At the SAIMC Johannesburg meeting held in June, DesSoft gave a presentation on the importance of having smart tools that facilitate information sharing between process, electrical and instrumentation departments. The software must be scalable and flexible enough to be used in projects of any size, and within various process environments such as mining, water, agriculture, chemical and nuclear, and also by EPCs and system integrators.
A key point made was that while electrical and instrumentation departments account for only 20% of a project’s costs, they produce 80% of the engineering documentation. Therefore, it is crucial to have productive tools to help these departments meet their targets efficiently. Digitising all information and documentation can assist companies in adhering to governance standards within their ESG responsibilities and ISO certifications by ensuring proper procedures and standards for maintaining digital data.
A vital feature of DesSoft’s smart product is that the same source of information is shared across departments, and is visible in P&ID, Electrical Designer (EDes), and Fieldbus and Instrumentation Designer (FDes). For example, all motor properties are accessible within P&ID; and EDes, and all instrument properties are shared between P&ID; and FDes. This leads to accurate information, and eliminates the duplication of equipment or equipment lists. Technical personnel can rely on their documentation for fault finding, significantly reducing plant downtime. For instance, locating a fuse number in a digital document is much faster than cable tracing to find the same fuse.
DesSoft’s P&ID; can save a PFD as a P&ID, where stream information becomes dump lines. These lines can then be changed to process pipes, and all control instruments can be added, facilitating accurate information and documentation. Another significant benefit of the smart system and its central database is the ability to display the same information across multiple documents. An instrument tag, for example, appears on the P&ID; diagram, smart datasheet, instrument list, cable schedule, I/O schedule, loop drawing and JB drawing, to name a few. The same tag number appears on at least seven documents, excluding the hookup, calibration sheet, costing schedule, installation check sheet, etc. This leads to exponential advantages when changes occur, as updating information in one place ensures all related documents are current. This eliminates the risk of missing a document update due to interruptions, ensuring consistent and accurate documentation.
The DesSoft application also creates smart (auto-generated) loop and termination connection diagrams, eliminating the need to draw lines manually and replicate terminal, core, cable, panel and soft address information per document. This enhances productivity and accuracy. These documents can be red-lined with the free and smart DesSoft DGM viewer. When a document is red-lined, the DGM viewer flags the database record for that document and activates a Changes Workflow, sending an email notification to the relevant responsible person, thus ensuring compliance with engineering and health and safety standards.
The presentation concluded with a live demonstration of the above functionalities, showcasing the smart tools and how the smart datasheets can share and maintain information between departments, the company, and their instrument vendors. Finally, the smart quick start method was demonstrated, showing how to begin any project and build information and documents within minutes, a process that traditionally takes days.
The presentation was very much enjoyed by the members who attended.
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