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The process of implementing control technology

by Selvan Murugan, Royal HaskoningDHV

As implementers of control technology, we are all well aware that projects are getting more complex, expensive
and time to market for is definitely getting shorter. These changes, in turn, have a particular impact on the
testing, installation and commissioning of software and instrumentation systems for a project. I shall refer to the
software and instrumentation systems as ”the automation system” in this article.

An automation system consists of three main components i.e. the sensory systems (instrumentation), the control systems
(PLC/SCADA or DCS) and the infrastructure system which refers to the networks and interconnecting equipment between
the other two systems. An automation project’s scope will be to design, install and commission the automation system to
fulfill its functions i.e the needs or requirements of the users and the process control functions i.e. safety control, level
control, flow control etc. One can hence determine that instrumentation and the software system are inseparable –
although they are separate components, they form a single system that needs to be tested, installed and commissioned
as a system.

In my experience, factors that enable successful testing, installation and commissioning of automation projects exhibit the
following key qualities:

An authentic ”systems” approach to the engineering function is followed. Authentic means that the approach needs to reputable e.g. the INCOSE approach. The
approach ensures that the entire system is understood in its entirety i.e. the all functional and performance requirements are captured and used as design inputs. A
further important step in this process is to produce the system ”context” drawing that defines the interfaces between each system component. This step assists in

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defining the interrelationships and more importantly, the communication requirements between each system or system component. A system functional requirement
specification is normally the output of this step.

A strong, bi-directional link is created between the instrumentation engineering personnel and every other engineering team e.g. electrical, process and mechanical
engineering. These links may occur through software systems that ensures data commonality or through manual systems with audit trail facilities. In other words,
the process engineer’s requirement for a particular parameter to be measured controlled needs to be communicated to the automation engineer and more
importantly, if this need changes in characteristic – in any way, then this needs to be communicated to the automation engineer. Automation systems have come a
long way since the days of DOS and UNIX and now feature fully functional interfaces to various other systems to assist in information interchange. A popular
method in use currently is the interfaces between automation system software and instrumentation engineering software, ensuring that instrumentation changes are
performed at a single point only. Database drive engineering tools have become the norm within the automation industry where the effects of a wrong manual entry
can be catastrophic.

Ensure that the automation system’s engineering, installation and commissioning tasks are suitably planned for in the overall schedule. In my experience, a lead
automation project engineer was the person who was the interface between the automation team and the overall project team. The lead automation project
engineer led and performed the scheduling, scope, cost, quality and risk activities for the automation component and ensured that these activities are planned for
within the overall project schedule.

Appropriate use of technology. The automation industry is known for rapid, step changes in technology. We have moved from an era of PLC control to hybrid
control systems in ten years! They key to successful projects is to make use of technology that is mature and that will be supportable by the OEM for as long as
plant/operation is designed for. This often entails ensuring that your automation system is built in technology that is supported by an international standard and is
well within the mainstream. Automation systems built on immature technology and unbranded products rarely survive the ravages of industry.

Functional requirements specification. The FRS, as it is commonly known as, is a crucial input document into the design of an automation system. It is an output of
the systems engineering phase and in input into the automation architecture component selection phase. Many designers confuse this document with the functional
design specification (FDS) which is a completely different document – to be discussed later. The FRS contains all functional and performance requirements to
which automation system (remember that this includes the instrumentation systems) must be engineered. Failure to produce a FRS with sufficient detail and quality
can result in an incorrect solution being engineered.

Functional design specification. The FDS, as it is commonly known, defines how the software codes within the control system i.e. PLC+SCADA or DCS will be
structured and written. It is often produced in two parts: part 1 being the full definition of all software blocks that will be implemented (post thin slice testing) and part
2 that defines how the software blocks will be put together to provide the functionality required by the FRS. The FDS defines all control modes i.e.
manual/automatic/maintenance/local/remote etc. all control blocks e.g. valve block, analog block, PID blocks, sequence blocks, alarms, operator guide messages,
sequence guide messages, trips and interlocks. The FDS is the document against which the automation factory acceptance testing (FAT) is tested and evaluated
against.

Thin slice testing. An automation system is required to communicate to and control a number of different devices e.g. level transmitters, digital control valves,
modulating control valves, intelligent electrical devices (IEDs), telemetry equipment, fire systems, MIS and MES systems. A thin slice test refers to the trial testing
each communication link between the automation system and the third party device to ensure that communication is indeed possible and reliable. This test is best
performed before full detailed engineering of the system commences in order to mitigate any risks of failure.

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Team selection. Selecting team members for an automation project is often the most important project resourcing decision. Team members should be selected
based on experience with the particular technology type e.g. DCS or PLC+SCADA, strong field experience i.e. team players who have personally implemented
similar systems, team members who thrive in a high pressure project environment.

I have found that the combination of these points set out above usually leads to overall project success. The project steps required in the successful implementation
of an automation system are not complex – they are well- defined and can be tailored to suit projects of varying complexity. I hope that this information assists you
in your automation system implementation.

Contact Selvan Murugan, Royal HaskoningDHV, Tel 021 936-7600,

selvan.murugan@rhdhv.com (mailto:selvan.murugan@rhdhv.com)

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