Yokogawa Electric Corporation, a leading Japanese electrical engineering and software company, has signed a contract with Dell for the global provision of personal computer (PC) models that are selected and customised for Yokogawa use.

Under the terms of the contract, Dell will supply PCs that have been tested to verify their compatibility with Yokogawa products.

Yokogawa will then globally distribute these PCs as ‘Yokogawa Certified Models’ for use with its industrial automation system-related products. 

These are long-life products that will remain available for twice as long as equivalent commercial off-the-shelf products. To meet a variety of operating conditions and installation requirements, they will be available in a rack-mount or desktop configuration with either a server or client operating system. 

The provision of Dell PCs will enable Yokogawa to offer high quality system solutions. In addition, this will enable a reduction of maintenance costs. The key benefits are:

• Stable operation: As the PC hardware and OS to be used with the Yokogawa system-related products is set for a specified period of time, stable operation is ensured.
• Fewer model changes: Because individual models are available for longer periods of time, model changes will be less of a concern when purchasing a new PC, either as an add-on or replacement.
• One-stop maintenance service: Yokogawa’s maintenance service will cover both its system-related products and the PCs.

Chiaki Itoh, vice president and head of the IA marketing headquarters, said: “How to combine IT and IA is an important management issue for manufacturers because they urgently need to strengthen their competitiveness in the global market and ensure that they are managed in a sustainable fashion. By making the best use of Yokogawa’s IA technologies and know-how accumulated over the years and Dell’s latest technologies and extensive supply chain, Yokogawa will continue to be able to offer its customers solutions that achieve the goals of our VigilantPlant initiative.” – TradeArabia News Service