Case Studies


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Comparison of PlantTriage Field Diagnostics vs. Industry Standard Fieldbus Diagnostic Capabilities

Parameter	PlantTriage	Fieldbus (AMS/FieldVue)	Notes
Drag and Drop one device to another	Yes	Yes	PlantTriage's powerful configuration tools allow for fast configuration including bulk import.
Diagnostics without trip to field	Yes	Yes	PlantTriage presents results in a browser display.
Slewing error, spring rate, seat load	No	Yes	PlantTriage uses the performance data from the valve and the entire loop performance.
Diagnostics without trip to plant	Yes	No	PlantTriage Browser displays can be viewed anywhere in the corporate intranet.
Valve Signature	Yes	Yes
Valve and Process linearization	Yes	No	PlantTriage, gives you the tools, methods, and equations to linearize the entire control loop.
Dynamic Error Band	Yes	Yes	PlantTriage quantifies the effect on plant operations as a result of poor error band.
Drive Signal	Yes	Yes	PlantTriage verifies this with the process performance feedback.
Hysteresis check	Yes	Yes
Hysteresis check done automatically without interrupting the process	Yes	No	Fieldvue requires this to be done on a per valve basis, PlantTriage does it automatically for the entire process (every monitored valve in the plant) without interrupting operations.
Benchmarking	Yes	Yes
Benchmarking in context with entire operation	Yes	No	PlantTriage benchmarks the entire loop in the context of how it affects the overall plant operation.
Friction	Yes	Yes	PlantTriage calculates stiction from online data at various operating points.
Can perform all diagnostics using 4–20 ma	Yes	No	PlantTriage requires no costly and manpower intensive digital protocols.
Can perform all diagnostics on any signal	Yes	No	Via OPC PlantTriage analyzes any signal.
Can perform diagnostics from normal plant data	Yes	No	Much of the analysis and all 40 of PlantTriage assessments require no special tests. For the assessments, all controls and valves stay in automatic.
Performs diagnostics on all loops 24x7 and summarizes	Yes	No	PlantTriage looks at all valves, regardless of signal type on a continual basis.
Organizes and prioritizes maintenance on all valves	Yes	No	PlantTriage organizes and prioritizes valves needing work based on business importance.
Open interfaces to all Plant Historians	Yes	No	PlantTriage has open industry standard interfaces for bi-directional communication to all popular historians.
Historical performance tracked	Yes	No	PlantTriage keeps real-time performance metrics and diagnostics for two years.
Index of performance improvements possible	Yes	No	PlantTriage gives indexes of possible performance improvements for each valve as part of a control loop allowing you to quickly pinpoint under-performers.
Web based reporting and viewing	Yes	No	Browser based displays and reports allow anyone in the enterprise view all information.
Scheduled or on demand reports	Yes	No	Reports summarizing all valve performance in a plant available on demand or scheduled.
Installed cost of $100/valve	Yes	No	The PlantTriage solution can be installed without any field work or plant downtime for about $100/valve.
Total loop metrics including valve performance	Yes	No	In addition to powerful valve diagnostics, the performance of the complete functioning loop are tracked.
Impact on other parts of process determined	Yes	No	With spectral analysis performed on valve performance this can be correlated to other parts of the process.
Requires Hart or FF	Hart or FF not needed	Yes	PlantTriage works with any field protocol right out of the box.
Viewable from anywhere in the corporation	Yes	No	Browser based reports are available anywhere in the plant.
Effect on total plant performance calculated	Yes	No	The impact of valve metrics are calculated for the unit, plant and site performance.
Total valve travel calculated, benchmarked, and tracked	Yes	No	PlantTriage tracks valve travel for predictive performance and proactive maintenance.
Total valve reversal calculated, benchmarked and tracked	Yes	No	PlantTriage tracks valve reversals for in conjunction with valve travel for predictive performance and proactive maintenance.
Valve standard deviation calculated, benchmarked and tracked	Yes	No	PlantTriage calculates and tracks this crucial metric for early detection of other automation performance issues.
Valve variance calculated, benchmarked, and tracked	Yes	No	PlantTriage calculates and tracks this essential metric for optimizing the performance of the entire process against operating objectives.
Detects loop oscillations	Yes	No	PlantTriage oscillation detection automatically alerts you to oscillations occurring in any loop.
Oscillation diagnosis	Yes, automatic	No	PlantTriage automatically diagnosis the cause of the oscillation to be either from the valve, PID tuning, or a load upset.
Root-cause oscillation analysis	Yes, automatic	No	PlantTriage root-cause diagnosis makes it easy to find the "bad actor" loop in a plant.
Valve health	Yes, automatic	No	PlantTriage valve health is determined from a combination of metrics you choose.
Process trends	Yes	No	PlantTriage historizes every process variable, CO and SP for 6 months (indefinitely if you off-load data). All diagnostics and assessments kept for 2 years. All can be trended and compared over time with an unlimited number of other trends.
6 SIGMA support—Define	Yes	No	PlantTriage categorizes the plant into Unit Operations.
6 SIGMA support—Measure	Yes	Yes
6 SIGMA support—Analyze	Yes—complete	Yes—some	PlantTriage includes all the tools of PID Tuner/Analyzer to analyze and troubleshoot.
6 SIGMA support—Improve	Yes	No	PlantTriage includes PID Tuning, best filter, and characterizer builders that will improve the process.
6 SIGMA support—Control	Yes—complete	Yes—some	PlantTriage includes customizable benchmarking tools: key assessments, baselines and thresholds. These make monitoring the improvements meaningful to your business.
Valve importance economically weighted	Yes	No	Economic weighting allows you to better match process to the business objectives. For example, for two valves of the same health, the one with higher economic weight gets attention first.
Process model identification	Automatic	None	PlantTriage automatically identifies the model of the process for simulation, analysis and PID tuning. A model quality value is also given.
PID Tuning	Yes	No	PlantTriage seamlessly integrates all the power of ExperTune's Standard PID Tuner.
Valve wear analysis	Yes	No	PlantTriage seamlessly integrates the power of ExperTune's Advanced PID Tuner.
Robustness analysis	Yes	No	PlantTriage seamlessly integrates the power of ExperTune's Advanced PID Tuner.
Customizable, fast loop reports	Yes	No	Loop reports in Microsoft Word.