Are your manufacturing processes operating as efficiently as they should?

Often when we visit manufacturing plants and we ask the operation manager how their production is doing we more often than not receive a positive answer- no major problems....

When we re-phrase the question and ask if their plant is running optimally it turns out that this question is a lot more difficult to answer.

In the current economical climate there is a continuous need to increase production efficiency and maximize economic benefits for any
given process plant.


Process control optimisation will provide the answer in terms of process control performance, where are you currently, where should you be and what needs to be done to get there and close the performance gap.

If we have a closer look at the statistics of the control performance of the regulatory control loops it shows that process control performance is not as good as one might think:

• 90% of the controller are PID's;
• More than 30% operates in manual;
• More than 30% of loops increases short term variability;
• About 25% of control loops use default settings;
• About 30% of control loops have equipment problems.

Depending on the type of manufacturing process typically, hundreds of these control loops are employed at the basic regulatory level for controlling the process.

There are several reason why these statistics show such a grim picture. The loop optimisation demands a combination of skills not often found in one individual: process dynamics and control theory; process engineering and understanding of loop interactions; knowing the economic driving forces and operating objectives. The most common approach to control problems is trial & error due to the general lack of understanding of the practical aspects of loop optimisation.

Control tuning is often regarded as a low level skill  and left to unqualified personnel who do not have the knowledge or skill to perform this work. Very few plants regard optimisation as a distinct discipline although advanced process control is  treated as a separate discipline and huge amounts are being invested in these systems. When the base regulatory control are not performing there is little to no chance that the advanced process control will work.

A modern control system either a DCS or PLC/Scada costs in the order of millions of ZAR. It is clear that there is great opportunity to increase the ROI on your manufacturing assets by investing a little more and make it work properly.

A successful optimisation program will have a positive effect on:

• Throughput;
• Quality and less rejects;
• Increased lifespan control equipment;
• Reduced energy consumption;
• Increased efficiency;

and does have quantifiable and measurable results.

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* Statistics ISA - International Society of Automation