The Importance of Control System Monitoring and Having Continuous Improvement Tools in Place

Every day, you want to be sure that you are prepared for anything that life is going to throw at you. It is all part of having a contingency plan. Having control system monitoring and continuous improvement tools in place will allow your systems to be properly integrated. It can also ensure there is communication across all subsystems to ensure complete reliability.

What Happened with Delta

What happened with Delta in the first week of August is not something that anyone would have thought possible in 2016, given all of the technology that is available. Hundreds of flights were canceled as a result of a power outage. It caused a worldwide ground stop. The computer system shut down worldwide because of a simple power outage in the hub, based in in Atlanta. Flights were grounded for hours and tens of thousands of people experienced an upset in their travel plans.

Delta has said that it could take days for their computer database to recover fully. In the meantime, they were waiving change fees.

Could this have been avoided? Absolutely. They didn’t have a sufficient control system in place and various continuous improvement tools could have made a difference.

The Need for Control Systems

Control system engineering ensures that there is a strategic method to improving productivity and enhancing the best practices of your company. You want to eliminate the redundant manual controls and reduce human errors that could cost you a significant amount of money.

A control system should be evaluated frequently to ensure that the processes are where they need to be and functioning efficiently and effectively. This way, you can adhere to industry standards while providing the best service to your customers.

Remote Control System Monitoring & Management

You may need remote monitoring and management, especially when you have multiple locations that all intricately work together. This is all part of the continuous improvement process because you can learn about the control system software and hardware that you have in place. You can also create alerts when there is a problem so that you receive notification immediately.

One of the biggest problems is that you don’t want to find out about a problem too far after it has occurred. You want to be proactive and when you can monitor multiple endpoints all at once, it allows you to stay on top of potential problems.

Delta could have avoided much of the problem that they experienced if they had automated scheduled maintenance checks to learn about what a power failure could do. They could have also received notifications that systems went offline in order to get everything back up and running on a faster level. They could have also had a remote connection to the control system to be able to troubleshoot and get everything powered back up.

In the end, you have to expect the unexpected. Technology is evolving quickly and you have more automation controls than ever before. This will allow you to get more work done and ensure that all is going right with your systems. Even when you have remote locations, you can still be connected to them and manage them in an effective way.

Being proactive is the only way for you to succeed in today’s world. You want to give your customers the best experience possible and when you use continuous improvement tools, you can continue to improve and ensure that there are no hiccups within processes while adhering to all of your best practices.

Good Manufacturing Practices, Inc., (GMP) is a full-service control system engineering, system integrator, industrial controls, and automation solutions provider. Experience the GMP difference. Contact GMP to discuss control system monitoring and automation improvements.