Posted by Don Snowden on May 28, 1999 at 10:01:58:
In Reply to: What are your challenges and ... posted by Brian Burgio on May 26, 1999 at 12:51:49:
: What are your biggest challenges and frustrations in implementing and/or maintaining your advanced control or optimization projects? Do these problems come from the people side (people leaving/changing jobs, training, time, etc..) or from the software/technology side (monitoring tools, trouble-shooting tools, development tools, etc...)
On the implementation side, I would certainly say that instrumentation issues are high on the list. People issues and having to deal with people with different levels of experience can usually be worked out. But having to fix instrumentation (e.g. control valves and pressure-differential indicators) can sometimes represent a big challenge.
(This of course assumes that the project was implemented CORRECTLY) I would venture to say that more than 80% of the problems in implementing and maintaining a advanced control system can be tracked down to a faulty instrument. I believe some of these potential long-term problems can be identified early in the project if an experience person is implementing the project. In other words, some people may continue working on a project (for whatever reason) even though they perceive that there is an instrumentation problem. I guess this is where experience comes in when trying to "draw-the-line-in-the-sand" of stopping the project or continuing.
A final note on getting a jump on instrumentation issues is to have management approval to have one of the top instrumentation guys available to you when needed.