Organizing Operational Data
When working with an EIDI system, it is important to include materials and energy flows in the process plant as well as the data related to the fundamental process transformation that goes from raw materials to products. The EIDI handles the flow of information as the processes are transforming raw materials into semi-finished and final products for sale.
Proclndustries uses a basic structure to standardize navigation and access to data in the refinery and will be using this structure throughout the enterprise as they expand use of the EIDI. Table 3.2 is a hierarchal model of Proclndustries beginning with enterprise, then site, plant, plant area, unit, equipment, and ending with devices.
TABLE 3.2
Proclndustries Physical Model
|
Physical Model |
Abstraction |
Typical Model |
|
Enterprise |
A collection of sites |
A block flow diagram of a plant including inventories, receivables, shipping, enterprise resource management (ERP) software, key performance indicators (KPIs), and production rollup data. |
|
Refinery (site) |
A set of plants within a refinery, including inventories, receivables, and shipping. |
A plant layout map, KPIs, total production, and yields. |
|
Plant |
A set of processing units within a plant area including inventories, receivables, and shipping. |
Block flow diagram, KPIs, production, and performance information. |
|
Plant area |
A set of units |
Process flow diagram, production, and performance information. |
|
Unit |
Unit with all sensors defined |
Process flow diagram, production, performance, and quality. |
|
Equipment |
Equipment with all sensors included |
Process flow diagram for equipment, real-time condition monitoring. Run-time performance calculations (run times, stop/start counts), manufacturing name plate, date of last/next planned service, work management (dollars spent, dollars planned to be spent). |
|
Device |
Detailed sensor locations |
Piping and instrumentation diagram. |
Process Flow Diagram Leads to Digitizing the Plant
"These diagrams and hierarchies serve as foundational information requirements to digitize the plant," Peter said. "We can model the data from the process diagram using a unit data model and configuring all of its attributes, analytics, and event generation at the object level." As such, the real-time unstructured data becomes information for people at all levels of the organization for real-time collaboration (see Chapter 5) (Steyn et al. 2018).
