With this approach, the company could use the master document to program the logic solver automatically. The ExxonMobil “It Just Happens” initiative, for example, presents the notion of using cause & effects matrices to program safety systems directly. Many users would like to be able to auto generate HMI graphics directly from smart P&ID diagrams. Some end users have developed standard HMI graphic libraries used across multiple suppliers with which they have an agreement. Ideally, they shouldn’t have to spend a lot of money recreating graphics when switching from one supplier to another. Increasingly, end users want their graphics to look the same, regardless of the control system. What about recreating graphics when you migrate to a new process automation system from a new supplier? Sometimes, the pain of recreating graphics cannot be avoided, but there are many things the industry, automation suppliers, and end users could do to automate and simplify HMI generation and management of HMI graphics. Without a strategy for replicating standard graphics from project to project, end users often face a significant amount of needless rework.
A good-sized project can create thousands of graphics. End users spend thousands of hours creating HMI graphics for every project.
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ARC believes that auto generation of DCS HMI graphics based on standard objects using information from engineering and design software (including intelligent piping & instrumentation diagrams), could yield significant cost savings. Many suppliers have stepped up over the past few years to offer these new approaches to automation, which have been rapidly adopted in the marketplace.īut where else can we simplify to drive out unnecessary cost? Here’s an idea end users invest quite a lot of money generating HMI graphics for both new projects and their ongoing modernization/migration efforts. This initiative has led to new forms of single-channel intelligent I/O, standard cabinets, and a virtualized environment for DCS engineering. This was the approach ExxonMobil lobbied for with its “It Just Happens” initiative presented several years ago at the ARC Industry Forum in Orlando. But with the wide range of advanced technologies available today, many of the customization steps required to engineer a DCS project can now be automated, if not eliminated, and interdependencies between disciplines greatly reduced or simplified. It’s also rife with interdependencies between different engineering disciplines. The traditional approach to executing process automation system projects typically involves a high degree of customization, including custom engineering.