VARIABILITY MATRIX: A NEW TOOL TOIMPROVE THE PLANT PERFORMANCE

Abstract This work introduces a novel methodology to quantify the profit gain due to reduction in the product variability. The base of the proposed approach is the variability matrix (VM), which relates how the loop variance of main loops is changed when the variance of the other loops are changed. Based on the potential reduction on the main loop variance, it is possible to quantify the economic impact produced by improving the tuning of given control loop. Based on the VM, it is possible to select the control loops responsible for the major impact in the variability of the products and which should be the vocation of the loop: good performance of robustness. The VM concept is applied to a simple distillation process. This example shows how the plant profitability can be improved by utility reduction and by selling products more impure.