Productivity and Innovation Collide
by iDesignOffice Pty Ltd - January 2008
Productive, user-friendly & innovative concepts from iDO give you clear advantages
Instrumentation, Control Systems and Automation industries are experiencing unprecedented growth due to worldwide demand to bring new resource projects online and to improve efficiency in existing plants. Shortages of skilled engineering personnel can lead to delays in project schedules, cost escalations or worse, design errors.
The need to focus on time & cost effective solutions is paramount, whilst at the same time ensuring all aspects of safety & project performance risks are identified and appropriate mitigation measures applied; such compliance is mandatory from conceptual design to completion of a project.
The solution is to maximize productivity, minimize design costs, and eliminate human error. With this in mind Instrumentation Design Office (iDO) software was created to enable our clients to effectively manage the complex challenges associated with fast-track control system design, construction and process plant lifecycle.
Methodology
The iDO suite of products have been designed & developed to enable engineers and designers to deliver state of the art technologies associated with modern process plant engineering and construction.
Existing clients have reported high productivity and reduced man-power in EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) projects when using iDO. Some users have realised man-hour savings of up to 50% over initial estimates using iDO's high productivity software. One advantage is to delay the detail design phase to ensure P&IDs have final customer or safety approvals, vendor data is received or certified and major plant equipment and plant layouts are finalised. This will obviate costly downstream design revisions that would be experienced using traditional methodologies that require design to begin earlier to meet man-hour schedules.
Software Architecture
iDO utilises standard document formats such as AutoCAD DWG and Microsoft Excel to enable easy document exchange and compatibility. To a non-iDO user loop diagrams and Datasheets are, of necessity confined to `standard' documents. Datasheets can be exchanged with non-iDO users and any changes highlighted and imported back into the iDO database.
iDO utilises user definable catalogue data to define items in project Plant Wiring Models. Catalog definitions ensure data integrity for accurate connectivity and bill of materials. This feature reduces checking and eliminates costly errors when remedial modifications are required during construction. These types of errors can also cause protracted and costly delays in commissioning and start-ups; for example if new cable must be manufactured and delivered or other components ordered and shipped to a remote site. Using catalogue data also reduces data entry and supports the ability to produce mass changes by simply redefining the catalogue definition; for example change a cable type changes all project cables that use that cable type.
iDO uses a modern advanced graphical interface which is very easy to learn and use. Interactive cable block diagrams, internal cabinet/panel arrangements and cable/wire terminations use familiar drag and drop interface. All instrument/control `objects' are represented graphically in these interfaces so designers and engineers immediately understand their meaning. Design changes made anywhere in the Plant Wiring Model are reflected immediately in any document or report created by iDO. This ultimately results in productivity gains together with end user confidence gained from the softwares intuitive logic. Document checking is no longer a consideration with project timelines.
Commercial Options
Flexible licensing agreements include rental or purchase options. An optional Floating Network License enables multiple users to access the SAME suite license concurrently. For example a single iDO Suite license can be accessed by 3 users simultaneously (if each user accesses a different module).
Data Migration & Transfer Services
iDesignOffice offers Data Migration services from FEED study tag list in Excel spreadsheets, legacy in-house database systems or other main stream plant design software vendors database systems to extract and transfer this information into iDO or to facilitate production of numerous such documents in AutoCAD or Excel format from the data. We also provide services through our worldwide network of partner companies to input data from non-electronic formats into iDO such as transcribing termination data from manual drawings etc.