Chapter 6: The Economic Optimization of Industrial Assets

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 5 presented the concept of a new management paradigm for bottom-line improvement that emerged through the convergence of three historically separate performance improvement approaches. This new paradigm is based on empowering all personnel by adopting strategically aligned performance measures that apply from the plant floor up through the business management levels. The first step in moving to this new management paradigm is to install and operate DPMs in the automation systems of the industrial operations that seek to become performance-based operations.

The original intent of many of these installations was to determine both whether the DPMs could be developed and implemented in a wide range of industrial operations and whether they provided the same level of value in different types of manufacturing processes. One positive outcome of this activity, aside from validating the DPM approach, was that historical DPM information from many plants in a variety of industries became available that could be analyzed using the standard information analysis tools provided with process historians. Since DPM information was typically collected in process historian databases along with other plant operational data, over an extended period large quantities of performance and operational data were available for analysis and comparison.

The availability of this information presented a unique opportunity since this was the first time in industrial history that such information was available in this format and quantity. This availability made it possible to search for relationships that had never before been detectable. Using historical database-viewing tools, plant personnel could review...