One can argue that the development of console advanced controls is the best technological breakthrough for the oil refining industry.  From safety improvement to profit improvement, it's hard to imagine running a refinery today without the use of advanced controls. 

However, every diamond has a flaw, so here are my views of the pros and cons of every advanced control application. 

Optimize Everything at Once (The Good)

God bless engineers. They spent years asking for a slight move on a flow here, an increase in temperature there, and a reduction in pressure here and there. Day after day they walked into refineries and tried to optimize what they could one step at a time.

But that was likely the frustrating part. By the time you optimize the first area and move on to the next, the first isn’t optimized anymore because someone wasn’t watching it carefully enough.

So what did those engineers do? They went out and came up with Advanced Controls; little computer programs that have a never ending quest to optimize process variables.

These Advanced Controls not only figured out what the optimal move was but it also executed the move. It was like you’d stuffed a thousand nagging engineers and compliant operators all into one console… and they worked together in perfect harmony!

If you’re an engineer and have certain parameters that need to be manipulated in order to control another parameter stop reading this and go put some advanced controls on that thing! From the very complicated to the very simple, advanced controls can make life unbelievably easy for a console operator and at the same time make an engineer giddy with pride as they watch the unit being optimized every minute.

But wait… nothing can be that perfect can it? No, it can’t. You got me. There is a bad side to this equation.

In Computers We Trust (The Bad)

So you read the first section of this and immediately rushed out and put advanced controls on everything imaginable. Great work! Your job is done. Now sit back, relax, and watch a few episodes of Modern Marvels. And while you’re at it, let your console operator know he can do the same (maybe a different show for him though).

That’s where the problem lies. Too many times Advanced Controls cause engineers and console operators to stop questioning. They trust the

outdated because it hasn’t been updated after a major change in the unit. The moves that are made by the Advanced Controls should always be questioned and investigated in detail. Don’t put blind faith in that computer.

Your Advanced Controls Engineer (The Ugly)

Yeah I said it. Chances are that you’ve got that nerdy Advanced Controls guy lurking around the refinery somewhere. And I’m willing to bet that he or she is ugly and probably a little awkward to talk to. So what? There’s likely also some level of genius and passion for their work inside them as well.