Premium
Process automation can advance loss prevention goals
Author(s) -
Brandes David J.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
process safety progress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.378
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1547-5913
pISSN - 1066-8527
DOI - 10.1002/prs.680200212
Subject(s) - automation , redundancy (engineering) , reliability engineering , process (computing) , process automation system , cost reduction , reliability (semiconductor) , process control , advanced process control , engineering , control (management) , quality (philosophy) , reduction (mathematics) , product (mathematics) , computer science , manufacturing engineering , business , operating system , mechanical engineering , power (physics) , physics , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , epistemology , marketing , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence
Process automation can advance loss prevention goals even in today's pressure‐filled business environment of smaller workforces and subsequent needs to maximize production efficiency. The Dow Chemical Company has been totally automated for 30 years, and has seen substantial gains in process safety and reliability. Increased process control automation can benefit other areas as well. We have consistently seen a reduction of operating costs, faster startups and shutdowns, and improved product quality through the reduction of variability. You get your best operator 24‐hours per day. As the level of automation increases and operator supervision decreases, more is demanded of the process control system. Significantly higher control system reliability in both hardware and software is needed. The control system must provide a platform that is fault tolerant in real‐time, and provide a graceful degradation of operations. This, in turn, leads to a need for process state‐based control, active redundancy, and deterministic operation.