|
|
|
Proactive Process Improvement Patent ApprovedStochos Patent Approved for Model-Free Process Optimization SoftwareSCHENECTADY N.Y.-October 9, 2002 -Stochos Incorporated, a long-time developer of manufacturing software, today announced that a patent has been issued for its latest advanced system, ProActive Process Improvement (PPI). PPI is an on-line, dynamic analysis system that improves the manufacturing process. This advanced control product is unique in its integration of on-line critical control variable identification, Evolutionary Operation (EVOP), and bi-directional communication with a plant control system (PCS). This integration produces a model-free process improvement environment to optimize plant performance. Being model-free, PPI eliminates the need for operating staff to both construct and train mathematical models of the process. The result is more cost effective use of staff time. The Evolutionary Operation approach ( EVOP), designed by George Box in the late 1950s, utilizes in-plant rather than in-lab experimentation to determine and to capitalize on the effects of the multitude of controlled variables on one or more of the response variables. It is the use of EVOP that makes the PPI system proactive as well as model-free (and hence training-free). PPI automates EVOP by incorporating an on-line procedure for doing the work of an off-line brainstorming team: identifying those controlled variables which need to be in the experiments. PPI features an on-line ability to identify and continuously monitor a wide range of key process variables to improve the quality of output. It systematically adjusts these variables (e.g., temperature, pressure, moisture, and density) in a timely manner to maximize throughput and quality while minimizing operating costs. PPI has demonstrated return on investment of less than one year. In one month of operation of the PPI system, one production line (out of five lines) of a plant converting Magnesium Hydroxide to Magnesium Oxide realized a reduction in annual energy expense of $35,000. This cost reduction was accompanied by a significant potential increase in throughput without additional capital investment. Typical potential users of PPI include firms in the food processing, refining, wastewater treatment, cement, and other "continuous process" industries. “PPI's leading edge quality technology is a natural product line extension to the firm's other quality products, including Custom/QC for off-line Statistical Process Control (SPC), and SPCDirect for on-line SPC, says Donald S. Holmes, president of Stochos. |
|
Send mail to webmaster@stochos.com
with questions or comments about this web site. |