Minimising whole life costs starts with product selection

摘要

New analysis into control systems shows that you can reduce costs by managing sensors and transducers more effectively. The first areas that instinctively spring to mind when an engineer is challenged to reduce costs are usually purchase cost and installation. Why not? They are the obvious ones and they are the easiest to define and list. When viewed as part of a system however, purchase cost plays only a small part; managing the multiple signals from sensors and transducers differently can radically affect the total cost of ownership for that process system. Careful analysis conducted by Volker Erbe, sensors product manager at Burkert Fluid Control Systems investigating the whole life costs associated with field devices such as sensors, transducers and the control platform they are connected to, has revealed there could be far larger savings to be had from making changes to product selection at the initial stage of a project - changes that can have huge cost repercussions that occur during the less obvious operational phase, those such as training, start-up, process operator time, service, repairs and documentation.