Yokogawa’s Africa User’s Conference 2016 took place at the end of October with resounding success expressed by both delegates attending the event and exhibitors participating in the Automation Exhibition. With the last User’s Conference taking place in 2012, Yokogawa South Africa believed the time was right to stage another 3 day event with the aim of communicating and networking with their customer base, listening to their concerns, and providing the latest updates regarding their products, systems and advanced solutions.
Over 160 people took part in the 3 day event from 19 to 21 October at The Fairway Hotel, Spa and golf resort and were treated to 14 breakout sessions, 11 plenary sessions, 2 industry keynotes from independent subject matter experts in the Oil & Gas and Mining and Minerals industries, 1 panel discussion, 1 training workshop and a banquet dinner with guest speaker and economist, Mr Dawie Roodt. In addition, an Automation Exhibition included demos of all Yokogawa platforms and solutions along with 11 partner exhibits for a complete Yokogawa automation experience.
Takashi Nishijima, President and CEO of the Yokogawa Electric Corporation, based in Tokyo, opened the event by emphasizing the importance of business in Africa highlighting growth industries such as mining & minerals, sugar, petrochemicals and oil & gas which Yokogawa is so entrenched in. Masopha Moshoeshoe, QHSE Manager from Yokogawa South Africa, explained the theme of the event, Gemba Kaizen. “Gemba” and “Kaizen” are Japanese words with the former meaning “real place” and the latter meaning “improvement” or “change for the better.” Kaizen practices focus on continuous improvement in specific business areas like manufacturing, business processes, management and engineering. “Combining the two words in the business context means that Gemba is where the real, value-adding activities of improvement take place,” said Moshoeshoe. “Yokogawa believes this is indicative of the current state of the company – always striving for continuous improvement.”
“The Middle East and Africa region employs a highly skilled workforce of 1,700 employees” explained Pierre de Vuyst, Senior Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Services for Yokogawa Middle East and Africa. “In the spirit of Gemba Kaizen, Continuous Improvement, Yokogawa is committed to reinventing itself to serve customers on the African Continent.”
Kersi Aspar, Vice President and Head of Global Sales Centre from Yokogawa Electric Corporation in Tokyo, Japan, reflected on Yokogawa’s glorious past, highlighting the many “World First” technologies by the company in order to contribute to society and industry in general. These included the Optical Spectrum Analyser, the 8 channel Digital Oscilloscope, the Digital Power Meter, the Digital Transmitter with Silicon Resonant Sensor Technology, the Vortex Flowmeter and the CENTUM Distributed Control System with 99.99999% availability. He hinted at how these technologies will be developed further to offer our customers more advanced solutions in future.
Mark Anderson from KBC Advanced Technologies, which was recently acquired by Yokogawa, mentioned their innovation of over 36 years in the process industry. “Whereas Yokogawa is focused on implementing and controlling the plant, so KBC is there to analyze and advise on the activities taking place in the plant which results in sustained operational excellence throughout the whole value chain and complete business cycle,” says Anderson. KBC operates primarily in the Level 3 (MES Level), Level 4 (Simulation Level) and Level 5 (Consulting Level) areas of the business to create sustained value. Their mission is to make and keep their clients world-class in terms of operational excellence and profitability through actions of their people and the application of their technology.
Other key highlights of the event focused on Yokogawa’s solutions offerings with Bradley Ford, Global Business Development and Marketing Manager for Advanced Solutions highlighting how data analytics is positively impacting our world and how these differentiating technologies can bring benefit to Yokogawa’s customers. He pointed out that all of Yokogawa’s advanced solutions are realised through deep integration and co-innovation with their customers.