18 Sep

New Control Room Evolution

New Control Room Evolution

Recently, Synergy completed a complete control room remodel for a client.  Along with the updated look and increased storage space, the new control room provides:

  • Modern boiler control Human Machine Interface
  • Improved workflow
  • Improved reaction time
  • Improved screens and display, allowing for faster dissemination of information
  • Low-voltage lighting, reducing fatigue and eye strain of operators

Click here to see a slideshow of all the work that went into this incredible transformation.

Control Room Evolution
June 6: Demolition begins and control console is moved to a temp location.

Evolution of Control Room
June 22: The remodel, rough in.

Control room on July 9th and nearly finished.
July 17th: Major components are in place.

Completion: July 17th.
Completion: July 17th.
11 Sep

Synergy’s Full Accountability Commitment to Clients

Business managers want the best solution to optimize their plants delivered on time and on budget. While multiple parties are often more than happy to accept a portion of accountability for the project, the process is most smoothly run when all responsibility is in one entity.

The majority of any automation or process control project is completed before deliverables ever make it to a plant. The software and intellectual property a business pays for needs to be built according to the specific desires and goals of the client before it can be sent on its way. Once delivered, there is often a need for assembly and final testing.
Smooth is the process where the person who orders material, creates the software, assembles the unit, performs necessary tests and trains plant employees is the same. Even experts who are thrown into the middle of an ongoing project will need time to at least familiarize themselves with what has already been done and what is left to do.

At Synergy, we offer to carry all accountability on our projects. We feel that our valued commitments to safety, reliability and optimization are best carried out with full responsibility. Clients are provided full disclosure on all projects, with frequent meetings and updates. In every moment, Synergy is open to the ideas, suggestions and changes a client may request on their project.

We are all driven by the goals and aspirations of clients. Through our solutions and services, we aim to achieve the goals of our clients with increased optimization and superb return on investment. This is easily accomplished on time and on budget with Synergy carrying full accountability.

 

 

 

 

04 Sep

PRESS RELEASE: B&W, Working with Synergy, Awarded Contract with U of I

Synergy Systems, Lisle, IL

 

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

Babcock & Wilcox, working with Synergy Systems Inc., has been awarded the contract for a 175,000 lb/hr, 850 psig, 740 degree F package boiler for the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana.

Contract award was a lump sum for 3,047,737 dollars; construction design meetings will commence immediately.

Synergy Systems Inc. is the local B&W representative for Northeastern Illinois and North Indiana.
Contact: Marc Hunter
Phone: 630-724-1960 ex. 12
Email: hunter@synsysinc.com

1982 Ohio Street
Lisle, IL 60532

28 Aug

Businesses Seek Automation to Stay Competitive

Automation expenditures in the process industry are expected to soar to $7 billion by 2016 in the food and beverage industry alone, according to an article published in Process Magazine. As business do all they can to be more competitive and profitable, optimization of the process – including product creation and packaging – is ever more essential. Lag in the plant is unacceptable.

Specifically, the industry is turning for automation to assist in cost containment, time profitability and even sustainability and waste reduction. These last couple are sure to carry a lot of weight as the price of producing and using energy rises. In addition, people have become increasingly aware of the sustainability, or lack thereof, that a business’s uses throughout its processes. All these and more contribute to a growing need for superior automation.

There is another side to this story that is not being told. As technology moves forward at an ever increasing pace, companies are doing all they can to acquire the latest and greatest in order to stay competitive. Time spent adjusting and tweaking the process of a system is time that is not being spent on other areas of the business, such as innovation. America has always been a land that produces some of the greatest inventors and Synergy aims to keep it that way.

We specialize in the process optimization, in addition to providing repairs and replacements for the boilers that are so often responsible for plant energy generation. Our goals are yours. While we always strive to assist our clients in creating the most using the least amount of energy, are biggest concern is that our solutions and services help you achieve your goals. Not only do we create solutions customized to your needs, we do so in such a way that the majority of our solutions produce a return on investment in under a year. After construction and installation, we continue to stand by our clients through safety and business focused services.

Automation is a significant investment that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Companies need to consider all that goes into upgrades and new systems. Moreover, they should partner with someone who has their best interest in line. Contact one of our process and combustion experts today to see if Synergy can help you meet your goals and remain ever competitive in business.

 

 

 

21 Aug

Do Not Let the Flash and Glamour Fool You

Do Not Let the Flash and Glamour Fool You

Long-time employees of a plant tend to feel anxiety when word of technological upgrades starts to circulate. A recent Control Engineering article mentions that IT professionals tend to be young and used to the latest and greatest platform. The older operators in the plant aren’t nearly as enthused about new technology if the old technology does the job just as well. While there are certainly reasons to upgrade plant technology, decisions about what to do should be made with optimization as the core goal.

Synergy rarely values technology based on how new it happens to be. Instead, we concern ourselves with providing services and solutions that generate the outcome for the client. If technology provided needs to work with other equipment in the plant, then we will find what fits. There are many cases where the latest and greatest technology is also the best to install, just as it may be more financially reasonable to replace a part that only has a few years left in it then to try and find technology that will work with the old part.

Old and new are relative. Functionality, optimization and monetary savings are where true value shows itself. Our professionals are intimately familiar with the operations of a plant and build for functionality first. As a result, many of our services have a return on investment that takes less than a year.

In a world that has become fascinated with the glitz and glamour of graphics and speed, too often we forget about the true purpose of control systems and HMI. Make sure the technology installed in your plant is more than the latest and greatest. Make sure it benefits your needs and goals as well.

There is a lot out there to consider in the world of technology. Feel free to contact our expert combustion engineers to discuss the optimal way you can achieve your business objectives.

 

 

14 Aug

Is it Time for DCS Migration?

InTech estimates more than 10 million DCS input/output (I/O) points will need to put updated over the next decade. There is a lot of work to be done in the industrial world to migrate these points to an updated and optimized system. Before an outdated system causes major harm, a plan for migration should be put in place.

There are 10 areas Intech recommends you consider in deciding whether or not it is time to migrate, most of which involve how your current DCS is affecting your business. If your performance, security or ability to interconnect with third-party systems is compromised, it is time to consider migration. Perhaps even more important are future goals and milestones for the business. A system that holds the plant back from achieving its goals is a system in serious need of migration.

Finding the right partner is the next step in migrating DCS systems and may be one of the most important. Obviously experience and competency are key. What people sometimes don’t consider are the processes and culture of the partner they choose. The experience needs to come with the flexibility and pace that fits well with your business. At Synergy, we pride ourselves with being open and welcoming to our clients, often inviting them to our offices for meetings. We are equally flexible and can fit into just about any schedule a client request. Our vendor independent approach puts the control in client hands when it comes to what brands they want.

The truth is, you want to like the people who provide you with a DCS system because building an ongoing relationship with them will benefit both of you. Trust is especially key if you want to have a service contract with the partner in order to have future support for upgrades and repairs.

The final and most obvious consideration is cost. InTech mentions costs and resulting savings. This can be tricky as the old adage is that you get what you pay for. A balance must be maintained between cost and quality, and that balance is usually found in savings. Migration, and updating any area of a plant in general, often means there may have to be some downtime. Operators may have to be trained and, of course, there is the initial cost of the system. No matter how cheap a system is, these prices will always exist and they are offset by savings. The return on investment is key. The more optimized a system is, the fast you will receive a return and savings.

Many of Synergy’s solutions take less than a year to earn back in savings the money spent on the service. From that moment on, the increased efficiency translates into savings for the business. If you are looking to migrate your DCS or any other area of your plant, give us a call. We’d love to discuss your business goals and help you achieve them.

 

 

 

07 Aug

Human Machine Interface Essentials

Control-Engineering- MagazineAn article on page 14 of the latest Control Engineering Magazine ask the question “Who is building your HMI?” The question related to high-performance HMI and implores readers to answer honestly about the human machine interfaces they use and/or create. Industrial accidents, collectively costing billions of dollars every year, are often related to poor HMI. The discussion of what is and isn’t high performance HMI is curtail to an optimally running plant.

While there are a number of HMI guidelines out there, the variations in what a plant or organization needs are so great that it is hard to nail down specific standards that must be followed in every case. The true test of high performance comes down to usability. The Control Engineering article considers usability testing as a worth-while step when creating HMI.

Consider your typical new hire. You are confident the person has the basic skills needed to perform the job, but, since the person hasn’t been on the job for a significant amount of time, those basic skills are the only ones you can be sure of. Would that new hire be able to use operational HMI screen successfully with just those basic skills?

Usability testing can be as simple as having a person with basic skills in operation use the HMI and taking note of errors they make and questions they have. In this way, you can be sure to have high performance HMI made for the mind of the operator instead of the mind of the programmer.

Regardless of your unique HMI needs, there is no question that operational screen should be accurate in their presentation of process data, safety data and alarms. Ease of use and accurate portray of information should be the primary focus of all high performance HMI.

Here at Synergy, we often perform our own usability test, asking members unrelated to a project to utilize the screen and the user manual to perform basic tasks. Not only does this improve our HMI, taking it to a higher level of usability, it also improves our user manuals. The first place an operator should be able to turn to when a questions arises is the user manual, making accurate portray of screen operations equally important in that document.

31 Jul

Rethinking Millennial Business Loyalty

 

This photo, “Millennials Jam Workshop: Youth and ICTs beyond 2015” is copyright (c) 2014 itupictures and made available under an Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Business loyalty has often thought to be a thing of the past. Gone are the days when a person would graduate college and work with a single company until their retirement day. Millennials (those born roughly between the years of 1982 and 2002) are changing the workplace, with some expecting them to have upwards of nine different careers in their lifetime. At least, these are the assumptions. New statistics out of the 2013 Kelly Global Workforce Index indicate Millennials are still interested in business loyalty if their employer is willing to invest.

Offering benefits, like health care and paid vacation, have always been perks that Millennials have in mind during their job search. One of the most interesting items the Workforce Index looked at was the benefit of training and development on the job. As opposed to the idea the generation will hop from job to job, many Millennials are looking for training opportunity as a way to grow with a business. Two-thirds of engineering professionals hope to remain loyal to their employer and see training as a way to further their importance to the company. On the other end, only 15 percent seek additional training for the purpose of finding a better job or starting their own business.

Many businesses enjoy having Millennials as employees for the ease with which they handle technology. Synergy is no exception, especially because of our commitment to be at the forefront of technological advancements in automation.  To this end, we provide many benefits that Millennials look for, including the above mentioned health care and paid vacation time. We look to train our workers to be the best they can be and offer various opportunities to advance in skill and position. In addition, we offer a flexibility that is craved in the workplace.

If you know of a recent college graduate interested in joining a team of expert engineers and combustion experts, send them to our Careers page or have them send a message to Careers@synsysinc.com

 

 

25 Jul

Using Digital Backup to Guard Against Mother Nature’s Wrath

Natural disasters cost the government and insurance companies billions every year, the most costly over the past 10 years resulting from hurricanes and earthquakes. However, in 2012, damage due to droughts far outweighed earthquakes. Any natural disaster, big or small, can have a huge impact on industry. We often hear about shortages of certain products due to natural disasters. It wasn’t long ago the news was talking about a predicted shortage of pork due to various factors including last year’s long dry spell. Individual plants can be affected as well. A simple power outage can be caused by a number of natural weather events and can cost a plant a large amount of money if they right mechanisms aren’t in place.

In industry, we often prepare for natural disasters by having back-up power and continuity policies. Mother Nature’s wrath is a natural part of life and sometimes all we can do is have a plan in place to pick up the pieces after the damage. Living in the digital age means that many of the pieces will be in the form of electronic data.

Digital information is both a blessing and a curse depending on how you use it. All the information in your business can potentially be accessed from one computer. At the same time, if something happens to that once computer, where is the data then? A few years ago, people backed up data on compact disk or external hard drives. These are both very good options, but they all pose one problem: they are physical objects which can be easily corrupted or destroyed.

These realities make off-site backup and cloud storage that much more important. Having information stored on the iCloud or SkyDrives means that information is available on any computer, even if the original computer that created the information is destroyed. Likewise, off-site back up, such as the quarterly backup Synergy offers clients through safety plans, makes sure you data is stored safely and that someone can be held accountable if that off-site backup fails.

While our society has grown to rely on digital data, our ability to backup that data is slow in catching up. It is still not uncommon for someone to post a Facebook status proclaiming they need everyone’s phone numbers again because they lost their phone. Business data is greater than a Facebook post can fix, though. In the past three years, 30 percent of small business have been closed for at least 24 hours due to a natural disaster and still, 60 percent of U.S. businesses are without off-site data back up or a formalized recovery plan.

So important are backup and recovery plans that the Control Integrators Association mentions its significance multiple times throughout their best practices document. In fact, it is even a requirement of the audit to be prepared for Mother Nature. As such, we have added a whole host of security measures to our own business. Recently, we upgraded to Office 365, which comes with SkyDrive cloud storage. While we rarely have an issue with our data, it gives us peace of mind to know that our valuable business information is secure. Mother Nature is unpredictable, after all. Who knows where or how she will strike next.

17 Jul

Tablets in the Workplace

 

This photo, “Tablets stacked on the desk” is copyright (c) 2014 Intel Free Press and made available under an Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license

Tablets have turned into the latest tech tool, from the Samsung Galaxy note to the Microsoft Surface. Speculation has been around for a while about how these easily transportable devices may change the way we use technology in the workplace. We’ve all seen the commercials showing data, graphs and emails displayed on tablets. How accurate are those commercials, though? Synergy set out early this year to answer that question.

 Over the Christmas holiday season, we obtained an iPad, a Microsoft Surface and a Galaxy Note to see how our expert engineers were able to use these tablets in the workplace. While they all had their advantages and disadvantages, we recently decided to purchase Samsung ATIV Smart PCs for the rest of our engineers. This tablet runs Windows 8 on it and also has a detachable keyboard, much like the Microsoft Surface does.

The biggest benefit we have seen so far has been in our day to day note taking tasks. Whether it’s stepping into an office and jotting down a quick note or participating in project meetings, these tablets are great for note taking. Even more important to the engineers in the office, these tablets allow you to write just as you would on paper, meaning they can sketch their drawings and easily save them. No longer do we waste time flipping through a ton of notebooks trying to find that one special page. Instead, each set of notes can be saved and given a name, making them easy to find later.

While this certainly helps organization, it also has the fantastic benefit of reducing paper use. The result is similar to what we provide our clients through our solutions and services. Not only will we save money by needed fewer office materials, but we are also aiding the environment by using far less paper.

That is not the end for these tablets, which live up to the idea of mini computers in many ways. It’s extremely easy to access the internet or email through a tablet. While these are things you can do on many smart phones, the tablets allow larger views which can be important when view professional documents.

In the future, we intend to use the tablets for remote access to desktops in the office and on client sites. With this ability, we will be able to work on process control from wherever we are and without the need to have a laptop or desktop.

While we have found tablets to be a great asset to our work environment, with plenty of potential to grow in importance, the bigger question has yet to be answered. Can a tablet replace a computer? The answer really depends on the type of business you run. If you need something to type documents, check email and access the internet, a tablet may very well replace a computer. However, if you are doing heavy work with coding, drawings and large files, a computer is still necessary.

We look forward to the future of tablets. While they may not be at a point yet to replace computers, there is certainly great potential. Who knows what kind of powerful technology we’ll be carrying in our pockets 10 years from now.