Introduction to and Practical Issues in Advanced Process Control

The techniques and methodologies for deploying APC have been widely discussed and published over the last 25 to 30 years. The basic concepts were well known, the benefits were assumed, deployment was widespread, but actual results varied significantly from one implementation to the next.  The tools were available, management was committed, but, like any large-scale enterprise, the devil was in the details. So it is with APC today.

This tutorial will seek to identify best practices and common causes of failed APC projects. We will review the primary components of an APC deployment highlighting a common theme that runs through most successful projects – start simply. We will explore the tradeoffs between the speed of fan-out and the degree to which the control and/or monitoring are optimized for each process.  We will examine the practical issues and cost impact of various methods, including:

• Infrastructure requirements
•      Automation – the critical backbone
•      Data acquisition – accessibility, bandwidth, quality
• Run-to-run techniques
•      Process models and control schemes
•      Operational methods
• Fault detection techniques
•      Univariate and multivariate
•      Heuristic and non-traditional methods
• Implementation issues
•      Scalability
•      Standards – existing and emerging
•      Make vs. buy decisions

This tutorial will help attendees make the decisions needed to get the maximum benefit of APC in the quickest time and at the lowest cost.