Role targets billions lost annually to poor control loop performance and process variability
Control Station, a leading provider of process optimization and control performance monitoring solutions, today announced that Chris Christie, PhD, has joined the company as Director of Services. Dr. Christie will lead the continued expansion of Control Station’s Digital Lifecycle Solutions (DLS) program, which helps manufacturers maximize the operational value of their automation and process control investments.
Demand for Control Station’s services has grown rapidly as manufacturers seek to extract greater value from existing control systems. Over the past year alone, contracts for the company’s Digital Lifecycle Solutions services increased 29.6 percent, reflecting increased industry focus on improving control loop performance, reducing process variability, and sustaining high-performance process control across production facilities.
Control Station’s PlantESP platform enables manufacturers to continuously monitor control system health and identify poorly performing control loops, oscillations, and other sources of process instability that limit throughput and product quality. However, many organizations struggle to fully realize or sustain these improvements due to resource constraints or limited process control expertise. Control Station’s DLS services address this gap by combining advanced analytics with hands-on engineering expertise to drive measurable operational improvements.
“Manufacturers are increasingly looking for partners who can help translate data into sustained operational gains,” said Dennis Nash, President of Control Station. “Chris brings extensive experience deploying PlantESP at enterprise scale along with deep expertise in process control strategy and services delivery. His leadership will help us continue to scale our services organization while delivering even greater value to our customers.”
Dr. Christie is widely recognized within the automation community as an authority on control and enterprise-wide process optimization, bringing more than 20 years of industrial experience across a broad range of applications and industries. His work spans mining, oil and gas operations, and food and beverage processing, where he led initiatives focused on improving process stability, increasing production throughput, and strengthening plant-wide control performance.
Prior to joining Control Station, Dr. Christie served as Process Control Capability Lead at Cargill, where he led the enterprise rollout of PlantESP across more than 100 facilities worldwide. The deployment supported operations across Cargill’s oilseeds, food ingredients, protein, salt, and bio-industrial business units, helping engineering teams to proactively identify control performance issues and implement improvements across large and complex manufacturing environments. He holds a PhD and MS in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech and a BS in Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of the West Indies. Following completion of his doctoral studies, he served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Drexel University, where his work focused on applying an engineering process control approach to biological control systems.
“Sitting at the intersection of advanced analytics and manufacturing operations, Chris brings a unique combination of industrial experience and technical depth,” said Bob Rice, PhD, Vice President of Engineering at Control Station. “Customers increasingly rely on us not only for the technology to monitor control performance, but also for the expertise needed to translate those insights into sustainable operational improvements. Chris has built his career doing exactly that.”
According to McKinsey & Company, optimizing industrial process control represents a $100–200 billion annual economic opportunity globally—yet much of this value remains unrealized. Much of this value remains unrealized because organizations lack the resources required to continuously monitor, diagnose, and improve control system performance. Control Station’s Digital Lifecycle Solutions were developed specifically to address this challenge. The services guide customers through three phases of performance improvement:
- Identify — diagnosing poorly performing control loops and sources of process variability
- Implement — deploying corrective actions and optimization strategies
- Maintain — sustaining performance through continuous monitoring and engineering support
By combining advanced analytics with deep process control expertise, Control Station helps manufacturers improve throughput, reduce energy consumption, and sustain high-performance control across their operations. Control Station’s engineering teams provide support through a combination of remote monitoring, analytics-driven diagnostics, and onsite engineering engagement, enabling manufacturers to maintain high levels of control system performance throughout the lifecycle of their automation investments.
