December 1, 2008 - ExperTune's PlantTriage software includes a new tool that graphically highlights plant interactions. Using the new "Interaction Hot Spots," engineers can quickly pinpoint the root cause of process interactions. Engineers can resolve these upsets to improve quality, energy, production rate, and process uptime.The browser-based Interaction Hot Spots tool is now included with PlantTriage, control loop monitor. PlantTriage monitors all plant control loops and instruments in real-time.
Interactions between control loops appear as colored blocks on the Interaction Hot Spots display. Stronger interactions are indicated by stronger colors. Following PlantTriage's intuitive color scheme, green indicates no interaction, yellow indicates some interaction, and red indicates strong interaction. On a single web page, users can see all of the significant interactions in the entire plant.As impressive as it is to have a complete picture of interactions, pinpointing the interactions is just the starting point.
The Hot Spots display is interactive. Using a slider, users can filter the display to show only the most significant interactions. Simple drop-down menus allow the user to narrow the scope of an effort, and focus, for example, on just a few unit operations.Users can click on a graphical hot spot to start a detailed investigation. This launches a context-sensitive drill-down into the relevant data from the interacting loops.
This includes display of real-time process variable trends and a process interaction map. Using this information, users can establish the root cause of interaction problems in a matter of minutes.PlantTriage users are already reporting successes from using interaction tools. One plant in Alabama is now saving over $1 million per year, after solving an interaction problem that started in the utilities area.The Interaction Hot Spots tool is available as a standard feature in PlantTriage.