Large-Scale Controller Performance, Assessment, Diagnosis and Improvement

1. Large-Scale Controller Performance,Assessment, Diagnosis and Improvement Mike Paulonis Eastman Chemical Company Presentation to: East TN AIChE Feb 2005

2. Collaboration • Co-creator of controller performance assessment at Eastman John Cox MAP 2005

3. Agenda • Productivity – The Driver • Circumstances Leading to Development • System Overview • Performance Assessment Details / Screenshots • Application Results • Summary MAP 2005

4. Eastman productivity Tremendous productivity gains (~ 8%/yr) ! MAP 2005

5. More volume Fewer people Sources of productivity Process Improvement Process Automation Information Technology MAP 2005

6. A closer look at process automation • Generating productivity • Enable stable plant operation at higher rates • Enable a higher percentage of first-class product • Enable plants to run safely with fewer operators • Affected by productivity changes MAP 2005

7. Focus on 1999 • Increase in process control work on existing plants revealed many control loops with poor performance • Partial cause was a decrease in number and availability of personnel to monitor/troubleshoot control loops • Control loop/valve maintenance mode was “run until failure” • The need for a system to efficiently detect and diagnose poor control loops became apparent • Increase control engineer productivity • Enable plant engineers to do more on their own MAP 2005

8. More from 1999… • Honeywell introduced "Loop Scout" to general customers • The good: assess control loop performance from historical operating data • The bad: • Cost: $350 per loop per analysis! • Only accepted data from Honeywell control systems • Have to send the controller data to Honeywell for analysis MAP 2005

9. We can do better (we think) • Our vision for controller performance assessment • Interfaces to all Eastman control and data systems • Analyze thousands of loops automatically and periodically • Rank loop performance to quickly find opportunities • Users can pull up current or historical performance of any loop (interactive discovery) • Users can get email reports on controller performance specific to their plant (exception processing) • Reports have summaries understandable by anyone and details for in-depth analysis by control engineers • Capture controller tuning changes which often link with performance issues MAP 2005

10. Build it! • Read a lot of academic papers • Implemented assessment algorithms in Matlab • Tested/improved using real plant data • Automated the capture of bulk data from control systems • Automated the analysis of bulk data • Improved some more – hand tuned classification algorithm from about 100 example loops • Built a database to house all the analysis results and service user queries • Built a web application using Cold Fusion to bring it all together and make it accessible to everyone MAP 2005

11. LAN DCS 1 App Host 1 User A w/Data Interface File Server Web Server DCS 2 App Host 2 Computation Database Email User B w/Data Interface Engine System System architecture • Distributed data collection • Distributed computing resources • Server-side web programming • Linked in to wide-area network MAP 2005

12. Ten sites Forty-nine process areas Interfaces to a variety of control systems Daily tuning history on 14,000 loops Weekly performance history on 8,500 loops Eastman’s large-scale system MAP 2005

13. Use mode 1 - Tell me about a loop MAP 2005

14. MAP 2005

15. Example help MAP 2005

16. Use mode 2 - Find problem loops MAP 2005

17. Worst Best Find problem loops MAP 2005

18. Push content for busy people • Email subscription reports • Monthly performance detail • Top 20 losers and gainers • Rankings worst to best • Monthly performance summary • Performance by loop type • Performance by loop type over the last year • Performance benchmark Eastman-wide • Daily tuning changes • Notification - tuning changes often mean other problems • Monthly tuning detail MAP 2005

19. Email examples MAP 2005

20. Neat pictures, but does it really work? • Primary question around valve problems • Controller performance assessment showed many problems • Most seemed to be valve-related, not tuning • Valves need maintenance - culture change • Valve repair/replacement costs $$$ • Don't want a lot of false positives on valve diagnoses Open it 100%, OK, now close it! MAP 2005

21. Valve travel testing ValStat PROTUNER™ MAP 2005

22. Polymer controller improvement project MAP 2005

23. Example performance improvement MAP 2005

24. Second pass - entire classes • Reactor Dowtherm control valves all have motion problems (some up to 15% deadband) • Why? • Long stem • High-temp packing • Dirty conditions • No positioner • Solution? • Critical service • Replace all • A significant milestone! MAP 2005

25. New Dowtherm Valves The trend looks good MAP 2005

26. Improvement in every category December 2000 September 2002 MAP 2005

27. September 2002 30th of 36 areas 83rd percentile Beating the “competition” December 2000 12th of 24 areas 50th percentile MAP 2005

28. The payoff (2001 vs. 2000) • Reduction in off-class production • Reactor level - 272 klbs (80% reduction) • Reactor temperature - 52 klbs (80% reduction) • Vacuum - 119 klbs (35% reduction) • Product specs - 96 klbs (35% reduction) • 98.5% class 1 production - best ever • Reduction in startup and transition off-class • 8.1 klb/startup (22%), 19.3 klb/transition (70%) • Over 1 million lb/year - maybe 15-25% from control • Line run-life • H-line best ever 222 days (9/10/01 - 4/19/02) • Customer complaints down 55% MAP 2005

29. Long-term monitoring Improve Maintain the gain Improve MAP 2005

30. The bottom line • A revolution in knowledge for users of all levels • Find problems that are not obvious • Troubleshooting time reduced by 2/3 or more • Monitor and benchmark performance over time for continual improvement • Enables effective approach to controller maintenance • Encourages communication between control engineers, staff engineers, area managers, and maintenance forces • Generates significant economic gains MAP 2005

31. Another example • Another polymers area embarked on a control improvement project in 2003 using performance assessment to identify opportunities and track results • Focused on problem loops critical to operation • Added smart positioners to key valves • Replaced some undersized valves • Fixed some slave controller wind-up problems • Implemented measurement filters where appropriate • Did some control strategy redesign • Much more… MAP 2005

32. Great results! MAP 2005

33. In search of excellence MAP 2005

34. Other areas can do this too • Engineer signs up for monthly reports • Engineer receives and reviews monthly reports • What is bad, what is good? • Get management buy-in • Control loops need maintenance • Controller performance is important • Engineer prioritizes loops • Criticality, return on investment • Enlist help of CSM, E&I shops, Reliability Technology and AdvCT as needed • Engineer arranges funding and schedule for fix • Engineer follows up to identify tangible benefits MAP 2005

35. Summary • Controller performance can be determined from historical operating data • Eastman's home-grown system does this weekly for thousands of controllers world-wide • Users can get performance information from a web site and/or have it emailed to them • With the system, work can quickly be focused on the best opportunities • Improved controller performance leads to improved process performance and greater profitability • We can now do much more with less MAP 2005