February 2006

In this issue

	Classes and seminars
	New: TiPS and Top Control are now partners
	Exfor 2006 Montreal
	Trick of the month
	To contact us

Coming classes and seminars

PID Loop Tuning
February 22, Ottawa, ON
March 6, Atlanta, GA April 6, Ottawa, ON

Detailed Loop Analysis with ExperTune
February 27 to March 1, Atlanta, GA
April 26-28, Antwerp, Belgium

ExperTune Advanced Tools
March 1-3, Atlanta, GA

Control Valve Selection
March 7-9, Atlanta, GA

Seminar on modern control methods
March 22-24, Bangkok, Thailand
March 28-30, Malaysia, Malaysia

Seminar on Process Optimization and Performance Assessment Techniques Using PlantTriage
April 24-25, Antwerp, Belgium

Analytical methods for troubleshooting and Control loop tuning
May 23-25, Cincinati, OH

See our new calendar for 2006

TiPS and Top Control are now partners

Since January 1st, we offer to integrate in your plant LogMate® AMS™: Alarm Management System™ from TiPS Inc.

With this partnership, we now offer Alarm Management. LogMate from TiPS and PlantTriage from ExperTune work together to Integrate Best-in-Class Plant Performance and Alarm. We offer this winning combination to our customers. Using combined loop and alarm performance data, plant managers and organization executives will gain better insight into operating conditions and will be empowered to pinpoint opportunities for improvement.

Links:	LogMate:	http://www.tipsweb.com/products/logmate/
	PlantTriage:	http://expertune.com/PlantTriage.html

Visit us at Exfor 2006 in Montreal (Quebec)

We will have a booth at Exfor 2006 in Montreal, from February 7 to 9. Our booth number is 2010.

Trick of the month : Remote Access Provides Immediate Savings and Instant Support

On-site process controller tuning and optimization services have long provided performance benefits and have been highly touted as the lowest cost improvement one can make to reduce process variability. Done on-site, this service requires travel funds and time away from home for our engineer who performs the tuning work. Additionally, once on-site, these resources must bill for time even if the plant experiences problems (e.g. shutdowns, changeovers) that idle the tuning effort. Multi-party conference calling is utilized for verbal communication.

Recently, TOP Control partnered with plants to utilize ExperTune's PlantTriage tools and/or ExperTune's PIDTuner to tune and optimize processes, using a secured virtual private network (VPN) and remote terminal services. The tuning work was completed in the same time frame as being on-site, with no decrease in efficiency of tuning effort, and immediate savings through elimination of travel costs for an in-house and external consultant. Potential future savings also exist should the site require additional optimization work, including emergency service.

Estimated savings for one week of work:

Airfare:	$750
Hotel,meals, car rental:	$1,250
Traveling time:	$875
Idling time:	$1,050
Total:	$3,925
(Approximately 33% of total cost for one week on-site)

Emergency
Using this remote service, a plant in Louisiana saved many thousand dollars: they called during the next hours and saved hours of low quality production.

Conclusion
This new approach generates important savings. Human relations should not be neglected. We observed better results when the plant personnel and our specialist met before. Hence, we suggest doing the first visit in person. A secured link will ensure confidentiality.

To contact us

	Lévis's office	+1 (418)834-4321
	Pointe-Claire's office	+1 (514)695-3492
	Toll free	(877)867-6473
	Email	info@topcontrol.com