Solomon Launches Worldwide Automation Study to Help Plant Operators Improve Automation and Control Systems

To date, the industry response has exceeded initial participation-level expectations for this study. Shell and many other leading companies from around the world recognize the benefits of a Comparative Performance Analysis™ (CPA™) of their automation assets and practices, and eagerly await the results, as echoed by Verdi A. Wahjosoedibjo, the Downstream Global Portfolio Manager of Process Automation, Control, and Optimization from Shell, stating, “We are participating in Solomon’s Automation Study with 19 fuels refineries, petrochemical plants, and chemical sites, and are looking forward to the results.”

The study provides plant operators with the comprehensive data and analysis necessary to compare their systems with those of world leaders, revealing opportunities to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and drive margins. The Automation Study serves refineries, chemical plants, gas plants, plastics plants, and other manufacturing facilities in comparing the various control systems’ practices and staffing levels of study participants to proprietary peer data. Participants gain insight into how their facilities’ DCS, programmable logic controllers (PLC), safety instrumentation systems (SIS), and online instrumentation stack up against the world’s best. The study assesses process alarm policies, practices, and alarm rates to identify the most successful approaches to alarm reduction. Through the study, refiners will learn which instruments and control applications are most often used by industry leaders, and more.

“Only Solomon can provide clients with non-biased, third-party insight based on actual console data that reveals staffing and which automation and control investments are actually used,” said Mark Smith, project manager for the studies. “We help study participants identify specific gaps versus peers in automation and control applications.”