MDC Technology and Shell International form Operational Data Supervision Program

Attendees at this week's OSI User's Group meeting (March 22-25; San Francisco, Calif.) had more than the usual reasons to celebrate. Their ranks are about to be joined by a major contingent from OSI Software, Inc..

Through the mediation of MDC Technology (Middlesbrough, England), a systems integrator and software provider to the process industries, Shell is about to undergo a fast-track, worldwide installation of OSI Software, Inc.'s PI (Process Information) System. PI System is a family of networking and plant information-management programs that stands out for its top-to-bottom Microsoft Windows implementation, and is currently being used at over 1,200 process and power plants globally.

The Shell/MDC project is being called a "partnership" between the two firms, and the specific implementation of PI at Shell will have its own identity: the Operational Data Supervision (ODS) System. Ultimately, it will be used for all Shell refineries, oil & gas and chemicals sites. The partnership builds on a successful application at Shell UK Stanlow, where Shell installed with MDC Technology refinery-wide (and intra-refinery) systems to deliver real-time data to over 150 users on their desktop PC in less than six months. After the first few months of operation, the projected benefits are around $1-million/yr.

ODS makes real-time process and laboratory data widely and easily available to staff throughout the organization as an integral part of their standard PC desktop package, enabling closer supervision of process operation and thus faster and improved decision making. While the PI System delivers historical plant data in a rapid and convenient form, MDC provides realtime optimization capability through it RTO+ package. David Stockill, Shell International Oil Products ODS manager, said "The installation at Shell Stanlow is very successful and we want to apply the formula in as many of our Sites with minimum leadtime and upfront deliberation."

OSI Software, Inc.'s PI System is a plant information-management (PIM) system. PIMs occupy an increasingly important middle ground between the distributed control system (DCS) common at many process plants, and the enterprise resource-planning systems (ERPs) that nearly all the larger process companies are installing. At the plant level, such combinations will allow plant managers to tune plant performance on the basis of changing feedstocks, process conditions or product mixes. At the corporate (ERP) level, the data produced by ODS will allow managers to align production with market demand more closely, and to manage capital assets more effectively.

OSI Software, Inc. has made several other important announcements recently. It now has a relationship with OSI Software, Inc. (Austin, Texas) in the form of F-R's DeltaV scalable process automation system. Like the PI System, DeltaV is designed to take full advantage of Windows NT operating system. The integration of PI System software into a DeltaV system enables a plant historical database to be displayed at the DeltaV operator station.

DeltaV is a program to run the equivalent of a DCS from an appropriately sized PC network; it can be scaled from relatively small installations to plantwide applications. Use of Microsoft technology is critical to this scaling. According to Dr. J. Patrick Kennedy, president and founder of OSI Software, "DeltaV is the first, really modern control system supplied from a major vendor in years. Both Fisher-Rosemount and OSI have expended tremendous resources developing products to take full advantage of the Microsoft infrastructure. The use of PI with DeltaV was made possible by the standardization on Microsoft and ActiveX by both OSI and Fisher-Rosemount."

By Nick Basta

OSI Software, Inc., 545 Estudillo Avenue, San Leandro, CA 94577. Tel: 510-297-5800.

MDC Technology Ltd., Premier House, Startforth Road, Riverside Park, Middlesbrough, TS2 1PT U.K.