Plantim: An automated transition management system

Plantim combines a planning and scheduling framework seamlessly integrated with continuous and sequential control to provide a novel automation paradigm designed to target process transitions

MTS AG - Machinery Tools and Services (Oetwil am See, Switzerland) are pleased to announce the official release of Plantim - an automated transition planning and execution system.

Plantim combines a planning and scheduling framework seamlessly integrated with continuous and sequential control to provide a novel automation paradigm designed to target process transitions.

Plantim extends the range of application first introduced by Startim, the automated start-up system that is already operational on six, 500MW, fossil fuel, electricity generating units in the UK.

Control systems have traditionally been designed to provide process regulation to a given operating condition by independent control of temperatures, levels, pressures etc However growing demands to improve the flexibility of process plant require a commensurate need for automation systems capable of operating in this environment.

Plantim is designed to coordinate the many activities required to transition the plant between operating conditions, operating states or between products.

Designed to unify off-line transition planning with on-line transition delivery, those real-world constraints normally encountered only at the point of delivery are inherently integrated during transition planning leading to a truly realisable design.

Plantim forms a pragmatic solution to automating transitions in both continuous and batch production facilities.

Run time features exploit any latent potential exposed by the completion of process operations in less than their allocated time.

Similarly, slippage recovery mechanisms can be invoked if process operations on the critical path take longer than allocated.

A powerful feature of Plantim is that the selection of equipment for use in a transition can be changed during run-time with the plan and associated automation being instantaneously reworked.

This allows the opportunity to rapidly react to and exploit fortuitous changes in equipment availability.

Plantim can also be used to automate transitions that are carried out infrequently.

In doing so, not only is the transition procedure optimised but it is also recorded as a corporate memory.

In this way, Plantim acts a unified solution for developing, implementing and documenting process transitions.

The system comes with commissioning aids and a configuration tool to develop and maintain the application.

Project plans developed off-line in MS Project can be imported directly and used as the basis of an on-line application.

Installations are supported by MTS in the provision of experienced system integrators, engineering services for transition design, configuration and commissioning, and in the delivery of training courses.

The system supports Unix/Linux and Windows operating systems and is easily deployed into the refinery, petrochemical, food, batch chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

The system requires no changes to plant hardware to realise reduced transition times, damage and off-specification product.

Plantim will deliver a stable process, and, where necessary, transfer it to existing plant control systems.

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