fix the UK first and then move to Ireland ! Thursday, February 17, 2011 The position VP Outsourcing exists under a different name and has been filled by a French VP based in Baar, Switzerland for more than a decade. This VP was the first to outsource engineering work to Pune, India for EMerson PSS EMEA. The huge cost-benefits led to the success and implementation of global BCEC (best Cost Engineering Centres). The global Guardian call centre in Manila was developed out of Europe by a Dutch VP. The Global project Management office is developed and led in Europe by a British VP, also out of Baar, and later copied to the rest of the world. The DeltaV program was led by a South African VP from ABB. The DeltaV SIS program was developed by ex-Hima employees from Belgium, Germany and UK. The head of DeltaV technology is from New Zealand. The recent build facilities in Kluge, Eastern Europe, are led by a Brit. What form of patriotism do you expect from these people? Where is the US talent? The US talent is right at the top. All this happened under the reign of two US presidents. As reward for their talent they are president PSG and president PSS. The previous blogger already mentioned, the rest of the leadership team are outsiders? Do our presidents select outsiders and foreigners for all the critical roles? Thursday, February 17, 2011 The "in-house only makes it to director level" comment is not at all accurate. A few Austin VP's rose up through the ranks, and ironically they are foreigners and so are a few of the Directors. Is it patriotic to promote foreigners over US citizens? The comment about promoting from within and the problems that has caused, is right on target. Will there be a VP or Czar of Outsourcing? India, Philippines, Costa Rica, etc. They all add up to killing US job opportunities. Soon there will only be a shell-organization based in the US - the rest will be in the outsourced meccas. Thursday, February 17, 2011 4 of the 5 officers (COO, CSO, president PWS, sr. VP industry solutions) reporting directly to Nyquist are outsiders. None of them have climbed up thru the ranks. The same for most of the VPs, of which the majority are non US. Quite a few VPs were taken back after some time off. In house breeds only make it to director level. Wednesday, February 16, 2011 I have given many a hard year in Emerson UK, and when you see Honeywell and Rockwell people come in and run our company into 2nd and 3rd place in every aspect, it makes me quiet sad to be honest. I also have to question the managers who put these guys in place: Are we that short of CV's? Wednesday, February 16, 2011 Is it patriotic to outsource American jobs? Is it patriotic for the US to continue to educate the worlds brightest minds? Is it patriotic for US Companies to avoid paying the fair share of taxes? Is it patriotic to work for unpatriotic companies? Anyone have any insight they'd like to share? Wednesday, February 16, 2011 Excellent blog entry from the Honeywell Blog: All the managers who are slowly exporting whatever prosperity is left in America to Bangalore and Hyderabad should be forced to read this cautionary tale of Boeing's disastrous and counterproductive attempt to save money.
This applies to all US Corporations. Wednesday, February 16, 2011 EPM US has usually promoted from within to a fault. Only major exception was when Berra brought in two outsiders for high ranking positions. Some of the internal promotions were a huge mistake and the organization is still feeling the pain from those decisions. Is it better anywhere else? We all know the answer is NO. Pick the lesser of all evils and ride it as long as you can. That's my plan and I'm sticking with it. Wednesday, February 16, 2011 Not for the first time, local talent was overlooked to favor competitor and foreign rejects to fill vacant management positions in the UK. We gave heart and soul for Emerson to find ourselves reporting to a "bad guy". A real motivation booster that is.... An Irish manager for the UK and Ireland is bottom of the list. Wednesday, February 16, 2011 Well, I'm sorry guys. If a user has a new project, the last criteria he will take in consideration is who won the Control Engineering awards, or the Control Readers Choice Awards. If a magazine matters I prefer the Forbes 500.... Wednesday, February 16, 2011 Eoin, good view on Ireland. As a customer who attended many Emerson events / meetings in Ireland over the years, I have to agree with most of the views on Ireland. Upgrades have a particular bad taste to them when dealing with the UK. But, the management in the UK is a way short of the Emerson Executives I have met over the years. We still have some hope. Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - Re:"CONTROL magazine survey of process automation users ranks Emerson No. 1": Isn't CONTROL Magazine is a North American based publication? Isn't the survey heavily biased towards North America? Great marketing spin from the Emerson Austin spin machine. Interesting to note that the yellow box - DeltaV SIS is No 3. Before it was Rockwell Automation (Triplex TMR). I kinda of want to put this type of survey into perspective. Take it with a "chunk" of salt. Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - from Eoin O'Riain of Readout, the Instrumentation Signpost, Ireland [readout@iol.ie]: The complaint about lack of service from English offices is not an unusual problem and the treating of Ireland as another England only smaller is a common complaint through the years. I would have thought that Emerson having a presence in Ireland ought to make it easier to counteract these sort of problems but obviously not. They use the title "Emerson UK and Ireland" quite widely but just using that complicated title is of little use unless it is backed up with a strong effective presence. The problem is of course extended world-wide by the unfortunate situation in Ireland which has seen the dispersal of well qualified automation and process engineers to those part of the global which are not as effected as is Ireland like the Netherlands, Middle East, Chindia and the Pacific Rim, Australia etc. Tuesday, February 15, 2011 CHARMS is a unique and revolutionairy technology that will change the game in the industry. Presenting a proven track record for innovative technology is not possible. We are trying to close this gap by providing a massive amount of information, including a calculator (see the Jan, 21st post) to calculate your cost savings. Visit our website for brochures, videos, technical documentation. If you have any questions left, you can email: askdeltav@emerson.com . You will find that the benefits of CHARMS outweigh the lack of references. Your marshalling becomes a problem of the past. Monday, February 14, 2011 Can someone from Emerson please talk about any proven track record for CHARMS? Beta test sites, customer trials, etc. It would be helpful in our analysis process. Monday, February 14, 2011
Somebody is stretching the truth. Wearing red or blue filtered glasses allows you to believe both Monday, February 14, 2011 Is this a different Award? Where does it say that Emerson ranks number one? Did Emerson buy Rockwell? Monday, February 14, 2011 Control Readers Choice Awards by Automation Discipline and Industry.
Rockwell cleans out with 22 out of 45 wins. The Emerson internal marketing claims victory. The employees are proud. Great display of how Emerson marketing operates. Monday, February 14, 2011 - Re: CONTROL magazine survey of process automation users ranks Emerson No. 1 Congratulations! 18 years is quite an accomplishment! Looking forward to 19-th year in a row. I'm so proud to be a part of EPM! Sunday, February 13, 2011 We explored using CHARMS. I agree with one of the previous posts on getting Emerson feedback. CHARMS is very new. Our Emerson LBP has not been properly introduced to CHARMS. He had to turn to Emerson for answers. This slowed down the process. Some in-depth sales training is highly recommended. I am sure Emerson is aware of this and is fixing it. The business/marketing case is focussed around engineering changes. It shows how easy it is to implement last minute changes in a project. CHARMS delivers on this promise, but as a business case it is not enough. Our management expects no changes based on good engineering practice. The largest benefits we see in CHARMS is the granularity. The ability to single out loops could increase plant reliability significantly. Emerson talks about it, but does not have this case prepared. The pitfalls: It is bulky but this is no issue for us. It is important to realize that the project schedule is going to be different with CHARMS. Our LBP did not have answers yet. We supported and recommended CHARMS, but we were overruled due to no proven track record. Our policy demands 2 years in operation. Sunday, February 13, 2011 Emerson ranks Nr. 1 for the 18th time in a row.
Sunday, February 13, 2011 None of the Irish posts mention any implementation experiences. They go on and on about management issues in the UK. I can not relate to local Irish issues. When we have a management issue, we pick up the phone and things get solved. If there are any implementation issues in Ireland, post those instead and add some value to this blog. We could all learn, and give you some of our own feedback. I seriously doubt St. Louis is giving anonymous blogs any notice.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011 - weblog material:
I want to read about implementation experiences with DeltaV, DeltaV SIS, Wireless, FF, CHARMS. I want to read about the pitfalls (sorry Emerson) not presented in the brochure.
The problems in Ireland are about implementation experiences and pitfalls. Are you not contradicting yourself? Or are you shoving your head in the sand like our co-workers in the UK?
Friday, February 11, 2011
Has anyone from St Louis been to Ireland? Probably not, because Austin doesn't tell corporate about problems. That's why this blog is so hot.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Why is the amusement factor so high? Is it fun to read about dirty laundry? Starting in 2010, the Emerson laundry list has led the increasing flood of complaints. The great level of detail in some of the blogs indicates inside information. Why is that so? Why did it only start in 2010, almost overnight? What triggered the sudden increase in complaints? Is it release of pressure that was building over the years? The economic changes? It is doubtful that Emerson is amused.
Jim Pinto's latest article mentions potential root causes; a fix is unlikely. Personally I find the amusement factor dropping fast, caused by endless repetition of the same, over and over. I really do not care to read about Irish problems anymore. I care to read about automation solutions that can help me do my job. I want to read about implementation experiences with DeltaV, DeltaV SIS, Wireless, FF, CHARMS. I want to read about the pitfalls (sorry Emerson) not presented in the brochure. Isn't this what an INDEPENDENT automation blog is all about? Direct information exchange on technology without Emerson marketing sauce. Too much to ask for? Today I have to dig through the dirty laundry to find valuable information. My suggestion is to split the blog, nonsense and no nonsense, or add a filter.
My response to a previous serious blogger: CHARMS has no IS capability yet. Expected in v12. I struggle with the size: 96 channels on a vertical DIN-Rail in a 2000mm cabinet. And I struggle with the price comparison to conventional. Who has installed CHARMS and can provide some feedback?
Friday, February 11, 2011
I actually find these blogs quite amusing; common themes are found on all the weblogs. There are the disgruntled employees, the unhappy ex-employee; the obviously negative comments from opposing company's employees and last but not lease a sprinkling of happy employees with positive comments.
Bottom line: All these companies are the same - they exist to make money. Get used to it. It's life!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
You can read about David Farr's performance indicators which are driving The Emerson organization here:
Thursday, February 10, 2011
"Appear to imply", "probably exaggerated", "downright false", "despite these possibilities"... Still in denial, but just in case, then you should take a trip to Ireland and see for yourself.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
EPM should be concerned that some of these posts appear to imply that EPM does not care all too much about aftercare. Of course, some of it is probably exaggerated or even downright false. Despite these possibilities, the issues must be addressed. How can it be a good thing for the Life Sciences Industry to read that EPM does not consider them to be a good fit for EPM? Life Sciences were instrumental to the early success of DELTA V.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
As an Irish customer, I find it mind blowing that Emerson still have Emerson UK running Ireland. Anyone attached to the Automation Industry in Ireland will have the same story to tell and with good reason in most cases. It has got to the stage that the Irish customer base will not deal with the UK office unless they have to. Unfortunately for Emerson the sour taste has also spread to the Irish engineering community across many countries. Some of these people (and I know a few) are in very influential positions in the Global life Science industry. That is the harsh truth; but I am sure Emerson UK will have another story, as they usually do
Thursday, February 10, 2011
DeltaV is expandable without limitation. We challenge any system in terms of response time. Time synchronization is automatic. IO on Demand is fully redundant. DeltaV SIS has realtime event-recording automatically integrated in DeltaV. DeltaV Books Online offers full on- and off-line engineering support. Guardian supports your maintenance. Bulk editing tools are available. Our printing could be improved, but who still uses paper today? We calculate your DST requirements before entering the project. What improvements are you talking about? On top of that we offer unique Fieldbus, asset management, alarm management, safety, Batch, Autotune, security! HMI, Wireless, CHARMS technology. These are our "head and shoulders" above any competition.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The gap between product leaders and the troops is widening. The troops are confused with the recent product developments. The recent sales training added to the confusion and did not reduce the level of concern about the DeltaV roadmap. The enthusiastic speakers and colourful slides missed the expected AWE affect by not addressing the challenges we have been feeding back to Austin since release.
Does anybody in the CHARMS product marketing or development team have any practical experience in project engineering? Did the business case cover practical engineering? Let's hope there is a plan B.
Before you shoot me for publishing on this website - I have reported all concerns in writing to my manager. He guaranteed me that my material was handed over personally to Emerson.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
"Heads and shoulders above our competitors": What on earth gave you this idea? Self-praise reduces credibility. Leave it up to customers to decide on your merits. DeltaV is an ok product, with pros and cons like the rest of the pack. Plenty of room for improvement before adding any more gadgets: controller speed and capacity, redundant backplane IO bus, network time synchronisation, realtime event-recording, bulk editing tools, printing capability, proper engineering & maintenance manuals, engineering checklists, backward compatibility, software licencing policy, etc.
Before Emerson can find a solution, they have to understand and acknowledge there is a problem. With the enormous pressure to develop new gadgets, there is no time to fix the practical issue which are denied and dragged along release after release with often ridiculous work-arounds. This is what frustrates customers.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
It would be fun to work for Ricky Gervais. Some of our VP's and Directors are from the British Commonwealth Nations, so maybe we have some hybrid of The Office right here in Austin, TX. Stay tuned for the next episode. As for the MBA-ers I don't give them a minutes notice.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Read Jim Pinto's latest column in Automation World, February 2011. This specifically discusses reasons why anonymous weblogs are so popular.
During a period of recession, leadership skills are truly challenged. The solutions derive from strong management, which motivates good people to do what it takes to win during tough times. Mechanisms must be created for the workforce to share their feelings. It's the bad times that make good companies so much better during the good times.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
I read the negative posts and I have no idea what company you are describing. I have worked with Emerson for 10 years and I love my job. The technology we offer is heads and shoulders above our competitors. Are we perfect? No, but I do believe management is actively trying to find solutions.
Larry Bolton, [Larry.Bolton@Emerson.com]
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
It sounds more like The Office. Not the US version - the older UK version. You might have been working for Ricky Gervais. That would be entertaining.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Who is tired of anonymous advisers? Not me. I find it very amusing. This blog would be empty if not for anonymous bloggers. I can't wait to read this blog every day. It reassures me that I am not alone with my opinion about our leaders. It is entertaining to see how this great Emerson tries to keep up the "we are the best in the world" appearance. Without anybody to blame, without the ability to abuse their position, the nitwit MBA are powerless. Fantastic. How does it feel to be vulnerable like the rest of us? The names of little-use-but-opportunity-cost-a-lot so called pompous-experts. No need. Go watch the videos, join the Facebook/ Twitter/ Linkedin networks, and you will stumble over them.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
People are tired of EPM advice-givers that don't put their name to their posts. Look at the post with 3 levels of advice. If management is so open to advice and constructive criticism, then why didn't this poster offer themselves up to help solve the problems?
I don't really believe that VP's hire incompetent people, but if anyone has some examples please do share them with us and your management. The posts reveal a major divide between the troops and the leaders. I guess if you don't respect your leader, it surely is difficult to be loyal. If you can't talk to your leader openly for fear of retribution, then employees will continue to blog. I am just a flunkie so, sure as hell, I will not put my name out there. I like Austin too much.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Austin VP's & President & MBA-ers - too many complaints about y'all for there not to be some level of truth in the complaints. These problems didn't develop overnight, so acknowledging there is a problem & fixing it won't happen overnight. Heck they might not ever happen, because ego can't ever admit they could be wrong or at fault. It's classic Psych 101. EPM advice giver: why do you fear putting your name to your sage advice? Afraid it might be bad for you? Dilbert has always been very entertaining and sadly does reflect the American business culture all too accurately.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Fellow Emerson bloggers, this an appeal to your common sense and professional integrity. Please stop the negativity. It creates an image that does not match reality. I am proud to work for this company, and so are many others. Whatever it is that frustrates you, negative posts will not solve anything. Try some positivity for a change. You might be surprised that doors will open. People will listen. Negativity shuts down everything.
Emerson customer, thank you for reporting your issues. Customer complaints help us to improve our products, services and customer support. At the same time it shows that you care about Emerson. Thank you for your support. Your contributions here do not go unnoticed.
Ex-Emerson colleague, losing a job is hard. Dwelling over the past and retaliation makes it even harder. Negative posts bring you in a downward spiral. It drains the energy needed to reshape your future. And keep in mind the many colleagues you left behind that are doing their job to feed their family. Learn from your Emerson experience and use it to your benefit in your future company.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
]
This webblog is becoming as entertaining as reading Dilbert cartoons. I look forward to reading this every day. I don't really mind the anonymity. It isn't really cowardly, either. It is fun guessing who is on the other side of these webblogs. I never believe that the person posting is the same as the image that they are trying to portray. Is it Dilbert, Dogbert, the pointy-haired boss, Wally, or Carol? I think it might be Honeywell, Invensys, etc. No matter, it sure is entertaining.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Our Presidents and VPs are hiring people for key positions without verification of the subject matter expertise. Our President/VP's lack the very knowledge required from the applicant. How could they verify? The applicant is selected based on VP gut-feeling, time of day, direction of the wind, position of the stars, cycle of the moon, and supported by MBA. The blind interviewing the visually impaired. HR, Job profiling, Psychological screening, background checks, nah, why bother? Who needs Human Resources in a company that's not about humans?
Monday, February 7, 2011
The "contribute and demonstrate value" weblog is spot on. Some people will step over and crush others in order to make themselves look valuable. The sad part is that it works.
And let's understand: HR does not hire people - they only do the paperwork to complete the hire; that's it.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Contribute and demonstrate value in Emerson means:
Monday, February 7, 2011
I hear stories and read the internals about this great US community called Emerson Exchange. For 6 years I have been trying to join "the community". I submitted papers, to find one of them presented by my manager. As a European genuine grunt, the ticket to the US is too expensive every year. Are there different grunt levels? And for your information, our HR is an excellent grunt-advocate. HR lacks the authority to make changes. HR has an admin. function with no budget, and no say in who is hired, promoted or fired. The GM rules.
Monday, February 7, 2011
So, HR gets the stinky. Welcome to the Emerson blame-culture. Internal Politics at its best. First praise the company and its values to show your loyalty. Next acknowledge some issues to increase your credibility. And quickly point the finger to a scapegoat. In the meantime hope that others start pointing in the same direction. Product marketing (who else would cover their tracks?) should be grateful that HR has overlooked competency and proven track record to fill vacancies.
Monday, February 7, 2011
If you don't care about anonymous blogging, then why waste your time answering? It just says it all when you position some genuine customer posts as pathetic whining.
Well done, Emerson! Delighted that the shares are doing well in this economic climate, and I hope they keep on going towards the sky. But it does not give you, or anyone in Emerson, the right to call your valued customers "pathetic". This weblog is well respected in our Industry, is very popular at all levels, and used by marketing departments in most companies for various reasons.
Monday, February 7, 2011
The customer questions and comments, particularly related to support in the UK/Ireland, are very constructive and important to consider. Someone in Emerson should jump on those right away to respond to customers and provide the support they need.
The rest of the drivel here is becoming pretty humorous. Sad really.
As a mainstream grunt in Emerson (not a Captain), I can say this is one of the finest corporations in the world. Exceedingly well managed, and thoughtful in it's strategies. Innovative and progressive. That said, it's not perfect; no company is. Could the company pay better? Sure. And sometimes, it is tough to find someone courageous enough to tell the Emperor he has no clothing. But on balance, it's a fantastic company to work for. If I were offered more money to leave (and I have), I wouldn't do it. I TRUST this company and it's management. They make tough decisions, and yes - it's primarily for the bottom line. That IS the responsibility of corporations - to remain strong and viable, regardless of external factors. It's true in Austin, St. Louis, Shanghai, Dubai, Sorocaba, Singapore, Baar, Chelyabinsk and everywhere else the Emerson flag flies.
If you found yourself on the wrong side of some of those decisions, then you had very bad luck, or perhaps did not manage your own career wisely to put yourself in the right place. Either way, I do feel for you. Emerson has a very simple formula: contribute and demonstrate value, or go somewhere else. I see nothing wrong with that.
We are in the business to:
Does the company make mistakes? Sure, we're human. I do think Management could listen more, and provide a way for people to raise concerns and issues without fear of retribution. Very few corporations do that. I've worked in 4 companies throughout my career and have NEVER seen it done well.
Which probably points to the real source of the issue: HR. They're good at benefits paperwork, but little else. Recruiting is poorly managed and they provide little to any mechanism for "listening" to the organization. HR at Emerson has zero to do with employee advocacy. True to company culture, it's about the bottom line. Nice people overall, but not leaders.
If I were to fix two things, it would be to streamline customer responsiveness, so customers don't wait 8 days much less 8 weeks - make it no more than 8 hours. And I'd fix HR. At least balance the 'bottom line' mindedness with a bit more employee advocacy.
The whining here is marginalizing this blog, IMHO.
If you are a customer of Emerson's, present or past, become a member of the Emerson Global Users Exchange. It's not a meeting; it's a community. Folks there have allies and a voice. It's a great way to be heard. This is a good company, and a big part of that is our relationship with customers. Do we hose it up sometimes? Yes. But I can guarantee it's not culturally endemic, and it's not a "strategy". Continuous improvement is a strategy and one that Emerson subscribes to every minute, every hour, every dayday. I'm proud of the work we do, especially when we recover from a dropped ball.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Profits made for EPM by employees' blood,seat & tears; yet only afew get stocks as thank you's from the top. It's the American way.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Top management at Emerson are closely monitoring the EMR share, at $60. In the meantime, Emerson is outranking the competition in these blog-charts with 62 complaints. Hedre's a summary:
Weblog Index for 2011 (number of blogs per company):
Sunday, February 6, 2011
So, why waste the time reading and contributing here, if the share price is rocketing? I don't disagree with anything you said, but you have to agree that some of the detailed information on the Emerson blog is disturbing to say the least. The customers here are even offering to get issues sorted, with no response from Emerson. The employee posts and their concerns are not in line with Emerson's ethics handbook and management training. The Irish posts seem to indicate bias against a community that has supported Emerson over the years, and it is very clear that the problem is nothing more than a continuation of the history between Ireland and England. Emerson is still refusing to recognize it because the monetary value is not large enough.
Check out the other blogs, ABB, Honeywell, Schneider, etc, the feedback on those sites is a lot different, even though all companies are going through similar issues.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
EMR does not care about anonymous blogging. Big pow-wows are held every year. The last thing on EMR's mind is the pathetic whining as found on this blog. Stop wasting your time. There are important things to talk about. EMR shares are sky-rocketing, exceeding $60. That's a more interesting topic to pow-wow about.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
An Irish (ex - customer) here. I struggled within my company over the years because of Emerson's support in Ireland. In the end, it caught up with me and now I am sitting at home. I was one of the first major Emerson supporters in the life-science industry in Ireland. Emerson UK was a negative influence on my career, and eventually it caught up on me. Good product, but terrible support.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
The big Pow-wow probably including making sure EPM wins the Leadership-in-Automation Award for 2011 from Automation World magazine. ABB & Siemens and others are also in the running. A "win" makes for more marketing out of Austin.
Will there be any wiki leaks about the big Pow-wow?
Saturday, February 5, 2011
There was a big meeting of the board and upper management in St. Louis last week. I wonder, did they discuss the problems vented in this blog? Anyone know? They even invited some retired Austin consultants to St.L for the meeting.
Friday, February 4, 2011
How far does this need to go for management to act on these valid complaints from customers & employees? Number fudging via outsourcing and internal pricing for the share holders will only take you so far.
Friday, February 4, 2011
The CHARMS objective is to make marshaling redundant, so CHARMS must be able to handle all IO types. Are you asking for a feature that has not been considered? This would explain the delay. Do you mind sharing your question? And the reply when/if available?
Friday, February 4, 2011
Surely, waiting 8 weeks is not considered to be an acceptable length of time for support from EPM. What gives? Would you believe the spin from Emerson that they are so swamped by queries on CHARMS that they cannot cope?
Friday, February 4, 2011 - Re: CHARMS:
It would be great to find out. I had a potential application and was looking for some feedback for quiet a while but had no response. Needed some references to justify the shift to our capital projects group. Still waiting 8 weeks on! An Irish Customer.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
My LPB is telling me that CHARMS is ready and available for my DCS migration (intrinsically safe process). Anyone had any success, or used CHARMS in an IS environment for batch control?
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Would bet it is from the UK, and the blogger touched a nerve in our leadership team. They have lost the people who work here and lots of customers too. I am sure another boring address is on the way to keep the ship on track for another week. Please don't feel sorry for us, we all joke about it now. It is a circus - but I do feel a change is coming.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Ego is a double edged sword. Swelled heads, full of conceit and self-importance in a Fortune 100 Company, are colliding in Austin, while the blog rightfully continues to air real problems. Nero-fiddled-while-Rome-burned syndrome has taken hold.
The following sums it up: Most managers are driving employees away due to their failure to adequately recognize and reward positive contributions, research by RedBalloon has found. Read more at Suite101:
In this case, poor management leads employees to blog anonymously, in the same manner that some management do to counter the posts of their own employees. Constructive criticism is not sought out by the majority of Austin management.
Looks like it is time to sit down and really analyze the problems face-to-face, or at least in an anonymous survey administered and summarized by an outside source. EPM owes this to itself, and to their good employees, and to their customers.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
I want to know why the person that complained about the anonymous blog whining did not include their name in their post. One set of rules for you and another set for the rest of us? Hmmm....
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Emerson employees, you all have my sympathy.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Austin living up to its cover up reputation. Arrogant, ignorant, incompetent and rude. One most be out of his mind to reveal identity with an attitude displayed by this anonymous captain.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The infamous Austin ostrich strategy. It is because of reactions like yours that whiners like me turn to anonymous blogging.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - Re: Cowardice:
Judging from the tone of your blog, you are a VP level or higher, and based in Austin. The only feedback you get is from your overseas VP friends. What do you really know?
I went over my direct supervisor's head because I could no longer bear his incompetence. Result: I was kicked out during the first wave of layoffs, much to the surprise of my peers, as I was considered the expert in my field, and thru and thru pro-Emerson. Many others you refer to as whiners suffered the same fate. It is easy to shout cowardice from your position.
This blog is not the right channel - everybody agrees. But what other channels are available to provide constructive feedback in Emerson, without being called a whiner? If you are really serious about listening to employees, why don't you get out of your comfortable chair and set up a framework for low level employees to contribute to the success of the company? And as long as the direct boss is responsible for putting forward his subordinates for promotion, your only chance will be to do it anonymously.
Be honest: would you put forward your direct report for promotion, knowing that he reported you as incompetent? If you are one of those VPs with an open communication line to your reports, that is great. It is wrong though to assume that everybody is like you. And be fair, if customers and employees complain about similar issues, and you really want to fix them, you should listen to both.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Poor management skills leads to poor employee performance. As a customer, it's disheartening to read that poor management skills is the cause of most business dissatisfaction in Emerson at the moment. You'd think that, with all the training and investment that has gone into this topic in your company, that you have learned by now to get it right. I don't think telling your employees they are cowards and to shut up is a correct solution.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 - Re: "Either show up and help solve problems or shut up. Whining is pathetic.":
This person made me laugh so hard. Must be one of the Austin titled MBA-ers or self-annointed Austin dream team giving us their hypocritic two cents worth. Why no names? Look in the mirror.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
I'm astounded at the cowardice of those who appear to be current employees, venting their frustrations here, rather than doing so in a constructive manner within the company. Taking potshots from the sideline isn't very consistent with the behavior they are demanding from "captains" and leaders.
Customers expressing dissatisfaction is a different deal. They don't always have the access or know whom to escalate their concerns to. If you have a concern, post your contact details and let us reach out and try to solve your concern.
But current employees disclosing policy and practice of the organization are hypocrites... demonstrating a lack of the very transparency and integrity they so desperately seek from their bosses. Either show up and help solve problems or shut up. Whining is pathetic.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
E&H are doing very well in the UK and Ireland. It is helped by our lack customer focus, lack of leadership, a failing systems business, and everything moving to a low cost centre. Our leader still doesn't understand the difference between external and internal sales. We are now in danger of losing our UK business and are making up the numbers on orders on projects outside the UK.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Lips do not sink ships - Captains do. Is the Emerson Process Management Titanic heading for the Iceberg? Doubtful. The Systems division of EPM, criticized in this blog, is worth roughly $800M in orders. Too little to upset EPM; too large to disregard. Rosemount and Fisher can keep the ship afloat, even without DeltaV. The Rosemount and Fisher orders are still very independent from DeltaV Sales.
It has never been a secret that EPM does not provide services to sell products. Services are a necessary evil to sell high tech products. EPM sells products, and if absolutely necessary, we will sell you some services. When the previous GSK Project Management leader and Emerson customer, was moved to become president logistics - what a waste of talent - my last hope to uplift the status of engineering in the systems group died. Today, more then ever, the complete focus is on product. Is this the wrong strategy? As long as customers keep buying products, this strategy is absolutely correct.
Customers will continue to buy as long as EPM keeps flooding the market with better than competition products. And the products must be perfect unless EPM puts their money and faith the in the army of outsourced engineering centres in underdeveloped countries to iron out product issues.
The iceberg risk for Emerson systems is real. DeltaV is old. Since its inception in 1996 the product has not changed. True, various software-"only" improvements have been made to facelift DeltaV, but the focus of the technology department has been to increase the hardware scope of DeltaV making partners obsolete. It started with the take over of MTL IO. It continued with various FF products.
DeltaV SIS is the exception to the rule. A "Made in Emerson" which took the safety market by storm. Overnight DeltaV SIS claimed a substantial market share amongst the ancient players. The storm reduced to a little wind with complaints raining down on EPM. With tail between the legs, EPM has to turn back to previously dropped safety partners in order to win projects.
The latest: EPM is ready to expand into the marshalling cabinets with CHARMS. CHARMS is also "Made by Emerson" yet still far away from being accepted by the market. And without proper engineering services, each CHARMS project is doomed for failure.
Our new leader, Jim Nyquist, has enough services background to make a change. We all hope that our management starts to understand the importance of engineering services. We hope Jim can see thru the marketing fog. Dear Jim Nyquist, our products are great, but not so EASY to engineer. Flexibility comes at a price.
In a way, all the negative comments on this blog lately, might help to change things for the better. EPM in Austin did not react to any of the blogs for a long time, but I am sure they are monitoring very closely.
Monday, January 31, 2011
I agree with poster on Northern European Management. Poor leader and lacks the quality of other company leaders at that level. European President needs to get quality around him fast.
Monday, January 31, 2011
I agreed with you web log about Emerson. Emerson works just the same in Russia. The European managers decide to layoff projects managers, engineers with great experience in order to increase GP. They decide to use more cheeper employees in Chelyabinsk (Ural). But they don't have enough knowledge. It's difficult to travel from Chelyabinsk. And service support is available only to 4 p.m. Moscow time. As I know, customers are dissapointed with such approach. But top managers have large GP.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thank you for explaining the structure behind this policy called DST licensing. For those unaware, Emerson is charging a varying license price per single DI, DO, AI, AO, Workstation, engineering station, operator station. If during the project, the number of the aforementioned licenses are exceeded, Emerson sends you an email with an invoice attached. And if you plan to use SIs, you pay a 10k database license on top of the above licenses, just for the privilege of use. If anybody has advice on how to counter DSTs, please publish on this blog.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
I find it hard to understand how Emerson do not want to get involved in enginnering in the life science industry. I think it's a poor excuse for bad management. I had many a visit from Emerson sales people trying to position themselves for engineering work, so that doesn't stack up. It is a joke on many an Irish site at this stage when Emerson UK visit. The UK's poor vision, bad management, average technical knowledge, for Ireland over the years has taken root here and is well know in all major sites. Thank goodness for the major automation contractors in Ireland. DeltaV is losing ground on most sites in Ireland and it is only a matter of time before it spreads to the rest of the "unprofitable life science industry" ( ha ha ) world wide. The news in Ireland is that Emerson have lost most of the last projects in Ireland to Siemens and ABB. Customers have had enough I think.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Is Emerson suffering from a severe case of (ex)employee dissatisfaction? Management will not be thrilled by the publication of the DoA (Delegation of Authority) and GP50 price management. This information is not available for everybody in Emerson.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
The January 27 post is a breach of secrecy! I have never seen anything like this on competitors blogs. Loose lips sink ships.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
The Irish problem will not be solved in the short term. The Northern European Management are very weak and out of their depth, especially the Northern lead. He are also lead by the UK because of his weak strategic plan.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Products, Products, Products: the blogger is spot on. Top priority: Maximize shareholder value by maximizing profits.
How does the Emerson MBA maximize project profit? A key indicator for each project is the GP or Gross Profit. The Gross profit ratio is the ratio of gross profit to net sales expressed as a percentage.
Calculation example:
Emerson Europe pays $1,500 to Emerson US for Hardware. In order to sell at gross-profit 50%, the price to market is $3,000. (3000-1500)/3000 = 50% = GP50
Projects must be sold with GP50. A set of discount authority rules ensure high GP.
So how to increase GP if project requires discount?
Sample Calculation US HQ point of view for same project:
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Since Emerson is all about the numbers, will some Emerson MBA-degree leader keep track of the number of pissed off current customers & potential customers lost due to Emerson's dirty laundry being aired for all to see?
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The issue will not be addressed, nor is it related to the UK/Irish situation. Emerson is managed by numbers. The numbers dictate that supporting the Life Science industry is not profitable. The target is the oil and gas industry. Emerson leaders are measured strictly to performance indicators, and none of these read "Life Science". Emerson does not care about local politics. Emerson could care less if the competitorss burn profit in life sciences in Ireland, Switzerland or elsewhere.
From the Emerson point of view, this is not dirty laundry at all. Besides, Engineering is only interested if it can be productized. As one of the previous bloggers mentioned, Service support in the US means selling a product called Guardian. Engineering is to be avoided whenever possible as too risky and not profitable enough. The target is to sell products, products and products.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
If there is a local problem supporting a customer then the problem has to be addressed. It does not need to get to this point. Now EPM's dirty laundry has been hung out to air on the internet?
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
I am not sure it is correct to support Ireland from the UK, as many customers have stated in other posts. There is a little bit of water between the two countries, called the Irish sea, and it might be a little off the mark to say the UK is the "local" entity. I think what the previous Irish customer is suggesting is the US understands the Irish culture and mind-set a lot better that the English. Not wanted to mix cultural differences with Engineering support, but the UK running Ireland will never work! Surley one of the Emerson Senior Management picked that point up.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
UK Engineering does not report to the Chief Technology Officer. Sales and Operations report to President of Sales and Operations. Marketing and Technology report to Peter Zornio, CTO. When it comes down to Service after project installation, there is a discrepancy between US and the rest of the EMR world which is related to the fact that the US works with LBPs (Local Business Partners). As a result, the SureService organisation in the US has a pure marketing function, which is why SureService belongs to Peter Zornio. Besides some telephone support, there is no real service organisation in the US, whereas the rest of the world have their own local service support. Therefore sales services for Irish customers can not come from the US, as there are no service employees in the US, but should be organized by the local entity, in this case, the UK office.
Monday, January 24, 2011
The weak link appears to be after the sales technical support. Which entity within EPM is the lead for support and problem solving once a project is installed? Surely EPM is more than capable of providing top of the line support. My co-workers and I simply can't believe this has gone so sour.
We take pride in our work and in EPM so this disaster really puzzles us.
Someone has to address and fix this problem.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
UK engineering reports to CTO & VP Technology in Austin. So why was this disaster in Ireland allowed to continue? Where is the weak link?
Saturday, January 22, 2011
This blog was written after raising a few eyebrows in the automation industry in Ireland. Unfortunately I have experienced the UK mismanagement in Ireland for approx. 14 years now. The UK management, the Northern European VP structure, have turned their backs on the Irish customer base for some time now. Speaking to some of the more of helpful staff (these seem to be isolated by Emerson UK) the feedback is all about control and figures on the UK's books. How sad is that? I have spoken to the present UK General Manager about some ongoing upgrade issues at our plant and, to be honest, he is totally out of his depth and, even more scary for us, he didn't give me the comfort factor that our huge DeltaV investment deserves.
We, like many other Irish Customers, get better support from the US organization. Maybe the Emerson Management team should give control of the Irish installed base to the US. Our company recently short listed some vendors to roll out an MES solution globally to more that 70 plants. On the feedback and analysis and some of the Irish teams input, we managed to remove Emerson/Syncade from the shortlist. The selection was heavily weighted against Emerson on the UK's inability to maintain a large DeltaV installed base.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Anyone catch Obama's press conference today regarding job creation? He appointed GE's CEO Jeff Immalt as head of the White House Job Creation Council. He announced the $45B new trade agreement with China, which translates into 245,000 new US jobs. He also spoke at length about the real strength of the USA being innovation & exports. He stressed that 95% of the world's people live outside the USA. USA is shifting away from borrow & import to innovative inventions and exports. He said US businesses have added 1 US million jobs nationally but more will be added due to the new focus.
I know that St Louis won't like this post, because Emerson's CEO asked his management to contribute to the PAC he formed for McCain/Palin. How many US jobs will Emerson be adding? Or will it continue to be on the list of corporations that eliminated the most US jobs?
Friday, January 21, 2011
CHARMS offers unlimited flexibility and cost savings to the customer. The proof? Check out:
It gives also great insight in approximate price per IO that Emerson expects the customer to pay. Feedback to Emerson: our internal budget calculates with $1,500 per IO. And we do execute on time and almost within budget.
Friday, January 21, 2011
TO maximise profits, I can understand why EMR top brass is using inventory handling within the company as one of the important component in performance measurement. Anyway, EMR has been doing this for years. Not only for inventory levels, EMR also has a bunch of world wide Engineering Resource Managers - doing nothing by churning out "predictions" in "manpower utilisation" rate. I bet there is a huge amount e-mail spreadsheets, attachment transfers modelling sent between these bunch of Engineering Resoure Managers in North America, Europe, Middle East and their "Excellent Engineering Centres". One of their aims is to "move manpower around the world", just like transfer of oil.
EMR end-users must to be aware about the way EMR charges you for engineering work. Some of these "engineers" from these "Excellent Engineering Centres" quality are not bad, but a fair number of these staff "talk a lot but deliver very little". It is becasue when they are done with the job, they go elsewhere to another part of the world. There is no "stake" involved for them. The local EMR office people will "clear-up" for them.
If you have a creditable MBA degree and are good in excel spreadsheets or SAP or Oracle data manipulation, this is one of the ways how the entire EMR manpower (both local and out-sourced) cost is also managed. All these as one of the component for maximising profit for shareholders.
Friday, January 21, 2011 - Reply to Mon, 17 Jan blog:
EMR can only be profitable when selling kit. The serious customers have dropped DeltaV Safe and are returning to the traditional safety vendors. And CHARMS is yet to be accepted. Publishing calculated reliability numbers would put credibility behind the smart story. Unless of course the numbers are bad. What's the point of having low inventory when there is no sales?
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Catch the new show on NBC tonight: Outsourced. It's supposed to be a comedy, but it is the sad truth about US outsourced. It's on right now with a native Indian guy singing karaoke. The episode it titled " A Sitar is Born". A beautiful singing voice surprises Todd; Todd has to take Raviv's advice. Todd is the American traitor that is training the Indians to do our former jobs for chump-change. Me-thinks it's a sac comedy. BTW NBC's second highest rated scripted show of the fall is Outsourced!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
My husband gave me a great book:
Reading this has saved me sanity in these insane times of corporate shenanigans, outsourcing and budget fudging. We have to be able to laugh.
Monday, January 17, 2011 - In a reply to this blog statement: "What if the mtbf of one CHARM is 100 times better than one 500 IO controller":
EPM marketing will not make the failure data so available to end-users. It is not that these marketing people are ignorant. It is most probaly due to:
Thursday, January 13, 2011
It doesn't matter where you work - the same fate awaits us all. Globalization is the way of the world. China is now more powerful than the USA. America doesn't manufacture anything, but it does have many of the sharpest and keenest minds in this world. Our institutes of higher learning continue to
graduate so many stellar engineers, scientists, medical professionals and Thinkers. Let's not give up on the USA, but let's face reality and make sure we can benefit from it. So stay patriotic, stay motivated and stay engaged in this century of stellar innovations, that we are just in the infancy of.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
What really matters is the point of the previous post. What really matters to Emerson is the bottom line. No one, nothing gets in the way of the bottom line. If R&D & Marketing are under one umbrella they'd better squeeze in, because they are getting rained on by the customers.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Why is it not acceptable to connect more than 32 IO to one IO card, but totally acceptable to connect 500 IO to one controller, even when redundant? What if the mtbf of one CHARM is 100 times better than one 500 IO controller? Maybe EMR marketing should focus more on things that really matter.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Sounds like the previous post was by a end user: "the price becomes prohibitive. Nice marketing but limited practicality".
When price, safety and long term replacement are issues with a product, no amount of "nice marketing" will solve these problems. Customers are way beyond being bamboozled by fancy presentations, trinkets and self promotion. Delta V is a good system made by a good company that sometimes over-markets itself. Competition in the Process Automation world is brutal, thus marketing has become king in our world.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Regarding CHARMS readiness... We had a look associated with a recent project. It wasn't a good fit for a few reasons (beyond the lack of online references). We use marshalling cabinets to segregate the control system from the field wiring. This is because the field wiring generally long outlasts the DCS. CHARMS ties the field wiring to the IO, which will mean we will have a lot of wiring cost down the road when it is time to migrate the control system. Connecting field wiring directly to CHARMS isn't really that novel, because I can do that today with traditional Delta V IO (or any vendor IO for that matter). Second, CHARMS is like a traditional IO module that can support 96 individually configurable channels. Having an IO module, even when redundant, with more than 32 channels is an unacceptable risk. When we scale down CHARMS to only 16 or 32 channels per IO module, the price becomes prohibitive. Nice marketing but limited practicality.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Do customers buy into the Human Centered Design? Please let us know, thanks.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Big "Thank You's" to the Glass Door poster.
I will put my title and salary in anonymously and I urge fellow Emerson Process Management employees to do the same. The Internet is sometimes a great thing and at other times an awful nightmare.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Emerson leadership is quite successful in making the employees believe that Emerson is so much better than any competitor. Like a beating drum, employees are literally bombarded with negative propaganda on the competitors. Any negative propaganda, whether from customers, employees or competitors, against the organization or products is smothered immediately. Competitors are generally referred to as "the bad guys". I joined the bad guys after being laid off. I found that the previous poster is so right. All organizations are very much alike. All organizations are made of people who are all trying to do their job, and make a decent living. There are no bad guys, Emerson.
Emerson salaries are definitely not a public secret. Emerson folks do talk openly about their salaries, although not permitted by contract. Drinking a few free beers with international colleagues during the exchange is a good opportunity to find out. Salaries will vary a lot by world area or country, as cost of living is very different across the world. My approximate findings: Yearly salary in USD - US marketing manager $110k; US R&D: $100k; US engineer: $85k; US Sales manager: $110k; EUR sales manager/lead engineer:Switzerland: $150k; France/Germany: $120k; Russia/Poland: $70k; Indian Project manager: $30k; AP lead engineer: 40k. I only speak for the PSS/PWS division which I was part of. Values can differ +/- 15% depending on your starting salary, and personal performance.
In my days, marketing and R&D were not in the same group. It actually makes sense to do this, to overcome the continuous quarrels between marketing and R&D, which eventually were always won by marketing. The bigger issue for Emerson to overcome is the lack of formal communication between Marketing and Sales (read:customers). Marketing is centralized in Austin, totally isolated from sales in the field. Communication is a one way street, dictated by marketing. Once a year, the marketing group start their missionary journey across the world to spread the word and to convert the non-believers. Sales get to sit in, listen, and keep their mouth shut. There is no "Marketing slash Sales" in the PSS division. Sales feedback is usually ignored, or punished, unless it can be twisted to match the story. The effects of the marketing disconnect with the real world are visible in the increasing stream of DeltaV gadgets nobody has asked for.
Did I mention I am one of the bad guys now?
Friday, January 7, 2011
Glass Door has some Emerson Process Management salaries posted. Very interesting, considering EPM does not disclose salary ranges to many of it's employees.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Competition is great for the customer & the companies. Honeywell poster is so correct - don't believe what marketing tells you. Since a nameless manager posted that Emerson has R&D and marketing under one umbrella does that mean they direct marketing to tell R&D what to do? Does it mean that Emerson Sales & Marketing don't tell customers what they want to hear & then it is R&D's problem to create what marketing says the customer needs versus what the Sales & Marketing told the customer what the product can be? See the circular logic in this setup? It's great to see competitors cross posting on these web logs. It shows that the companies are more alike than any of its leadership would ever like to acknowledge.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
We (Honeywell) employ over 1,200 people in 28 offices across Australia and New Zealand. This is about 5x more people than Emerson. Although there is a difference in target market (Honeywell going for large, Emerson for small apps), it is utopic to believe that in the overlapping parts, Emerson won everything, and Honeywell nothing. It speaks for you that you are defending your organization, yet using these bold statements weakens your arguments. Do not always believe what your own marketing is telling you. Good to hear the team spirit is back up. We look forward to some healthy competition.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
As an EPM Australia employee, the Dec 17 post came from left field. Comments about management fly in the face of the recent Employee Opinion Survey, which gave management and the GM record approval ratings. No one liked the recently lifted pay freeze, but the general vibe is good. They can't please everyone I guess. Comments about 'losing everything to Honeywell' are just plain wrong; I can think of Nothing we've bid and lost against Honeywell for ages (Yoko and ABB maybe, but not Honeywell).
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
R&D in Austin is not told by Marketing. To ensure that R&D develops what the market needs, R&D and Marketing in Austin are one and the same group, led by Peter Zornio.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Austin Emerson R&D is told what to "develop" because marketing & sales make "promises" to customers that the product can't meet, and so then Marketing & Sales beat R&D over the head with their hammer until R&D slaps something together. R&D is down low on the EPM ladder. This starts in St. Louis. Marketing & Sales are paid better, rewarded more often and tell St Louis only what St Louis wants to hear.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Will Delta V Marketing make Emerson CHARMS magically delicious? Beware of leprechauns and their promised pots of gold.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
You have already answered your own question. I would trust inside information from a long time friend over the LBP anytime. LBP is just a fancy word for sales rep. These sales reps are another form of customer buying products. They are fed the same marketing information as the rest of us.
CHARMS, or IO on demand, is marketed as the next generation DCS. It is critical for the success of DeltaV. From a product point of view, it is a completely different development, pushing for more decentralization. It must have cost an arm and a leg to realize this concept. This can not simply be changed overnight. If CHARMS fails, the new DeltaV system concept fails. This would mean much time and many dollars down the drain, and the effects will ripple to the stock market.
The CHARMS marketing machine has been running for quite some time now. I saw the first product during the EMR exchange in Washington almost 3 years ago, including a cowboy with guitar singing CHARMS psalms. 18 months seems too long. The market will have lost it's interest long before that.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
What happened in Ireland? Did the blogger get his meeting with the EMR management?
To the CHARMS blogger: In pharma, we have been fed carrots for a long time, and the stick only got longer. 18 months in EMR is a lifetime. EMR systems R&D is a very small group of core people, surrounded by a huge layer of marketing. The core people can only work on one project at the time. Currently the management is still holding on to the innovative CHARMS. As soon as they figure out that the market is not so enthusiastic about this, priorities can change overnight, while the marketing continues to throw carrots to keep you interested. Welcome to the club.
Sunday, December 19, 2010 - Re: Charmed
My LBP tells me that CHARMS is ready for primetime, but an Emerson inside contact (long time friend) tells me that it is still 18 months away from fruition. Can anyone comment? We need to make a decision.
Friday, December 17, 2010
EPM Australia have lost the plot. Management are clueless and we are losing everything to Honeywell the evil empire. Glenn Charge was the last good leader we had. I recently met with Honeywell and they seem decent - hoping they have a job for me. Management by product line isnt working; we have nil esprit-de-corp in the Austalian business.
Friday, December 17, 2010 - To the blogger who so painstakingly analyzed the Emerson blog -
Thank you for your effort. It has helped put things in perspective for me.
It is clear that something is amiss with Emerson in the last year or so. Whatever the reason, I do hope that Emerson management reads this blog as a feedback and tries to understand what is going wrong and where.
Is the Emerson Management listening?
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
I am blessed with retirement. I spent more than half of my professional career in Fisher which later become Emerson Process Management. Fisher has giving both my sons the opportunity to work for the company. I am in great debt to Fisher who always treated me fairly. We had our difficult times but I owe them a lot. Besides enjoying the time with my grandchildren, I try to stay in touch with the industry.
I have been reading Jim Pinto since November, 2003, the date of the first Emerson publication. Recently I noticed a drastic change both in numbers as in the tone of the postings. Something is brewing under the surface. I took the time to read all the postings since November 2003. I am in no position to judge what is happening so I will just present the facts of my homework.
I counted all the postings:
What are people complaining about in the negative postings? As there are quite a few, I had to use my personal judgement to put them in buckets again. The major groups I observe:
I hope my homework will generate some positive initiatives in Emerson. I have lived long enough to know that receiving so many negative feedback should not be denied. The fact that an Irish customer has to ask for a meeting with the management via the Jim Pinto website is a clear sign that something is wrong, would you not say? Rejecting it as "competitor's lies" only does not explain the reality of the numbers. It is an opportunity to change things for the better.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Dear Irish Poster that requests an arranged call:
You know they will sic their Marketing Wizard, Technology VP, Sales VP and Support VP on you to try and bamboozle you with their bells & whistles. The only power customers have is to choose another vendor. DELTA V was the Cadillac in the industry but the infrastructure of EPM has destroyed it. You might even be offered a trip to Switzerland to try and woo you back.
Beware danger lurks all around. Don't fall for the power point presentations, the Users group shin-dig as marketing ploys. EPM has so many competent employees but so few of them at the top to know the realities of developing, selling and maintaining systems. I think it is this way at most competitors so the customer has to choose the lesser of all evils.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The words on Switzerland remind me of the role Switzerland played in WWII. They were "neutral", yet they helped the Nazi regime by hiding their money stolen from victims, their art acqusitions and their killing machine. Remember the IBM counting machine they ran to Hitler?
None if us are fooled by what goes on. We are simply prisoners of a corporate culture that only cares about the bottom line. Chuck Knight used to know all of his executives, but now David Farr only sees the impact they can make on the bottom line. How do they sleep at night when they are the patsies doing Farr's bidding?
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
St. Louis and Austin will never become redundant. There are other EPM HQ locations much nicer and with a lot more perks than St.Louis or Austin. Top on this list is the European HQ in Switzerland. It was Tom Snead who moved the divisional European HQ from the UK to Baar. Supposedly to lower corporate taxes. The tax savings project failed miserably for Emerson, but HQ stayed as the European leaders learned to appreciate the Swiss mountain air, the house by the lake, the skiing, the hiking, the large Mercedes, BMW's, Audis, and a personal income tax of 5%.
The Swiss HQ has been a thorn in the eye of many hardworking European and US employees as it really is way over the top. Switzerland is one of the most expensive places to live on this planet. HQ still there because most strategically important programs have been developed and managed by HQ in Switzerland. The complete outsourcing of accounting, proposal generation, hardware engineering, software engineering, cabinet building, call centers, technical services, etc. to low cost places like Pune, Manila, Costa Rica, Kluge, are led by HQ in Switzerland. Did you think think the Austin marketing people can accomplish this? Moving HQ to a more realistic location would save a lot of money, and stall all the outsourcing of US jobs. Why not?
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
I have not yet posted on this site (only heard of the Irish feedback today). Emerson's attitude to the the Irish customer base was always short of their marketing hype. I felt at times the treatment I received was corporately misleading and in some cases unethical. I would like you to organize a call with Mr Farr / Nyquist (post details on this site, or if you need a personal mail address I can supply it) and I will guarantee a response which will include a number of other customers from Ireland / US - I have 8 takers already. For the record I have met with most of the UK Management/VP's in your systems division, so spare me the pain.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Losing orders is not a fairy tale; it is a nightmare. Pharmaceutical companies were part of the reason for the early success of DELTA V. Corporate not caring about this important segment are simple guilty of malfeasance. Losing Irish & UK orders is a big problem and that is the truth.
Customers and employees alike are posting to this blog. If someone in St Louis or Austin does not like anonymous posting why don't they put their name to their post? I'll tell you why because Farr would fire then immediately. That is the truth.
Sometimes the truth is harsh and ugly.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
More and more is being outsourced. Will Austin itself become redundant one day? St. Louis will make sure it stays in St. Louis. What will all the "titled managers" do? Do Manila and Pune offer the same perks the US fat-cats get? Don't think so. Are the retired former leaders consulting for the outsourced locations? People wake-up, no one in corporate America cares about you, no one. MBA PhD,Masters, etc. none of it matters. Lay low and keep quiet, so that you still have a job. It's all a sane person can do in this insane world. We are forced into training the cheap labor that is taking our jobs away. Sounds like an Orwellian nightmare. Now a lot of mediocre middle management are jockeying to get a position in Costa Rica, probably the least offensive 3rd world countries EPM is busy building it's presence in. What's a US employee to do? Any suggestions?
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Why doesn't the truth teller reveal themselves if they feel so strongly that EPM is the best? Come on, put your name to your post. Show us how brave you are, once you get called on posting your name. Will the St. Louis and Austin Controller appreciate your positive, morale boosting post?
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The "fairy-tales" poster is simply ludicrous. Could this be the Austin Marketing or Technology Controller's post? Or HR? Win all the mega projects? Ha, then why is my bonus lower than "promised"? Why is the big pharma project in Ireland lost? Why are US jobs being outsourced?
Monday, December 13, 2010
I find the recent fairy-tales posted on this blog very entertaining. While our competitors have to resort to anomymous blogging, we continue to increase our sales, increase our market share, and win all the mega projects. Our morale and team spirit are stronger than ever because we know the truth.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Jim Nyquist is leading the pack and could fix things. Van Doren is world area VP with responsibility over Ireland and should fix things. But Nyquist and co have no financial reason to fix things in Ireland. Throwing away the rotten apples is EPMs way.
Monday, December 13, 2010
David Dunbar, and Roel van Doren all have experience in Ireland. So I ask the question: why on earth are they leaving Ireland to slip so far? Also, Emerson's market share in the UK is now sliding under the present management - ABB systems in the UK are eating up Emerson orders.
Monday, December 13, 2010 - Re: "For EPM the life science industry has been milked dry. The profits are too low to give it too much attention. Address your issues with the divisions directly, or go elsewhere."
My best guess is that the above post above came from a Emerson UK Manager - lots of detail to be elsewhere. It just sums up Emerson's attitude towards its life Science customers. Emerson will never step inside my office again. "Go Elsewhere," Mr. Emerson!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Not only Invensys is outsourcing development to India; Emerson is also doing it. Invensys made it known with "pomp",
as compared with Emerson where the higher leadership people are doing it rather "quietly" and with "stealth". So why be "hypocratical" to say the least that EPM do not out-source a little "development" outside Austin?
There are also a bunch of people in Pune, India, working on the DeltaV standards graphics modules. Some EPM engingeering directors are "forcing" us end-users to use these almost un-usable graphics modules and asking us to pay more money. From our end-user point of view, if implemented and used blindly can choke the DeltaV controller to death.
Not only that, Emerson's engineering offices Document Control suit using Microsoft Sharepoint, I suspected is done in India.
One time, I got a DeltaV proposal - also done by Pune. EPM World wide tech support is done by Manilla in the Phillipines.
Very soon, I am not so surprise that more and more DeltaV development will be quietly out-sourced to outside Austin, just to increase "values to shareholders".
Monday, December 13, 2010
Experience is not necessary. As long as you play the game, St Louis considers you qualified. It's that simple. The reality this approach created is now the nightmare that Nyquist has to deal with. Ironic isn't it? How many retired consultants will it take to fix this mess? They should know how since this mess happened under their watch. Does Farr see the truth now?
Monday, December 13, 2010
EPM Matrix: how appropriate is that description! Remember the Matrix movies? I'll refresh your memory: A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.
The EPM Controllers are programmed like robots to enforce the will of the Main Controller in St. Louis. I don't even know the salary range for my position because St. Louis does not allow it to be disclosed. I see Controllers with perks galore, company cars, free gas, rides on corporate jets, unlimited expense allowance, etc. I would not want their position for all the money in St, Louis. I see decent people morph into egotistical monsters, barking orders to the underlings and forcing assistants to do their dirty work. Management is an oxymoron at EPM, because the underlings see a lot of jockeying for these Controllers to raise their value to the Main Controller. Fancy titles, meaningless degrees, out of control Austin Controllers. Will the new Austin-based Controller go with the flow, or will he fix EPM once and for all?
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Emerson Process Management has a matrix management structure. EPM's main pillars are the divisions such as Rosemount, DeltaV and Fisher. In Europe, the divisional chain of commands go from in-country sales engineer, reporting to an in-country sales manager/director, reporting to the world area VP in HQ in Switzerland. This divisional VP reports to the president of the division in the US. In parallel there are cross-divisional roles. The chain of commands: the country manager (cross-divisional) reports to a regional WA VP located in Switzerland. The WA VP reports to the president in Europe. The direct reporting lines are mainly managed by the cross divisional chain, but the division will set the targets, define the role - in EPM called functional reporting line. The divisions have he power; the divisions set the salary; the divisions define the targets; the divisions are accountable for their results. The cross divisional roles merely report the numbers to the US.
Back to Ireland: the UK country manager (cross divisional) reports to the WA VP of the northern region, Mr. Roel van Doren. Mr. van Doren reports directly to the president of Europe, Mr. Bob Sharpe. Mr. Sharpe reports to Steve Sonnenberg. Mr. van Doren has been in this role for about 2 years, previously working as the general manager for a US oil-and-gas group in St. Louis. President Sharpe has been in his role for less than 2 years, coming from a marine division in Sweden. Before Sharpe, in a period of less than 4 years there were 3 presidents in Europe (Jim Nyquist, David Dunbar, Laurence Broomhead). The leadership has no experience or history with Ireland, so they judge the book by it's cover: the financials. For EPM the life science industry has been milked dry. The profits are too low to give it too much attention. If you want to be successful in being heard, address your issues with the divisions directly, or go elsewhere.
The EPM leadership in Europe will be relieved as it will increase the profits overall. You see, the UK country manager obviously understands what it takes to be successful in EPM. He does his job, and he does it well.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
What's happening in Ireland is the direct result of mis-management. Nothing more, nothing less. The person that the UK Manager reports to is directly responsible for letting things get so bad such that Emerson is losing some of it's top customers. It starts at the top.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Same old story in Emerson Ireland. I know Emerson have very high standards in ethics. But when it comes to the treatment of their Irish customers and employees, their UK office are away off the mark. I am now based in the US with strong Irish connections and I have seen this first hand on numerous sites in Ireland. I just wonder has David Farr ever looked into this problem ?
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Delta V Brand Manager is a fancy title. Wonder what his experience in the real world is. The world of plant operations, troubleshooting and maintenance? Ever spent some time on the Ship Channel? Or in the Louisiana petrochemical complexes, Teas City BP, ExxonMobile, etc.? Ever gone to a plant at 2 in the morning to help "fix" a system? Fact is fiction and Marketings reality for folks that have never worked in the real world.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Limited I/O is a major issue. The article is just another example of smoke & mirrors marketing magic act out of Austin. Looks like the rabbit is having a hard time being pulled out of the hat. What shall the Magician do next?
Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - In response to Jim Pinto's eNews item: "Swim upstream in a down market - The executive mindset becomes survival not growth.":
The flaw in this line of thinking is that in Emerson, the price of shares most stay up at all costs. This is David Farr's only priority. The shareholders would ruthlessly punish Emerson for not showing profit, and the only way to show profit in a downstream market is by cutting costs.
Shareholders do not reward increased market share. This short term thinking is what drives the layoffs, outsourcing, etc. The problems of tomorrow will be dealt with tomorrow, until the bubble bursts. Despite major decrease in sales, the profit did not suffer. David Farr got a fat reward for a job well done. My heart goes out to the 14,000 laid off Emerson employees who had to pay for this.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - From the maintenance blogger:
I read the article and recognized the pictures. It is a perfect justification of my story. Nice, far fetched marketing gadget with little practical value. The author clearly does not have knowledge on marshalling. I'll bet my salary he has never worked as, or talked to, a project or maintenance engineer.
He starts with issues (?) not solved by electronic marshaling (multicore, cable ducts, junction boxes, etc.) He continues with issues which have been covered by good engineering practices for decades. He gives benefits which are none, e.g. Footprint: these charms are bulky versus our 6mm terminals. Logically he skips potential new issues related to changing a low level activity to a complex solution requiring high level skilled workers, or e.g. non standard signals: what to do? What about the reliability of a micro-processed bus versus copper? Why 12 IO per block? More questions than answers. It could improve flexibility when using a DeltaV due to limited amount of IO per controller, but this is a problem that does not exist in other DCS. Back to the drawing board...
Monday, December 6, 2010
Is St. Louis reading this blog? Austin has been out of control for years now. It's high time to clean house and give credit where credit is due. Shuffling "managers" around does not solve the problem. Product excellence, integrity and reputation should be the top concerns. Everyone in management is so interested in saving their job and in the process the reputation of EPM continues to decline. They say that only an idiot does things over and over the same each time while expecting different results. DELTA V RIP is next if something doesn't change real soon. The internet has turned on EPM sort of like the parent connect school grade reports have turned on teenagers. You can't bury the truth.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Maybe the maintenance blogger has some time to read the practical benefits of electronic marshaling in following article:
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Interesting blog site. I bookmarked. My responsibility is maintenance on a large chemical site in Europe. I am not focussed on technology developments, as we try to keep stuff running that is already installed.
Yes, I did feel like a school kid after the visits of our Emerson sales engineer. I would not call it arrogance, but definitely bordering. Over a period of two years, it started leaning more and more towards the arrogance side. He is a young and dynamic individual, full of passion about his job. I like to see that in young people, so we had a more personal conversation. I gave him insights on my daily issues and found out that this arrogance comes from a complete lack of knowledge. He confessed that Emerson does not train it's staff to understand customer applications. Emerson trains it's staff to generate problems where the obvious solution is DeltaV. He gets drilled to ask particular questions. Questions that baffle practical people like myself. Questions like: How many times do you have to click the screen when you install fieldbus devices on DeltaV, versus Yokogawa (which we also have on site)? Or: How difficult is it to find wiring errors in a marshaling cabinets? I took him up on the challenge and showed him real life. It was my time to baffle and confuse him, as nothing looked like the PowerPoint slides he showed me earlier. His arrogance was not based on evil intent, but simply on the lack of knowledge. He was waving about fancy technological terminology to hide his inexperience.
When I phoned him later to ask what was his managers reaction to the newly gained knowledge, his response: "My manager knew, but there is nothing we can do about this. All marketing is directed and controlled in Austin, and must be followed. It is not the right time to feed back any constructive information. Besides, nobody in Emerson Austin would be able to understand practical issues as they have never worked in a plant, let alone European plant" I was disappointed. I just hope I did not kill his enthusiasm.
Unlike previous bloggers, we will stick with Emerson (and Yokogawa) because despite the assumed arrogance, the products are fine. Which of the two is better? Both are doing what they are supposed to do. Yokogawa is easier to manage, but Emerson has more advanced (yet seldom used) features.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
I experienced similar issues in Ireland with Emerson UK. I attended a DeltaV user group conference in Ireland a while back, and the arrogance and lack professionalism from the UK General manager was appalling. He spoke to us like as if we school kids. I thought I was the only one who picked this up, but at the break some of the more well established users were very angry and embarrassed for the local Irish office.
Funny, over the next week, a potential customer came to visit our plant to see DeltaV first hand - we were introduced at the conference. The guy came with his automation team and their General Manger; the walk around went well. He called to thank me for our hospitality a few weeks after, and informed me that he and his team selected a Rockwell Solution. The decision was going Emerson's way but after his experience at the User Conference and the behavior of the Emerson UK GM, it sparked a rethink. The Guy said he called 18 users in Ireland and all had the same view of Emerson UK and their handling of the Irish market. He also told me that a decision on another project in France went Rockwell because the Irish project went so well. I have a proposal in the pipeline at the moment for an upgrade. In the past it would be a straight forward project for a DeltaV solution. However, after lots of push locally, corporate have signed off on a ABB Solution.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Emerson is not perfect. It is not possible to please all customers and all employees. We are trying hard. It is not the critics in this blog that keep us going 100% every day, but the recognition from the growing number of satisfied customers. Thank you, dear customers, for the confidence and trust. We will not let you down.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Convincing the Emerson management that DeltaV is not the best, is more difficult than convincing US people that the United States of America is not the greatest nation on earth. At this point, how many US readers turned defensive, and find themselves thinking: "But we are the greatest nation!". Same with Emerson employees. Emerson marketing fulfills the same role as the US media. The "we are the best" is rooted very deeply into the consciousness. Anybody saying anything different in Emerson will be shot. Objectivity is completely lost. There really is nothing you can do about it. But when reality hits, it will hurt! And the people taking the beating are never the government, nor Emerson management and their army of "yay" Sayers. The nay Sayers have been ditched long before that. Have you never wondered why the real experts are gone, and the incompetent people, armed with bags of sugar and excellent powerpoint skills are still there, and even get the promotions? The best advice is to keep you head low, say yes all the time, and wait for your retirement. Learn from the current parasites. Degrading? Maybe, but being proud and unemployed does not put food on the table.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
I am in PSS in Austin and I fear for my job, my future, my family's future because outsourcing is king at EPM. There is no loyalty from the company. We are just pawns, just fools that have pride in our work and we are not appreciated. Anyone can see that over-hyping your product leads to nothing but disaster.
VP's are the mouthpieces of management, they get all the blame and NONE of the credit. They get perks like company cars, business class travel, etc. But I wouldn't trade places with them for all of the tea in China. What will the USA be like for our children and grand children?
When will the people standup for their country? Come to think of it, several VP's in Austin are not even US citizens, so I guess what happens to the USA does not matter to them. This is what makes them the perfect mouthpieces for Farr & the BOD.
People, it's time to wakeup and look out for yourself. Maybe I should "retire" and get hired back as a consultant like "retired" EPM management does. Oh, I forgot I don't count because I am at the bottom of the food chain. What to do?
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Does the Board of Directors of Emerson read this blog? If they don't, they had better start to do so. How can St. Louis accept losing the projects in Ireland? That loss is a major blow to the life sciences success story for EMP.
EMP is spinning out of control. Austin watch out - St Louis is going to come down on you with an iron fence. They will say no bonus, no raises, make more cuts all for the bottom line. In the process they destroy a product, people's lives and Delta V. What type of consulting is Berra providing? All of this mess happened under his reign. Enough said?
Saturday, December 4, 2010
The poster that wrote about learning the customers lingo, versus the customer learning EMP's language, has written the precise assessment of the problem @ EMP. The marketing of the EMP message is all wrong. The customer rules the industry. So why would management continue to support ramming their lingo on the customer? Arrogance, incompetence, lack of vision, lack of effective management - all created to support the arrogant EMP culture. They still think that they are the best thing out there. It's just not true. When our top life science customer in Ireland says no more to EMP, Farr and the Board of Directors need to make heads roll for this one. Farr is so obsessed with profits to the shareholders that he does not see the harsh reality of the problems @ EMP.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Emerson Process Mangement in the UK is ultimately "managed" out of Austin. The Irish market was so important to the success of Delta V in the life sciences market. Now the technical person that was responsible for that success for EMP is a VP and caught in the vortex of Emerson Process Management marketing hype. Technical VP's head is spinning 360 degrees to fix the messes marketing creates. Instead of fixing the problems EMP continues along this precarious path and is so busy buying up companies and not seeing the decline of their business and reputation. Customers don't buy into the Marketing Hype, but the Austin based Marketing Hyper still gets to rule the roost.
Will Nyquist finally fix this problem that Berra ignored? Or will it be too late? Why did Berra allow this to continue? Everyone was so petrified so nothing was done to fix the hype. EMP has hurt it's reputation and is losing ground in all industries. The future depends on the action of the new EMP President. Hold on to your jobs folks, for now.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Yes, I would agree with Emerson's Life Science policy in Ireland. Having worked with Emerson and now with a Multinational in Ireland, I have considerable knowledge on both sides.
It is no secret that Emerson UK have no interest in the business in Ireland, and even hampered the local Irish office in their efforts. This has been the way for many years and now I go directly to the US for support. Senior management in Emerson UK and Europe know the issues for a while now, but it is a control issue and I reckon Ireland would be better partnering with the US on Life science support.
It is common knowledge that the Senior Management in Emerson UK are very poor, with no vision, and the Irish Life Science community are not surprised that the present management lasted little time in their last companies. I attended a company conference last month in NY and some of our team leaders and VP's were discussing these very issues.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
We are experiencing similar issues. We are a global Swiss-based pharmaceutical company with a large Delta V installed base. DeltaV has no more secrets for us. For years we have been feeding back suggestions for product improvements (mainly licensing and controller capacity). Every time we get a lot of promises directly from Texas. With every new release we have to listen to the excuses why our needs have been ignored.
Every company has to set priorities, and Emerson's priority is Oil and Gas, not Life Sciences. Knowing Delta V like the inside of my pocket, I wonder how Delta V can handle large IO quantities, but not our concern. All credit to the Swiss engineering team, and to the previous General Manager who was fired for unexplainable reasons. For us it is also time for a change. This has been our advice to the management team.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Emerson are not serious about Life Science's. I am a Auto Lead in a major pharmaceutical company with Global responsibilities, based in Ireland. I have witnessed over the last 10 years, Emerson UK tearing the Irish Market apart for the local Emerson office. I reckon Ireland has the biggest installed base of DeltaV in global pharma. In my opinion Emerson is led very poorly in UK and Ireland; having to deal with Emerson UK is very frustrating for all my dept. The Industry is small here, and I have heard the same story from other users. It is a pity the management can't sort this ongoing issue out. As far as I know/hear Emerson UK run the European Org. Our next Project is going to ABB/Honeywell. This is very unusual for our company with such a big installed base of DeltaV.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
80% of the PlantWeb Solutions group leadership team is ex-competitor. But is this a bad thing? I would argue it is the right way to "cross-breed"; and at least all of them are US citizens.
The high amount of ex-competitor content is found only in PlantWeb Solutions Group (previously called Process Systems and Solutions). This makes perfect sense: Competitors bring the market and application experience lacking in PSS. Competitors somehow learned to speak the customer's language. Emerson is still trying to teach the customer to speak "Emerson" language with massive Marketing efforts. Combined with the excellent product knowledge, abundantly available, PSS does get the winning combination. Too bad that original Emerson employees, best case "getting stuck" in a VP role, are surpassed by their previous "enemies".
Rosemount and Fisher, as pure product companies, which do not require in depth customer application knowledge, so they can be more loyal to their employees. Even the great Sabee Mitre joined Emerson from Honeywell.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The homegrown Emerson stars are Nyquist, Sonnenberg, Snead, all the "originals". Non-originals never reach the status of the homegrown originals.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
All ex-Honeywellers are great additions to Emerson. Wasn't that the point of the previous blogger? Who are the home-grown Emerson stars?
Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - Regarding the posting of Friday, November 26, 2010:
What a bunch of BS. The folks you mention are the exception, not the rule. I can tell you personally that Peter Zornio was a great addition Emerson.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Emerson Process Systems has to turn to Honeywell and other competitors for talent, as nothing is done to promote talent internally. The highly praised career development programs only exist in the yearly webcast presentations to please the board, or to lure the competitor's workforce. No wonder that many key positions are filled from the outside (Melissa Herkt (GSK), Peter Zornio (Honeywell), Jerry Brown (Siemens)). Of course, some of the top talent moves to Honeywell denting Emerson's pride. On the other hand, Emerson's HR is very specialized in cutting bonus payments and handling layoffs. Practice makes perfect.
Thursday, November 25, 2010 - Re: EMERSON is a big brand name worldwide an it's a dream company for the engineers.
But in India, EMERSON IEC (India Engineering Centre) for OVATION DCS engineering is just being run like a local shop or a vendor. EMERSON IEC just do not think about retaining the good talent. Talented people are leaving and IEC just do not believe in retaining them. IEC is being run by a dictator. Mercy on the customers that they have to deal with the incompetent technical engineers now as they are less experienced for the highly technical jobs.
Even management from EMERSON USA has turned a blind eye to the issue. Such is the condition in India IEC that none of the old employees want to come back to IEC. IEC top managers eat out all the benefits and just give peanuts to the people who are really hard working and are an asset to the company.
Let's hope that such a big brand name lives up to expectation and takes some necessary actions before it loses the inerest among the would be engineers.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Emerson ranks 7th in the top layoffs company listing, outperforming even JP Morgan and Wallmart. Well done!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Jim Nyquist should read the Nov 19 blog of the ex Emerson rep in the Honeywell section. The half baked "IO on demand", the too small SIS and the highly praised, but not yet on a large scale accepted, wireless, have similarities to the failed plantscape. It is truly amazing how ex Honeywellers jumped ship, to find themselves driving the Emerson train. The more fascinating the fact that Emerson employees who left to Honeywell, find the Emerson door closed forever.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Jim Nyquist will fix it! The redundancies created in global marketing and product management are expected to be integrated soon, making several manager, director and VP positions available for "other options".
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Jim, great set of new articles on Invensys, thanks.
I was one of the many who did not realize that Invensys is developing their own version of PlantWeb. Let's see how long it will take them to figure out that the success of PlantWeb relies greatly on huge marketing efforts. Mandatory PlantWeb university graduation, to name one, with monthly updates, for ALL employees, engineer to president. Failing to comply could result in immediate dismissal. This underlines that, as read in the article, assuming it's a 2-way street, "communication bandwidth, capacity and speed is a fundamental value of any organization, large or small."
DeltaV, the early days: each world area had several DeltaV champions, with a direct telephone line to the VP Product Marketing, who in turn, had direct access to the president and VP Technology. Although this put a heavy communication load on the VP Product Marketing - and Emerson folk will smile at the picture of their "in trance-like VP answering his daily 250 mails" - decisions were fast and to the point, giving great satisfactory to customers and employees.
DeltaV today: each world area has a DeltaV champion, reporting issues/success to the global DeltaV Marketing Manager. This global DeltaV Marketing Manager reports to the global DeltaV Marketing Director, who reports to the global VP Marketing. The global VP Marketing reports to the global Sr. VP Marketing and Sales. The global Sr. VP reports to the president, Tom Snead. Tom Snead reports to his new boss, Jim Nyquist. We are not done. If it concerns product issues, the global DeltaV Marketing Manager will report to the DeltaV Product Manager, reporting to the global DeltaV Product Director, reporting to the global VP Product Management, reporting to the divisional president, Peter Zornio, who is at the same level as Tom Snead, and also reports to Jim Nyquist.
Are we surprised that people in the field complain that things don't get done? By the time any information, if at all, reaches the top, will it still carry the same message? The same communication paths are used top-down, so management should not act surprised when their instructions are not carried out.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The perfect solution: Technology, Marketing, Sales, Engineering and Operations are a team. We do not live in a perfect world. T/M/S: Vendor, E: EPC, System Integrator, End User engineering. The chain is driven by different interests. Profit on product vs profit on engineering hours vs profit on production. Because of the different interests, Excellence programs, MIV/MAC projects, etc. are still the exception.
Thanks to the drive for shareholder value, Emerson is increasingly focusing on product sales and marketing, using sales/marketing people with no experience, and moving away from the risky engineering business, opening the doors for SI and consultants. We all know that in the long run this will backfire. This is one of the reason why Siemens is only number 7 in the process industry. The only way to oil the chain is to give the different parties an interest in the chain. Is it impossible to imagine repaying Emerson or the EPC with operating profits? Is it impossible to imagine letting Emerson or the EPC run their equipment or project for x years? I guess it is very hard to imagine, so we will continue to see ridiculous sales agreements, low cost low quality implementation, and operating downtimes.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Sales, marketing and engineering are a team. If part of the team can't do their job in a timely manner then there must be a weak link in the chain. Good work takes time. Customers always want it yesterday and they are usually promised so by someone in the chain. I don't think you can blame lack of time for poor software performance. It's a team effort. Oil the chain and it might bend more smoothly. Ignore the weakest link and you know what happens.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
I read the Nov. 4 blog in the ABB section, on the 800xA. Exchange 800xA by DeltaV and it fits like a glove. If only customers would give us the time to properly prepare the implementation. DeltaV is only easy in marketing. Flexibility equals complexity.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Refer to president Melissa Herkt (who leads Emerson's PlantWeb Solutions Group); VP Jane Lancing, VP Barb Gandy, VP-CMO Kathy Button Bell, and many many others. Just don't expect any special favors for being female.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Women that work at EPM want to know when a technical woman will be "allowed" to break through the glass ceiling and become one of the "boys".
Thursday, November 4, 2010
There is a buzz in Austin, and it's being heard around the world. Is the new leader looking into reorganizing, reshuffling and regrouping? Who will stay, who will go? Nobody knows. Will those who had their "greatness" protected finally be exposed for what they really are? Will those that were always disregarded finally get their due? Will new blood be brought into Emerson?
As for the Latin America numbers missing from the fiscal reports, it's a case of accidentally on purpose.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 - Sabee's scorecard:
Sabee's methods have been critized a lot on this blog. His "puppies" as called on this blog, softened Sabee's abusive style by claiming his "greatness". The FY10 Q4 numbers have arrived, so we can complete the performance numbers for Emerson Process Management Asia Pacific, one of the targeted "emerging" markets.
FY10 Q1:
FY10 Q2:
FY10 Q3:
FY10 Q4:
Emerson is usually very tedious about presenting the numbers. Very strange indeed to miss out the numbers for Latin America, one of the other proclaimed "emerging" markets. Deliberte slip to support the David Farr's "the emerging markets are doing great" speach?
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 - The latest Emerson financial news to shareholders:
Will Emerson cost reductions, lower restructuring expense and volume leverage lead to equivalent raises for U.S. employees? Stay tuned.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Very clever response about Emerson not setting the rules. This points to the real value of globalization; it's not just finding people that will work for the pennies on the dollar and treat the visitor-managers from the US like royalty - it's about corporations finding and taking advantage of every loophole in order to satisfy the shareholders.
Do you think that Emerson management cares about it's global workers? It's no different than in the US. These Third World Countries are a perfect fit for a company that does not disclose salary pay scales in the US.
If you want success at Emerson, just be a lemming and do what you are told, and then find your own loopholes to cover yourself when you CAN'T DO IT. But remember, if you were not one of the originals you will probably not find the loophole to save yourself.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
The products are not manufactured in the US and the services are delivered by non US citizens. Emerson is working within the boundaries of the law. Emerson is not responsible for setting the rules.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Emerson delivers directly into Iran mainly via the European organization. Irosco is THE Emerson LBP in Iran.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Emerson's sales-channels includes what is called an LBP, or Local Business Partners. LBP is basically what the business termed a "local agent". Just like their "Plant Web" concept, it functions through spreading out a "webs of contact points". You can see this in EPM's website under "Contact Us" - how the world areas has been "territorially divided".
Anyway, EPM has also made their LBP follow EPM's code of ethics. Using the LBP as a front to "cladestine" deals are NOT unheard of, though it is possible. If someone gets caught, EPM will conveniently wash their hands out of this. The LBP may also "fold" shop, lay low and setup shop again somewhere else.
So don't be SO surprised that you can find a DeltaV or some Emnerson products, quietly controlling part of a plant in Sudan or even in Iran. To get around all these exports restrictions, you can have, for example, a ProPlus loaded into a machine with AMD chips, instead of Intel. It can be supplied by an LBP from a "friendly and sympathetic" country say China.
Anyway, I have seen all these things quietly happening before.
Monday, November 1, 2010 - In response to the latest post - "They judge their morality according to that ethos."
The blogger forgot to mention Emerson does not care about the individual employee. They won't even tell some of their own employees the salary range for their position. They tend to promote from within except for one recent exception made by the now retired feared leader. Emerson suffers from inbreeding, sort of like cousins marrying cousins not a good thing at all.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
This is hardly a surprise in our corporate-state pseudo capitalist-democracy. American businesses have been aiding the "enemy" (though I would argue that Iran is an enemy of our own making) since before WW II.
Corporations create their own ethics:
Friday, October 29, 2010
It is one thing to support the construction of Nuclear Facilities in Iran with Emerson Technology. Nuclear facilities do not fit under the radar. Eventually they will get noticed. Occassionally, even non-existent nuclear programs are detected.
There is another less obvious threat when supplying technology to countries like Iran.
DeltaV is a high tech control system designed to control Oil and Gas platforms, Refineries, Chemical and Nuclear plants. These type of plants carry large amounts of potentially devastating energy when out of control. Next to normal production, control systems such as DeltaV ensure that the energy remains contained. Loss of control might light to catastrophic disasters. Despite high tech, despite preventive measures, every year, numerous accidents occur and workers die.
Todays control systems, and Emerson brags to be most innovative in this field, allow for remote control, even wireless. Sophisticated data networks allow technicians to dial in and potentially fix problems.
Terrorism is going underground. A high tech Vietnam so to speak. What if a terrorist is able to logon to the DeltaV network, and intentionally changes the programming to cause an explosion? The international standards on this type of cyber threat are not ready, and have not been applied to existing facilities.
The first hurdle for the new "virtual terrorist" is the complexity of the technology itself. Only trained and highly skilled engineers and operators can implement and operate this high tech equipment.
Shipping Emerson technology to Iran opens the door to potential terrorist to get acquainted with the technology, and to study the vulnerabilities. Teaching terrorist how the technology works is the same as teaching them how to fly an airplane. It is only step 1. Far fetched?
Engineers know and understand the potential threats. Regrettably, engineers have no defence against greed supported by an army of MBA's proclaiming how "easy" it is to set up a wireless network.
In the meantime, Emerson continues to train the DeltaV pilots in Iran. Shareholders rest assured. Emerson will have made sure that "After The Facts" no finger will point in their direction. Your money is safe.
Friday, October 29, 2010
As a result of Iranian support of international terrorism and Iran’s active pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, the US has issued sanctions against trade with Iran. Several executive orders issued by Reagan, Clinton, Bush, basically come down to a prohibition of virtually all trade and investment activities with Iran by U.S. persons, wherever located.
Iran ranks 3rd on the global list of countries with the largest oil reserves. This oil industry is Emerson's largest target industry. And where there is oil; Refineries, Petro-Chemical, Chemical plants will settle nearby.
So how can Emerson, as a US based company, do business with Iran? If Emerson can show that deliveries to Iran do not contain, or contain less than allowed by de-minimis laws, US products and services, trade is possible. So if Mr. Farr wants to do business with Iran, the 3rd largest oil nation, with projects worth billions of dollars, he has to move technology and manufacturing outside of the US. How many citizens actually believe that "some president" is forcing him outside of the US, whereas simple truths, as above, are considered irrational?
Criminal penalties for violations of the Iranian Transactions Regulations may result in a fine up to $1,000,000, and natural persons may be imprisoned for up to 20 years. David Farr is not worried about the $1,000,000 pocket money. The fact that Emerson is shipping yearly technology worth millions of dollars to Iran can only mean that Emerson found a nice loophole in the regulations. Even David Farr would be afraid of 20 years in jail.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
This is a good example what happens when moving technology to China.
For Emerson it does not stop in China. Several Emerson divisions are delivering technology and equipment to embargoed countries like Iran.
Irosco, Tehran, Iran based, proudly features the Emerson Process Management logo, bragging about 35 years of co-operation. The "Process" in the Emerson Process Management refers to Refining, Chemical, Biological processes, and Nuclear Power Plants
Notice the Emerson logo.
When and where does this stop?
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
So many numbers. If I read it correctly, David N. Farr, ranked only 94, and gets 1/2 of what David Cote gets per year (roughly $18M versus $37M)? Quite a lot of money considering that Farr does nothing more than walk in Chuck Knight's footsteps. At least now we know why David Farr is acting like a little baby when David Cote gets to sit on the president's lap...
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
It's that time of year again - the annual financial season. Troops, you might want to look up CEO Compensation packages at Forbes.com:
You can Google the rest of the competitors. We are hearing about growth but will we see it in our paychecks? Will CEO's take a pay cut? Stay tuned.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Can the CEO of a global corporation allow himself to be patriotic?
Patriotism means that a corporation does its very best to make the people in America as wealthy, succesfull and happy as possible. It looks out for the best interests of their business AND their country.
David Farr, David Cote, and many others represent the interests of shareholders around the world. If the economical climate in America prevents CEO's from doing their job, it is their obligation to the American, Chinese, Indian, German, etc. shareholders to find better solutions. There is nothing patriotic about that, just common business sense. If David Farr's biggest crime is not to be a patriot, he is not alone. Just count the number of Japanese cars.
True patriotism was the strength of America. It is what drew the people together. The US gives more money, has done more to improve the "entire world" than any other nation. CEO's speed up the process. Thanks to both the Davids (Farr and Cote) and many others, someday, we will be accepting charity from India or China. That day might not be far away.
Occassionally we witness glimps of patriotism, mainly during sad or happy events; it warms everybodies hearts, and makes us proud to be American, only for a moment. A pity patriotism is gone.
Theodore Roosevelt: We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Today I sold my (very few) Emerson shares. Foolish? Maybe! Will it make a difference? Probably not! Somehow, making money on the back of hardworking American citizens does not feel right. My little contribution is my way of saying to Mr. David N. Farr that he is doing a crappy job. I feel good.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Any excuse will do, at any cost, to increase profit. Welcome to the land of the free. Today it's the president, tomorrow it's the weather. Thank God for companies such as Intel.
Monday, October 25, 2010
I came across this when I was on the West Coast. It's a wonderful example of a US company creating jobs and exporting product instead of exporting US jobs.
Santa Clara-based Intel Corp., the world's biggest chipmaker, said it will spend between $6 billion and $8 billion on U.S. factory upgrades, spurring the creation of 800 to 1,000 US manufacturing jobs. Here it right from the CEO's mouth "Today's announcement reflects the next tranche of the continued advancement of Moore's Law and a further commitment to invest in the future of Intel and America," Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini said.
Nice to see that some US CEO's want to stay committed to the USA irregardless of who OUR President is.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Speechless - Powerless - Helpless. What is there left to say after reading David Farr's outing?
Sunday, October 24, 2010
A good example of KISS: Keep it Stupid Simpleton. And David did:
In the article "Emerson’s Farr Says U.S. Is Destroying Manufacturing" mentioned in previous blog, David N. Farr, CEO Emerson Electric, resolves with few words, many of the issues addressed in this blog:
David Farr quote: "My job is to grow that top line, grow my earnings, grow my cash flow and grow my returns to the shareholders."
Bad news for the Engineers, correctly referred to "the people who know what they are doing". Those of you, who believed Emerson is interested in offering solutions to Industry customers, eat your heart out. The big chief has spoken. Customer means Shareholders. MBA's alias car salesmen, get in line.
David Farr quote: “What do you think I am going to do?” Farr asked. “I’m not going to hire anybody in the United States. I’m moving. They are doing everything possible to destroy jobs.”
David has found the perfect scapegoat to move to India, China, Costa Rica, and other best-cost locations. "They" are to blame. This will not make the Fortune Top 100 of most-patriotic quotes, yet David is consistent. Shareholders like profit. David gives them profit. Emerson has always been a contributor to the the Republicans. David personally was involved in the John. Mc Cain campaign, so most likely "they" refers to the Democrats. Nevertheless, again bad news for the local manufacturing and local engineers.
David Farr quote: “But you are not going to see Emerson going out there with fancy commercials or sitting at the right hand of some president, talking about this,” Farr said. “We do it.”
Heavily loaded quote. Obviously David is referring to Honeywell's David M. Cote. It reminds me of my 5 year old son complaining that he is not allowed to play with his two year older brother, although he is so much better. I gave him a cookie and he was all smiles. Let's hope for David that the next elections go to the Republicans, so he can have his cookie. "Some president"?!? Are we talking about the president of the United States of America? Leaning out of the window, are we? Nah, with David's salary, he can afford to make these statements. "No fancy commercials"? We do it! If David would be reading this blog, he would know that to "Do It Without Commercials, he will need the local engineers he has been kicking out over the past years. Or is the troup of Best Cost Engineers going to "Do It"?
David Farr quote: "The company has identified “megatrends” such as resource scarcity, the environment and the demand for more wireless connectivity that are shaping its growth initiative."
I have never seen customer issues being referred to as "Megatrends", but here you go! Dear Customer, even the Emerson CEO knows what is best for you.
Good job David Farr! Let's hope that the Emerson products are "smarter" than their CEO.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Re: Jim Pinto's eNews, 21, Oct. 2010:
Dear Jim,
You say: "Creativity is the ability to introduce something new, with value that is significantly greater than anything that already exists". Confirmed. You continue: "Creative new products won’t just find acceptance"
Just because the market has not yet embraced creative new products, can you conclude that there are no creative new products? There are numerous reasons why the market is not implementing new products. Price will definitely play its part in market acceptance, but should it be used as a criteria on product creativity? The DCS were not accepted immediately, the DCS market did not become a billion dollar market overnight.
Other questions should be addressed:
Are customers too sceptical? Too reluctant to change?
Are manufacturers putting too much focus on Marketing, as mentioned several times in this blog, rather than supporting customers to understand new technologies?
Do manufacturers still have the necessary resources to support customers?
I fully agree with you. The ISA is more and more perceived as marketing organization, rather than the independent authority in our industry.
Many creative products have been developed by Emerson Process Management. Some have made it into the market, other, sometimes more creative solutions, have been rejected and discontinued:
With the amount of "SPAM" in the industry, including this blog, is the customer still able to separate the diamonds from the dunghill?
Friday, October 22, 2010
I have been reading the blog for the last few weeks and here's my 2 cents worth:
Those that were "released" may be better off than those "promoted". Promotions tied to "perks" are akin to being held hostage until the "perks" mature; in the meanwhile you do more and more and get less for all your efforts. Emerson employees are not going to become "Dellionares" off of Emerson Stock.
As for your career at Emerson, all that matters is what you can do for Emerson; they don't care what they can do for you. If you don't believe this then read about it:
At Emerson fact is fiction and marketing's reality. As for MBA's, they are a dime a dozen and they are churned out by UT Austin in an almost rubber stamp mode. UT recently hired additional staff to get more Austin area corporate people interested in their part time "executive" MBA program. Unless the MBA includes "this is how Emerson/Farr does things", then it's pretty much useless for career advancement at Emerson.
I also agree that MBA's have nothing to do with reality, and that those who can engineer do so and those who can't engineer market. Similar to the old adage: "Those who can, do; those that can't, teach." It's called spin-doctoring, all smoke and mirrors. Heck some folks at Emerson are even allowed to name marketing promotional trinkets after themselves.
The car salesman analogy is spot on brilliant. Who would want a car salesman to service their automobile?
Now lets get to "The Crusher". Now that "the feared leader" has retired, let's see how the "Crusher" survives. Will he become the "Crushee"? Google the word Crusher and you'll get quite a chuckle out of the results.
Seems to be an Emerson the thing to "retire", and then come back as a highly paid "expert consultant", or the keeper of the magic numbers that St Louis wants to see.
As for the many Sabee types at Emerson, you know all about the old management theory, and what it says floats to the top. Tell the boss what he wants to hear and get rewarded.
Folks if you think this only happens at Emerson you are sorely mistaken. It's the way business is done in the USA; people don't matter numbers do.
Friday, October 22, 2010
"Competitive comparison not entirely wrong but way off inaccurate"
"Emerson is only interested in shareholders"
"Emerson products are just so so"
"Emerson employees are car salesman without drivers license"
We carefully track and respond to any customer feedback, both negative and positive, and we try to fix issues asap. The number of negative postings does not match the issues reaching us through the normal channels. This is a clear indication that postings on this blog are artificially created by competitors, and not by customers who are above industry-average satisfied with our company, our products, and our people. If you are genuine, instead of venting your dissatisfaction, try contacting your local office.
Consider all your points resolved!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 Re: "The difference between a auto technician and a car salesman.":
The remaining Emerson Car Salesmen hold an MBA, but do not have a drivers license. Over the past 2 years, the Emerson people with drivers license have been "released" or have been "promoted".
"Emerson doesn't sell at the instrument supervisor level. They sell at the Corporate level" makes perfect sense. No drivers license required to talk to management.
Do you reckon the Emerson Management realizes that their cars are being driven by people without a license? Sooner or later, an accident will happen, especially when messing about with safety products.
Monday, October 18, 2010 - In reply to the blogger on the 11th. (Sorry it took me so long to get back to it, but some of us do have real work to do.....):
What on Earth ever gave you the idea that I was bitter about leaving Emerson? I was with two different companies and had a good long run. It was simply time to move onward and upward. In the fifteen years since I have worked for two other instrumentation companies. We are more alike than you seem to realize (maybe not you and me specifically, but instrumentation folk in general).
My time at Emerson has given me the capacity to put the most innovative spin on almost any situation. To take a problem and put it in such a way that the customer sees it as a benefit. It gave me an appreciation for the real inner workings of things, once they were revealed to me. That in particular is something that Emerson companies don't do. As another blogger pointed out, Emerson has Product Marketers, not Product Managers, and the difference is as broad as the difference between a auto technician and a car salesman.
Also pointed out by other bloggers is the fact that Emerson doesn't sell at the instrument supervisor level. They sell at the Corporate level. All you have to do there is have a good presentation, the facts and inner workings are lost on the stuffed suits at that level, and they won't deign themselves to ask the folk who'll actually be using this stuff if it'll do what needs to be done, or what the shiny Emerson Powerpoint says it will do.
It's all in the marketing, boys and girls, and THAT'S the part of the game that Mother Emerson has down pat. My $0.02 worth, and I'm sticking to it.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
You got it all wrong! The role of Product Marketing is to protect feedback from sales/customers reaching higher management in St.-Louis, and to prepare Product Marketing slides for management in Austin to present to the same higher management in St. Louis. Product Marketing in Austin do a good job generating useful marketing stuff. As long as you keep them away from the customers...
Saturday, October 16, 2010 - Re: "Top management refused to hear it":
It is not so much that Emerson Management refuses to listen; it is more a matter of receiving the right information in the first place. Who is responsible of gathering the requirements, and channel to the management?
From Wiki:
First up:
Emerson's current Product Marketing/Managers:
Product Marketing DeltaV SIS:
I have spent most of my career (22 years) working for Emerson, and the gap between reality and fiction (Austin) has never been so big as in the recent years. Nobody dares to step up to the plate. Management is surrounded by MBA's. Those who have tried are no longer with us.
Saturday, October 16, 2010 - The infamous DST "licensing" - Emerson's money machine:
I have banned this word from my vocabulary. This is the biggest scam in the history of automation. I fell for it and I am paying for it. Be aware - ask for fixed price or suffer.
The latest: "Exchanging a digital signal to analoge is "EASY" with electronic marshalling." Not mentioned in the video: Every change results in a juicy DST invoice.
Product features developed to help filling pockets.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Manage your expectations!
From previous blogs:
Emerson is a product company, selling and marketing products. And they are good it - nothing wrong with that.
Do not expect them to offer solutions, and you will have no issues. Why not listen to the Emerson academia/marketing do their little story, relax, enjoy, and use the information to make decisions? As there is very little experience, Emerson marketing will reveal lots of information without realizing it. Smile, Catch a few free lunches, drinks, and other entertainment along the way.
Finally it is your responsibility to identify the value of products despite all the bells and whistles. Did you expect the Emerson sales to inform you on the pitfalls? Even if they could - they won't.
A previous blogger reports: Emerson good "elderly" service staff were laid-off - This makes perfect sense.
The good elderly staff are a liability. Elderly staff know the product IMPLEMENTATION shortcomings. They understand that products, product solutions, and plant solutions are not the same.
Stop expecting Emerson to do your job - and enjoy the free marketing ride.
Friday, October 15, 2010
The Emerson's LBP site engineer showed flash powerpoint? Engineers doing marketing? How come Emerson never shows any REAL engineering slides beyond "let me show you how easy it is to program, sorry configure, a function block"?
Friday, October 15, 2010
Some of Emerson products are okay and most are just so-so. I can say so because I am an end-user having products from Invensys, Honeywell, Emerson and Yokogawa in my plant. I have also seen people not only from Pune but also from Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi in my site. I have worked briefly with some of them.
What one of the blogger says is on the spot. You get an entire lot of them ranging from a few good ones but there are a whole lot of them only having paying lips services. The reason is obvious. Questionable tertiary education schools in India and even in China are producing a lot of school leavers without quality but quantity.
The off-shore government is allowing this because the first world countries wants "lower cost" skills people. The schools just degree-mill these people out. It is also good for the countrie's economies anyway as it reduces unemployment at home and with "foreign exchange" to bring back. Of course, it is an open secret that you can buy "degrees" in India and China quite easily.
Back to the reply of Emerson outsourcing to 1,100 engineers in Pune and not having "quality issue"...
My reply is :- Emerson is not suffering because it is first and foremost a "marketing" company. All these create work now for the 1,100 engineers in Pune and Costa Rica.
Friday, October 15, 2010
I am an end-user, and have both Invensys products and Emerson products installed on site. Some of the programming modules and "innovations" that comes out of EEEC on the surface looks good. BUT in some cases simply non-usuable and pratical to be loaded into the controllers.
So, some people in their "back office" may think that they are doing good job. It is because the local Emerson office has the sense to stop this from happening. It is the local office people that "cleans" out most of the so called "standards" that in some cases are not practical to be implemented. The local office people cannot complain because their local top management refused to hear it.
Do not forget that people in the local offices are paying much, much higher taxes than people in India or China are paying.
Off loading work to offshore offices and being charged first world rates by vendors, and sometimes getting inconsistent quality people. In India, would you as a consumer buy and pay for a so-so "Nano" or a so-so "Maruti" car?
I don't really see how this is improving and creating more wealth except fot the share holders. Not for most of the general salarised technical engineers and personnel in the local office.
Friday, October 15, 2010
The power of using "marketing" as a tool to sell - this cannot be argued. I have to hand it to Emerson. They have done it with "finesse". This is an "art form", and this is reflected in their share prices and share values to their investors.
The maintenance, engineering and operation people in our plant did give feedbacks, evaluations, comments and even complaints about the performance of Emerson products range from DCS, the SIS, the AMS and a host of other Emerson made stuff. We are not entirely happy with some of their products. Some of the Emerson really good "elderly" service staff were laid-off some time back. The replaced LBP service people are just so so now.
We do get some of the Pune EEEC people. Well, most I have seen talked a lot about their great programming and product knowledge, but on closer scrutiny actually delivered very little in actual pratical application skills.
Despite all these efforts and exercises to our higher management, we still end up with the same and even more Emerson's stuff. What we are paying for now, we could have got better product value from their competitions in the longer run.
Emerson's arguments and sales slides on "sole supplier" shows that this in the long run saves money. It "blinds" us in reality, especially in the long run, into continuously looking for improve alternative offerings by their competitors.
That is one of the danger of an almost exclusive sole supplier argument.
Maybe that is why Emerson are good with "marketing" it to higher management. I suspect that higher management people can most probably have the extra cash to afford to buy Emerson shares at the current price it is at now.
Friday, October 15, 2010
A colleague of mine just made what turns out to be an excellent analogy. Think of the Emerson folks as the Instrumentation world's equivilant of academicians. But, before you Emerson types take that the wrong way, what he meant was that they spend their whole life in Academia and have very little, or no, real world experience. They make a very well thought out, logical, impressive sounding case for their position, but it has nothing to do with reality.
I'm sure that there are going to be some intersting replies to this one by the Emerson folks who can't say who they are.
But then, I'm not saying who I am either...
It never ends, does it?
Friday, October 15, 2010 - An End-User's comments:
I had the "pleasure" of seeing some of .ppt slides, assembled from the latest Emerson event. It was "flashed" to me from one of Emerson's LBP site engineers, very enthusiastically about Emerson's road maps, who wanted to "share" them with me.
One of the assembled slides happened to have material on competition's comparison. Whether it was there by mistake or not, I am not sure. But I am okay with it. My point is that some of the stuff was not entirely wrong, but were way off inaccurate. It also made remarks that Emerson's competitions' technology was old. Well, what is OLD? It has NO meat in it.
This LBP site person also could not "share" with me what makes their DeltaV SIS "yellow box" what seemed 2oo2D technology different from my installed ICS Triplex TMR technology next door, except that the DeltaV SIS was out just 5 years ago, it is NEW technology. Maybe perhaps the DeltaV SIS is using a newer off-the-self fault tolerance O/S as compared to proprietary SIS system that have to "evolve" over time to become "stable"?
This is the power of "marketing". That was why my management put in some DeltaV SIS yellow boxes - a mixture of simplex and duplex yellow boxes. Of course, the infamous DST "licensing" issues stung us for a while, but it was "resolved". We were "blamed" by the LBP for not understanding enough on this subject.
The DeltaV SIS and the ProPlus does have its quirks. I can tell you that it is NOT that easy as a just "drag & drop" like what its says on the DeltaV SIS slides. It can be "confusing" at times when and where "secured" parameters are passed.
After using the DeltaV SIS on our site, we were not entirely happy with it. To use it further, I reserved my comments. The LBP is very good with their "marketing" with my higher management.
I do not want to use this weblog to casue any further "controversies". I had seen a previous blogger on how their plant would deal with using DeltaV SIS. I feel that it is an approach that one may use, or totally not use it at all, because I myself cannot see how to quantify the "2% Plantweb" savings that Emerson says.
Thursday, October 14, 2010 -Re: I am an end-user and have worked with the Emerson SIS process:
This is the best reply I have seen in a long time. I am also an end-user, and potential Emerson smart SIS customer. I have seen my fair share of Emerson presentations and demos. The AWE factor cannot be denied. Quite compelling story. Emerson makes many claims about their "Super" SIS system. Yes, I get many not usable answers out of my Emerson sales office, so I hope you can share your experience using DeltaV SIS?
General question: Do you have any "Watch out for" advice? Why did you select Emerson over the other suppliers?
Emerson claims:
Emerson claims:
Emerson claims:
Emerson claims:
Emerson claims:
Emerson claims:
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
The number one KPI in Emerson is shareholder value. This will definitely convince new customers to buy Emerson's number one product: shares. A job well done by THE CRUSHER and friends.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - Re : Being armed with MBA's does not make us lesser engineers:
I guess this response must be from an Emerson SIS marketing person. I am an end-user and have worked with the Emerson SIS process. I would like to add:
Yes, it is the responsibility of the End-user/process designers to do this PHA, HAZOPs, but the standard did not say we can choose any supplier as one deemed fit who we think can do the job best. As talking about independence, as long as we - the end-users - have the final mandate to decide about it.
I have seen power-point slides about Emerson extolling the advantages about being a MAC or MICC supplier. Anyway FEED is there in the power-point slides. So how would you blurr the line on "conflict of interest" when doing these activities would mean supplying Emerson made equipment as much as possible into the scope of supply?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - A reply from "A Parrot" :
Defintiely Emerson will use this CONTROL Magazine listings of Readers' Choice Awards to brag about their acheivements. You will find the marketing powerpoint slides being made readily available (blessed by THE CRUSHER, EPM VP of marketing, etc.) in the Emerson Intranet websites for distributions. The EPM LBPs will be flashing these out to end-users and customers.
Do not forget that Control Magazine is a US-based magazine, skewed towards the North Amercia market. Unfortunately it doesn't tell the story for the entire world. It not really an accurate picture. So being top in the North American market doesn't mean top in the Middle East or in China, India or Asian markets. Anyway, the North Amercia market is in the "doldrums", not only at this moment but also when this survey was done.
I suspect that Emerson marketing has "close ties" not only with trade magazines, but also with certian "consultantacy companies" that churn out "white papers" in "praise and glorification" of Emerson.
So this parrot will say this: Read all these reports, not with a pinch but a chunk OF SALT...
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
The latest CONTROL Magazine listings of Readers' Choice Awards has been published. Parrots:read it and weep.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
So it is not appropriate to post anonymously on this weblog? However, it is very admirable for a full-time Emerson-employed anonymous "Crusher" (crusher@emerson.com) to send weekly bullets (unfounded gossip about competitors) to all Emerson employees?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. "
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - Re: It seems that ...:
Mr. Anonymous, how about: Stop reading this log if you don't like it. Which are you anyway? Disgruntled employee or a threatened competitor? You would be well advised to follow Emerson's instructions, stop wasting your time, follow the anonymous weblog policy, and start solving your customers issues. Or at least, tweet a bit instead; the automation world is really anxious to know about the weather in Austin.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
"When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."
All I hear is a lot of jabbering..........
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
It seems that Emerson's policy not to respond to anonymous weblogs is appropriate. Why should Emerson waste their time responding to anonymous postings by threatened competitors and disgruntled employees who would rather spend their time posting misleading information under the cloak of anonymity, than to spend time trying to help their customers solve problems? Emerson does it right. There are numerous outlets for their REAL customers to provide feedback openly. This place is a waste of time for any automation company. If Emerson, Invensys, Yokogawa, and Honeywell would simply block jimpinto.com in their company firewalls, most of the traffic to this site would disappear overnight.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - RE:Sabee's scorecard versus global Emerson Process Management:
It will be hell for my collegues with this result. Sabee will bark like a mad dog and, along with his little puppies, piss on all of us. I was bitten when I was young, and Rabies is not pretty.... Time to expedite exodus plan and move on.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Videos: Top Entertainment factor. Design a feature. Create a problem. Present the feature as cost reducing, flexibility increasing, and easy-to-use features solution. Obscuring the fact that the problem did not exist in the first place. It might work for vacuum cleaners, but it's doubtful any real, hands-on engineer will buy this. The message will be compelling to management, including Emerson's own. And who makes the decisions? So if you think the videos are aimed at the real users, Think Again! It certainly convinced the previous "arrogant" blogger.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Before passing judgement on our technology, our specialists, or disregarding our technology as not use-able, please take some time to check out our video center. You will be amazed how easy you have access to loads of important information, presented by Emerson's worldwide recognized experts.
To make it more easy for you, I have added several direct links to prove our capabilities contested in previous blogs. (Click blue link to read)
I/O on Demand - Electronic Marshalling
I/O on Demand - DeltaV S-series
I/O on Demand - Foundation Fieldbus
I/O on Demand - Wireless
PlantWeb Demonstration: Safety Instrumented System
Process Safety: DeltaV SIS and Rosemount 3051S Plugged Impulse Line
SIL-PAC™ Final Control Solution For Safety Systems
Monday, October 11, 2010
Being armed with MBA's does not make us lesser engineers. On the contrary. Of course we do not participate in PHA or HAZOP's, even better, our safety processes forbids us to take part in safety analysis work, as it should be. If you had any safety knowledge, you should know that this is the responsibility of the End-user/process designers. I personally fail to understand how our competitors can justify taking part in these activities. This has written "conflict of interest" all over.
Did you know that we were the first company to have a TUV approved engineering process? We do know what we are doing. Maybe you should register for one of our next safety seminars. We would love to welcome you in Chicago on 10/26/10 or on 10/28/10 in Minneapolis in the new PlantWeb Demo Center.
I never claimed that customers are dumb. Yet once again, your statement proves how difficult it is to convince customers on the brilliance of CHARMS, smart Wireless or smart SIS. Did you check our customer proven PlantWeb Quantified Business Results? I am sorry if you are still bitter for leaving, or having to leave Emerson. It is not easy to depart from the winning team. Nevertheless, I wish you all the best with your new company, and hope to welcome you in one of our next seminars.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Wow! Talk about full of yourself! What you're basically saying is that your customers are too dumb to understand why you're better than everyone else?! Talk about arrogant and out of touch. No wonder they don't want you replying to web blogs. I do have to say that this does fulfill a lot of your customer's AND competitor's view of the sterotypical Emerson management Droog.
Friday, October 8, 2010 - From a laid-off ex-Emerson employee:
If Emerson is to spend more money and resources now for so called "customer's education", it seemed to me like just another big marketing campaign and road shows, giving out more souvenirs, gifts, hockey tickets, free wines etc...
Well it looks more to me that there is PlantWeb message has gone a "little stale". To me, it is nothing more like trying to "envigorate" the PlantWeb message, this time with the new CHARMS, smart Safety etc. It is also noted that all these road shows, seminars are delivered by Emerson markerting people who were engineers, practicioners now armed with MBAs. Even in the so-called Smart Safety thing that Emerson is "trying" to change the way end-user's habit. I wonder if the marketing director and his people have ever done a PHA or HAZOP or even taken part in a IEC61511 audit before or even commissioned an ESD system - how he is "qualified" to come and tell us - the end-users to change our work habits ? Most of these Emerson marketing people have forgotten what it is like to be a practiced orientated engineer, except to flash off their i-phones and blackberries.
Emerson (my ex-employer), please give us end-users and customers a little more "credit". We are NOT as lost as you think most of us are.
It is not we do not know how to use and apply these so called new cutting edge technologies, except that we really do not need some of them to do the job now and it not practical for us to use them at this moment. We are not that "daft".
Thursday, October 7, 2010 - Re: "It's like being married":
We have been instructed not to respond to Weblogs, so I cannot reveal my identity.
Our perception is reality. Emerson Process Management is proud to have the best products and services in the market place. Emerson offers "It's Never Been Done Before" technologies. However, some of the new best-in-class technologies such as smart Wireless, smart Electronic Marshalling, smart Safety, require a change of the customer's work processes.
The Emerson dilemma: these technologies are of such high level that the majority of customers are not able comprehend the benefits. So how to convince the customer in changing his old and in-efficient habits to new processes, so he can benefit from the Emerson technology?
For this reason we are investing in customer education (see the recent $30 Million Global Innovation Center), to help customers understand and tackle the toughest engineering challenges facing today’s process manufacturing and energy industries. Instead of complaining, customer should recognize our efforts. It's a tough job being the innovation leader.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Sabee's scorecard versus Emerson Process Management Globally:
Following data is publicly available on the Emerson website, and can be viewed using the following link:
http://www.emerson.com/en-US/about/investor-relations/Pages/default.aspx Click on "presentations" to get the detailed quarterly results.
Let's not judge Sabee on his verbal style, but look at his results while being the president in Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific is still noted in Emerson as "Emerging Market" hence one would assume that Emerson Process Management under Sabee would perform better than the global average. Nothing is further from the truth as the Emerson published numbers show:
FY10 Q1:
FY10 Q2:
FY10 Q3:
FY10 Q4: not yet published.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Don't let Emerson draw you into this kind of discussion! This is something at which they are very practiced. There are many intangibles in their arguments, but again, don't get drawn in. They get you chasing your tail, pointing out the numerous flaws in their argument and bury you with generalities and minutia. You lose sight of the fact that your gut reaction was the right one to begin with. They are also very sincere and emphatic about their statements, because they truly do believe that they are correct!
It's like being married. Just nod your head, say "Yes Dear" and move on. They're not going to let Reality change their perception of the World.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Select only one option for each of the following questions:
What do you prefer?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - RE: My experience with Sabee:
I do agree that Sabee gets personal with people, and that is purely in a professional manner in his own style. E.g. when he says what the ".." are you doing in this meeting, his question is how do you think you will add value to this meeting. I have seen very senior managers respond saying, "I was invited for this meeting", and then ofcourse it is a open invitation for trouble. Even there I have seen him respond in his usual soft voice with plain words as, "you get invited for the meeting, you come and have coffee and donouts and thats about it, I wonder what the... is happening in this company". I have seen very senior people convincingly accept that he was absoluetely right in the end, and they invariably walk away with some rich business lessons that will serve them all their life at Emerson. Also several people who perform have grown considerably under his leadership.
Above all, if Berra also tears people apart there is no difference between the two, given that everything is relative.
So, it's high time people stop complaining about Sabee and try to emulate his greatness. There lies the secret to success.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
There is a very clear explanation on how the 2% improvent in OEE is achieved. There are several factors that contribute to this improvement, and actual percentages can be arrived at after a plant survey that is usually undertaken to identify areas of improvement. Typical areas that offer these improvements are:
Saturday, October 2, 2010
No, you didn't understand me correctly. I said I learned about the definition at one of their events. You claim they don't have one, and I suggested that you call your local Emerson office to get information about their defintion and their derivation of the percent improvements.
Attending one of their events on the subject would be worthwhile. If you haven't attended one of their events on the subject, or tried to acquire information by asking them about it, then on what basis did you make the statement that they don't have a definition of it?
I'm not stating the definition because you should get it from the source as I did. It's their job to educate, not mine.
Friday, October 1, 2010
If I understand your reply correctly, than I need to participate in an Emerson organized event to get a definition of "Plant Efficiency". Why can you not simply write down what the 2% Efficience stands for? Did you not pay attention during the brainwash session?
Thursday, September 30, 2010 - Re: "...very few seem to admire all the great things Sabee has done...":
Now why is that? My experience with Sabee: He knows his numbers. He also knows how to humiliate people on a personal level, beyond what most people would call human decency. It is OK to get a bollocking for not performing at the requested level. It is something totally different to be attacked on a personal level. Sabee can only attack personally - that's his style. I have lived too long to accept any verbal abuse directed at my person. John Berra can really tear you down but he kept it on a professional level, hence acceptable. Call me soft and weak, but I do not accept being yelled at for personal reasons. This is a huge weakness for a person who is supposed to set an example with regards to ethical behaviour. Sabee is killing team spirit and motivation. Sabee, shame on you. Emerson, shame on you for letting him get away with it. If Emerson is unaware of Sabee's behaviour, I suggest to interview anybody, without any exceptions, who was present in any meeting with Sabee. Sabee never fails to act like a baboon in heat. And the ethical hotline will not ring, because it is a public secret that Sabee is David Farr's favorite president.
Maybe Sabee does not realize, so I encourage any Emerson employee reading this message to forward it to Sabee. It might give him some insight. Unless of course you are afraid, as Sabee does shoot messengers.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Your statement is simply not true. Emerson does have a definition for plant efficiency. I've personally attended seminars conducted by Emerson during which a significant amount of time was spent discussing this topic. Their definition was sound, as was their analysis of the derivation of percent improvements, i.e., no gaps for you mind to fill in. Quite a few end user-generated proofs were presented as well. I'm quite sure you could call your local Emerson office and ask for white-papers, presentation material, etc. on this subject and they would gladly provide it.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
You will not get a definition of "Plant Efficiency" out of Emerson, because there is no definition of "Plant Efficiency" .
Welcome to the world of marketing. Our brain is a smart thing. It helps us to understand and interact by filling in missing information. The brain closes gaps automatically.
Each customer will look at "Plant Efficiency" and will fill in what is not there i.e. a definition. Each customer will use his interpretation, typically related to a problem that is keeping his mind busy at that moment. E.g. The maintenance manager will translate plant efficiency into maintenance efficiency, the HSE manager will translate into "no accident" efficiency,...
My brain is not able to close the gap on the 2%. Where does the 2% come from. Increase of Emerson dividends value year after year? Final thing my brain is not capable of understanding: Buying Emerson's predictive technology results in safer plants? Does Emerson technology predict accidents? In this case, why doesn't OSHA make the use of Emerson technology the law?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Again, having worked for two Emerson companies, this is how they do things. They're great at "Spin". The problem is that they have been raised in such a way that they sincerely believe their own tripe.
They use "Standards", (FB and Delta V being the best example that I can think of) then go out of their way to make sure that no other manufacturer's FB product works with their version of FB should tell you that there's something not right with the way they're presenting things. The biggest threat to them is an educated customer.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Emerson is a company purely driven by numbers and a huge sense of Insecurity in all the employees. Everyone at senior level start their day with the belief in the statement, "whatever got you where you are today is no longer sufficient to keep you there". Very few (less then 1%) understand that whatever got you where you are today will take you to where you deserve to be tomorrow.
I am ex-Emerson, and have realized that after a certain level you need a godfather to go up in Emerson. Of course, if not ambitious you can stay put whereever you are by pleasing your boss (which I have realized works on a global basis, not only at Emerson) and can possibly earn you a few promotions.
Talking bout Sabee, very few sem to admire all the great things he has done for the company and people all around in Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, as well as the US, where he left the VP's position in the interest of employees. Hope those who have grown with his blessings will be open in admitting it. And for all those thinking Sabee will exit, It ain't gonna happen, given the great relation he has with Emerson's EC.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Dear Emerson, what is your definition of plant efficiency? Can you give me some references where this 2% was achieved?
Monday, September 27, 2010
Only competitors would call PlantWeb a marketing spin.
Thousands of customers around the globe have implemented PlantWeb, the proven digital plant architecture that uses the power of predictive intelligence to improve plant performance. PlantWeb isn't simply a product or a specific automation control system. It's a proven strategy for building a digital architecture, a blueprint for building solutions that optimize plant performance
While PlantWeb lowers capital and engineering costs compared to traditional DCS-centered architectures, it provides even greater operational benefits by enabling you to improve throughput, availability, and quality, reduce conversion costs, and sustain the resulting performance gains. Users typically report at least 2% improvements in plant efficiency. And, to help make your operation safer and more productive, Emerson has extended the proven innovations of our PlantWeb digital architecture to safety instrumented systems (SIS).
In summary:
Lowest CAPEX - Lowest OPEX - Highest QUALITY - Highest TROUGHPUT - Highest AVAILABILITY - Highest Plant Efficiency - Highest SAFETY... all proven by Customer references. If you do not believe us, simply ask and we will provide: Consider it solved.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
In Charles F. Knight's book you can read: "Emerson's ultimate responsibility is our shareholders. Charles (alias Chuck) also writes that the division (Product) presidents have global responsibility for the profit of their division (products). For the division president EBIT is an important contributor to his survival as a president but also to the bonus for the divisional employees (see p. 67 in Chuck's book) - "Cost Reduction is Religion". According to Chuck, Cross divisional spending is not part of Emerson's strategy.
With limited success, Emerson is trying to combine cross product development efforts, to develop cross-divisional product solutions. This however is nothing compared to offering customer solutions. I hope I live to see the day that Emerson Process Systems division and Emerson's Power and Water division work together to deliver a solution.
At least Emerson does not stop talking about Solutions. If you can't do it, pretend you can by giving it a great marketing spin. Let's call it "PlantWeb!". The definition of PlantWeb shall be: "Every project sold with smart products is called a PlantWeb win". Since Emerson only has smart, easy-to-use, plug-and-play products, each win is a "PlantWeb win" hence each project is a Solutions sales instead of products. The best kept secret in Emerson is the amount of PlantWeb wins, where the "smart" features have actually been implemented as a solution.
Friday, September 24, 2010 - Back to the "Wake Up" post on the 14th:
I've worked for two Emerson companies, and I have to say I agree with the blogger. Emerson presents a polished coordinated front to the public and it's users, but the shareholders are the ultimate consumers, from the Board of Director's perspective.
That mentality goes back a long way and is very deply ingrained. Sorry if you think they give a damn about you; but, again, the blogger is correct. I have seen way too many middle level managers who couldn't punch their way out of a wet sack, from a technology perspective, but understand numbers, how to manipulate them and how the game is played. Emerson's ranks are overflowing with them.
Blend in, play the game, strive for mediocrity and you'll do just fine at Emerson.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
I had the honor to visit the Emerson Exchange two years back in Washington. It is a magnificent event, underlining the strength of Emerson as an innovative product company. The industry applications are presented by the endusers which is as it should be.
I do not understand the exciting reaction from Emerson claiming they have application experts. If you dig a little bit deeper, the few application experts in Emerson are ex Fluor, Jacobs, Honeywell, ABB, Triconex or HIMA. It is ok to have world class product specialists. We know our applications, you know your products. This is a great combination to find the most suitable solution. It's a real pity I will not be going to the Exchange again. Have fun!
Thursday, September 23, 2010 - Re: "When the numbers are falling, reported market shares tend to increase":
Did you notice that Business leaders achieving their targets will seldom mention "maket share". Conveniently, market share, as mentioned in the 22 Sept blog, can be defined in many ways. So in case of failure to meet the financial targets, "market share" is used as an excuse to relieve some of the pain of failure. "Although we did not meet the targets, at least we increased our market share"...
If the direct competitors however, are growing Sales, it will be difficult to uphold the "we increased our market share" argument. Despite bad operating results, most direct competitors of Emerson are increasing their sales. Maybe they should have followed Emerson's example, and fire more people.
Thursday, September 23, 2010 - To Sept 22 blog:
Revenue is not influenced by cutting costs. Profit/Earnings are influenced by cutting CGS (Cost Of Goods Sold) or SG&A (Sales, General and Admin cost). Buying companies can influence Revenue, and at the same time, you are buying market share.
Indeed there are many ways to define market share; however, if a market represents 50 Billion USD per year, and your company has a revenue in this market of 5 Billion USD, is it wrong to say that you have a 10% market share? You do find this information in the AR.
Dividends is the amount of money paid out to the shareholders. If this is so important for EMR, than the previous blogger was right; it is all about shareholder value. I think I am going to buy some shares myself.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 - Regarding "Wake up!" blog Sept 14; blog Sept 18; blog Sept 20:
There are many ways to determine market share – third party surveys (ARC, Flow Research, etc.); second AR’s showing Revenue is NOT indicative of market share. They can be manipulated by laying off workers, slashing R&D, buying companies, etc. If revenue is your thing, then name another automation vendor that has increased its dividends annually for more than 50 years.
Other, indirect indicators of market share are hiring of more sales people, number of new products (and are the products reworks of existing products or new technologically), new facilities, etc. Your statement, "When the numbers are falling, reported market shares tend to increase" makes no sense.
Regarding "Product support only" – not true. We do have the best product support folks on the planet (RCC) and they have fast amounts of product AND process knowledge. Most of RCC are degreed engineers and they are support by a vast network of industry specialist, field salesmen, other Emerson divisions, that can be contacted individually or with intranet broadcasts to get more process solutions. Go to Emerson Exchange and see for yourself the huge number of Application presentations.
Monday, September 20, 2010 - Regarding "Wake up!" blog Sept 14; blog Sept 18:
Ouch, that seem to have hurt. Fierce reaction from the Emerson Troops. Where there's smoke, there's fire? When the numbers are falling, reported market shares tend to increase. There aren't many other plausible excuses available to keep the shareholders happy. I wonder, on a global scale, how to measure market shares objectively and comparable?
Note: Dear Emerson fan of Sept 18: If you would take the time to read the AR's of your competition, you will discover that several are showing revenue growth over the past 2 Quarters. You might want to review your "market share" statement.
Monday, September 20, 2010
To the blogger Sept, 14: I agree with the Sept 18 blogger. Emerson Process Management offers best-in-class customer support
To blogger Sept, 18: I also agree with the Sept 14 blogger. Emerson Process Management offers best in class customer PRODUCT support only. In comparison to direct competitors, HON, ABB or YEW, the application knowledge of Emerson employees is very thin.
PS: For the Emerson Management folks: Explaining how to commission a fieldbus device is considered Product Support. Explaining how to improve energy balance using your products is considered Solution Support.
Saturday, September 18, 2010 - Regarding "Wake up!"s blog Sept 14:
You couldn't be more wrong. Either you are one of our competitors, or you've shorted our stock. Either way Emerson is dedicated to improving Service, Support and Solutions with innovative products and a workforce motivated to be Best-In-Class. I'm proud of the work I do and the work my co-workers do. We can't be taking market share in good times and bad without customer support!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Wake up! Emerson and Jim Nyquist are not interested in selling automation solutions. Emerson's number one customers are the shareholders. Selling innovative, profitable, high tech, ease-of-use products is the top priority. Hence the never ending flow of new technologies is all that matters. Solutions, services are not shareholder-friendly. Emerson Electric is trying, partially succeeding (give it some time) to exceed General Electric. While employees are complaining on this forum, EMR is gradually moving up and entering the Fortune Top 100. Mission accomplished - never mind the solutions. People are a means to an end. Nothing more, nothing less. Once you understand and accept this, you will have a magnificent career in Emerson. The big pile of middle management - supposedly not knowledgeable with regards to business and customer needs - do understand numbers.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Jim Nyquist is a very strong leader who understands operations. Will Jim be able to stop the exodus of our top employees? Will Jim be able to re-hire the many experts we let go? Jim knows that reducing wires only will not be enough to regain the market shares. Jim knows that technology alone, and a fancy flyer are not enough. We hope Jim will be able to get some of the people back. Better late than never.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Is it part of Emerson's management training program to rotate presidents so quickly? No wonder they are getting dizzy.
Monday, September 6, 2010
No doubt, Sabee is brilliant. If he could only learn to communicate, simply act civilized, built a team based on knowledge -not race or sugar blowing capabilities - Sabee would be unbeatable. Michael Schumacher without a car, Tiger Woods without balls, Roger Federer without a racket, Sabee without a team...
Monday, September 6, 2010
Oct 1st, Jim Nyquist will replace John Berra. Mike Train takes over from Jim Nyquist as Global Sales Leader. The Aug 31 blogger seems to be the one leaving Emerson. If Sabee leaves, you will hear a roar all the way to the US, VP's the loudest. Today all is quiet.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
From 8/31 blog am I to understand that Sabee will no longer be President EPM for Asia Pacific effective Oct 1st? What's his new role going to be? I am assuming Mike Train returns back from USA to take over that position. Correct?
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sayonara Sabee. Times are improving fast and vacancies in job market available. Still - Emerson still has my vote for best automation company around. A pity indeed. Division President's in US to the rescue to stop the deterioration ? Give AP VP's some spine? Guess not.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sabee's reign has brought about a negative vibe in the atmosphere and division VP's are not taking a stand strong enough to negate it. More so when Sabee takes on this role after the much appreciated Mike Train who coincidently will be his new 'Boss' beginning Oct 1! More exodus of staff expected end year where many have tolerated enough. Its a sad situation even though I've left 2 months back and do symphatize with my ex-collegues. Its not much better in the country level where the GM's are just not strong enough to shield the negativity around. Look at the people Sabee promoted along in the past year. Sad indeed. Being with Emerson for 8 years, how true when one mistake of someone like Sabee can be so disastrous. Just compare the financial performance and working environment of Sabee vs. Train.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
As cross-divisional president, Sabee cannot cut people. He does not have any people to cut. Sabee's job is symbolic. Everybody in Emerson knows that the accountability and therefore the real power is with the divisions. Sabee can do his little rain dance as many times as he pleases. He cannot do anything without the support of the divisional president, or in his case, the local Rosemount, Fisher and System Vice Presidents. One day Sabee will realize that bouncing around like a mad dog on steroids is not getting him anywhere. The divisions all laugh behind his back.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - In reply to: ex-laid off Emerson staff in 2009:
There is no delay effect in Asia. The salaries of the local people will hardly effect the bottom line. The North American lay-offs are not only funding the "talented" expats in AP, but also the "best cost" engineering offices in "low cost" countries. Every laid off US citizen is replaced by 10 "best cost" staff. Cost ratio US employee/AP employee = 10/1. This also applies to the AP President who is of Indian nationality and local. It does not apply to expats. Cost ratio US employee/US expat = 1/4.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Sabee is opening 5 completely new offices in China. Shanghai continues to function as Headquarters for China. How does this improve bottom line? Unless the last blogger is wrong, somebody will have to pay the price for Sabee's madness. I doubt it will be Sabee himself.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - from: ex-laid off Emerson staff in 2009:
It seems like EPM Asia Pacific is doing a "delayed effect" of what EPM in North America has done in the 2009. I will not be surprised that the first to be "let go" will be the "locals". The expat managers(which what the locals calls these foreign managers - in which 99% of them do not speak or understand fully the local languages) will not leave so fast as there are not much jobs back in North America, Europe and elsewhere. These "talents" were put there with the "blessings" of Emerson Head Offices. In that manner, Sabee is also an "expat". If he does not do something on the bottom line, he also gets the "chop".
A word to those EPM AP locals - read the common words used in the last few postings in this weblog are. I was caught off guard in 2008. I was let go in "2009".
Friday, June 25, 2010 - from Emerson Asia:
Q3 closing. Miles behind the target. Wireless failing despite huge marketing budget. China being reorganised in Sabee style: Choas strategy. Mix - Wirble - Throw in Air - wait to see who falls off the table. The wounded get shot. Awaiting new wave of lay-off in July. Hoping to fall in the Siemens ABB RA safety net.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
On site we have 3 types of DCS and 2 types of Safety Systems. Delta V and Delta V SIS are one of each. We are very pleased with the performance of Delta V and Delta V SIS. There are many benefits in the integrated concept. These however should always be put in second place after the safety requirements. Safety always goes first.
Emerson has designed Delta V SIS to meet the requirements of the chemical industry. Delta V SIS is perfect for smaller applications with SIL 1 or SIL 2 rating.
Due to the physical system limitations, the required engineering efforts increases fast with higher complexity or bigger size systems, but also because of the flexibility of Delta V SIS. On larger projects, too much flexibility will work contra-productive. For example: 1) Each Delta V SIS function block has more than 100 parameters. The configuration of these parameters in Delta V SIS have to verified manually. With each function block used, 100 parameters need to be checked. 2) Delta V SIS can not handle our standard cause and effect. Each end user will have to decide on the IO size pain-point for Delta V SIS.
SIL 3 applications? The SIL rating is a function of the failure rates and the proof test frequency. For Delta V SIS, a proof test means a shutdown. Better failure rates result in lower proof test frequencies. Per the safety manual, all safety system vendors ensure a minimum of 10 year of proof test interval, even for SIL 3 requirements. With Delta V SIS, the proof-test frequency is a lot higher (more often) than the other safety systems due the not so good failure rates. The proof test must be calculated using the formulas in the safety manual. For a SIL 3 with Delta V SIS, the user has to shutdown at least (best case) once per year. Good engineering will not improve this number as it is a characteristic of Delta V SIS. The user will need to balance the cost of a yearly or half yearly shutdown of the SIL 3 loops against the benefits "easy" of Delta V SIS.
Some of our internal guidelines:
Thursday, June 24, 2010 - In response to ..."To the safety engineer IEC 61511 = job security":
Finally somebody starts making sense. Do not let the IEC 61511 stand in the way of your professional engineering judgement. The IEC 61511 is not the law. It is only a guideline. Following the IEC 61511 does not guarantee safety.
Due to the high quality of DeltaV we decided to put the SIL 1 loops in DeltaV. Product limitations: No more. The DeltaV and DeltaV SIS are closely integrated, so you can even mix if you like. Emerson (PCE) in STL was not overly excited with the idea but Austin marketing overruled, and STL implemented for us (Emerson did not allow us to do engineering). The system works great - we never had any issue. No system out there can beat the DeltaV - DeltaV SIS combination. But agreed, you need to have an engineering head on your shoulders.
In anticipation for FF-SIS, Emerson is currently monitoring several FF SIL 1 applications they implemented a few years ago in Africa. Soon they will be able to sell FF SIL 1 as prior use. Again Emerson is far ahead of the competition.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
To the confident engineer:
Write again after you ran out of secure parameters, or after you find out you can only meet safety with monthly shutdowns, or after you did not meet process safety time, or after you had to install inverter relays for F&G, or after you ran out of money to install this product. Even the best engineers cannot deliver miracles. Bet they pampered you well during the last Emerson Exchange.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - To the confident competitor:
Dude, do you not keep up with current events? Look at what BP and Toyota are having to do now to make us think they are serious about safety. It’s not exactly the right time to use that tactic.
You sound like the guy who sold the blowout preventer on the Deepwater Horizon well. “The user of our BOP has no responsibilities. You don’t need to test it, you don’t need to check the batteries. It will just work.”
It looks to me like the Emerson safety manual is mostly referring to the safety engineering requirements from the standards. There are user responsibilities throughout the standards. To the safety engineer IEC 61511 = job security. Engineers welcome user responsibilities, up to a point. Give us some credit. We’ll look beneath the surface to see which safety system makes a difficult job the easiest. From what I can tell, the Emerson safety system has more built-in capabilities than the other systems I have worked with. A serious manual about a serious subject is not going to discourage me.
Take some advice. Be more like the Emerson sales people. Just tell us what’s good about your product. And pretend we know something about our job.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Confident competitor? Right! Good try! If you can't move things from the inside, try applying some external pressure. It shows you care. However, Emerson might not appreciate your passion and efforts.
Monday, June 21, 2010 - From a confident competitor:
How to discourage potential end-users from buying DeltaV SIS? Use the safety manual. This masterpiece is freely available and can be downloaded from the Emerson website. The IEC 61511/S84 defines the safety manual as the manual which defines how equipment can be safely applied. So we ask the potential customer to browse for "MUST" and "REQUIRE" words, indicating the responsibilities for the user. Case closed.
Sunday, June 20, 2010 - In response to : Sunday, June 20, 2010 - Question for 16 June blogger:
You are right and you are wrong:
Correct, the scantime of one DeltaV SIS is 50ms. The response time does not equal scantime. The response time depends on the number of PLC’s used, and the location of these PLC’s on the DeltaV network. The response time of one PLC is 575ms (see DeltaV SIS Safety manual). For 2 DeltaV SIS connected to different DeltaV controllers, the response time is more than one second (add 575ms per PLC used). So if more PLC’s are involved, the worse case response time can be several seconds.
Correct, the MTBF of one redundant DeltaV SIS PLC with 16 IO is 3000 years. The MTBF of 10 redundant DeltaV SIS PLC with 160 IO is 300 years. The MTBF of 100 DeltaV SIS PLC with 1600 IO is 30 years. The MTBF of a TMR with 3000 IO is still 3000 years.
Correct, although I could not find any description, you can add hardware IO online. However there is a limitation on the communication signals between the DeltaV SIS PLC’s (secure parameters). Once these secure parameters, 512 in total, are used up, you can add the hardware, but are not be able to program any software in the PLC’s. We quickly reached the limit of our secure parameters and had to reconfigure the complete logic to squeeze in the program. Emerson has no tool available to predict the loading and use of secure parameters. Emerson preaches scalability and distribution but in reality, the more you distribute the more intercommunications between the PLC’s, the faster you reach the DeltaV SIS limits. Any additional change will result in re-programming the logic solvers. Is this Emerson’s definition of flexibility?
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Many of us are fooled by the PlantWeb vision. It took me a while to understand that PlantWeb is not a product, it is a virtual concept created in the minds of marketing people for the purpose of selling products.
For those who read “Performance without Compromise” -- I received a free copy while visiting the PlantWeb demo room -- understand that Emerson is not interested in selling solutions. Emerson delivers products, not solutions. There is no such thing as a PlantWeb division in Emerson. Rosemount, Fisher, DeltaV are accountable for their own profit and loss. The “PlantWeb Solutions Group” is just a new name for the old PSS or DeltaV group.
If you understand that Emerson has no intention of selling solutions, you will easily see that the vision created by the PlantWeb demo room and reality are not the same, and you can avoid a bad hangover. I am not saying there is anything wrong with Emerson products, on the contrary, we are quite pleased with the quality and performance of our 3051. However, if you allow PlantWeb to raise your expectations, if you believe that it is all so easy, that it is all plug and play, you will be disappointed.
The solutions have to be created solely by the user, without any support from Emerson nor PlantWeb. In vain, you will look for a “How to implement PlantWeb” guide. There are no engineering or maintenance manuals in Emerson. You will find plenty of product datasheets and customer quotes (Regrettably, to protect the customer, contact numbers are not available).
Without the PlantWeb story, Emerson would be just another product supplier. The Products are good. Do not expect anything more, and you will not be disappointed.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Watching out for the limitation faced in the DeltaV SIS also include the other Emerson DCS, i.e. the Ovation, which is only used mostly in the Power Generation industry. End-Users has also got to beware of a so called "independent" "Leading research and advisory firm for industry and infrastructure."
Their editors and writers could have been "commissioned" by Emerson to write about favorable research and "visionary" papers on the DeltaV and the DeltaV SIS. Reports from "research and advisory firms" have to be bought. But strangly these reports are usually downloadable for free at the DeltaV websites...
End-users just be wary. Read it with a big chunk of salt or suffer the consequences like what my current plant has to live with.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
In a perfect world: Customer pain translates into the specification of new products leading to new technologies sold by expert sales closing the small innovation gaps, supported by to-the-point marketing.
In the Emerson Process Management systems world – Product Management is King: Customer pain reported by Sales and the Service department is ignored by product management. Products are specified by in-experienced product managers based on brainstorm ideas. A solid and strong technology department has no choice but to realize the futuristic designs. The same product managers develop the marketing campaign “It’s never been done before” to sell their ideas. The Sales team is trained to sell to the customer what he did not ask for. The unsuccessful sales-team is scolded because they are not selling.
How can Emerson check the sincerity of the above statements?
In the meantime, the Emerson product marketing folks will continue their game as they do not have the knowledge to do otherwise. And who will the Emerson Management turn to for advice: you guessed right: Product Management.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
I stand in awe for the never ending flow of marketing material produced by Emerson Process Management. I am a big fan. It is very entertaining. It never ceases to amaze me that it actually works. The process industry, myself included, have fallen for the "marketing spin". From the mouth of an Emerson Marketing VP: "Sex sells", and Emerson Process Management products truly are "sexy".
Doubts, and fear, creep in when this brilliant marketing machine is going after safety in the process industry. While we are trying to process the devastating consequences of a horrible oil disaster in progress, Emerson Process Management publishes the new safety brochure. The tone is clear:
Dear Emerson, I really hope you know what you are doing.
Sunday, June 20, 2010 - Question for 16 June blogger:
I do not understand your blog.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
In support of previous blogs, I strongly advise to do a reality check before buying any DeltaV kit. What seems easy in the Plantweb demo room can become a nightmare. For DeltaV SIS, Emerson shows you the features of one little box with 16 IO. I strongly advise to verify the communication limitations between the PLCs, ask for guaranteed response time, ask for guaranteed MTBF, ask for guaranteed IO expansion. A little issue with 16 IO can became a major one with 100 IO or more.
Monday, June 14, 2010 - from a current DeltaV end-user who cannot get rid of the plant DeltaV system...
Being a technology marketing company, I was wondering if Emerson likes this sort of "publicity" that it is being given in this Weblog recently for the past few months.
True to my expectation, their marketing machinery put up two locations in the internet - making sure everyone knows the number of registered end-users subscribers at each of these locations... There is a hidden message here. If you look closely at the DeltaV basic hardware offerings, the I/O modules, controllers, power suppliers etc... There are not many ways to design a DI module or AI modules. Really there is not very much differences from other DCS vendors. What is the differentiator ? Marketing machinery and EPM's business model -using Local Business Partners (LPBs).
A great piece of marketing spin is on the PlantWeb, impressive Plant Web demos rooms, glossy brochures, You-tube videos, facebooks, linkedlin.
Future users who are being taken into Emerson's spin - beware...
The DeltaV control system including the DeltaV SIS - on a big picture looks "exciting" and really "futuristics". The main internal DeltaV's "core" is still the same.
It looks like there it has a lot to offer BUT there is alway a catch somewhere down the road like their infamouse Emerson dongles, the DST counts, the restrictions in DeltaV SIS secured parameter passing etc...
Control engineering desgin team - just beware. It is going to "bite" your commissioning, installation and maintenance cost and expenditure down the road.
Monday, June 14, 2010 - Jim Cahill [Jim.Cahill@emerson.com]:
For the questions about DeltaV below, you might also try two of the DeltaV communities. The DeltaV Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=21266817522 currently has 1199 members, and the DeltaV LinkedIn group http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1270757 currently has 1824 members.
Monday, June 14, 2010 - RE: Electronic Marshalling:
You are pretty much right about the new Emerson Concept. The concept is to replace existing DCS wiring termination boards with the new Electronic Marshalling concept using "Charm" modules. So basically you are retrofitting one wiring base with a new wiring base and then plugging in the appropriate I/O, or "Charm" module based on DI, DO, AI, AO, etc. the wrinkle (and what spooks me) is that the connection from the base module(s) back to the Delta V is an Emerson proprietary, ethernet type network connection. Further, the new concept is only available for the new Delta V "S" series.
I'd be more inclined to go with a remote I/O solution and get rid of the large marshalling room were I to do a DCS migration. I'd be interested to know if any of the readers would like to share their experiences?
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The DeltaV PlantWeb demo room sure looks great. I was also impressed by it.
The "vision" that they painted and all the "savings" that it will bring to plants. To me it was a nice "spin".
Let me put it this way...if one talks about "scalability", this does not represent a plant at all.
"REEL life" plant and REAL life plant is vastly different! No matter what other says, Emerson is a first and formost a marketing company with so-so products.
Saturday, June 12, 2010 - Back to basics:
What is Marshalling?
The wiring on one side matches the field cabling. The other side of the cabinet would be wired in order of the Control equipment IO. Marshalling is where the cross wiring matches the input/output from the IO card to the cable/pair combination carrying the device signals from the field device.
Why Marshalling?
Instead of making a natural split between control equipment and field equipment using a cross wire, the control equipment is split into Controllers and IO. IO controllers are sent to site for field equipment wiring while controllers are programmed in the factory. After completion of the cabinet built and programming, the controller cabinet is shipped to site and linked to its IO using system cable. The field equipment is hooked up using software.
Considerations
Friday, June 11, 2010
I am being forced into being interested in this electronic marshalling. I am struggling with the concept and need some help.
So far I understood: Instead of IO cards on the backplane, there is a bus-like link to a terminal block. Each individual terminal can be any IO depending on some CHIP I plug into the individual terminal. The software will recognize which type of CHIP I plugged into the terminal.
Some question I have:
Does anybody have some serious feedback? Anybody in Emerson maybe?
Friday, June 11, 2010
For DeltaV questions Email: AskDeltaV@emerson.com
Thursday, June 10, 2010 - Re: "Why not Profibus?"
Great comment, but Delta V does support ProfibusDP and there is quite a lot of PDP Remote I/O in the field coming into Delta V. Most Delta V customers have not bought the FF Koolaid and are using PDP for the process I/O. What I want to know is whether or not the new Delta V PDP Dual Master supports DPV1 or only DPV0? Any other known defects with the master?
BTW, we have heard from another plant running the DPV0 PDP Master thru a P&F DP/PA coupler and are bringing Profibus PA signals into Delta V? Strange but true!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Why does Emerson not tell you the other half of the truth? I bet Emerson would not tell you that:
Although the Emerson marketing machine will try to convince you of the opposite, you will find very little PlantWeb solutions in the field. As soon as you ask for personal contacts, the system breaks down. You will find plenty of videos. Just check who was the editor.
Loyal to its product selling history, the Emerson ranks are filled with marketing and technology people to support the shareholder value mission. You will fail in finding industry experts with real application knowledge. So why act surprised when the Emerson products looked fantastic in the PlantWeb demo room, but somehow do not seem to fit your application? Why act surprised when you find out that really there is no Emerson, but still a collection of many different division who somehow do not seem to be able to talk together?
Does Marketing really rule the world?
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The PlantWeb Demo room rocks! Bringing a plant engineer to the PlantWeb demo room in Austin is like bringing a redneck to a tt-bar. Impossible to resist and addictive. Guess what he will tell the management?
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Profibus would open up the F&B market for DeltaV. Surely not something we would want.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Why not Profibus? Because John Berra is the Chairman of the Foundation Fieldbus. Never mind your career, if you value your life, you better not mention the word "Profibus" around John. There will be only one. Sad case of management believing the half truths told by marketing.
In the same category of half truths: Wireless, Electronic Marshalling, smart SIS, EDDL. All great marketing stories but quite useless when trying to apply beyond the scope of the Plantweb marketing demo room.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Does anyone know if the new ProfibusDP Dual master for the Delta V platform support DPV1? If not, why not?
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
I am an Emerson employee and huge fan of this blog. I know I am not alone. Reading the negative stories posted by the employees of competitors somehow brightens up my day. The grass is not greener on the other side. Or they are all the same, right? I would expect more Emerson people to come forward. Funny that. It is definitely safer than the pantry chats. The walls have ears. Maybe one day the few bloggers will find the courage, or better, a good reason to publish their names. I guess we all need to pay our bills.
Friday, May 28, 2010 - from a laid-off ex-Emerson employee in North America:
I have been to the Singapore Emerson office in West Coast Road a couple of times. Let me put it this way to the people in the Singapore office. This is a rude wake up call.
Emerson is first and foremost :
Anyway, you know the current situation. All these expats will not leave suddenly. There are currently no jobs in North America and Europe. It is time to do some planning to look after yourself. Nobody will do it for you, despite what they tell you during webcasted town-hall meetings.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - Singapore:
Expats are no more and no less useful/useless than Singaporians. So why pay so much money?
Austin, this might come as a surprise:
Monday, May 24, 2010 - Reporting from Singapore:
Many good people were asked to leave. The usefull?/useless? expats with their expansive condos (10k per month), fancy cars (200k) and costly international schools (50k per child) are still here. How many Asians does one have to fire to compensate for one expat?
What happened to the team spirit? I guess it disappeared together with the people. Fear rules but who will notice? Austin is far away. Austin does not care. Austin has lost so many good people also.
Business in the region has picked up. We do not to get our piece of the pie. I wonder about the excuses to management. The resource gaps are becoming visible. More good people are leaving as Rockwell, ABB and Honeywell have started their hunt for talent. This week, two of our best sales people left. A change for the better? Who will know? The atmosphere cannot get any worse but at least the pay is better. And they know where it will hurt us most. Nevertheless we understand and wish them all the best.
Friday, May 14, 2010
I was sincere on my survey. If you thought differently, obviously you did not pay any attention during your ethical courses. If it sounds like a duck...
Friday, April 30, 2010
If you really think that you are getting sincere survey results about necessary changes after a layoff, you are not being honest with yourself or anyone else. Fear of retribution, especially with HR and management direct oversight, will only assure positive responses. If the survey were done anonymously and in private, do you honestly believe the results would be the same?
Friday, April 23, 2010
I used to work for Honeywell. My personal experience: Emerson is so much better. Yes, Emerson did cut deeper to protect and secure the future jobs of the remaining employees. I welcome this management style. As manager, I confirm that dedicated and talented people will not be made redundant. If you were laid off, you yourself will know the reason. I also contradict the cheating with the evaluations. We diligently completed the exercise, and our results match: No changes required.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
For the past 6 years with Emerson, when I get up in the morning, I really wanted to get to work. The company was not all that perfect, but I didn't have any ill of bad feelings until what happened last year during the surprise great cull.
Emerson has been praised by shareholders and analysts, as it has been giving shareholders dividend for the past many, many years. First and foremost to keep to this "tradition", I am not surprised at what Emerson corporate had done with lay-offs. I bet you that Emerson will not make any apologies for that.
The "cut" was executed with stealth, speed and precision. I heard that some Emerson offices took the "smart decision" to cut "deeper" than required. Cutting deeper isn't that smart, becasue I have experienced some remaining individuals may not have the product knowledge or skill sets to do the jobs left behind.
Recently we got to do the bi-annual Emerson confidential survey and rating. This exercise was a joke to me becasue the remaining employees who survived the cull were all cramped into a small area to fill up confidential survey forms. We were sitting side-by-side on a small table, with a pencil. I ccould almost peep over to see people's pencil-mark on the survey form. The Emerson people and HR people who were managing this survey were walking around, looking over and smiling.
My local Emerson office expects 100% participation. I guess this is an important exercise after the cull because Emerson corporate wanted to gauge what the feeling on the ground is like. I was equally surprised when the survey results were released. I feel that people were not telling the truth, becasue the results say that Emerson Management absolutely did not have to do anything to change. To me the results do not gell. This is not the feeling I get when I talk to my remaining fellow collegues.
It is a cold hard fact that first-and-foremost sharholder value DOES come first, despite what was said during the quaterly townhall meetings before the big surprise "cull". Emerson through their great "marketing machinery" in promoting and touting their products - at the end they are really no better than the rest of the automation vendors. It is people that makes the products look good and not the other way round.
I had the illusion that I can stay on for long time with Emerson. Like what the previous blogger had stated - whether you have 1 year or 100 years of service, when the pink slip have your name on it, you have to go. I will re-evaluate my choices now as the economy improves.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Dear frustrated ex-Emerson employees. Yes, Emerson is no better than the rest of the lot. Consider this realisation a benefit and opportunity. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The last two blogs shows that the highly respected Emerson is finally being haunted by the last great layoffs exercise in 2009. Management Planning, I believed, already started in late 2008 or perhaps earlier. Execution of the layoffs in North America begun in Feburary 2009 (if I can stil remember it correctly). I believed that an engineering office in Atlanta was also closed?
I remembered that fateful day when I lost a BIG group of ex-collegues of 1 year to 23 years of services with the company.
Subsequent there were two or three more smaller layoffs throughout the next few months, until we have no more people to layoff. This engineering office simply cannot function because there were still on-going projects but the individuals that survived did not have the correct skill sets to do the work.
I recognised that layoffs is a fact now, even for well run companies like Emerson. I know that it may happen to me also. Fortunately it did not. I do hope that it will not. I know that layoff can be "blind" to whatever contribution an individual of 1 year or even 100 years of services has made to the company. When the pink slip was issued with your name on it, off you go. The survivors were left picking up the bits and pieces to keep our job going. One or two individuals that survived the layoffs should have been be laid-off in the first place. But layoffs are finally decided by humans. Were these "incumbents" who should be "protected"? I have no answer.
I remembered the Vice President (who was subsequemtly asked to go later) praised his HR director that he did a good job in finding a HR management company that will help these laid-off collegues. The remaining people who survived the "cull" were explicitly told not to give references to those who were laid-off. The HR company will manage them. I am not sure why Emerson cooperate has decided on this approach. But I look at it simply that if you push people onto the ground now, and then, why you subsequently kick them in the teeth again?
This HR management company only does the very basic for the laid-offs. Resume writing, advice and general councselling. It offers papers and printers to print your resume for a limited period of time. Every so often for this limited period of time, it calls on you to check on your staus (that you are alive) so that they can use the number to report to Emerson.
I think the local government run unemployment office does a better job. At least it offers a job list or job placement.
A year or so has passed. We were told to forget the past. We look forward to new roll-outs. Emerson has announced through their "marketing machinery" of new "cutting edge" wireless technology, no hard-wire marshalling, micro-process controlled marshalling racks, new DeltaV version, etc. all to wow end-users.
The economy is now starting to show signs of pick up. Some laid-off ex-colleagues have found jobs. Some have basic problems even landing an entry level engineering job.
I want to tell Emerson higher-up people that what you had done has a "karma". What goes out comes back around. The "back-lash" may start from those who were ex-collegues, who are now employed or soon to be employed finally. Some of them will finally end up in job positions of power and financial control. I already have heard it from one or two of them. The way you treated some of them will come back to haunt this company in using your products.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Following the numerous lay-offs - does anybody have the number of people laid of in Emerson over the past year? It is difficult to swallow the comments of the "it is great to be here" blogger.
I am happy that you have managed to keep your job. However, there is no need to back-stab with your comments the many great colleagues we lost during the past down-period. While eliminating our service capabilities, we have lost most of our industry and application experts.
One day, our management might realize that, in order to sell new technologies, customers have to start working differently, and it takes experts to convince them.
To Mr. Berra - our so knowledgeable leader:
If you want to get rid of the roads (wires) by offering airplane technology (Wireless transmitters, Electronic Marshalling, etc.) you have to convince people that flying is reliable, convince customers to rebuild the garage so the wings will fit, that flying is cheaper...
It is easy for people to see the benefits of flying when trying to reach distant locations. But when it comes to driving the kids to school, I need more than a glossy picture of an airplane saying "flying is easy". My car has been doing the trick for the past 30 years. Surely it will work for the next 30 years.
Dear Mr. Berra, we have lost the experts to help sell our indeed advanced technology; we have lost the experts to help teach people how to fly, to help explain why flying is reliable, to help remodel the garage so the plane will fit. We are left with people with very little substance but the ability to tweet and market themselves. Sooner or later, even you will catch on. If not, the shareholders definitely will.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
I am not sure why this person (previous blogger) from Emerson has posted this weblog. Anyway, I know you sure feel lucky. It is because you were not laid-off. Last year, Emerson quietly closed down an engineering office in North America. One Emerson office laid-off close to 40% of its staff. A couple of people I know are still on unemployment benefit. They have problems landing a basic engineering job. Their benefit is going to run out soon. I don't think Emerson's leadership appreciate this sort of "bragging".
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Working for Emerson since 2001. It's been nothing but a good thing. Well run, by management who understand our business. Unlike another Automation company I worked for in the late 80's and early 90's. It's a great place to be.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Oct. 6, 2009 Avocet Corporation (NASDAQ: AVCT) is surging on already double a full day’s volume. At 8:17 AM EST we have seen 710,000 shares traded and the stock is up 20% at $24.80. Emerson (EMR) is paying $1.2 billion, or $25.00 per share, to acquire the company. Avocet closed at $20.52 yesterday and trades only 317,000 shares on an average day. Today will be exponentially above that figure on trading volume. The prior 52-week high was $21.38. This will be part of Emerson Network Power.
Oct. 22, 2009 Emerson Process Management said Thursday it acquired Missouri City, Texas-based EIM Controls Inc., a maker of valve actuators. EIM Controls will join the company’s Valve Automation division, expanding Emerson’s electric actuator offerings. EIM Controls generated sales of about $43.3 million in the year ended Sept. 30. It has 168 employees in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Monday, August 17, 2009 - from Conrad Acker [Conrad.Acker@Emerson.com]:
Replying to the July 21, posting:
Answer: Ovation provides I/O redundancy utilizing on-board diagnostic switchover for AO, DO, DI, and high speed turbine application modules. For AI modules, external automated switchover is used.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The issue of I/O module level redundancy is never mentioned in any of the manuals of Ovation system. How is that accomplished? I know this is an essential feature in Honneywell, Foxbooro, Yokogawa and even Delta V. These guys have a diagnostic based switchover from faulty to healthy I/O modules and that does not use any external HI/Lo selectors etc. for AO. Could anyone help and throw some light on this?
Monday, July 20, 2009
I've been with Emerson for 8 years, after 14 years with Honeywell, and the difference couldn't be greater. Emerson sticks to it's business - serving their customers - while Honeywell is embroiled in internal political machinations. Emerson's R&D is huge and new products are introduced all the time. I love my job and enjoy my work. Something I could never say at Honeywell.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
the blogger of Sunday, July 5: "This weblog for Emerson is questionable. The rest of companies featured on your weblogs all have comments. It seems overall that this website is very biassed towards Emerson."
Clearly you work for a competitor of Emerson, that is not performing quite as well, and perhaps you wish you could work here.
The biggest reason that there is very little in the way of complaints on the Emerson blog is that the company is extremely well run and we have a continuous stream of exciting new products to bring to the market. We spend our time focusing on our customer's needs - not wondering how the company we work for has managed to slide down the tubes. Maybe you should send your resume - though I doubt you would make the cut here at Emerson. Good luck!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 - from Conrad Acker, [Conrad.Acker@Emerson.com]:
In reply to questions asked in July 13 post.
Q. What % split of the R&D Spend does EPM traditionally spend on the two DCS platforms, DeltaV & Ovation?
A. It would be difficult to assign a percentage split between the two systems since there are significant joint R&D efforts and technology sharing in areas such as bus technology, AMS, wireless and SIS that leverage Emerson’s R&D dollars across both platforms. In general, R&D spending for both Ovation and DeltaV are comparable given their served markets and targeted industry applications. Remember, Ovation is designed specifically for only two markets – power generation and water/wastewater treatment – with application development tightly focuses on those markets. DeltaV on the other hand has much broader application across many industrial processes necessitating more industry-specific development. There is no question that Emerson continues to make significant R&D investment in both the Ovation and DeltaV systems.
Q. Also, do any "savvy" technical users have any reservations for using a "Pentium" based DCS controller in their "critical" applications?
A. Absolutely not. The Intel Pentium processor is a highly reliable platform. Some assume that a “Pentium Processor” equals an MS operating system. That is not the case. The Ovation controller utilizes Wind River Systems VxWorks, a hard real-time operating system, which along with the Ovation controller software, provides a highly robust, reliable and fully redundant controller platform.
Q. Does the Ovation Platform provide for "true" Redundant I/O scheme as I know DeltaV can?
A. Yes.
Q. Where is the SOE time stamping accomplished? DI card or Ovation Controller? What is the SOE stamping resolution? Someone told me that the Ovation system has 125ms SOE time stamping.
A. SOE timestamps are generated in the Ovation SOE DI I/O module. The SOE module resolution allows input to be time tagged to within 125 ģs (microseconds) or 1/8 ms (millisecond), with 1 ms system-wide resolution.
Q. Also does the Ovation Controller Redundancy Scheme provide for a "Redundant Backplane" or not?
A. Not quite sure what this question is about. Redundant Ovation controllers (primary and backup) communicate basic status to each other via a passive backplane in the controller base. Each controller in a redundant pair has constant communication with the I/O and network assuring that the backup controller is at exactly the same point in the process as the primary controller. In the event of a failure of the primary controller, a ‘bumpless’ automatic transfer to the backup controller occurs with no delay or impact on the process. Upon restart, the repaired controller will detect that its partner is in control and assume the backup role. The processor in control will detect the presence of the backup processor and adjust for redundant operation.
Monday, July 13, 2009
What % split of the R&D Spend does EPM traditionally spend on the two DCS platforms, DeltaV & Ovation?
Also, do any "savvy" technical users have any reservations for using a "Pentium" based DCS controller in their "critical" applications?
Does the Ovation Platform provide for "true" Redundant I/O scheme as I know DeltaV can?
Where is the SOE time stamping accomplished? DI card or Ovation Controller? What is the SOE stamping resolution? Someone told me that the Ovation system has 125ms SOE time stamping. Can someone verify that
I am a big fan of DeltaV but I keep hearing all these limitations with the Ovation system.
Also does the Ovation Controller Redundancy Scheme provide for a "Redundant Backplane" or not?
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Actually, Emerson IS a very well run (and diversified) business. Some of Emerson's products in the automation market are growing a bit long-in-the-tooth, but there seems to be a genuine commitment to customers and a steady-as-she-goes approach to maintaining a profitable business that has enabled Emerson to avoid many of the machinations and gyrations that their competitors have felt. ABB and Siemens, also diversified companies, are in a somewhat similar situation. One trick ponies such as Rockwell or two-trick ponies such as Invensys have not been as lucky.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
This weblog for Emerson is questionable. The rest of companies featured on your weblogs all have comments. It seems overall that this website is very biassed towards Emerson. Is this website a marketing mechanism for Emerson to hide all things flawed? I can’t believe that Emerson is a truly great company!
Thursday, May 07, 2009 - from Conrad Acker [Conrad.Acker@Emerson.com]
Absolutely untrue!
I am an Emerson insider. We have had feedback from several members of our sales force in recent weeks that a certain competitor is telling prospective customers that Ovation will be discontinued by Emerson. There is absolutely no truth to this rumor.
Since 1998 with the Emerson acquisition of the Westinghouse Process Control division and the Ovation product line, both Ovation and DeltaV have seen wide acceptance in their respective markets, Ovation for the power generation and water/wastewater treatment industries, and DeltaV for the process manufacturing industries.
Ovation was designed specifically to meet the needs of large utility operations. It is the power industry market leader in the US with power plants that combined represent over 300,000 MW of generating capacity relying on Ovation control systems. Ovation is also being installed in 20 of the 25 new coal-fired power plants currently under construction in the United States.
Internationally, Ovation controls are installed on an additional 330,000 MW of generation capacity in Europe and Asia. It is the market leader in the booming China power generation market with nearly 300 Ovation systems operating in 128 plants with a combined capacity of 162,000 MW. In China’s new 1000 MW Supercritical class of plants, Ovation has been selected for 22 units, more than all other competitors combined.
In addition, Westinghouse Electric has standardized on Ovation for controls and plant computer systems for both the modernization of existing nuclear plants, but also as the primary control and data acquisition system for their new AP-1000 nuclear plant. Four AP-1000 plants are currently on order or under construction in China and additional eight orders / notice of intent have been received from US utilities, pending NRC license approval.
In the water and wastewater segment, Ovation is operating in many of the largest municipal treatment facilities in the nation including the cities of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, San Diego, Detroit, Seattle, and Pittsburgh. Combined, Ovation control systems are relied on by these municipalities for the treatment of billions of gallons of water per day.
For the above reasons alone – a very large and growing installed base in critical infrastructure segments combined with loyal customers around the world -- it would make absolutely no sense for Emerson to abandon the very successful Ovation product line.
Emerson has also made major technology investments in Ovation over the years. Recent introductions include a new control builder, enhanced Fieldbus, Profibus and DeviceNet interfaces, direct wireless connectivity, redesigned controller and I/O modules, advanced control algorithms, a new process historian, enhanced SCADA capabilities and virtual simulation technology. And there are always more developments in the pipeline.
Again, as an insider in this division (and an ‘old-timer’ who goes way back to pre DCS days) Emerson corporate management has been totally supportive of this division and the Ovation product line. They have encouraged and supported our ongoing technology development with both funding and expertise allowing us to assure that Ovation remains a best in class product.
In response to these rumors being spread, we have issued letters in the last few days assuring potential customers that Ovation has Emerson’s full support and long-term commitment. We will put the same in writing to anyone who wishes.
If some salesman tells you different, don't believe him!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Emerson Expects Slow Recovery To Hold Down '10 Sales - Dow Jones News Service, 5 May 2009 (extracts):
Emerson Electric Co. said Tuesday its sales could fall by 10% next year, as end-market demand recovers slowly in Europe and North America. Emerson reported a 32% drop in fiscal second-quarter earnings on slumping sales. The company has repeatedly warned of deteriorating business conditions in recent months and has aggressively reduced its inventories and its work force in response. Chairman and CEO David Farr said he doesn't expect a full recovery in the business to occur until 2011.
Emerson reaffirmed its 2009 earnings outlook of $2.40 to $2.60 per share. The company also said it expects its operating margin for the year to be about 15.7% as expense cuts and inventory reductions begin taking effect later this year.
Operating margin in the fiscal second quarter was 14.1%, down from 16.4% a year earlier. Revenue fell 16% to $5.09 billion, nearly one-third of which was due to the stronger dollar. The most severe reductions occurred in Emerson's appliance and tool segment where sales dropped 24% from a year ago; and climate technology, where sales fell by 23%.
In 2008, 54% of Emerson $24.8 billion sales were generated outside of the United States.Shares of Emerson ended the day down 1.5% at $36.79 a share. The stock has rebounded from a five-year low in March.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Hearing that Emerson is discontinuing the sale of the Ovation product. Sticking with DeltaV only.
Monday, April 20, 2009
At least someone out there is finally waking up to the fact the Emerson is a first and foremost a "marketing company" first then a technology company.
The DeltaV system costing is based first and foremost DST. The costing of the DeltaV system is primarily based on DSTs counts and its licensing. End-user who are not careful will find this a "big pain". Understanding DST licensing can be a pain at times.
If you do look carefully, everything in the DeltaV is to make sure that end-users will increase the DST counts.
At one stage of time, Emerson marketing people and their project teams were trying to discourage my plant from continuing using OPC and instead use the Mynah interface modules. I know that OPC having its own issues but the Emerosn marketing were "relentless" in quietly trying to promote their VIM products. I felt that they were not doing justice and were biased towards OPC. They were actually doing it more the increase the cost to the project.
This statement - I guess will get a flat denial from Emerson.
I think that will set up a lot of reactions and maybe Emerson will start another mini-marketing campaign from Emerson "marketing people" to quench the bad press here, especially in such lean time of declining projects.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
As a customer of Emerson, I fell trap to their strategy of giving away a system up front and then screwing us with very expensive annual contracts for every I/O point that we decide to add to the system. The sooner we rip out this Delta V the better. Looks great in the demo, but the system crashes far too often. Being that Emersons policy of even making their own control system changed several years ago, the MTL I/O system has much to be desired.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Doesn't look like there's much conversation on the Emerson weblog lately. Well, here's a very negative one.
Emerson has decided to close its Atlanta Industry Center. This effectively kills all the company expertise in Pulp & Paper and Industrial Energy. On a larger scale, Emerson corporate has announced that 10% of the workforce (14,000 people) will be laid off this year. Much of this may have taken place already. This comes after multiple management communications in the last few months stated that Emerson was in a great cash position and had a good backlog. "We couldn't be in a better position to ride out this economic downturn" was the exact quote. Look at the company fundamentals; there aren't many large corporations with better financials. So apparently it is really all about looking good for Wall Street and analysts; if you aren't laying people off, you aren't being fiscally responsible. I understand fiscal responsiblity, but Emerson did not have a reason to do this. There is something unethical and almost immoral about doing this. Emerson could have accepted slower growth and reduced earnings and still been profitable. What does it say about a company that puts 14,000 people out of work in the current environment?? They ought to be ashamed.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Buy Wonderware? They just sold Intellution like 3 years back... Emerson is just not comfortable with software business.
Design, manufacture and sell STUFFS, THINGS, Hardware...They are one of the best on the planet.
Software...how do you have LEAN software engineering? How to measure inventory and squeeze buyout vendors?
They are just awkward with it.
Sunday, December 14, 2008 - Re: Emerson buying Wonderware:
Do you remember Intellution? Emerson does not have a good track record with software companies. More importantly, Wonderware would most likely be part of a "package deal" for all of Invensys. Invensys is now legitimately "in play" with the announcement of Nigel Rudd as chairman of the board. Emerson (the overall, diversified entity) may have interest in the entirety of Invensys.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
May I suggest that Emerson should buy WonderWare?
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Besides Emerson and Rovisys, who's capable of handling a multi-million dollar pharma DeltaV integration projec? For that matter, does any competitior other that Rovisys have System Integrator dongles?
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Did anybody attend Emerson Exchange this week? What a shining example of what a company should be. One billion dollars in growth last year (not through acquisition).
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Same happened with Schneider last quarter - seems Automation isn't sexy anymore in the stock market, when there's so much more profit to be made by these bankers elsewhere.... Solid growth, real profits, actual cash generation, no complicated debt-ridden refinancing vehicles - none of these seem to count on the stock market floor anymore!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Emerson 9/9/08 reported sales and profits meet or exceed forecast, and yet the stock sinks .... Do the analysts know something beyond the Quarterly filing?
Monday, June 23, 2008 - Dave Harrold [DDHarrold@gmail.com]:
I'm afraid I don't understand why anyone would make a "long in the tooth" comment about DeltaV or any of today’s modern control systems, for that matter.
Several decades past users kept insisting they wanted and needed control systems built on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software. Eventually manufacturers abandoned their all proprietary distributed control systems and began offering end-users exactly what they asked for. Of course it wasn't too long before those same users began complaining that these COTS based control systems required regular patches and updates to Microsoft’s operating system software.
Today I would remind those talking about "long in the tooth" products to be aware that the use of COTS technologies allows modern control systems, such as DeltaV, to live and grow almost indefinitely. The fact of the matter is that DeltaV is simply a brand name and a 2008 version of DeltaV has very few similarities to its 1998 great grandparent.
Arguing that Emerson Process Management isn't investing heavily in the development of DeltaV improvements simply doesn't understand 21st century control systems.
Oh, and before you ask, I am not an Emerson employee; in fact I'm retired but remain in touch with an industry that helped me afford to retire.
Monday, June 23, 2008 - from Jim Cahill: [jim.cahill@emerson.com] - responding to the weblog June, 12 08, below:
I checked with DeltaV SIS Product Manager, Mike Boudreaux, on the three assertions below and have posted a detailed response on the Emerson Process Experts blog.
Click to read:Emerson Process Experts
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The DeltaV SIS is a nice little system. Despite all its nice features like integrated alarms etc.,
we just discovered that it has some short comings:
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Looking at Delta V from another angle: Emerson has poured in much money into DeltaV Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) and it has not sold much yet. So while the return from that has not come in, they will continue to make DeltaV relevant...in order not to derail the SIS.
Friday, May 23, 2008 - from Randy Pratt [randy.pratt@emerson.com]:
The "bit long in the tooth" comment would sound like its coming from a competitor trying to spread fear, uncertainty & doubt. As a long time factory service engineer in our Advanced Services group, I can tell you that it’s a pleasant and challenging experience to keep up with the innovation occurring in our product lines. There is plenty of new functionality coming to fruition (as has been the case over the entire history of the DeltaV system!).
One such advancement that is already public knowledge; wireless technology looks like it will be a big thing. There will be new native wireless functionality on the next release of DeltaV but take note that we are as willing to install and maintain our open standards wireless solutions on a competitor’s system as we are on our own systems.
And how confident am I in my statements? Note this weblog entry isn’t anonymous.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Please read the news and be updated. Version 10.3 is coming soon with Native wireless Field device integration and much more to offer. Wait for few more months... Lots of R&D are underway with a future vision beyond 2012. DeltaV is really getting more and more interesting and has lots to offer.
If you are an Emerson Person, hold on to watch more wonders happen. If you are a competitor, I am really sorry you would be upset more.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Isn't DeltaV getting a bit long in the tooth? What's next for Emerson Process? Has there been any R&D recently? Or just monetizing DeltaV as long as possible?
Jim Pinto
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
I worked for Emerson and later worked for Invensys. Because of the culture and the trouble to do engineering with the Invensys DCS, I came back to Emerson. Now I am really happy to see DeltaV back. Here, I see a lot of improvement in 1.5 years and dedicated to providing the best.
Emerson is really comitted to its customers. My request for our esteemed customers would be that they highlight any issues to the Emerson Team or the 24 hr support and we would try our level best to resolve the issues ASAP.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
I had started my career with Emerson and later on went on to work with Rockwell. I was so frustrated with Rockwell (and their process control solutions or lack of it) that I consider that as my poorest decision. I am back with Emerson and I am quite comfortable with what we are doing.
I believe that the company does try its sincere best to provide best to the customers (not without gaining the best, but that's okay, after all, we have to be paid for what we do and how well we serve our customers.)
We had a problem on a DeltaV system recently (not due to our fault as we found out in the end, it was one of the Fieldbus Device Manufacturers which created the whole problem) and the company pulled all the stops to ensure that the problem gets sorted out. The company invests in many internal initiatives to provide best value to their customer. And I feel that many emplyees like me feel proud to be part of that delivery process in achieving as much customer satisfaction as possible.
There are lots of efforts that go in to ensure that we deliver the PlantWeb and Foundation Fieldbus solutions without causing any problems. Emerson was the first to test the thrid party devices with DeltaV to ensure that they work in Fieldbus network as desired.
I am quite happy and I would encourage all those talented, young, experienced Engineers to join us. We may not be recognised as the best pay masters in the world but add to it the tremendous satisfaction of being the part of the process which provides best value to our customers.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Ref. weblog of 4 Nov. 06: "Given that DeltaV isn't actually the most stable, reliable, well supported project around, how long before it really backfires and gets refitted with the competition?"
Looks like its started and gaining momentum. Wonderware's ArchestrA seems to be the new player in town. WW used to be lucky to book 10 big pharm projects a year - let alone a month. Who's putting it in you say? Disgruntled DELTAV partners for one from what we see...
Monday, January 8, 2007
Whilst Emerson hold themselves up as a leader in the Industrial Automation market, at the end of the day their growth strategy seems to rest with poaching engineering and sales staff from other control system vendors, through offers of a 10% uplift or equivalent. This is a short term focus, I believe, with long term consequences, driving a spiral upwards for all. My advice is 'beware the worm that turns'!
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Jim, Just ready your Emerson article... excellent!
I'm a new Emerson employee.. only 3 months.. but a 25 year Electrical industry veteran from 3 other large corporations. After reading your article, I feel good about my decision to join Emerson and hope to last 10-15 years until retirement.
Click to read:Corporate Culture Series - The Emerson Difference
Saturday, November 4, 2006
Congratulations to Emerson for an excellent marketing program with DeltaV. Have your distributor give away the software and subsidized engineering to price out any hint of competition from integrators of ABB or GE or Siemens.
Is this really a good idea though? I keep meeting really angry integrators and VARs who don't want to even sell the hardware such as flow meters anymore because they lost yet another process control job to Emerson's own people.
And, given that DeltaV isn't actually the most stable, reliable, well supported project around, how long before it really backfires and gets refitted with the competition?
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Having been a customer of Emerson (with Delta V), we also have been disappointed with the technical support (or lack thereof) for the system that we have purchased. As more and more of the technical support moves overseas, it seems that the providers are less inclined to provide quality support. This alone has diminished further chances of Delta V being installed at our company.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
I was interested to read the article on Emerson culture and don't doubt their sincerity. My experience of Emerson is not so positive however. We are building a plant in NZ (Oil & Gas industry) and the DCS implementation is one of the worst projects I have been involved with. Emerson need to understand that the success or otherwise of a DCS project is dependent 80% on engineering, 20% on technology. The Emerson technology is fine, but their project management and technical support is sorely lacking. Friends overseas have had similar (though not quite so extreme) experiences.
Monday, May 22, 2006
With the recent acquisitions of Mobrey and Bristol, Emerson Process Management (EPM) appears to be fortifying it's position in the industrial control market. Will these acquisitions have a role in the future of the Brooks Instrument division, which appears to be "playing" to markets outside the EPM core?
Friday, April 21, 2006
For all the success of Emerson I still find it amazing that they get away with disastrous software implementations.
I have come across several DeltaV projects where the software cost has escalated by hundreds of percent whilst not even achieving all they should have.
Their marketing is marvellous though.
Sunday, March 19, 2006 - from Larry Bolton [larry.bolton@emersonprocess.com]:
Emerson Acquires Bristol Babcock - Acquisition Expands Portfolio of Measurement and Control Products, Technologies, and Services for Process Industries Worldwide.
Emerson today announced it has acquired Bristol Babcock from FKI plc (LSE: FKI) of Loughborough, England, for $121 million. To be renamed Bristol, it becomes part of Emerson Process Management and adds industry-leading measurement and control products, technologies, and services for oil, gas, power, water, and wastewater industries worldwide.
Headquartered in Watertown, Conn., Bristol Babcock has annual revenue of approximately $80 million. Bristol products and technologies include remote terminal units, flow computers, transmitters, and distributed process controllers. It has manufacturing facilities and offices in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada with additional offices in Mexico, the Middle East, Australia, and China.
The acquisition complements the Emerson business unit's established measurement brands that include Rosemount®, Micro Motion®, Daniel®, and Mobrey®.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - from Dr Jay Bayne:
I recently heard that some key ABB managers have been jumping ship to join the old Westinghouse Process Controls group. It seems Emerson just continues to build momentum in the automation business!
Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - Dewey [darrin.kuchle@emersonprocess.com] re: DeltaV SIS & TUV approvals:
I think if you took the time to refer back to April 13 2005 weblog, you would see that the architecture was approved by TUV, not the product. This was a key design hurdle that would have been a make or break for the entire development project.
The distributed nature of this SIS makes it quite different from any other I've seen in the past. This unique approach was viewed by many as a radical departure from the norm and as such it was extremely important to obtain TUV's approval of the design long before actually finishing the product. That's what the letter was about. It was actually a bigger deal to get that approval, once it was obtained the actual certification was a foregone conclusion and even a little anti-climactic.
I should mention that we received the official TUV certificate last week.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Direct from Pat Kennedy: "OSISoft is 25 yrs old and these kinds of rumors have been around for for about 20 of them.
We are not for sale."
Thursday, May 19, 2005
News is that Pat Kennedy is readying OSISoft for sale. It has certainly been discussed/confirmed in some circles. It will be interesting to see who potential suitors might be. Emerson, and Rockwell are certainly possibilities. The deal would carry a hefty price tag. Anyone on this weblog with more insights?
Monday, April 18, 2005 - Regarding the last post on DeltaV SIS and TUV approval:
The Emerson schedule for formal release of the SIS remains as September 2005. This release will also include TUV certification. Emerson will stand behind this commitment to TUV certification with a performance bond as well.
If in doubt, please contact your local Fisher-Rosemount representative for more details.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
The Emerson brass band is certainly in full swing about their new DeltaV SIS. However the statements by Emerson that they have TUV approval are not true. If you check the wording in the TUV letter you will find that the truth is that they do not have TUV certification and the letter comments states that it still subject to verification and investigation, all thats been done is that they have read the documentation. Emerson is clearly under market pressure to come up with this as a "certified product".
Friday, February 25, 2005 - from ex-Emerson employee, on the Emerson culture:
I started at Micro Motion but left another division of Emerson Electric. During my tenure, I was able to witness Chuck Knight in action during the planning review. I was impressed with his drive, but not his propensity to use the F word, etc...
However, there was a "dark side" of Emerson. Using lawyers and lawsuits to attack the R&D budgets of competitors and the stifling of innovation within the "division" was not appreciated. Ask ex-employees and you find that many had experience with Emerson "agents" that were chartered with intruding into their personal lives.
Monday, February 7, 2005 - from Kirk Abraham [kabraham@mrindianapolis.com]:
I appreciate your article and wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. Emerson is a model that any American business should strive to attain. One of my very best clients...
Monday, February 7, 2005 - "The Emerson difference"
JimPinto.com eNews, (7 Feb. 2005) has a detailed review of the Emerson cultiure.
Click to read:What does it mean to be Emerson?
Monday, December 06, 2004 - from OSI-Soft:
It was announced at the Emerson User Conference, that they decided to build their own version to run inside the DCS, but will offer PI as a VAR.
Monday, December 6, 2004 - from Randy Pratt [randy.pratt@emersonprocess.com]:
Yes there is a new historian. See:
http://www.easydeltav.com/pd/PDS_ContinuousHistorian.pdf
Thursday, December 02, 2004 - Scott_Kobler@Merck.com [Scott_Kobler@Merck.com]
Is it true that Emerson is going to write their own historian to
replace the OSI Embedded historian?
Friday, January 16, 2004 - Emerson response to previous weblog:
There was a splinter group in Houston that is being split up and the people shifted to our main facility in Houston and some sent to our facility in Calgary. We are also adding a large number of people beyond this to the Houston Center to provide even better support to our customers and bring project management close to these folks.
Friday, January 16, 2004
I understand that Emerson is closing their Oil & Gas
Division in Austin and relocating it to Calgary. Will their staff
relocate or will they be let go? Either way (if this is true) it
cannot be a good sign for their Gulf Coast customers.
Friday, January 2, 2004 - On the subject of Ovation:
Ovation may not be the most friendly system in the world to engineers, but it has still got many things going for it. Features and applications designed specifically for the Power Industry are the key selling points.
IMO, ease of engineering/user friendliness is often an over-rated virtue preached by the marketeers. Give me Solid/Reliable performance with easy OPERATION anytime. Anyway, they are NOT going to dump Ovation for now. I saw them showing Web Access and Fieldbus features on Ovation last month in Vegas. Looks like money still flowing.
Friday, December 19, 2003
For the person wondering is this is the end of Ovation. It should be! I suffered through the interminable 3-week factory training and what should have been a very simple project with Ovation. In my humble opinion, the whole product line should be unceremoniously dumped. DeltaV is so much superior in every important way that holding on the the old system would be just bad judgement.
Sunday, December 07, 2003 - from an Emerson person:
Ann Pauley is the sister of Jane Pauley. She is joining her sister on a TV talk show. This has nothing to do with any Emerson reorganization real or imagined.
Friday, December 5, 2003
Ann Pauley, President of Power & Water Solutions left the company effective 12-31-03. Guess she wasn't part of the re-org of the Emerson Process Managent organizational chart. Things should get interesting for this division as it is going to become more like Emerson and less like the old Westinghouse. Is this the beginning of the end for Ovation?
Thursday, November 20, 2003 - from an Emerson employee:
The Nov 04, 2003 posting on the Emerson Weblog has some inaccuracies that should be corrected:
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - from an industry analyst:
Honeywell was first into the DCS era with TDC2000, which enabled them to dominate the market for the best part of 20 years while everyone else played catch-up. Similarly while Emerson's strength is undoubtedly due in part to its superior management, it's currently built on Delta V and the fact that, alone of the majors, it has world class instrument and valve businesses to complement it.
Friday, November 14, 2003 - from an Emerson insider, responding to the plea for Emerson to buy Invensys ICC:
I doubt it. Yurko used to run these units.
Friday, November 14, 2003 - From an Invensys blogger:
Does Emerson have an interest in ICC (specifically, the "Barber-Colman/ Robertshaw/ Wonderware" of ICC Americas)? In other words, from ICC to Emerson: "Help!, Save us from the Yurkos of the world!!"
Realistically, I see that the product fit would be good with Emerson, I guess Emerson would be wondering, however, if it would be worth the time having to institute such a large scale purge of deadwood within the organization in order to restore profitability to ICC.
Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - response to the uninformed Emerson source who thinks the 848 is a PLC. (Laughter here)
The one thing that DeltaV does NOT do well is high-speed machine automation. The best scan time available is 100 ms. There is also no embedded vision capability that I am aware of. While PLC's are misapplied many times in the process industries, touting the 'death' of the PLC is more than a litle premature.
Monday, November 10, 2003 - brand and company re-naming:
It doesn't always work out that the "family name" is a boon for marketing or brand recognition, particularly in the case of acquisitions.
Witness the application of the GE "meatball" to Intellution and Mountain systems. A clear net negative. Feedback from customers, distributors, and partners of the Intellution and Mountain Systems organizations have been uniformly negative post-GE. Granted, the issues are much, MUCH deeper than simply naming/branding (GE's much vaunted management abilities surely aren't manifesting themselves here, though their bean counting skills are being applied in force).
Friday, November 07, 2003 - response about brand-name strategy, from a senior Emerson manager:
Renaming has turned out to be a real boon because of the universal respect for Emerson.
With regard to PLC functions: We have PLC functionality in DeltaV and in most of our products. This will rapidly accelerate and substantially increase in functionality over time. We also have a unique field mounted device range including blocks of high performance I/O and function blocks. These are rugged devices. This is the 848 line including temperature, 4-20, pressure, flow - and will also be enhanced to include pH, conductivity etc. All "speak" Foundation Fieldbus, HSE, wireless etc.
It is my belief that PLC's are dead having been replaced at the top end by scalable DCS offerings and eaten at the low end by smart devices lik the 848.
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Your article and the Emerson weblog mostly talk about Emerson Process but what about Emerson's Industrial Automation division?
I agree about Emerson's strong & intelligent management. But what about their brand-name strategy? Fisher-Rosemount is/was a strong brand and Emerson has decided to rename everthing Emerson Process. What are they planning concerning for their Industrial Automation brands like Control Techniques or Leroy Somer? These are strong brands but not as strong as Fisher-Rosemount. So will they be renamed Emerson Industrial Automation?
Another point : How can Emerson become a major player in Industrial Automation without a PLC manufacturer or an HMI manufacturer?
Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - from Emerson, about Delta V safety systems:
We are already selling this, and will make a full release in January. DeltaV-Safe is fully approved by all relevant agencies both in the US and internationally. It is fully compatible with DeltaV and is tightly integrated and yet has the necessary isolation for safety purposes.
Tuesday, November 4, 2003
Does anyone have inside info on the impending release of the DeltaV safety systems controller? Most of the extant systems (i.e. Siemens and Honeywell) are awfully clunky and old-fashioned. I'd like to use something a little more modern when it becomes available.
Monday, November 3, 2003 - re: OSI and Emerson:
Excellent news! OSI is the big hitter in the historian space. GE's thing seemed like a bit of a toy in comparison.
Monday, November 03, 2003 -a knowledgeable Emerson staffer responds about OSI:
Quite the contrary, we are now using OSI PI for all applications, have embedded it fully, have signed a new exclusive (for them) agreement and have agreed to work jointly on all projects.
Monday, November 3, 2003 - First post on the Emerson board! Hooray!
I've been told that Emerson is close to replacing OSI's PI with GE's iHistorian as the historian of choice for Delta V. This would seem a big change of direction, particularly given the long relationship with OSI. Any insights?
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