(37d) Realizing the Capital and Operational Benefits of a ICSS System

Twenty-first century economics dictate that ?speed of implementation? stand as a hallmark to project success, but projects still have budgets and now, more than every, shareholders additionally measure success based on their return on Capital Expenditures (CapEx). Alongside the CapEx performance metric, and possibly more important, stands Operational Expenditures (OpEx) performance.

Abstract:

Your company is committed to installing (or replacing or upgrading) the control- and safety-systems at one of your plants. You've seen the very aggressive project schedule and recognize that speed of implementation is critical. You've heard and read about these new highly-integrated, all digital system solutions. You recall hearing that these ?smart? systems are a lot easier to implement than their predecessors, but you've heard things like that before. Beside's, even if these new systems are easier to implement, isn't it likely that all that sophistication will end up costing more to operate and maintain?

Digital technologies have proven to be one of the keys to achieving CapEx and OpEx improvements in both control and safety instrumented systems. A number of studies indicate that significant CapEx and OpEx improvements can be contributed to control- and safety-systems using ?Purpose Designed Integration?; meaning a system that's original design philosophy was to streamline every aspect of the systems use commencing at implementation and extending through commissioning and right into day-to-day operations.

Conclusion:

Digital technologies harmonized with a complimentary organization form a ?smart" plant that is capable of tapping and using the intelligence of today's microprocessor-based instruments to predict and manage equipment malfunctions. The result is improvements in process availability and reductions in product variability.