By Daniel Dearwater, PAS’ Global Invensys Channel Manager
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As I get started here with the 4th installment I am reminded of a sobering fact; I’m
BEHIND IN MY BLOG GOAL and really should be writing my 6th or 7th entry, so it feels very good to be writing. Coupled with that, as I’m writing this blog I’m taking my first ride on an
Airbus A380 aircraft from London to Dubai; it seat’s over 800 people. WOW! I’m not usually impressed with aircraft too much, however as an engineer I can’t help but marvel the achievement of this vehicle… but I digress. Let’s get keep exploring the future of DCS migration projects.
So let’s fast forward to where the automation work begins. The FEED has been completed, the process documented, and now the Main Automation Contractor (who I will call MAC) has to deliver against that design. This entails migrating existing strategies, HMIs, and alarm systems, while reengineering where appropriate to bring these new systems into more modern hardware to ensure sustainability. Well that’s no big deal because MAC is engineering with Integrity! Not only does MAC know exactly what to do, but he can do it better than before while ensuring that the accumulated garbage doesn’t make its way into the new system. So you could say, MAC + Integrity = MAC Daddy. I know what you’re thinking…
”We already covered this didn’t we? I know Integrity really helps up front on DCS migrations but how is it supposed to add value during the build phase?”
Well, hold your horses, I was just about to tell you. In a nutshell, Integrity enables a higher level of delivered quality given the same project schedule and reduces schedule risks associated with common potential project delays to ensure on-time delivery. How is this done you ask?
By enabling better engineering utilization through Integrity™, specifically:
- Continuous Automation Validation of design against as built configuration
- Continuous configuration error identification
MAC has processes in place to validate design and detect configuration errors. In most cases, validation and defect identification is during FAT.
WHAT?!? It’s unbelievable that we’re depending on a small handful of engineers working incredibly long hours to catch every potential error from a design, process, and system configuration standpoint.
Do you think all errors are caught with today’s FAT process? I seriously doubt it.
This leaves a big potential for schedule slip or showing up to FAT with a system not ready for prime time. Also since MAC is documenting the system as it’s being built, with
Integrity™, some MACs I know have an advantage! Let me explain…
Since, validation and configuration defect detection can now be done
continuously due to auto updating, as-built documentation, and key Integrity™ software features, MAC can ensure that this process is done continuously during build process and not during FAT as a crazed last minute intense effort to get everything passed.
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That atmosphere encourages human error and since we are using
Integrity™ software to compare and expose defects, the chances of certain mistakes making it to FAT are almost non-existent!!! This is good for MAC and very good for the end user because quality has gone up and schedule risks have gone down due to reducing the unknowns.
So, for those out there in the middle of a migration, with so much cost tied to a successful FAT; do you just want a MAC or
MAC Daddy?
I hope it’s the latter.
In any case, I think this is a good place to leave you. As always I’ll give you a peak at what’s up for the next few installments for
The Most Competitive DCS Migration: global engineering collaboration, a better FAT/SAT experience, and the project documentation of the future.
Thanks for reading and see you again soon.
22 Blogs and 265 days remaining…
By Daniel Dearwater, PAS’ Global Invensys Channel Manager
So, today you were promised an answer to a very important question, which I’m sure you’ve been eagerly awaiting!
“Why is Integrity Automation Genome technology awesome for doing DCS migrations, and how specifically does it achieve this awesomeness?”
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...
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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?
- 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.
- 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!
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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!
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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.
23 Blogs and 308 days remaining…
By Daniel Dearwater, PAS’ Global Invensys Channel Manager
Welcome back to the 2nd edition of the Invensys technology blog. Today, I’d like to talk about what I call “The
MOST competitive DCS migration”. I’m going to put out there right now that Integrity technology saves a
minimum 5% (up to 15%) of the cost of a DCS migration, improves quality, and reduces risk for all parties! What this means for the end user is that you’re getting a better quality migration for less money than you could before Integrity. That’s pretty sweet!
But first a little background on Integrity and the Automation Genome…
Just to bring you up to speed and in case you have no idea what Integrity does, I thought I’d give a brief summary so we’re all speaking the same language. Integrity, at its core, is a documentation tool that is scoped for every piece of automation (both software and hardware) that any operating facility could have. That’s inclusive of DCSs, PLCs, SISs, APCs/MVCs, Historians and Instrumentation databases (everything on level 1, 2, and 3 networks). It uncovers all data interdependency between systems, tracks changes, identifies configuration defects, maps data flow, and exports all information to common formats (PDF, XLS, Visio). Integrity does all of this
automatically from the systems as built and will support all versions of all automation vendors’ technology
forever! Bold vision huh?
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This also seems to be an appropriate time to explain why the PAS website looks like a surgical company or genetic research institute right now. Our marketing folks came up with a very good metaphor for just what we do, the
Automation Genome and how Integrity maps it! First extend yourselves to look at a control system like an organism with genetic code. Let’s say a Foxboro I/A Series DCS system is a living breathing creature, like a Frog. Now this particular creature is not alone, there is thousands of its kind. However, each one is similar, and each one is unique. So let’s say we have a particular frog that lives here in Houston named Steve. So Steve the frog has a heart, lungs, eyes, just like all the other frogs but there are variations that make Steve unique, like how big his feet are or how long his tongue can reach. So frogs, like Foxboro I/A systems, are both similar and unique. All I/A systems have controllers, graphics, trends, hardware, HMIs and gateways, but as DCS systems are programmed, hardware is added, and the system is continuously improved, their structure changes! So Just like Steve, the I/A systems evolve, but unlike Steve their
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generation time is in the order of minutes not years. OK, so I think you all get it now…
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So sometimes the Frogs out there get old and there are newer higher jumping creatures that come onto the scene and sites wants to
do a migration. So now we have to turn Steve the Frog into Jane the Rabbit! Integrity can help with that but for today we’re out of time…
So I’ll be back next time to continue the story of “The
MOST competitive DCS migration” and
walk you through step by step how Integrity can be used at various migration stages to lower cost, improve quality, and reduce risk.
24 Blogs and 347 days remaining…
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By Daniel Dearwater, PAS’ Global Invensys Channel ManagerThis is my first posting in a series of
Invensys technology blogs where I plan to share all the great things
PAS and
Invensys are doing to bring innovative technology for
Foxboro I/A Series, Triconex and
Wonderware customers. In fact, this is the first blog I’ve ever written and I must admit it’s a little exciting!
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However, first things first! I’m a firm believer that for anything to succeed goals should be in place, the more public the goals the harder they are to miss! So, before I get too far into the meat of these blogs I’d like to set the stage for the next 12 months and put out a very public goal. I want to bring bi-weekly updates over the next year about PAS technology that is just for you, the I/A community. That means 26 blogs by September 30th, 2010!
With that being said I should get down to brass tacks. In July of this year PAS and Invensys announced a strategic initiative focused around Invensys global project delivery and PAS’ Integrity technology. You can read more about that
here. This partnership goes well beyond a “marketing” relationship and acts as a vehicle to drive PAS innovation designed specifically for Invensys technology.
As I write this, IOM engineers all over the world are using Integrity as part of a global program to drive productivity, increase quality and reduce delivery time. As such, Invensys is PAS’ most demanding customer. There were substantial enhancements that Invensys required for Integrity to become an integral part of the Invensys engineering work process. In addition, PAS and Invensys have implemented an ongoing improvement program to ensure that Integrity remains compatible with all Invensys technology releases. For this reason the partnership is at the very center of our innovation for the integrity products, especially for Invensys customers. There are over 1000 sites around the world who utilize Integrity and will benefit from this relationship.
These are truly exciting times at PAS and specifically for the
Integrity technology; so stay tuned for the next entry to learn more about how this
Integrity Automation Genome improves the process of a DCS migration so much that the mighty Invensys global engineering force, literally thousands of engineers, changed their work process to adopt the technology, and why as an end user you should expect nothing less from your DCS provider!
25 Blogs and 364 days remaining…