As part of its VPS* initiative, Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it will release an upgraded VPSRemote service solution on November 22. VPSRemote is a solution for the remote monitoring and general and preventive maintenance of systems. The upgraded VPSRemote now allows users to link their plants around the world and provide operation support and engineering services from specified locations on the network. The upgraded VPSRemote solution can now be used with information systems as well as control systems.

* VigilantPlant Services: a suite of services that realizes Yokogawa’s VigilantPlant control business concept by helping customers achieve the ideal plant

Development Background
As plant control systems grow more complex and sophisticated, they are increasingly used together with safety instrumented systems, manufacturing execution systems, and the like. Manufacturers with global operations thus need the capability to provide remote operation support and engineering services for both the control and the information systems used at their plants.

Yokogawa has provided remote maintenance service since the 1980s, and in 2012 released VPSRemote, a remote monitoring and general and preventive maintenance service that is delivered over a dedicated, highly reliable, and fast network. Yokogawa has now upgraded VPSRemote to add flexibility in how these services are provided.

Outline of Upgrade
1. Support of the use of dedicated networks by customers for the remote operation support and engineering
With this upgrade to VPSRemote, customers now can set up a dedicated network linking their plants and engineering departments. Via this network, company personnel can share access to system displays and, in real time, perform operations, set parameters, and change settings from any location on the network. Thus, for example, operators at a main factory can check the condition of a system at a new plant in another country. If required, they can provide remote support to an operator while viewing the target system’s display.

2. Information systems support
Previously, VPSRemote could only be used with the CENTUM integrated production control system and the ProSafe-RS safety instrumented system. The upgraded VPSRemote service now covers information systems such as the Exaquantum plant information management system. Using VPSRemote, both Yokogawa’s Global Response Centers and Yokogawa’s customers now have the ability to remotely monitor and maintain the control and information systems at plants 24 hours a day, all year round.

Major Target Markets and Purposes
Oil, petrochemical, iron and steel, pulp and paper, electric power, gas, and other types of plants
• Remote operation support and engineering by customers
• Remote operation support and engineering by Yokogawa

Outline of VPSRemote
First released in June 2012, VPSRemote is a remote service solution that has been used by Yokogawa’s Global Response Centers (GRCs) to link with the systems at customer plants. As VPSRemote only allows connections from predetermined domains, remote monitoring and maintenance can be performed without endangering system security. This solution has enabled the GRCs to provide the support needed to quickly troubleshoot problems and recover from failures. This also allows the collection and analysis of information needed for preventive maintenance and enables automatic notification of system failures to the GRCs. With this upgrade to VPSRemote, customers now have the same ability to provide remote monitoring and maintenance services for their plant facilities.

Yokogawa will continue to work hard to improve its entire range of VigilantPlant Services, including VPSRemote, with the aim of ensuring safe and highly efficient operations over the entire lifecycle of its customers’ plant facilities.