Modernization Program with Broader Analysis of Existing Systems

November 2012

 

By Bill Lydon, Editor

 

During the recent North America Invensys Foxboro User Group in Boston, Invensys announced a New Modernization Program. I had a discussion with David Gaertner, Director of the Modernization Group, and Gary Freburger, President of Systems Business, about the program.  They described the idea of taking a holistic approach based on a business view of requirements with four major modernization goals - Reduce risk of failures, operational improvements, new & existing systems integration, and securing automation systems from cyber-attack. Gaertner suggests that customers should have short-range and long-range automation and business strategy plans in concert with business goals. The Invensys modernization process starts with a 2-3 day workshop at the plant site, leading to plans that include investment analysis. This process results in a Business Opportunity Worksheet (BOW) that has 4 key sections - namely problem evidence (current state), results evidence, problem financial impact, and estimated financial results.

 

Invensys is concentrating on plants that have a Foxboro system. I asked if the modernization team was different than a customer’s normal Foxboro contact person. Gaertner answered that the modernization team is a resource that the customer’s normal Foxboro contact can use if there is a need to explore modernization. The customer needs to express a genuine interest in developing a comprehensive plan and return on investment analysis. At that point the modernization team will start the analysis process by involving the site plant manager. The site plant manage will ultimately become the point person on the project and will engage others in the organization that need to be involved. Other project participants typically include operations and someone that deals with the financial part of the business. Appropriate Invensys subject matter experts will be brought into the project based on site requirements.

 

 

This program is described as “holistic.” I asked what taking a holistic approach to modernization means? Gaertner responded that they are looking beyond what is considered the traditional upgrade project where users are just looking at obsolete equipment and replacing it to reduce risk. Part of the Invensys process is to understand the customer’s strategy, initiatives, and issues to identify a broad range of opportunities for improvement that deliver business value.   When performing some of these assessments, they have found the opportunity to do optimization and advanced process control that had not been considered before.  For example, a recent modernization assessment was started due to the need for a power generation facility to comply with new environmental constraints and improve efficiency. The result was the use of combustion optimization as a means to meet both the tightening environmental requirements and increase efficiency.

 

Since most plants have equipment from multiple vendors, I asked how this is factored into their analysis.  Foxboro is certainly interested in potential replacement of competitive hardware and has ways to do this efficiently. At a minimum, connecting all systems together into a cohesive enterprise-level system is the first objective.

 

While discussing how their analysis has identified opportunities to improve efficiency with physical changes to the plant such as boilers and heat exchanger retrofits, I asked if they were willing to do this work as the prime contractor. The answer is no but they will recommend capable partners in these situations.

 

I asked how they handle the increasing requirement on these projects for integration with business enterprise systems.   Invensys’ Doug Clifton, who runs that practice, has been developing people with the skillsets to handle these interfaces. 

 

Since the assessments take a great deal of resources, I asked how much money they typically charge for these services. The answer is they do not charge for the assessment service but indicated they are looking for users where plant or site leadership is committed to taking a long term action-oriented view of modernization.

 

 

Rather than promoting migration of old equipment to new equipment, Invensys has an analysis process to consider the user’s overall business objectives and how the automation system can be used to achieve them. This process is putting into practice the ideas Dr. Peter Martin, Invensys Vice President and Fellow, has been preaching for years of combining users’ business objectives and engineering to drive asset performance optimization.

 

While discussing this process with Don Clark, another Invensys Vice President and Fellow, he noted that modernization ideally is not a onetime event but ongoing to keep the plant competitive. In many cases, adding intelligence including APC (Advanced Process Control), alarm management, and workflow to existing systems can have large benefits.

 

This is a good opportunity for users to inspect the issues and develop a good plan leveraging subject matter experts from Invensys.