Distributed Control System Practice: A Case Study of C Company

[[abstract]]在全球油價不斷的上漲，導致各種原物料成本隨之提高，而人力成本又居高不下，產業面臨了前所未有的困境。在這樣的形況下，不管是科技產業，還是傳統產業，企業面臨的如此嚴峻的挑戰，然而只有降低成本與增加產能，才有可能使企業生存下來，因此生產線導入自動化技術已成為目前企業必走的趨勢。關於工業自動控制技術的發展，從八零年代分散式控制系統被廣泛使用以來，藉著電腦的進步，工業界開始逐步的導入各式控制理論而有所改觀。在越來越多成功的案例刺激下，目前可說已到如火如荼的境界，各種新的資訊技術陸續的被工業界引用。隨著網路技術的快速發展，對於網路的傳輸速度及多元化的產品不斷的推陳出新，乙太網路的速度也從早期的半雙工至今的全雙工Giga bit交換技術。乙太網路的廣泛應用，學術界及產業界也一直推陳出新，使用乙太網路為背景的系統，已是當前最普及的網路通訊協定，其中最關鍵的應用就是網路控制系統。本研究特別針對石化工廠的分散式控制系統(Distributed Control System)導入，以個案研究收集資料，目的在了解個案公司導入分散式控制系統的情況及探討系統導入時所遭遇到的問題，及導入後所產生之效益。經由訪談發現在專案導入資訊系統時，正確的評估專案所需之人力、良好的溝通協調及高階主管的支持，都有助於系統成功導入。低估專案所需之人力成本易造成員工士氣不佳，輕則導致專案時程落後，重則演變為專案失敗的清況。本研究最後提出實務建議供後續研究者參考。[[abstract]]The rise of global crude oil prices led the overall rise in raw material costs along with high labors costs Industries today face unprecedented challenges These challenges exist not only for the technology industries but also the traditional industries These enterprises can survive only if they reduce costs and increase productivity therefore these enterprises must build automated production lines which is the trend From 80’s the distributed control system or DCS has been widely used in automatic control technology for industrial applications This industry has evolved along with advances in computer technology After establishing a customer base with ever increasing number of successful cases a variety of new IT technologies are on the horizon with further industry application With the rapid development of internet technology the constant innovation of network transmission speed and the wide range of products the speed of Ethernet has changed from half-duplex early on to full-duplex Giga bit switching technology today The Ethernet network has been extensive used and the innovation technology has been brought from the academies and the industry Using Ethernet as the network protocol in the system become most popular of which the most critical application is the network control system This study is about a specific implementation of the distributed control system for a petrochemical plant The case study details the plant background the circumstances of choosing a distributed control system the issues encountered during system implementation and the benefits arising after implementation Through interviews it was found that information management systems in the project the correct assessment of the manpower required for the project good communication coordination and support of high-end executives all contributed to successful system implantation It was also found that underestimating the human cost of the project such as the required staff morale could easily lead to poor performance These range from the project falling behind schedule to a deterioration of conditions that could result in project failure Finally the study provides practical recommendations for future researc