PAS Announces Real-Time Control Loop Performance Solutions for Process Control Assets

PAS, a leading supplier of advanced process control and optimization solutions today formally announced the release of ControlWizard™, a software application for continuous real-time performance management of process control assets. Fundamental to any successful advanced process control installation is a responsive and robust regulatory control system. Yet, industry data shows that 40% - 60% of all plant control loops have less than optimal control performance exposing manufacturers to losses from economic, environmental, and safety excursions.

ControlWizard provides a key ingredient to condition based maintenance programs by targeting poorly performing process control assets for corrective maintenance resulting in lower overall maintenance costs as well as optimized loop performance. "ControlWizard streamlines control loop optimization activities by identifying control loops with the highest potential for improvement and sustains profitability by ensuring the regulatory control layer remains robust over time," stated Dr. Jacques Smuts, Director of Development at PAS. "The initial installation of ControlWizard surveyed over 2000 control loops and successfully pinpointed poorly performing loops by identifying cyclic process behavior and excessive variability."

ControlWizard combines the results of 30 different analyses such as control loop stability, frequency response, impulse response, and service factor to an overall control loop performance index indicative of loop performance health. Diagnostic information is provided to guide maintenance corrective improvement actions. Ease of controller set-up configuration and performance data richness are direct benefits of integration to other PAS software products including PlantState Suite™ Alarm & Event Analysis, TuneWizard®, Integrity.MOC™, and DOC3000®. Client applications can be deployed over a company intranet via a standard web server with loop performance metric reports served as web pages across the internet. ControlWizard is DCS-platform independent with connectivity to any commercially available control system or process historian.