Process dispatching – a basement task needed for most industrial companies within production automation projects. Main goals of such systems – creation of a tool for production and technological process monitoring, statistics and data collection and storage for several years, automated production reporting, integration and aggregated data transfer into external IT systems (supply chain, ERP and other systems) about production, shipments, power consumption etc.

• Deployment of archive or real-time databases (OSISoft PI System, GE Proficy Historian and others)
• Data sources integration (HMI/SCADA, SQL and other) using OPC protocol or other interfaces
• Building dashboards for dispatchers
• Building dashboards with aggregated data and analytics for production managers and general company management
• Integration with external IT systems (logistics, warehousing, ERP, performance analytics and others) for uploading aggregated production data
• Production reporting

Monitoring of deviations from correct process parameters can be a part of emergency alarm component of process control system or act as standalone service responsible for collection and analysis of deviation statistics with subsequent report generation. Such monitoring can use either simple limits control rules or complex engineering online calculations. Based on the results of monitoring and collected statistics system then notifies responsible people and generates reports.

• Process mode limits configuration for controlling variables
• Configuration of templates and rules for alerts and notifications
• Parameter monitoring and creation of events when parameter breaches limits
• Notification of responsible people
• Statistics collection, distribution of reports on events for certain period

Monitoring of raw materials movement and stocks, semi-finished and finished products is a key point of production accounting at any plant or refinery. Movement monitoring accuracy directly influences quality of production volume and calendar scheduling. For continuous processes (like petroleum-refining industry), this includes calculation and monitoring of oil and petroleum products pumping as well as tank balances at the end of the day or shift. For batch processes (like in metals, chemical and other industries) important things include monitoring of movement and stocks of raw materials, semi-finished and finished products as well as stocks in all locations (intermediate stockpiles and raw materials receiving/finished products shipping warehouses).

• Petroleum products movement accounting, calculation of pumpings based on refinery production and tank balances
• Weighting measurements (conveyor weights, truck weights etc.) for batch processes
• Accounting and calculation of raw, semi-finished and finished products stock balances in warehouses and stockpiles (batch processes)
• Calculation and monitoring of petroleum products balances in tanks (refineries)

Mass balance reconciliation system becomes viable after implementation of material accounting for raw, semi-finished and finished products. Material balancing goals: finding production losses, reconciliation of financial and production accounting, analysis of measurement devices accuracy by looking for recurring measurement deviations. Such systems are hard to implement because of high requirements for process automation level (measurement devices) and the need to transform production and financial accounting business-processes. In this kind of projects, we strongly advise our customers to perform detailed business analysis with recommendations on business process re-engineering.

• Process flow modeling
• Stock levels recording
• Connecting model to data source (tags)
• Model testing using ideal cases
• Model testing using real data processing: finding and elimination of significant errors, balance reconciliation
• Documenting balance points (measurement devices) accuracy
• Providing recommendations on changes in production accounting and material balance reconciliation procedures

Building reports on industrial facilities performance: plant output, stock levels, operation modes, power and other resources consumption etc.

• Analysis of existing reports, reaching agreement on new formats
• Development of templates for approved reports
• Specialized reporting server deployment
• Report generation and mailing rules configuration (scheduled / event-based, recipient list etc.)

Our specialists have a wide experience in building industrial and process portals using OSISoft visualization tools and Microsoft Web solutions, namely SharePoint. We can implement Web interface for system or portal and integrate it with process automation systems (PI System, Historian and others).

• Use of various data sources: SCADA (OPC protocol), real-time databases (PI System, Historian), SQL sources, and others
• Integration with process modeling and material movement accounting systems: PI Analysis Framework, Aspen Petroleum Scheduler, and others
• Design screen / dashboard layouts for production and technological information visualization, KPI monitoring, process parameters deviations monitoring, reporting etc.