Emerson announced it has launched ProAct Connect+, an enterprise software suite that assists supermarket and convenience store operators with continuously monitoring and controlling HVAC/R systems to help them meet financial, regulatory and brand management objectives. By providing key stakeholders — including facility, asset and energy managers, commissioning agents and field service technicians — with a suite of powerful but easy-to-use applications, critical business objectives can be completed faster and with improved outcomes.
ProAct Connect+ features a robust bundle of more than 50 functions designed to simplify, accelerate and automate the management of complex HVAC/R assets. From a central location, one person can monitor thousands of sites and quickly identify areas either operating or drifting out of range (e.g., temperature) and take corrective actions.
“The retail environment is becoming increasingly complex, and consumers’ demands for maximum food quality, variety and convenience are greater now than ever,” said Ron Chapek, director of product marketing, enterprise software services, Emerson. “Data analytics, control devices, and facility management technologies continue to evolve, and our latest advancements to the ProAct suite seamlessly integrate and optimize operations to provide the capabilities to help meet those consumer demands.
Multisite retail, supermarket and convenience stores with growing refrigeration adoption are being impacted by major macro and potentially disruptive trends. ProAct Connect+ helps enable companies in this space to turn possible disruptions into opportunities to maintain a competitive advantage
- Skilled Labor Shortage — As the amount of domain experts in areas such as refrigeration and energy continues to decrease, the need for highly graphical and automated applications increases. Through colorized maps with automated links, ProAct Connect+ offers a snapshot of active advisories uses color-coding of alarm intensity to visually identify which sites may need action, and automated links provide one-click access to advisory details, floor plans and asset-specific values like defrost settings.
- Meeting Omnichannel Requirements — As more grocers adopt “click and collect” fulfillment models, they need new refrigeration solutions to help ensure proper temperature and humidity conditions are maintained — without increasing energy usage. ProAct Connect+ provides the means to help operators ensure that HVAC/R systems are optimally performing through near real-time monitoring of sites/assets and the ability to make quick changes to controller settings.
- Predictive Analytics — Potential benefits of continuously monitoring refrigeration system component parameters like compressor cycling/rack superheat/condenser can be extended equipment life, reduction in maintenance costs and mitigation of refrigerant loss. ProAct Connect+ leverages algorithms that use component sensor data to model and learn expected behavior for real-time comparison against actual behavior to then track performance degradation and help predict failure performance levels.