Adoption of Advanced Field Digital Technology Strengthens Foundation for Operational Excellence

Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Netherlands) announces the development of Release 5 of the CENTUM(R) VP integrated production control system, the company’s flagship product and a cornerstone of the VigilantPlant(R) concept that aims to help customers realise the ideal plant. Developed with the aim of bringing companies operational excellence through the use of field digital technology, this latest version of CENTUM VP will be released to the market in August of this year.

With CENTUM VP Release 5 as a key platform, Yokogawa will continue to provide solutions that help customers’ plants achieve operational excellence, with an eye on becoming the leading company in the industrial automation business.

Field digital technology has been introduced in many industries and is helping to increase maintenance efficiency in manufacturing plants. Yokogawa started developing field digital technology in earnest when it first released FOUNDATION(TM) fieldbus compliant products in 1998. The company has been the leader in defining international standards for FOUNDATION fieldbus that reduce the need for field wiring, allow the introduction of intelligent field devices, and improve the management and diagnosis of digital field devices, playing an essential role in optimising plant operations.

Advances in field digital technology have led to drastic increases in the volume and variety of field data, and Yokogawa’s customers are now seeking to make better use of this resource.

Control systems must be capable of handling a massive amount of field data at comfortable speeds. Yokogawa has decided to develop a new field control station (FCS) that can fully satisfy such needs in the field digital era.

CENTUM VP Release 5 will demonstrate its powerful capabilities by improving the use of plant information and reducing lifecycle costs with simplified engineering. It will also enable unified plant operations by integrating with many other systems.