It is no longer a secret that modern process plants can only operate efficiently if the data from the planning phase is also available for operation, maintenance, and modernization. However, paper-based documentation is cumbersome, error-prone, and hardly ever consistent. Mixtures of Office, Excel, and CAD applications, like MicroStation, for instance, are generally not the most efficient. Although they have high maintenance requirements, the as-built plant reality and the documentation do not necessarily tally reliably at all times. However, only if this is the case can costly new inputs and unnecessary engineering effort be avoided and plant availability maximized. Switching to a future-safe instrumentation and control computer-aided engineering (I&C-CAE) system that provides this consistency is a step that needs to be carefully considered, but it is definitely manageable. As the following example shows, a migration can take place in stages, either during plant modernization or in existing plants, without having a negative impact on ongoing operations, because old data is available throughout, and the costs stay manageable.
Kuraray Europe makes many significant contributions in the chemical sector with high-performance materials, technologies, and applications. To make sure it stays that way in the future, the enterprise continually invests in its production plants to keep them state of the art. When modernizing a plant, it is essential to document all changes so that they are traceable and available in the plant documentation, e.g., for maintenance purposes and for planning future projects.