ISA 2012 Automation Week Track: Control Performance Wednesday, 26 September, 9:30-11:00 am, Room 204B Danaca Jordan Eastman Chemical Company Control projects take time to do right. In recent days, many facilities are cutting back on the number of staff while increasing the automation of and engineer involvement in operations. Long-term control optimization projects can be difficult to prioritize when compared to daily manufacturing troubleshooting and prominent capital work. During Wednesday’s Control Performance Track session on “Efficient Operations Starts with Control Performance,” we will use an ongoing case study to demonstrate how process control improvements can still be accomplished around a hectic schedule.
Based on the capabilities of a relatively new chemical engineer and ISA mentee in a small batch manufacturing plant, we will follow the troubleshooting experience for improving the temperature control of a batch stripping column, with an emphasis on ways to delegate and automate time-intensive tasks. Beginning with the initial project identification and goal setting, we will touch on the initial findings, cost justification and selection of new instruments, strategies implemented and final results of the control project. Tools for identifying problems faster and to quickly build buy-in will be discussed, along with the benefits of detailed scope definition to keep a project focused.
In an initial troubleshooting section, we will discuss tips for setting up your distributed control system and historian to accomplish more without oversight. Instrumentation limitations were uncovered during this project, which we will use as models for where to avoid shortcuts. Specifics of instrument selection and saving time by leveraging vendor experience will be included. During a discussion on cost justification of new instruments, I will include different methods to bump your project up the priority list and effectively justify your time for the sensitive tuning needed in the last phases of control development. Finally, I will explain how the new control scheme was developed using recommendations from expert Greg McMillan, historian data, batch logic, and dynamic modeling software.
I will include details on how I leveraged software programs to obtain starting parameters, so my time could be spent on fine-tuning. McMillan’s advice during this process is included and noted, along with personal interpretations and implementation. For the last year, I have had the honor of mentoring with McMillan, ISA Fellow and Lifetime Achievement awardee. With his support, I am presenting my first external technical report at this year’s ISA Automation Week. Originally, I just planned to discuss a challenging control problem we are troubleshooting in my plant’s batch process.
Then, as the days flew by and my attention was continuously divided by immediate priorities and capital work, I developed a new goal, to support engineers in the identification and completion of controls projects when they are unable to focus solely on controls. To help achieve this goal, I have designed this presentation to benefit less experienced manufacturing and process engineers, their mentors, and anyone hoping to improve process control performance in their spare time.
