Over the next few blogs I’d like to answer this question on a phase by phase basis from scoping/planning, design, building, delivery, and eventually commissioning. So let’s start from the beginning...

The Migration Scoping/Planning Process
One of the first things you learn in Chemical Engineering is: IN – OUT = Accumulation – Generation. If you rearrange that and cancel out some terms, you are left with a very important lesson.

GARBAGE_IN = GARBAGE_OUT

Just because a DCS is shinny and new doesn’t mean that it won’t have the same control problems as the legacy system without proper planning/scoping, reengineering where appropriate, and forethought to manage the costs of the project.

So how do you manage the daunting task of accurately scoping a DCS migration from both the client and automation vendor perspective to maintain quality and reduce the risk/cost associated with the DCS migration?

With Integrity™ that’s how! One could argue that the goal of successfully scoping a migration would be for the end user site to accurately communicate the process and control strategies from both a design and as built perspective. That means inventorying all existing control strategies with understanding of all associated control… and that means everything from I/O, hardware, graphics, embedded control, procedures, trends, external interconnected systems such as SIS, PLC, APC/MVC and exactly how they all depend on each other to make the whole thing work. And, that is precisely what Integrity can do!

So what is the cost of not getting this right?

1. Under scoped budget – The facility does not budget what is needed for the project and is hit with overages which disrupts capital planning and could seriously impair the company’s ability to be competitive in the marketplace.
2. Over scoped budget – Massive overages on the hardware and engineering effort to accommodate the risk associated of “not knowing” leaving the site with way too much hardware, but more importantly the opportunity cost of not investing the capital and resources towards bettering their business.

While I agree that some of this uncertainty/risk goes away if you migrate within a DCS vendors upgrade path, there are plenty of facilities stuck with legacy DCS system which have poor/non-existent upgrade paths. In either case, it’s typical to see a + 30% figure in a migration budget/vendor proposal.

25-30% Risk, is that the best we can do? We can do better with Integrity!

Imagine this, as the end user, you take a data backup of the legacy DCS system rather than the endless pile of out of date paper documentation. You give this to the automation vendor, and Integrity technology allows a transformation of data into information. You receive a migration with lower risk knowing that your capital dollars are used efficiently. This scenario is best for everyone; it’s good for the automation vendors because their customers are healthy and it’s good for the sites because you can now do more with less!

Considering a migration? Just ask Invensys about using Integrity to scope it and remember “There is no charge for awesomeness”!

So come back next time and we’ll begin to review the design and build process as The Most competitive DCS migration continues.

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