Global Business Environment
for desalination and water treatment projects

Presentations

Presenting GBE is a challenge as it is not only 500.000 lines of code - it is entirely different set of mind.

How to win projects and influence clients (MS PowerPoint, 440KB) is an introduction into problems GBE is intended to solve. The recommended audience is the company top management.

The material (flash animations) below is a practical step-by-step introduction into a grass-root project execution.

Program download

First demo (1.31MB) shows how easily the GBE program of 18.9MB may be downloaded via internet and installed automatically on the user computer.

Project setup

Any new project starts from the logo creation (3.06MB) and P&ID item tag re-naming and re-definition. You may use P&ID tags (2.78MB) and P&ID symbols (2.16MB) suggested by GBE. During setup the equipment datasheets and general specifications are added and web document catalog(2.05MB) is auto-built. Finally the project tree library template is created. It is a file storage for external users which may be accessed through the internet.

Adding PFD and P&ID and specifying process equipment

By GBE, Process Flow diagram (PFD) is a declaration of the plant functionality targets to be implemented in P&ID. Lack of industry standards for PFD symbols is a good reason to represent it as a simple block diagram referencing only 4 points - fluid type and conditions, process reliability and process operation range.
GBE saves your time by offering a library of standard P&ID drawings. So you simply select an appropriate one and immediately start sizing equipment pieces. Specifying the intake pump (6.59MB) is actually sizing of 15 items at once and it illustrates auto-generation power of GBE. At this stage nozzles of all tanks and vessels (12.3MB) are sized as well.
A lot of new attributes common to a number of P&ID items are added through item grouping. For example, recurring item pattern (4.6MB) is used to group items into functionally identical modules.
Due to multilayer architecture navigation to item info (5.1MB) - design and construction data, specification, and detailed drawing – is fast. Web P&ID viewer (1.64MB) is light-weight alternative allowing item navigation from any location.
Finally the annotation to P&ID is added. Piman automatically builds links between the item tags referenced in annotation and P&ID containing the item.
Depending on the project preferences all item updates may be auto-saved to and easily retrieved from the database.(2.61MB)

Interaction between P&ID and plant layout

After all P&IDs are added and items sized the plant layout is prepared and added (7.15MB) in the same manner to the database. Then all created P&ID drawings, wired items and item groups are mapped to the layout. This procedure (4.45MB) is simple and fast.

Sizing process equipment

GBE has a rich and unique set of equipment sizing tools like RegRa (15.3MB), HYPE (3.36MB), Multipump (1.66MB) using ReGra database, and process calculators (3.52MB) Reports produced by these tools are automatically stored in the database (2.47MB).
GBE introduces new type of information for database storage – graph curves for pumps, hydraulic and chemical processes. The core of this database is pump operation data (about 80 pumps) from leading pump manufacturers, already used in SWRO projects.

Documentation management

GBE document management capabilities are illustrated by retrieval of certified drawings (1.48MB) and project documents (2.05MB)

Specifying top-level functional requirements

Basically GBE represents the plant control hierarchy as a four-level control tree rooted into eModule groups - wired substitute for above mentioned recurring item pattern group. This tree structure is called a control flow graph (CFG) (6.25MB).

Control and instrumentation

First step in control design is safety interlock creation (7.4MB). More sophisticated interlocks may include recipe (5.74MB) - function of primary values collected from instruments. To use recipe in interlocks, it should be turned into fault.(4.24MB)
Instrument interlock list (2.76MB) may be easily retrieved via internet. As shown interlock database has rich searching and sorting capabilities - scope may be limited to group, P&ID or project area. At this stage all control loops (4.28MB) shall be added and PID controller settings defined and stored in the database as well. The latter is always neglected in the projects.
Next step is to prepare documentation describing instrument connections - process and electrical ones. The process connections are shown on the instrument hookup drawing (6.12MB).
All electrical connections are created automatically (4.03MB) by a button click. So GBE turns into trivial task the most time consuming part of electrical engineering - wiring - previously executed by instrument and electrical engineers.
Finally instruments are auto-connected to the PLC cards (5.0MB) and the wiring diagrams downloaded to the project directory.

Project scheduling

Project scheduling does not require from the process engineer any knowledge about activity chaining and equipment delivery times - GBE auto-creates the project schedule (7.45MB) once the P&ID set and instrumentation wired.

Project costing

First the project metrics shall be created. The main part of it is the P&ID items metrics (1.4MB). Another couple of mouse clicks and the project costs summary (3.34MB) is ready.

Procurement

To move to procurement the vendor web registry (1.4MB) shall be activated and database prepared. To ease the user task, GBE comes with already defined set of equipment suppliers.
Next step is to define what to be procured. For those who uses only equipment list as a main document for procurement, GBE offers web equipment browser (1.49MB) with versatile sorting capabilities.
Actual procurement starts from the system of Product Identification Numbers (PIN) creation. PIN shall be attached to any piece of equipment (4.35MB) and supply package (4.39MB). Global update (3.83MB) of the PIN documentation payload is the most frequent operation.
Once PIN system has been set, order packs are auto-created and posted (8.96MB) to vendors.

Project status tracking and auditing

to be added soon...