|
by Stephanie Neil, MA Editorial Staff Posted on Friday, November 03, 2006 3:10:08 PM   | Abstract: | DCSs and PLCs are taking on each other's qualities, creating a hybrid control platform that crosses the boundaries between process and discrete. |
Peter King is in the middle of a major merger that will restructure his entire operation. This merger is not related to a business acquisition, however. Rather, this is a restructuring and a technology consolidation of the company's distributed control systems. King, control systems superintendent at Tesoro Refining and Marketing, an oil refinery in Martinez, CA, is combining 14 separate control rooms into one. As part of the move to a centralized operation, the company is gathering all of its existing distributed control systems (DCS) into a large, plant-wide operations center. "The driving force behind this is to improve operating efficiencies and savings through advanced process control and have better coordination to support the plant," says King. "It is also to try to move our organization out of the 1950s and into the 2000s." [Click to continue] |