Advanced Process Control Capital Investment

This presentation describes the overall process for assessing capital expenditures on Advanced Process Control (APC) projects. Specifically, the one-time expenses for implementing the APC are explored as well as the continuing maintenance costs for keeping the APC at optimum functionality and the impact of variability for the different parameters. APC projects in the process industries have very high returns but have seen a short life. Payouts can be 4 months to 2 years; however, greater than 65% reach zero performance after 18-24 months. This short life can be attributed in large part to not completing the required maintenance to keep the programs in good working order.

This presentation gives guidance on how to estimate the optimum maintenance cycles for these projects, and to include that in estimating the capital cost of the project. Both net present value and internal rate of return are presented as ways these projects can be compared with other competing projects for the funding. Expectations that should be taken before a project is undertaken are defined in this article. The focus is ensuring that the owner/operator will have expectations for maintaining the overall APC going into the project. Additionally, the concept of continuous improvement is introduced so that a plan can be established and budgeted.