A Standardized Approach to Smart Manufacturing

Advanced Process Control (APC) is a key element of the Smart Manufacturing paradigm, that helps drive the operation toward it's optimum point. For many common processes, such as distillation columns, fractionators, fired heaters, boilers or blenders, the APC strategies, calculations and control techniques used are quite similar from one unit to the next. These processes lend themselves to a more "packaged" approach to implementing APC, where common libraries and templates can provide up to 80-90% of the required functionality. This paper will describe an approach to Smart Manufacturing that leverages pre-engineered, multi-use applications across multiple installations. Real life examples will be used to illustrate the actual benefits acheived.