24 Apr

Address your Vulnerabilities in Cyber Security

Address your Vulnerabilities in Cyber Security

Control Engineering recently published the results of their 2014 Cyber Security study. Data was collected from individuals directly involved in their organization’s cyber security efforts. The most alarming results involved threat levels and vulnerability assessments. A quarter of respondents claimed their threat was high and nearly the same amount reported they had never performed a vulnerability assessment.

Cyber security continues to be a hot topic as plant assets become more interconnected. These systems provide huge benefits for optimization and monetary gain. With each new addition or replacement in a plant, safety and security measures should be considered.

Threat levels can’t always be changed. Certain systems must be connected to the internet and some industries are targets simply by existing. For example, power plants are tied to national security. There is no avoiding the threat level and need for security. The good thing is, effective cyber security is out there.

Vulnerability assessments are crucial to defining where the largest threats are at.  When people think of cyber security, they usually consider computer viruses and hackers. While these are very real threats, a vulnerability assessment may bring to light other areas of concern, such as internal threats. The perfect example of this is flash drives. While they may be convenient to use and seem harmless, a person can accidentally transfer a virus with these devices.

Cyber security measures are just as important as plant safety. When systems are at risk, the machines they control may also be at risk. With so much of today’s businesses revolving around cyber data, going without cyber security is no longer an option.

16 Apr

Is There Potential for Google Glasses in Process Industries?

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.

 

10 Apr

Overlooked Benefits of Safety Optimization

Overlooked Benefits of Safety Optimization

Safety is an obvious priority within a process system or a boiler plant. The amount of income that could be lost due to destroyed equipment or injured personnel is enough for any plant manager to take safety seriously. Those who have implemented excellent safety systems have found that they are far more than a safety net. From office culture to monetary savings, optimized safety management offers a multitude of benefits.

The financial benefits of safety management come from the prevention of future malfunctions. While there are certainly aspects of safety that can have an immediate monetary benefit, the prevention aspect carries far more value. When a huge plant has a major malfunction, newscasters love to go on about the millions and sometimes billions of dollars in damage. Avoiding such catastrophes is a huge monetary benefit.

Optimization of alarm management is another great benefit. Part of developing a safety system is understanding what types of issues automation can handle on its own and those that need the guidance of an operator. If a bunch of alarms swarm on a screen all at once, that can create a lot of headaches, even more so if many of the alarms are nuisances. Safety is then compromised if operators can’t quickly decipher which alarm to pay attention to if they get used to ignoring nuisances. Prioritization and optimization of how alarms are handled within in a process system increases safety and frees up operator time for more important tasks.

This brings us to another often overlooked benefit of safety: stress relief and plant culture. Frequent nuisance alarms can create a stressful workplace, especially if there are many alarms appearing at the same time.  Even worse, such alarms can contribute to a culture that slacks off when it comes to safety. This is why the human element cannot be ignored when it comes to safety management. An optimized safety system can go far to optimize the workplace as a whole. Make sure to incorporate training into any new safety system so operators understand how the new system benefits the workplace and how to read the alarms.

The preservation of life and property is a huge motivating factor in optimizing process safety systems. This is part of the reason why we stress it as one of our core values. It’s important to also remember the monetary, organizational and cultural benefits optimized safety maintenance can have. Upgrades to safety systems can serve to improve more than just safety, a fact that only adds to the overall value of these systems.

02 Apr

Synergy Vice President Now on Two NFPA 85 Committees

ph-logo-nfpa-largerSynergy Vice-President, Marc L. Hunter has again been nominated to an NFPA 85 Committee, this time for the atmospheric fluidized bed boiler (FBB) committee. As a member of both FBB and the single burner boiler (SBB) committee for NFPA 85, Hunter plays a critical role in deciding the safety regulations for chapters five and seven of the NFPA 85 code.

NFPA 85 is a broad code, relating to many aspects of boiler and burner safety. For this reason, there are eight sub committees, each responsible for a section of the code. Chapters five and seven go into basics – such as application, purpose and equipment requirements – as well as details on how processes for FBBs and SBBs should function.

“I’m excited to be a part of such a prestigious community,” said Hunter.

These rigorous safety standards are imperative for the safe running of boiler and burner systems. Starting up a boiler and running it properly is like controlling a small explosion. Precise steps must be taken to ensure the safety of all personnel and assets involved.

Working for clients involved in high risk businesses, Synergy prioritizes safety above all other values. Marc L. Hunter’s nomination to not one, but two NFPA 85 sub committees allows us to expertly bring this value to all who adhere to the NFPA 85 code.

 

26 Mar

What We Can Learn From the 100 Largest Losses

What We Can Learn From the 100 Largest Losses

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 13th, 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.

26 Feb

The Keys to Safety System Maintenance in the Process Industry

The Keys to Safety System Maintenance in the Process Industry

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.

15 Jan

Updates to EEMUA 191 Alarm Systems Guidelines

This photo, “209/365/329 Red Alert!” is copyright (c) 2014 Alan Levine and made available under an Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

The Engineering Equipment and Materials Users’ Association, or EEMUA, has revised their alarm systems guidelines. According to a Control Engineering article on the subject, the association has added an additional 80 pages to the original publication and has expanded upon the industries addressed to include those associated with gas and water.

Of particular importance for the revision was what they call Human-Computer Interface (HCI) management. Even the world’s greatest technology can be brought down by human error, making human interactions with alarm systems crucial to any industry.

A healthy alarm system and a method of management is essential for business asset reliability. Synergy has the expertise to create systems with predictive alarm capabilities. This specific information is useful to the human element of a plant. The staff, notified before any real problem arises, then has the opportunity to be proactive. Such alarm systems can dramatically reduce down time and prevent damages.

The updated EEMUUA guidelines also goes into alarm suppression; that is, when should and shouldn’t an alarm be ignored? With predicative technology, it’s important to recognize which alarms should be addressed right away and which can wait.  Safety is always key, which is why Synergy makes a point to provide training to our clients on any new system we install.

30 Oct

Tools That Enable Remote Support

Tools That Enable Remote Support

One of Synergy’s standard support services is that of remote support, which allows our expert engineers to take control of a client’s computer. Regardless of the time of day, or the location of an engineer, updates, repairs and maintenance on control systems can be performed. While there are certain things that cannot be addressed remotely, a large number can. Remote access saves clients time and money when engineers don’t need to travel in order to immediately address site issues.

Synergy has been using a service called LogMeIn for remote access at various client sites. LogMeIn is a web-based application, meaning our engineers can use any computer with internet access to control a computer at a client site.

Recently, we looked into a complimentary service from eWON. Their units provide VPN remote access for PLC systems without the need to install much hardware on a client site. So long as the engineer has a computer with eWON software installed at their location, they can access the PLC system remotely.

The benefits of LogMeIn and eWON are undeniable. We call them complimentary because, where one may have a slight limitation, the other fills the need and vice versa. With LogMeIn, an engineer can access a PLC from any computer with internet access. However, in order to do their job, a PC with the correct software must be installed at a client site. In the case of eWON, only a computer with the right software installed can be used to remotely access a client’s system.  There is no need for there to be a PC on site because eWON allows an engineer to take direct control through software installed on their own computer. The engineer is not controlling a computer, which controls the PLC. eWON technology installed on their device is the computer and directly links engineers to the PLC system.

The correct system for a client to use is up to client goals. There are clear benefits to having remote access abilities using any PC in the world. There are also benefits associated with being free of the need to have a full computer system installed at a client site. With both LogMeIn and eWON options, clients have more opportunity to customize how their systems are be managed remotely by Synergy’s expert engineers.

23 Oct

The Third Internet Revolution and Security Demands

Rich Carpenter, chief technology officer of GE Intelligent Platforms, touched on the three internet revolutions in a Control Engineering article. The third revolution is happening right now and while it provides even greater opportunities for business, it also comes with its own risk.

The First Revolution:

The first internet revolution is rooted in the web’s very existence. People suddenly have access to information on a global scale. All the information in the world, and every opinion held, can be found within a few clicks.

Necessary security: Internet users need their computer to keep running so as not to lose pictures, documentation and other information stored on the device.

The Second Revolution:

Consumerism takes hold of the internet, allowing people to buy everything from cars to groceries online. Items bought online can be delivered straight to a consumer’s door.

Necessary security: Personal identity needs to be protected as well as financial information such as credit cards and bank accounts.

The Third Revolution:

Carpenter has named this third revolution the Age of the Industrial Internet, where machines and factory devices communicate with each other and with plant staff through an internet connection. This allows for an optimized process that is safe, more reliable and more profitable.

Necessary security: The internet is now linked to the most critical devices of our infrastructure. Previous concerns, such as loss of device or information, are still high, but another has been added. Loss of control is a huge safety concern. Security must be so tight as to ensure no one besides those authorized can communicate with a machine and yet simplistic enough that it is easy to use.

This industrial internet requires a level of security that goes beyond anti-virus software. Machines and site assets need to be programed with safety as a high priority. Intelligent software adds another level of security, so that a machine understands how to safely react to errors without a human user telling it to do so.

At no other time in history have we been able to so intricately design and program business assets. The continuing revolution of the internet provides greater optimization, reliability and efficiency. Safety is not to be forgotten, but it is also not suffering. That same technology which increases the need for safety also increases the ability to maintain safety.

Synergy programmers and engineers use the internet to remotely work on client assets. This means most problems can be addressed as soon as an engineer gets access to a computer. Without the need to travel to a client site for every problem, time is saved for the engineer and the client, resulting in faster maintenance and shorter downtime.

Is your security up to par with the third revolution of the internet?

 

 

05 Jun

The Numbers behind Safety, Efficiency & Reliability

The Numbers behind Safety, Efficiency & Reliability

We are always ready to discuss how our various solutions and services save clients time, money and resources. The fact that our work is often customization to client demands gives us a significant edge in the control systems industry. Perhaps even more impressive are the numbers behind all we have to offer. From average savings to return on investment, our solutions boast substantial benefits.

Boiler Optimization and Burner Management
Improved controls result in reduced air and fuel flows, allowing for an improved boiler turn down ratio. Synergy clients see a return on investment within a year. By year two, the savings is significant.

Economizer Solutions
Our economizer solutions provide the fastest return on investment. Often ROI takes little more than six months and increases the efficiency of a boiler by 3 percent. This is achieved through the economizer’s purpose of recovering waste heat and cooling the temperature in the stack. For every 40 degree drop in temperature, clients see a one percent increase in efficiency.

Combustion Air and Burner Management Solutions
When there is unnecessary oxygen in the stack, the combustion formula in a boiler is inefficient and may be wasting energy and fuel.  For every 15 percent decrease of oxygen in the stack, fuel efficiency is improved by 1 percent.

Water System Solutions
Operational constraints can create parasitic electrical loads that waste money. With a variable frequency drive, of VFD, adjustments can be made based on demand, saving money overall. Most clients see immediate savings in electrical cost and receive return on their investment in less than a year. VFDs can also be used to control air flow and result in similar savings.

The above are some of our most popular solutions, and with such rapid return on investment, it’s not hard to understand why. Significant improvements can be made in plant efficiency that translates quickly into monetary savings.  If you are curious about how much you have the potential to save, have one of our experts perform and boiler evaluation. Uncover the hidden savings in your plant.