Transition to HTML5 Delivers Essential Enhancements and Positions Platform for Future Innovation
Manchester, CT – November 8, 2017 – Control Station today announced a new release of its flagship PlantESP™ control loop performance monitoring platform. The Fall 2017 release is based on the HTML5 markup language and delivers a wide range of enhancements targeting the security, performance and linguistic requirements of licensees. With its newest release the company augments PlantESP’s ability to support the diagnostic and optimization needs of single site, multi-site and enterprise process manufacturers on a global basis.
At the core of the Fall 2017 release is PlantESP’s transition to a more secure and robust front-end based on the HTML5 standard. With that transition PlantESP now equips users with enhanced application security. As an optional form of security use of Windows Active Directory authenticates each user’s login credentials prior to authorizing the exchange of information across a network. This capability equips IT administrators with greater control over PlantESP and aligns the platform with other approved applications. Improvements to security were deemed essential for the new release as safeguarding both user credentials and access to a facility’s process data remain critical concerns for process manufacturers worldwide.
With the transition to HTML5 PlantESP also gains a common interface for accessing and processing data from the numerous, diverse sources of data found at a typical manufacturing facility. Testing of the new release has shown processing speeds up to five times faster than achieved with previous versions of PlantESP. Improved processing speed is particularly important to implementations at larger process facilities that operate 1,000s of PID control loops. The transition to HTML5 also supports cross-platform mobile applications such as ruggedized tablets that are used increasingly by process manufacturers to assess performance from the plant floor.
“PlantESP continues to keep pace with ever changing requirements for access, security and performance,” shared Bob Rice, the company’s Vice President of Engineering. “The transition to HTML5 not only satisfies those core application requirements, it also provides a launch pad for future innovation.”
Among other notable enhancement within the Fall 2017 release is PlantESP’s multilingual support. The redesigned platform readily accommodates a user’s native language and is currently equipped to support several of the world’s most prominent languages. In particular the platform now supports English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish with the support of other languages scheduled for early 2018. PlantESP now recognizes the language setting on a given user’s computer and automatically applies the associated translation. Support of multiple languages is of particular benefit to PlantESP’s growing community of multinational and enterprise clients. To date the platform has been deployed at production facilities located on five continents.
“The challenge of improving production control and plant profitability is shared by manufacturers worldwide,” commented Damien Munroe, General Manager of Control Station’s EMEA Operations. “This new release equips all PlantESP users to capitalize more fully on the value hidden within their plant’s process data and to do so in their native language.”
PlantESP actively monitors PID control loop performance and proactively identifies issues that negatively affect production performance, including mechanical issues, loop interaction and poor PID controller tuning. In addition to traditional process optimization capabilities PlantESP has also been noted for its support of condition based maintenance. PlantESP’s range of benefits will be highlighted during the 2017 Process Solutions User Group conference hosted by Rockwell Automation. During the conference staff from both Control Station and Cargill will share how PlantESP is facilitating enterprise level improvements in Cargill’s process efficiency.
About Control Station
Control Station empowers process manufacturers to increase production efficiency and throughput. The company’s software-based solutions actively monitor and optimize plant-wide control loop performance.
The company’s products are both highly innovative and award-winning. PlantESP™ is the leading CLPM solution for identifying and isolating issues that negatively affect control loop performance. Control Station’s portfolio of LOOP-PRO™ products is recognized as the process industry’s leading solution for PID controller tuning. It is the only controller tuning software that accurately models oscillatory and noisy process data.
Control Station’s solutions are licensed to leading process manufacturers worldwide and they are available direct from Control Station and through its network of distribution partners. The company is headquartered in the United States.
