Plant designers can breathe a sigh of relief

Deadlines are urgent, suppliers must be informed and checked, and numerous disciplines must be coordinated, from the initial simulation scenarios via P&ID and detailed engineering to commissioning. Who is at what status? Is all data consistent? Is the plant documentation promptly complete and correct?

Engineering Base (EB) provides the answers, as the central data model of AUCOTEC's platform ensures cross-disciplinary plant development from the initial idea to the finest detail. Each object exists only once in it, and diagrams, datasheets and lists are only different representations of the same object. All departments edit and detail it from their point of view, and each addition is directly visible to all, without interfaces, data transfers and transmission errors. This gives rise naturally to consistency.

EB not only merges the essential engineering disciplines, but it also integrates the data of complementary systems such as simulation or 3-D tools. Thus, EB always enables smooth cooperation between everyone involved – in parallel, agilely and all around the world. Web services ensure the exchange between systems, and the cloud provides location independence.

This is also supported by Asset 360. The datasheets based on modular templates are generated automatically and offer a complete up-to-date all-round view of every asset, whether device or sub-system, including accessories and components. This only works because EB, as a single source of truth, combines all relevant plant data in its central data model. Plant designers and their subcontractors can thus complete procurement quickly and consistently, obtain approvals and communicate specifications and changes in a traceable manner.

Without a single source of truth, the data would be spread over numerous tools and would never be truly consistent. This complicates and delays all communication. In addition, changes result in a complex transfer ping-pong when using conventional toolchains. In EB, such changes are displayed instead in real time across disciplines and can always be traced.

It already starts with the transfer of simulation scenarios. They are automatically imported into EB and compared. The data of the resulting plant design is then already the basis for all subsequent work – without error-prone transfers. Thus, it is possible to proceed seamlessly from front-end engineering to process and detailed planning. For this purpose, a whole modular system of pre-planned modules can be created and managed, whereby EB's intelligent variant management keeps the number manageable. These modules enable the customized configuration of plants in no time, which are detailed in a highly automated manner on this basis.

In addition to the consistency due to the central data model, EB also prevents editing errors that would otherwise be unavoidable with the millions of pieces of data generated in plant engineering. Its rule-based design checks, for example, whether the PFD and P&ID fit together, whether the connections match the pipes, the pipes to the media or the cabling to the required performance. If there are discrepancies, EB draws attention to them. This is also only possible because EB "knows" all connections and associations, regardless of the discipline to which they belong.

EB's DCS configuration is also intelligent. The platform behaves neutrally with respect to the automation system that a plant operator specifies – AUCOTEC's DCS portal can handle any control system and automatically configure its software modules. This can save weeks of the usual manual work.

This solution thus offers all engineering experts in plant engineering a convenient platform with exceptional consistency – without any effort. This is of particular benefit to EPCs, which have to juggle particularly complex projects and many suppliers and associated data. With EB, on-time deliveries will no longer be a stress factor in future!