19 Dec

New Opportunities with Smart Technology

“Successful companies have leveraged the knowledge and experience of leading automation companies in implementing smart plant projects to consistently deliver quantifiable business results measurable in real-time, predict asset performance, avoid surprises, and reduce risks to life, plant, and environment.”

This photo, “Control Systems Security” is copyright (c) 2014 Idaho National Laboratory and made available under an Attribution 2.0 Generic

So says a recent article published at Flow Control Magazine. Companies around the globe are harnessing the new opportunities provided by smart technology. As these advances become cheaper and cheaper to implement and their benefits ever more evident, it’s often a no-brainer for a business to update their site assets.

Serious issues can plague a plant that operates on outdated machines. With a limited ability to measure critical data and make predictions, businesses either plan downtime, sometimes when it’s not needed, or have unexpected issues that require downtime.

Downtime, the dirtiest D-word in the automation world, can be dramatically reduced with a system that collects historical data, measures critical aspects of the architecture and predicts any future issues. When known ahead of time, some problems can be handled with now downtime at all. In this way, the plant staff acts in a predicative and proactive role, addressing problems before they cause any harm.

If you are wondering just how affordable all this technology is, consider the fact that many of Synergy’s solutions have an ROI of a year or less. It is said that an iPhone has more advanced technology than what we used to land on the moon. Process control systems have enjoyed the same rapid advancement. What used to cost an outrageous amount of money, is now simple and can achieve more with a significantly lower initial investment

 

25 Sep

Pros and Cons of Advanced Technology

With every passing year, it seems like technology is improving at ever increasing rates. Just look at popular phones like the iPhone. Didn’t we get a new one less than a year ago and already we have not one, but two, new phones complete with technology more advanced than the last.

While we can provide the latest and greatest technology available for boiler systems, process control and stack analysis, our overall goal is to help our clients achieve their business goals. With safety and optimization as a top priority, we want to improve the business of our clients. Just because something is new, does not mean it will be the best asset for business performance.

The benefits of improved technology can be seen in improved safety, efficiency and reliability of business assets and machinery. In addition, technological advances can allow businesses to identify and analyze measurements that may have been unattainable in the past. Fuel and energy use can be improved, with advanced technology that requires less energy to power.

All of these benefits are fantastic and have the ability to drastically improve any plant. Incorporating them correctly is often the key to their use. Sometimes the way in which a business is run, the goals a business has in mind and the type of people who will be using the technology make it difficult for a technology to be used in a way that makes it efficient.

Synergy makes a point to put client business goals first. If it won’t get you any closer to your goals, there is no reason to spend more resources in order to have the latest technology. We maintain an open discuss with our clients throughout a project to ensure all we do is not just for the sake of technology, but for the sake of their business goals and performance.

If you are curious about the type of services and solutions we can offer to help you achieve top business performance, contact a Synergy engineering expert.