(This article is a continuation of DCS Migration case study: Emerald Kalama Chemical Part 1)
DCS Migration (Hot Cutover) with IST-203
After a good preparation, the identification of the opportunities and many difficult choices later, the migration was started. As mentioned before, the migration at Emerald Kalama Chemical needed to take place during online conditions to reduce downtime and reduce costs. Yokogawa used a tool which is specially designed for online DCS migrations: DCS Migration Tool IST-203
The IST-203 is designed to support online DCS migrations by taking over active control loops during the migration. At the Emerald migration, the IST-203 migrated 1750 I/O’s.
Training
Before the start of the DCS migration at Emerald, Istec provided training to the complete migration team. The migration team consisted of Emerald’s E&I engineers and process engineers and Yokogawa’s DCS specialists. It is very important that the migration team would not encounter any surprises during the migration. This training was meant to ensure that all possible outcomes were discussed and offered the opportunity for the involved engineers to discuss their concerns and rule out any remaining questions.
Bill Castleberry – Global Sourcing Director – Emerald:
“I have been in business over 44 years and I’ve dealt with multiple DCS vendors before, but I have never seen one going through the processes so quickly and at the same time having a mutual understanding between the engineering firm and other involved parties. The collaboration has worked out very well so far. Everything has been running smoothly and we are excited to be working together in the future. We’re definitely impressed by Yokogawa.”
Conclusion
The good collaboration between Yokogawa Netherlands and Emerald, with the help of the DCS Migration Tool (IST-203) from Istec International, leads to a great results. Yokogawa already used the IST-203 during other projects, and because of their experience the tool was a good part of the flawless migration.
Sources
- https://www.yokogawa.com/nl/iab/nl-klantinbeeld-emerald.htm
- http://www.automation.com/library/case-studies/the-great-dcs-migration-project-at-emerald-kalama-chemical
- https://www.istec.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Emerald-DCS-migration.pdf
