Modernize legacy distributed control systems for a competitive edge

Travis Giebler and Hayden Serio, Maverick TechnologiesTravis Giebler

Modernize your legacy DCS

Expired distributed control systems cannot compete with a new system.

For many industrial facilities, time is running out to digitally transform and update or migrate legacy distributed control systems (DCSs). Shelf life on once stalwart DCSs is expiring. Status quo is no longer an option as manufacturers risk losing operational control of their processes. They face increased component failure, which leads to downtime and lost production. Add the lack of available resources to maintain or repair older equipment and the potential for safety and environmental risks increase.

To stay competitive, manufacturers need to reevaluate existing operations and leverage the new technology in a modern-day process control system infrastructure. A DCS upgrade or migration is daunting, but change is inevitable to keep pace with ever-evolving technology and consumer demands.

New technologies deliver the promise of greater interconnectivity and system visibility across the enterprise. The ease of system access and the ability for personnel to capture data helps improve operational efficiency and performance. Consider the features and functions of a new and improved DCS.

Open DCS communication

A modern DCS ensures open communication to smart field devices, subsystems, and higher-level enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execution systems (MESs), making real-time data accessible across the enterprise as it comes directly from the system controlling the facility. Diagnostic information about – and calibration of – the facility’s instruments is often now available from a DCS workstation without the need for third-party asset management systems or communicators (HART). This feature can result in a large cost savings for manufacturers in implementation and maintenance.

Abnormal situation response

The modern DCS has many more capabilities from human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and graphics techniques, where only the most critical information is provided. Operators can more effectively facilitate, identify, and respond to abnormal situations. Rather than having to understand and navigate multiple menus required in legacy systems, modern high-performance HMIs call attention to a problem before it escalates, allowing operators to jump to where they need to be as process problems arise. Some DCSs have tools to automatically generate visualization of logic for faster problem resolution.

DCS alarm management, DCS analytics

Many of today’s DCSs have built-in or add-on alarm management and analysis packages. These systems help suppress alarm floods or nuisance alarms and let personnel measure the health of an alarm management system to identify top bad-actor alarms, frequency of alarms, etc. A modern system requires little setup beyond activating the feature.

DCS advanced controls

Many DCSs today have various forms of multivariable, advanced control built directly into them. This allows manufacturers to do smallscale advanced process control with the DCS they already have rather than requiring a separate and expensive model predictive control platform.

DCS virtualization, simulation

Nearly all DCSs today can be run on virtual servers, which results in better reliability, portability and disaster recovery. Live migration of virtual machines will move the facility’s servers to a new physical host in the case of catastrophic hardware failure without noticeable impact to operations.

Simulation tools and software help personnel gain hands-on, practical training in a controlled environment, mitigating safety risks.

DCS for the next-generation engineer

Young engineers can relate to a more integrated, modern environment where they can learn cuttingedge software and applications (such as augmented- and virtual reality-based simulation tools, mobile applications, cloud and edge computing, smart manufacturing tools and the latest digital thread/twin technologies) to help them advance in their careers. ce

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ANSWERS KEYWORDS: Distributed control

system, process control system

Expired DCSs lead to lead to component failure. New process control systems bring open communications, easier integration and faster responses. New process control systems also bring analytics, advanced controls, virtualization and simulation for next-generation engineers. CONSIDER THIS

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If reading from the digital edition, click on the headline for more details on each feature. www.controleng.com/magazine Travis Giebler is a technology team manager, and Hayden Serio is a technology leader, at at Maverick Technologies, a CFE Media and Technologies Content Partner. Edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager, Control Engineering, mhoske@cfemedia.com.