News

Global Interest in ERDi TestLab Continues to Grow

Published 7/1/2021

As the ERDi TestLab enters its second exciting year of operation and testament to the projects and successful outcomes already delivered, including ground-breaking real-world Industry 4.0 driven outcomes from its first year of operation, TestLab co-founder John Kirkman from ETP recently sat down with Harry Forbes, Research Director from Arc Advisory (US) via video call to share the TestLab’s purpose, vision and early successes.

Founded in 1986, ARC Advisory Group is a leading global technology research and advisory firm for industry, infrastructure and cities.  They consist of over 75 professionals worldwide with extensive, first-hand experience servicing a multitude of business issues, technologies, and vertical industries and are supported by offices located in the US, Germany, Belgium, Japan, India, China, Singapore and Brazil.

Conveners of the largest annual automation conference in the US regularly hosted in Orlando, Florida, ARC is keenly interested in ERDi TestLab’s focus on automation and interoperability including contributions to the Open Process Automation Standards (O-PAS™).

This year’s annual ARC Industry Forum is titled “Accelerating Digital Transformation in a Post-COVID World”, and in consideration of the global impacts of Covid-19 will be held virtually from February 8-11.

Mr Kirkman will join other representatives from leading test labs around the globe with a specific focus on interoperable automation for a panel discussion including ExxonMobil’s OPA Testbed in Spring Texas and the Aramco TestLab located in Saudi Arabia.

“I’m honored to be apart of another Arc Panel discussion regarding interoperability standards and testbeds, once again with a stellar line up of passionate and leading innovators in the field from across the globe” said Mr Kirkman.

“I’d strongly encourage miners globally and the Australian based LNG and Hydrogen companies to look at registering as a Digital Transformation Council membership with Arc (only available to end user companies) and attend this and other Arc events, so they can benefit from other industries where innovation on the key underpinning technologies and standards relevant to mining often occur.”

“Too often our industry is late to the party and as such, makes ill-informed and ultimately poor technology strategy and investment decisions, wasting many millions of dollars without meaningful returns as a result. This only changes with awareness and education about what is going on outside of our back yard – The Arc Orlando event is a great starting point for this” Mr Kirkman added.

ARC reports that propelled by recent global health and economic crises, industrial innovation is accelerating, with leading companies who had already progressed along their digital transformation journey able to quickly adapt to the changed business reality. With what they have learned, companies are now re-thinking how to manage operations using shared data, analytics, distributed work, and digital twins. 

The industry has passed a tipping point, having seen the power of disruptive technologies to transform business operations and competitive strategies, improve resilience, reduce costs, and better serve customers.

At ERDi, we too have seen the result of this with visibly more activity and urgency around solving the core issue of interoperability within the work being done in O-PAS and I4.0 standards initiatives, albeit primarily in the US and Europe and led by industries other than mining.

To learn more about and register your interest in attending the ARC Industry Forum for 2021, please see the following links