Optimisation Services

Increase your profits on your existing plant by making your controls work properly
Profits are being lost in most plants due to poor performance of the controls. Base layer or regulatory controls are intended to keep processes throughout the production cycle at setpoints which are set in accordance with manufacturing strategies. The closer processes follow these strategies, the greater the benefits. Many companies are also now considering installing advanced control systems. These are a waste of money if the base layer is not working properly.

Work performed internationally by control experts has revealed the astonishing fact that in nearly all plants:

• 85% of the base layer loops are operating completely inefficiently in automatic
• 50-60% have problems within them
• Less than 5% work optimally.

In reality controls run in automatic most of the time whilst plants are operating under steady state conditions. Therefore, plant personnel believe the controls are working satisfactorily. However, when changes occur, the operators have to make corrections in manual, and can only switch back to automatic when the plant is steady again. This is because the controls are working too badly to deal with changes in automatic.

Huge financial gains can be achieved
when the base layer works as it should after optimisation and continuous monitoring. Typical payback for an optimisation exercise in most plants is a month or less. For example:

• A study in the  USA  showed that the estimated loss of profit in a 300 control loop plant would be typically     US$350 000, based on only 30% of the loops not working well. However, remember that in most plants at least 85% of the loops are not working properly!
• A precious metals recovery plant in South Africa is saving about R20 000 000 per annum in reagent cost by simply improving only one control.
• A leading chemical corporation in South Africa achieved, and maintained, all time record production within one month of optimising one of their plants. The optimisation exercise also achieved 80% of the objectives which were only expected if an advanced control system was installed.
• Replacing one valve in a plant with a better one led to an annual saving of over R1 000 000.
• A small chemical company in South Africa recently optimised a few critical loops, and is already seeing annual financial benefits which will exceed R2 000 000.

How can you achieve similar financial benefits?

• Michael Brown offers you a complete service and products for optimising your plant:
• Control optimisation, tuning, and improvement service
• Software for loop analysis, tuning, and problem identification
• Down to earth, really practical training courses for all plant disciplines on practical process control.

Michael Brown is a well known expert on control loop optimisation with many years experience and has improved controls in over 300 plants in many countries.

Contact us for more information