Honeywell launches iMOC workflow process management application

Honeywell launched its Intelligent Management of Change (iMOC) workflow process management application yesterday at the Honeywell Users Group (HUG) Symposium on the Gold Coast.

iMOC extends the DOC4000 suite, which provides a unified and efficient way to manage change, security and compliance across plant control and safety systems while improving reliability through risk mitigation.

“The requirement for a formalised management of change (MOC) process is a major trend in the process automation industry,” said Jon Lippin, Vice President-General Manager of Lifecycle Solutions & Service for Honeywell Process Solutions.

“Improper changes to automation systems can negatively impact a plant’s safety, availability and compliance, and ultimately its business results. iMOC meets this need by collecting relevant data within a process plant, giving it context, and presenting the information to personnel where and when they need it. It is thus a key loss prevention tool for any company seeking to avoid future losses resulting from configuration changes to a process automation system.”

Honeywell says iMOC is the only solution designed specifically for industrial automation. It is suitable for supervisors with access to modify critical plant systems, including distributed control systems, safety systems, programmable logic controllers, field instrumentation databases and advanced solutions.

MOC can enable a number of improvements that affect business results, including:

• Increased safety and compliance. By effectively managing changes and approvals, MOC helps protect against threats of cyberattacks and safety hazards. It also enables improved handling of critical issues, including undocumented changes, enhanced regulatory compliance, reductions in error-prone manual MOC tasks and unauthorised changes that increase risk.
• Efficient capture and protection of intellectual property. It is specifically designed to automatically detect all automation changes, reconcile MOC cases to changes in the automation system, and automatically generate reports of un-reconciled changes, all at 45% less cost than manual methods.
• Thorough documentation of all changes made to the system. This enables fast root cause analysis to ensure business continuity and can save days of investigation and reduce potentially significant financial impact on production.
• Reduction of project costs. Using automated documentation capabilities to create as-built configuration documentation can reduce project costs by as much as 15%.

An integrated add-in module, MOC runs on top of DOC4000 assessment software and leverages Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate information push and collaboration. Honeywell says that with MOC added to DOC4000, its clients can manage proposed changes through an automated, highly organised approval process that is either specific to their control system environment or integrated with their enterprise-wide MOC infrastructure.

“Supported through Honeywell’s Global Technical Assistance Center, these solutions offer significant value to companies,” adds Lippin. “These include those needing to meet compliance requirements for management of change and avert incidents that can be costly to production and reputation; and those seeking to avoid problems, mitigate the risk of environmental incidents and accelerate resumption of operations as part of disaster recovery.”

WNIPT’s editor Glenn Johnson is reporting from the HUG Symposium.