- Five-fold increase in productivity
(December 2003)
- A 'class act' can dramatically improve
plant profitability (December 2003)
- Process Control Consultant In A Box
(October 2003)
- Manage Plant Performance In Real Time
(September 2003)
- Automatic Logging of PID Changes,
Plant-Wide (June 2003)
- Eliminate Cycling in Your Plant (May
2003)
- Quickly Setup Your Plant For Performance
Monitoring (April 2003)
- Loop Performance Monitor Mines Knowledge
From Your Historian (March 2003)
Five-fold increase in productivity (December 2003)
A world scale chemical plant has seen a 5-fold increase in
productivity, due to adopting a software program created by
globally-acknowledged experts at a Wisconsin company. This remarkable
saving was one of several such achievements that resulted in ExperTune
Inc receiving a Problem Solver award from Plant Services magazine.
According to this respected publication: "A major multinational
chemical processor with tens of thousands of instruments and valves is
receiving the benefits of five times the manpower by using PlantTriage
performance monitoring software. The system also helps double the life
of the company's valves."
Plant Services (www.plantservices.com) continues: "By looking at the
most important areas listed in the "Biggest Payback Loop" list, the
same maintenance people can oversee 10 times as many controllers as
before, since the controllers are prioritized based on importance to
the business."
President of ExperTune John Gerry, says: "Our latest technology,
PlantTriage, is a plant-wide performance monitor that has successfully
saved millions of dollars in improved performance for the process
industries."
He adds: "Now is the time, when the global economy shows signs of a
resurgence, to ensure that every plant is reliable, efficient, and
fine-tuned to deliver the last ounce of profitability."
Last month, ExperTune announced a 'master class' that is being made
available to engineers worldwide. Expert instructors are teaching
techniques that achieve practical results, and are designed to produce
major gains in days, not weeks or months."
Mr Gerry notes: "The company wins awards for its software because its
suite of optimization tools is designed solely to increase the
efficiency of processes, and PlantTriage is designed to monitor and
assess the entire plant, to ensure optimal operation and
profitability."
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ExperTune home page | Information request form
In a typical plant, more than 75% of assets are tied to control systems, says
the CEO of Wisconsin-based ExperTune, John Gerry. Launching a 'master class'
that will be available to engineers worldwide, Mr Gerry said: "Almost every
factory engineer is fully familiar with the operation of process plants, but
needs some knowledge of the finer points in order to get the plant to run like
an Indianapolis winner."
"ExperTune's master classes are designed to teach engineers how to track the
performance of plant assets, to identify process and equipment problems,
pinpoint operational inconsistencies, and then remedy the problems found."
He continued: "When economic conditions are tight, and markets are fiercely
competitive, boards of directors want to direct resources to the areas of the
plant where the greatest economic gains are possible. Our experts are now
available to teach engineers to use performance monitoring technology to
direct resources to the areas of the plant where they are needed most."
Mr Gerry added: "Any CEO who has any doubt about the vast scope for
improvement in the process industries should have been at a recent seminar held
by Fisher Controls, an Emerson company."
At the seminar, Director of PlantWeb sales, Joe Herink, said: "Emerson Asset
Optimization, Honeywell Hi-Spec, and Aspen Tech all agree that process
optimization benefits cannot be realized unless the control valves are doing
their job. As many as 80% of the process loops today do not reduce process
variability, and the control valve is the leading culprit."
Key performance indicators
ExperTune's hands-on classes teach engineers to identify the key performance
indicators (KPIs) in various areas in the plant. Students learn about
commonplace KPIs, how to benchmark a process, how to identify process and
equipment problems, and how to pinpoint operational problems.
Mr Gerry, an award winner at this year's ISA conference, explained that the
classes are aimed at teaching techniques that achieve practical results. All
instructors have years of practical hands-on experience in plants, he said, and
engineers are invited to bring specific problems to be discussed during the
seminar.
He added: "The company's full suite of optimization tools are designed to
increase the efficiency of processes, and PlantTriage is designed to monitor and
assess the entire plant, to ensure optimal operation."
"Now is the time, when the global economy shows signs of a resurgence, to ensure
that your plant is reliable, efficient, and fine-tuned to deliver the last ounce
of profitability. ExperTune's global master classes are designed to produce
major gains in days, not weeks or months."
ExperTune home page | Information request form
Process Control Consultant In A Box (October 2003)
Engineers around the world are now able to overcome many of the
difficult problems that beset process plants in industries as
diverse as refining and pulp mills.
This new expert system, the Control Consultant, launched by
Wisconsin-based ExperTune as an integral part of its flagship product,
PlantTriage.
The new system was developed in conjunction with the world-renowned
process control expert, Greg Shinskey, who is the author of numerous
books and has lectured extensively over the past 50 years on literally
thousands of control applications.
ExperTune has captured the know-how of Mr Shinskey in the Control
Consultant to allow any engineer to tap into and gain the benefit from
his experience. The company saw a need for this 'distilled expertise'
after working with many of its 6,000+ clients to solve various tuning
and analysis problems.
Founder and president of ExperTune, John Gerry, said: "Many of our
clients have very subtle and often misleading symptoms from their
automation systems, and often don't have enough time to solve many of
the problems found in operating plants."
He added: "We developed the Control Consultant to assist them in
getting the right answers as fast as possible, and tests have shown
that it is invaluable for engineers and managers seeking to wring the
last drop of profit out of plants of all ages and types."
Mr Gerry explained that PlantTriage is a plant-wide performance
monitor that has successfully saved millions of dollars in improved
performance for the process industries.
"The company's full suite of optimization tools are designed to
increase the efficiency of processes, and PlantTriage is designed to
monitor and assess the entire plant, to ensure optimal operation," he
said.
This month (October), at the ISA conference in Houston, John Gerry
received the Douglas H. Annin Award "in recognition of the
contributions to the development of a PID tuning engine and its
commercial applications."
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Manage Plant Performance In Real Time (September 2003)
ExperTune has released a Web-based presentation that outlines methods for
managing the performance of process plants in real-time to get "huge increases
in performance and productivity." The presentation describes a set of tools
required to achieve real-time performance management.
CEO of the Wisconsin company, John Gerry, explained: "First, software is
required to continually monitor all plant areas, and continually assess the
performance of these areas."
He continued: "After talking to engineers in many industries, we recognized
that the areas of biggest opportunity must be pinpointed by software. They
told us they wanted tools that are integrated to easily drill-down, diagnose,
troubleshoot and repair the problems found in these areas. Further, that the
tools allow tracking of the performance over time accessible to all
personnel."
Mr. Gerry added: "So that is exactly what we have now provided. We have
incorporated the needs and wants of engineers in the process industries and
other areas of manufacturing, and incorporated the proven concepts we have
generated during almost two decades of providing practical help to engineers."
The genial CEO explained that, for 17 years, ExperTune had been creating award
winning optimization software that runs in thousands of plants worldwide. The
latest presentation outlines how to enhance and simplify the ongoing
maintenance of the entire control system infrastructure.
ExperTune's full suite of optimisation tools are designed to increase the
efficiency of processes. Its PlantTriage monitors and assesses the entire
plant, ensuring optimal operation. The company's analysis tools include
simulation, modeling, robustness, linearization, valve wear analysis, pH
linearizer, time series analysis, multivariable, statistical, frequency
response, and PID tuning tools.
The presentation is available free at http://www.expertune.com/present.asp?name=realtime
- or from the presentation page at ExperTune.com:
http://www.expertune.com/LearnCast.html
ExperTune home page | Information request form
Automatic Logging of PID Changes, Plant-Wide (June 2003)
When operators, engineers or technicians make many adjustments in one
area, this indicates a problem in that area. Without an effective
documentation system, changes are not communicated. This further
exacerbates problems in the area.
ExperTune's new version of PlantTriage automatically logs changes to
PID tuning values across the plant. PlantTriage records these PID
change events for every controller. Users can correlate the events and
add notes.
A spokesman for the Wisconsin-based company, Tom Kinney, says: "This
change management system provides a consistent plant-wide method for
viewing PID tuning change logs. Changes are easily accessible to
anyone in the plant through their browser. Users can correlate
performance changes with tuning changes."
Users view PID change events in their web browser. The browser
interface includes a notes section for explaining the purpose of
change. Tuning changes are automatically logged and recorded for
every controller in the plant. Spurious events (quick experiments)
are automatically ignored. The log is sortable by date, controller
tag, author of the change, parameter values etc. The log can be
organized on a per user basis for various plant areas or process
types. For example, a user could view the log for individual unit
operations, specific controller types (only flow loops) or the entire
plant. Users through their browser can also log other maintenance
activities or process changes occurring in the plant.
For 15 years, ExperTune has created award winning optimization
software that runs in thousands of plants world-wide. Now, this
automatic change management system allows users plants to effectively
document and communicate PID and other loop changes. With this
addition PlantTriage further enhances and simplifies the ongoing
maintenance of the entire control system infrastructure.
ExperTune's full suite of optimization tools are designed to increase
the efficiency of processes. Its PlantTriage monitors and assesses
the entire plant, ensuring optimal operation. The company's analysis
includes simulation, modeling, robustness, linearization, valve wear
analysis, pH linearizer, time series analysis, multivariable,
statistical, frequency response and PID tuning tools.
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ExperTune home page | Information request form
Eliminate Cycling in Your Plant (May 2003)
Remove cycling in a plant and the entire operation will improve.
ExperTune has released this web-based presentation that outlines
methods for eliminating cycling in process plants.
The presentation is available at no-charge, anytime, anywhere via:
http://www.expertune.com/present.asp?name=derivative
Or from the presentation page at ExperTune.com:
http://www.expertune.com/LearnCast.html
The most typical cause of cycling in process plants is from valve
stiction or hysteresis. Aggressive tuning, non-linearities, and loop
interactions are also other causes. The first step in removing
cycling is identifying the cause.
ExperTune's full suite of optimization tools are designed to increase
the efficiency of your process. ExperTune's PlantTriage monitors and
assesses the entire plant, assuring optimal operation. ExperTune's
analysis includes simulation, modeling, robustness, linearization,
valve wear analysis, pH linearizer, time series analysis,
multivariable, statistical, frequency response and PID tuning tools.
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ExperTune home page | Information request form
Quickly Setup Your Plant For Performance Monitoring (April 2003)
ExperTune's newest development is a bulk database import for setting
up an entire plant for monitoring and assessment in PlantTriage ™.
PlantTriage continually monitors the plant and assesses its
performance. Areas with the greatest need are prioritized for
maintenance and engineering.
The initial challenge in monitoring and assessing an entire plant, is
setting up the addresses for all the instruments and controllers.
John Gerry of ExperTune says, "PlantTriage makes this easy by using a
smart wizard-based bulk import. The wizard (Patent Pending) has
intelligence about specific control systems so that it polls the
control system for most of the data it needs."
The result is that PlantTriage imports, from your database, only the
information necessary for the wizard to get started. It then reads as
much information as possible directly from the process control
computer. Optionally, the user could enter the addresses in Excel and
direct PlantTriage to use Excel. Once setup, PlantTriage will monitor
and assess every control loop in the plant, assuring optimal plant
operation.
ExperTune's full suite of optimization tools are designed to increase
the efficiency of your process. ExperTune's PlantTriage monitors and
assesses the entire plant, assuring optimal operation. ExperTune's
analysis includes simulation, modeling, robustness, linearization,
valve wear analysis, pH linearizer, time series analysis,
multivariable, statistical, frequency response and PID tuning tools.
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ExperTune home page | Information request form
Loop Performance Monitor Mines Knowledge From Your Historian (March 2003)
ExperTune's PlantTriage now will monitor the performance of your
control loops directly from your plant Historian. PlantTriage's new
OPC HDA makes this possible. Interfaces to these historians:
- OSI PI Historian
- Honeywell PHD
- AspenTech InfoPlus.21
- Invensys AIM*Historian
- Any historian supporting OPC HDA
HDA stands for Historical Data Access and is a new standard from the
OPC Foundation.
PlantTriage assesses the plant data from the historian,
prioritizing process control loops in order of biggest payback. PlantTriage
focuses efforts on those loops that will have the greatest economic impact.
Applying PlantTriage results in a steady and continuous improvement in the
product quality, costs, throughput, and waste reduction in process plants.
The OPC HDA connection is simple and elegant, allowing
control engineers to view past data and apply PlantTriage tools to
diagnose, tune, linearize and decouple the problems found. These
tools increase the effectiveness of maintenance and engineering
personnel by a factor of 5 to 10 since they can optimize the process
quickly and systematically with award winning tools.
PlantTriage is ExperTune's loop monitoring package that
prioritizes loops for process control engineers. With PlantTriage and the same
maintenance people the plant has now, performance will improve since maintenance
will be focused on the areas that will make the biggest difference. And
PlantTriage includes the tools to optimize those areas. PlantTriage results in
predictive, reliability centered maintenance. PlantTriage maximizes profit
improvement without adding brick and mortar or personnel.
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