Solomon Associates has been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its “Control Asset Comparative Performance Analysis System and Methodology.” The system provides a process for assessing the effectiveness of plant control systems intended to maximize profits and improve safety.

Control assets represent a significant investment for manufacturers, as they can include personnel, instruments and equipment, automation systems, computers, and software. Companies have for years been seeking a way to evaluate control assets and compare their performance to that of their competitors. The process defined in the patent allows companies to not only compare their existing APC investment, but also evaluate the benefits of new investments. Often, investments are made that could be addressed much less expensively by simply smoothing out the variation in the flow and composition of the feed streams to the process. The variation of key feed and product variables is compared to that achieved by the leaders. Justified investments with realistic targets can then be made.

“In more than 30 years of service, Solomon Associates has seen the significant benefits of performance benchmarking for individual operators and the global energy industry as a whole,” said Dale Emanuel, president of Solomon Associates. “Our Control Asset CPA System defines worldwide best practices to improve operations, creating real value for numerous industries.”

John Havener, Solomon Associates’ net cash margin performance improvement senior consultant, leads a list of the patent authors, which also includes Dr. Gregory D. Martin, Dr. Russell F. Brown, William Horner, and Dr. Richard B. Jones.

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