22 May

Knowledge is Not as Powerful as Actionable Information

by Synergy Systems in Engineering & Automation Experts

This photo, “Information” is copyright (c) 2014 Barney Moss and made available under an Attribution 2.0 Generic license

The old trope says that knowledge is power and technology has made knowledge more available than ever. In fact, knowledge has become almost too easy to acquire. Books have been written about information overload. What these books really point at isn’t knowledge or information. We live in a time of data overload to the point where it’s difficult to translate it all into actionable information. Luckily for the business world, all this data can work towards a profitable end.

The process industry benefits from advanced technology that not only collects all data available, but translates it into actionable information. We stressed this last week in our discussion on Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. KPIs are the informational result of data translation. They let everyone from the engineers to plant managers know exactly what they need to without forcing them to sort through masses of irrelevant numbers.

Power to optimize your process and increase bottom line profits requires more than simple knowledge, these days. Knowledge is data. You can accumulate as much as you want, but it will mean nothing if it’s not actionable. Business with expertly designed control systems and HMI screen receive a huge competitive advantage over the competition. With real time data translated to actionable information, businesses having all they need to achieve their goals.

15 May

The Value of Key Performance Indicators in the Process Industry

by Synergy Systems in Engineering & Automation Experts

Control Room

The term Key Performance Indicator, or KPI, is all over the internet. A simple Google search will bring up a ton of blogs about KPIs for various industries. While the term is rather general, it’s meant to serve a specific purpose. That is the great triumph and great downfall of KPI. There are many to choose from for every business, but the KPIs chosen must be specific to business needs and goals to work.

When it comes to integration and automation, KPIs service a vital purpose. They represent the responsibility of technology to examine all data and present it to a plant operator as information. Data is nothing but numbers, ones and zeros representing all the inner workings of a machine. Sifting through all that would take a human far longer than necessary and can delay crucial action. That’s why we have automation. Intelligent technology can be assigned KPIs and programmed to deliver specific information interpreted from the mass of data.

Consider all you can measure on a human body. There are basic numbers, such as weight and calorie intake as well as performance numbers such as how much weight the body can lift, squat, bench or push. This is like the body of a plant or control system. All that data is important to someone, be they a nutritionist, doctor or trainer. Each person has certain KPIs they’re looking for just like each engineer may be assigned a specific section of the plant.

In optimized systems, KPIs can serve an even greater purpose. Through the interpretation of a few data points, a plant manager can be given the pulse of their system. One glance is all that’s needed for an engineer to diagnose whether their system is healthy or not when using optimized control systems with strategic KPIs.

What KPIs do you consider most important to your business?

Are your control systems optimized to quickly diagnose the pulse of your plant?

16 Apr

Is There Potential for Google Glasses in Process Industries?

by Synergy Systems in Industry News

This photo, “Glass Magic” is copyright (c) 2014 Erica Joy and made available under an Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license

For a short time this week, the public was offered the chance to purchase Google Glass. These glasses have the ability to display information, like GPS, emails and weather, right in front of you without blocking vision. The price of $1,500 might seem like a lot for fancy glasses, but they quickly sold out. The world is paying attention, including the worlds of manufacturing, automation and integration.

Perhaps the idea of having a display in the corner of your eye seems superfluous for everyday life, but Google Glass could provide a great addition to safety within process plants. Plant engineers often work with delicate and hazardous machinery. Safety is a top priority because it would often be far too easy for something to go horribly wrong. There has been a lot of talk about mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones, being used in manufacturing environments, but they still demand the attention of our hands.

The technology that could evolve out of Google Glass removes the need for hands, allowing a person to work with both while still reading information transmitted by the glasses. In a temperature sensitive environment, workers could always have the temperature displays before them. While performing time sensitive work, a time display could sit just on the edge of their vision in the glasses.

Following the tablets and smart phones that came before, it’s only a matter of time before technologies like Google Glass make their way into manufacturing and process plants. While the current model is a bit limited, with the potential to display only one set of information at a time, it’s not that much of a stretch to consider the possibility of safety glasses with displays. Removing the need for engineers to have to leave a task and check a display could even take a step beyond safety and establish a new standard for optimizing personnel within plants and process systems.

26 Mar

What We Can Learn From the 100 Largest Losses

by Synergy Systems in Industry News

Recently, Marsh released its report on the 100 Largest Losses in the hydrocarbon extraction, transport and processing industry from 1974 to 2013. Using the Nelson-Farrar Petroleum Pant Cost Index, the report includes inflated values to show how much these 100 incidents would cost in 2013.

Of the top 20 events, eight have taken place in the United States. Most of those losses are associated with vapor cloud explosions at petrochemical plants. While the study covers 40 years of plant operations, these events are hardly in our past. A petrochemical explosion on June 13^th, 2013 was one of the eight events.

While different sectors were involved in the report, all problems can be narrowed down to a few key areas that exist in all plants: Hardware, Management Systems and Emergency Controls. These are the systems that keep everything running smoothly and their failure can be catastrophic.

One of the easiest ways to ensure your safety systems are always running is to have a maintenance plan in place for routine checkups. The more regular the maintenance, the more you reduce the risk of a catastrophic event. In addition, new and emerging threats should be considered when upgrading hardware and emergency controls. This is why cyber security has been such a huge topic of late. Explosions and natural disasters may be at the heart of these 100 losses, but negligence towards emerging threats leaves the door open to something new creating even more damage.

If you want more information on protecting yourself from all safety threats, contact your local engineering consultants at Synergy Systems Inc.

19 Mar

Top Three Ways Automation can Reduce Raw Material and Fuel Usage

by Synergy Systems in Engineering & Automation Experts

Energy Patriot The ability to procure sustainable value within a process system, boiler room or plant provides a huge advantage to business. By their very nature, these industries use up fuel and raw materials to create products and energy. The less material you need for any given process, the less you have to pay for. When it comes to the production of consumer goods, such as food products, using less material to create the same result means you can create more product.

The secret to sustainability in the process industry is reliability. Instruments should be calibrated for optimized performance and communicate all valuable information to plant engineers. This is where automation’s abilities thrive. Harnessing automation technology in the following ways will generate reliable and sustainable plant instruments.

Preventative and Predictive Maintenance
This sustainability issue doubles as a safety issue. The worst kind of safety maintenance a plant can have is reactive. Control systems should be optimized in such a way that plant engineers are made aware of potential errors before they have a chance to wreak havoc. This kind of automation, however, is only preventative. If you want to take your reliability and sustainability a step further, you will calibrate for predictive maintenance as well. An intelligent control system can record and remember the continuous activities of a plant and learn the signs of a potential problem before an error ever occurs. When preventative and predictive maintenance work in tandem, they create an optimized environment with few, if any, major malfunctions.
Alarm Management and Reduction of Nuisance Trips
Last week, we discussed the importance of alarm prioritization as a method of measurement within the process industry. Alarm management is equally important for sustainability. Every nuisance trip wastes energy and employee time. At the same time, an overabundance of alarms can confuse plant workers and create misunderstandings of which alarm is the most crucial. Control systems can be automated in such a way that all this is resolved. The system will run smoothly and communicate all information in an actionable manner to the plant engineers. This avoids wasted time, materials and cost.
Instrument Reliability Experts
All the above will be for naught if the system isn’t put in place with the kind of care instrument reliability experts provide. Make sure you find an engineering consultant with an in-depth knowledge of what reliability and sustainability mean for your business.

06 Mar

The Synergy of Man and Machine

by Synergy Systems in Engineering & Automation Experts

Smart machines only hold as much intelligence as the humans who build and program them. William Hawkins mentions the idea of machines and computers that learn from each other to be frightening. In such an environment, a machine could “learn” to override human actions it interprets as harmful. While current technology and gather, measure and interpret large amounts of data, they lack the ability to learn from it. That job is left to humans who must work in synergy with plant machines.

Having both humans and machines involved in a process system takes advantage of the strengths of each. Machines are an obvious asset with their predictability and ability to withstand steps in the manufacturing processes that are risky for humans. Process and plant engineers, on the other hand, have ingenuity and creativity that can be harnessed as continuous business improvement.

Synergy Systems balances these strengths with a three pronged process. We send our engineering experts directly to client plants and communicate with the process engineers working there. Since plant employees play such a crucial role in the operation of a system, we believe their input is vital to the success of any project. The three things we discuss are what machines should be doing, how they are currently running and how the plant employees would like them to run. Balancing these three realities with the goals of the business is a sure way to achieve success.

When it comes to business success, it is imperative that the strengths of all available assets be used. Cutting-edge technology is only one facet of success. Incorporating the knowledge, needs and ideas of plant employees to work in tandem with technology enables any company to accomplish its highest goals.

26 Feb

The Keys to Safety System Maintenance in the Process Industry

by Synergy Systems in Engineering & Automation Experts

Safety continues to be a huge issue within the process industry. We’ve written about cyber security in the past as something that grew from the protection of personal information to the protection of business control. Maintenance of overall safety extends beyond computer systems to the preservation of employee and mechanical health. Maintenance of the systems that protect the safety of plant employees is critical to continuous success.

Safety system maintenance is always a priority, but it’s rarely considered critical. If everyone is happy and systems are running fine, then what is there to maintain? Spending funds to assess a system only to find out it’s perfectly fine can seem like a waste, but it’s in fact necessary. The flip side of the coin is that maintenance is put off until something in the safety system breaks, something that could have disastrous consequences.

A process system is like the human body in this case. There are certain things we know can go wrong, like prostate cancer or ovarian cancer, without causing any immediate symptoms. This is why we have routine checkups even when our bodies appear to be healthy. It’s better to spend money to know everything is running smoothly than to cut the life of the system short by ignoring routine maintenance.

Routine checkups in the process industry involve verification that all systems and alarms are working as they should. Small issues can be found before they lead to disaster. Here, we cover the four main areas you should look into on a regular basis to ensure your plant is always as safe as possible.

Configuration

This involves making sure everything is running smoothly, notifying employees of the proper alerts and avoiding nuisance trips. Verifying system communications and redundancy is an absolute must. Gone unchecked, you might unintentionally have a malfunctioning module for which the redundant module has taken over. While the system may not be in critical status, the absence of redundancy puts the whole plant in far more risk. The same can be said for system communications and alarms. If the proper alarms aren’t being sent and attended to, fixable problems may persist and create more damage than they would have otherwise.

Backups

Part of cyber security maintenance, backups are a necessary aspect of running a business. Safety maintenance, however, requires more than the existence of backups. Typically, businesses will have a system of automatic backup in place. It is this system which must be assessed to verify safety and security. Automatic and redundant backups only work if the system is void of corruption. Making sure the system is alive ensures you never have be in a situation where you need to use a backed up copy of data only to find the data is corrupted and useless.

Plant Environment Impacts

Many process systems have a number of environmental factors, such as excessive dust or temperature differences, from which their employees and machinery may need protection. It is imperative that the systems regulating these environmental factors be checked so that any issues can be resolved before there is excessive damage.

Consultation

Safety is paramount for any industry to be efficient and reliable. All systems are fail able, but they can also be made better. New improvements are released every day that further perfect existing safety systems for the process industry. A sure way to ensure you remain on top of the latest safety needs is to consult experts in process system safety.

28 Aug

Businesses Seek Automation to Stay Competitive

by Synergy Systems in Engineering & Automation Experts

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.

20 Mar

Industry Recognition of CSIA Grows

by Synergy Systems in Industry News

An ever increasing number of industry clients are requesting CSIA certification from the businesses they hire for industrial automation projects, according to Manufacturing Business Technology.

CSIA stands for Control Systems Integrators Association. They audit their members based on 79 criteria. When they meet or exceed these criteria, they receive a certification acknowledging their accomplishment. To further maintain the certification status, CSIA members must face additional audits every three years. CSIA certainly keeps their members on their toes – which is fantastic for businesses who aspire to be at the forefront of industrial technology and efficiency.

The 79 criteria are spread throughout nine chapters that describe everything from client projects to business organization. Chapters like Financial Management and System Development Lifecycle challenge businesses to make sure they not only provide for their clients, but provide for their business a healthy and successful structure. In this way, CSIA chapters act as redundant controls, ensuring that their members achieve only the highest quality of service.

This month, Synergy has been paying special attention to business continuity, going over our plans for various hazards that may arise and how we can deal with them in a way that has little to no effect on our projects and clients. This includes plans for our own business practices as well as plans for common and uncommon natural hazards.

You may have heard radio commercials talking about ready.illinois.gov. FEMA has their own national version at ready.gov, which provides a specific section for businesses. The forms and worksheets they provide have provided us greater insight into our own continuity plans.

Whether you are looking into CSIA or want to improve your own business continuity, we highly recommend using FEMA’s resources. Many hazards happen without warning, but having procedures in place to address them will protect clients and businesses from facing the full force of negative effects.

13 Mar

New Elements of Life Cycle Cost

by Synergy Systems in Industry News

BusinessDictionary.com defines Life Cycle Cost as the “sum of all recurring and one-time costs over the full life span… of a good, service, structure or system.” This is a term often used in our industry, where process equipment and boilers are purchased with the intention of running them decades into the future. The rapid pace of technology, along with growing environmental concerns, has added additional elements to the calculation of life cycle cost. For example, a product with a long life may become obsolete before its end. Another concern is environmental laws. While a systems may be compliant with emission laws right now, changes in the future could hold even stricter emission restrictions.

Upgrading typically requires the replacement of a few parts while maintaining a whole system or product. That is changing with technology’s ever increasing advancement. Upgrading can mean different things depending on the product you purchase. If advanced technology is already being sold in the marketplace, other products may become obsolete as the newer technology takes hold. In a few decades, an upgrade may require complete replacement of some equipment. The latest technology tends to have a higher cost, which much be weighed in terms of the product life cycle. More than likely, a plant is better off choosing the latest technology because it will take a significant amount of time before it becomes obsolete. In the end, less money will be spent throughout the life cycle with a product that remains at the forefront of technology for years to come.

Today’s cutting-edge technology, such as intelligent HMI and variable frequency drives, many benefits, which much also be taken into consideration. Greater efficiency, less maintenance and a smaller environmental footprint are all elements of new technology that save money in a system. Such benefits may be necessary in the future. Our culture has only become increasingly concerned about industrial emissions. It can be assumed, then, that the future will see a gradual tightening of restrictions on emissions. A sure way to avoid negative impacts from future emission restrictions is to ensure your plant surpasses current standards. Installing an economizer can be a simple and cost effective way to begin. In addition to reducing emissions, it saves fuel and energy cost by harnessing the energy that would otherwise be lost up the stack. For these reasons, Synergy’s Economizer Solutions provides the fastest return on investment out of all of our products. At the end of the day, any steps in upgrading or optimizing that can reduce emissions can also reduce the cost of running a system. Such ‘green’ elements should weigh heavy in any life cycle cost analysis.

When it comes to calculating the life cycle cost of your next big business purchase, remember to consider more than purchase price, maintenance and life. Additional concerns, such as environmental impact and whether or not the product will be obsolete in the near future should carry a lot of weight in your decision.

~You aren’t alone in this decision. Synergy’s expert combustion engineers are always available to provide advice on whatever project you may be planning. Contact us at 630–724-1960, extension 12.