controlnovice
Electrical
Well, time to do next year's budget for projects.
There are 5 plants total, fighting for the largest piece of pie they can get. A part of this is a review of each plant's DCS system.
Each plant has a Process Control System and each is performing a life-cycle analysis of best time to replace, based on cost, loss of production, and frequency of failures. All are using the same tool, however, the base numbers, such as new system cost (usually estimated $/point), cost of production loss, etc...can change.
I reviewed the analysis tool with another plant who had already completed the analysis. I feel the numbers used were greatly exaggerated and thus, the analysis indicated a change in DCS was necessary much sooner.
Asking the engineer about this, the reply was, "well, we discussed this as a team and really feel they are the best numbers. Plus, when we talked to plant X, their numbers were even higher than ours."
Their new equipment estimates($/point) are 50% more than mine (I have 10 yrs experience in this, and my estimates were within 5-10% actual). Their loss of production number is based on full capacity (but they are only running 50%). And the MTTR for a DCS is 6 months (granted, they assumed worst case - but their fix for worse case was to install a new DCS, not find parts for existing).
I'm really struggling with this. They aren't helping the company any, only themselves (by giving them projects).
If I use 'true' numbers, I don't get project funding because the analysis indicates I can live longer with what I have. If I use 'their' numbers, I'm no better than they.
Talked with my manager about these concerns, the answer was, "they might be able to do that once, but they won't get away with it."
Ya, right. What are the repercussions? Nothing.
Guidance in the next step would help.
______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.
There are 5 plants total, fighting for the largest piece of pie they can get. A part of this is a review of each plant's DCS system.
Each plant has a Process Control System and each is performing a life-cycle analysis of best time to replace, based on cost, loss of production, and frequency of failures. All are using the same tool, however, the base numbers, such as new system cost (usually estimated $/point), cost of production loss, etc...can change.
I reviewed the analysis tool with another plant who had already completed the analysis. I feel the numbers used were greatly exaggerated and thus, the analysis indicated a change in DCS was necessary much sooner.
Asking the engineer about this, the reply was, "well, we discussed this as a team and really feel they are the best numbers. Plus, when we talked to plant X, their numbers were even higher than ours."
Their new equipment estimates($/point) are 50% more than mine (I have 10 yrs experience in this, and my estimates were within 5-10% actual). Their loss of production number is based on full capacity (but they are only running 50%). And the MTTR for a DCS is 6 months (granted, they assumed worst case - but their fix for worse case was to install a new DCS, not find parts for existing).
I'm really struggling with this. They aren't helping the company any, only themselves (by giving them projects).
If I use 'true' numbers, I don't get project funding because the analysis indicates I can live longer with what I have. If I use 'their' numbers, I'm no better than they.
Talked with my manager about these concerns, the answer was, "they might be able to do that once, but they won't get away with it."
Ya, right. What are the repercussions? Nothing.
Guidance in the next step would help.
______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.