Paperless Procedures is a patented integration of Standard Operating Procedures and Process Automation that minimizes operator error and improves yields.

Standard Operating Procedures are essential training, crisis recovery, and knowledge-sharing tools, but only when they’re used consistently. By providing operators with a procedural check-list interface to the real-time data and control of the D/3^® DCS, Paperless Procedures™ (PLP) ensures safe and consistent decision-making, facilitates documentation and compliance requirements, and provides a faster way to train operators on new procedures.

1. Design or Import Procedures to Microsoft Visio

Operations staff import existing procedures and generate new ones using Visio flow charts and an PLP toolkit of logical objects. PLP converts these functional diagrams into an operator interface, automation code for the D/3 DCS and a traditional hard copy SOP.

2. Generate SABL Automation Code for D/3

Visio flowcharts are converted into Sequence and Batch Language (SABL^®) automation code for the D/3 DCS, a patented innovation. Users can further customize the SABL output with drop-down menus and input strings to create more intricate control routines.

3. Automated and Manual Procedure Execution

An operator checklist display allows both manual and automatic execution of procedures through the control system in an intuitive tree-format checklist. Operators and Supervisors are prompted to enter information and approve specific steps. Real-time dynamics from the control system can adjust the checklist or launch new ones, for instance an alarm can automatically open a rarely executed shutdown procedure, providing timely corrective information for a rare but potentially hazardous event.

4. Automated Accountability: Documentation and Compliance Record

PLP creates secure and time-stamped PDF records of every executed procedure to facilitate ISO and 21 CFR Part 11-Compliance.