Technological advancements in process monitoring, control and automation over the past decades have contributed greatly to improve the productivity of virtually all manufacturing industries throughout the world.
While 90% of global production is still controlled by analog instrumentation, almost all the controls installed as a part of a new plant or plant expansion are Digital Control Systems DCS connected by digital networks.
Nowadays, in this era of digital buses, one can plug in a laptop or use a wireless hand tool to instantly establish access to all the data, displays and intelligence that resides anywhere on the DCS network. This capability, in combination with the self-tuning, self-diagnosing and optimizing features of modern process control, makes both startup activity and operational routines much easier and more efficient.
Similarly, Distributed Control Systems DCS offer process modeling and simulation, something that can improve operator training a great deal. An accurate simulation model allows operators to train under “live” conditions without exposing the plant to the consequences of their mistakes.