Q: Why should plants implement Profit® Assistant?A: Typical operator interfaces for multivariable controllers provide a large amount of information via numerical tables. While this is adequate in many cases (especially for engineers), it leaves a gap in understanding for the people who are running the application on a day-to-day basis such as the process operator. Profit Assistant presents information based on principles recommended by the Abnormal Situation Management (ASM®) Consortium that meet standards for best-practices in visualization and information interpretation.
Q: Can Profit Assistant be applied to all multivariable control applications?A: Profit Assistant is compatible with Profit Controller Release 205.xx applications. Due to the tight integration with the underlying control and data engines, Profit Assistant is only available for Profit Controller applications.
Q: How is Profit Assistant licensed?A: Profit Assistant is licensed on a per-process unit basis (i.e. all Profit Controller applications can be supported on a give unit, not per-screen). The software can be purchased or leased.
Q: Is there a limit to the size of application for Profit Assistant?A: No. Profit Assistant can be used on small or large Profit Controller applications. Its design was driven by the need to assist the operator in visualizing larger applications, so the benefit may be more significant as the application size increases.
Q: What are the platform requirements for Profit Assistant?A: Profit Assistant runs primarily on a TotalPlant™ Solution (TPS) GUS node or Windows NT/2000 workstation (for Open Systems). Additional requirements include a data server installation on the TPS APP (or Windows NT/2000 application computer) and embedded PHD or Oracle PHD. Profit Assistant is only compatible with R205 or later Profit Controller applications.