APRIL 2022

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF AUTOMATION www.isa.org/intech

SMART INSTRUMENTATION FOR

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How Standards Improve

Documentation and Change
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STANDARDS

The production of design and engineering docu- Combining these tools with international stan-
ments for automation projects is expensive and dards makes the output more consistent across
time consuming, and the output quality can vary end user, EPC, sector, and country. Many instru-
considerably, because often the processes are mentation engineers are accustomed to manual
mostly manual. However, many tools are available methods for creating the complex engineering
that can reduce time and cost, while increasing and design documents and drawings required for
By Vilas Desai and documentation quality. Engineering, procurement, typical process industry projects. These manual
Steve Mustard, PE and construction (EPC) contractors, instrumenta- methods are inefficient, expensive, and subject
tion engineers, consultants, and others use these to human error.
tools in projects, and educational institutions use
A typical small process industry project with
them to train the next generation of users.
1,000 input/output (I/O) tags may spend more
than six months producing required documen-

An automated, standards-
tation, incurring costs of around $150,000,
assuming no errors. Medium and large proj-

based documentation
ects will see proportional increases in these
costs and timescales. Problems identified and

process saves me and cost corrected later in the project may significantly
contribute to project cost overruns.

while increasing quality. Changes are common to any automation proj-

ect, whether to correct errors or to address new
functional requirements. Change management is
a major challenge to project cost and timescale.
The centralization and automation of docu- Managing changes through manual processes is
ment production saves time and money and prone to error and consumes a major portion of
removes many manual, error-prone steps. project implementation time.

INTECH APRIL 2022 20 WWW.ISA.ORG/INTECH

 STANDARDS

Project documentation requirements Excel has limited drawing capabilities. Tools such as AutoCAD
At a minimum, a typical process industry instrumentation proj- are more suitable for producing loop diagrams, hookup draw-
ect needs the following engineering and design documents: ings, PFDs, and P&IDs. AutoCAD is a computer-aided design
(CAD) tool used across multiple sectors to produce engineering
 Instrument index: A database for all devices documented in
drawings. Table 1 lists the limitations of current tools related to
process flow diagrams (PFDs) and piping and instrumenta-
scalability, lack of centralization, and required skills.
tion diagrams (P&IDs) (figure 1).
 Junction box schedules: Information about specifications
and quantity of junction boxes, the number of terminals Standards are fundamental
of different sizes, the dimension of the junction box, along ISA is a standards development organization (SDO) accred-
with construction, glands, and ingress protection of cables ited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
used in the project. (https://ansi.org). ISA produces standards for the automa-
 Cable schedule: Details regarding types of cables used, tion profession, including standards governing symbols and
number of cores, size, and length of various cable types. nomenclature, safety, and communications. ISA has been
 Wiring diagrams: Indication of how to wire instruments creating standards for more than 75 years and has produced
into junction boxes, marshalling racks, control panels, and several publications to ensure automation professionals
I/O channels of the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) have the technical resources they need to be successful.
or distributed control systems (DCSs). Engineering and automation professionals use ISA standards
 Terminal diagrams: Details of the connection of wires to in their day-to-day work designing PFDs, P&IDs (figure 3),
terminal numbers inside the junction box, marshalling rack, instrument indexes, specification forms/data sheets, logic
and control panel. diagrams, and loop diagrams.
 Device specification forms: Specification of details of all
Instrumentation documentation must follow all applicable
devices used in the project, such as project, client in-
company, sector, and country standards. The use of ISA
formation, general parameters, process conditions and
standards ensures a consistent approach across company,
parameters, construction, standards, process connections,
sector, and country. The ISA website has a complete list of
communications, and purchase details.
all ISA standards (www.isa.org/standards-and-publications/
 PLC/DCS I/O listing: A list in tabular form of inputs and
isa-standards), and ISA members have read-only access to all
outputs required for the PLC and DCS.
ISA standards. Some standards that ISA produces relating to
 Loop diagrams: Engineers and technicians use these
instrumentation documentation include:
diagrams to ensure all the equipment wiring is in accor-
dance with the design documents (cable schedule, wiring  ISA-5.1-2009, Instrumentation Symbols and Identification:
diagrams, and terminal diagrams). Establishes a uniform means of depicting and identify-
 Hookup drawings: Details of the mounting and connection ing instruments or devices and their inherent functions,
of field devices to the process. instrumentation systems and functions, and application
Currently, instrument engineers use several tools to software functions used for measurement, monitoring, and
produce project documentation, with Microsoft Excel and control, by presenting a designation system that includes
AutoCAD being the most widely used. Excel is well-suited identification schemes and graphic symbols.
to produce information lists, and there are many functions,  ISA-5.4-1991, Instrument Loop Diagrams: Establishes mini-
such as filtering and searching, that can aid users when ac- mum required information and identifies additional optional
cessing the information. Excel works well for projects with information for a loop diagram for an individual instrumen-
small I/O counts and can potentially produce many of the tation loop. This loop is typically part of a process depicted
list documents described above, such as instrument index, on the class of engineering drawings referred to as piping
schedules, and I/O listings. and instrument drawings. This standard gives guidelines for

Scalability Lack of centralization Skill requirements

There are limits in many commercial It is often necessary to use multiple AutoCAD requires substantial user
tools. There is a limit of 65,536 rows in tools because one alone cannot pro- experience to produce the typical
older versions of Excel. Newer versions duce all the documents required. Using project drawings described. Creating
support 220 rows, but at this size, the multiple tools can create discrepancies the project documents needed in Excel
performance of the application is unac- in output from the different tools. requires user knowledge of macros,
ceptable on most desktop computers. Visual Basic, and other Microsoft auto-
mation tools.

Table 1. Limitations of current tools

INTECH APRIL 2022 21 WWW.ISA.ORG/INTECH

STANDARDS

Figure 1. Instrument
index generated
from an automated
solution

Figure 2. Loop
diagram generated
from an automated
solution

the preparation and use of instrument loop diagrams in the „ facilitating procedures for quoting, purchasing, receiv-
design, construction, startup, operation, maintenance, and ing, accounting, and ordering by uniform display of
modification of instrumentation systems. information
„ ISA-20-1981, Specification Forms for Process Measurement „ improving efficiency from the initial concept to the final
and Control Instruments, Primary Elements, and Control installation.
Valves: Provides forms (checklist) to promote uniformity
in instrument specification—both in content and form—by
Automating the documentation process
listing and providing space for principal descriptive op-
Considering the limitations of existing methods, an auto-
tions. These forms facilitate quoting, purchasing, receiving,
mated solution should:
accounting, and ordering procedures.
„ be scalable to allow the documentation of the largest
With standards-driven processes and workflows comes the
process industry projects
assurance of following the best industry practices during the
„ centralize all data, so there is less scope for the introduc-
definition, design, development, integration, documentation,
tion of discrepancies
and support of automation projects. This ensures the execu-
„ be sufficiently intuitive and reduce the dependency on
tion of projects with precision and standardization. Benefits
specialist knowledge
to a project include:
„ embed key standards to help users produce compliant
„ assisting in preparation of a complete specification by list- documentation more easily.
ing all principal descriptive options
Figure 2 shows an example of an output from such an
„ promoting uniform terminology
automated solution. The data in the diagram comes from a
central database, and its placement is automatic. The user
Commercially available tools specifies certain basic parameters and can also change these
z Intergraph SPI-Intools by Hexagon PPM: parameters and obtain updated documents immediately.
www.hexagonppm.com Considering the example cited above of a small project
z Aveva Instrumentation: www.aveva.com/en/products/ with about 1,000 I/O, below is a comparison of the approxi-
electrical-instrumentation mate time taken to produce design and engineering docu-
z Plantworx by Softbrains: www.softbrains.net/products ments by an automated tool instead of methods using Excel,
AutoCAD, and other conventional tools. With the automated

INTECH APRIL 2022 22 WWW.ISA.ORG/INTECH

 STANDARDS
New From ISA!

FIC
I/P
Build your
process
FY
*01 *01-A

FE
FT
*01
FY
*01-B FV
control
foundation.
*01
*01

Figure 3. A P&ID drawn using ISA standards (FE: flow element, FT: flow transmitter, FIC: flow
indicating controller, FY: flow computational device, FV: flow valve)

solution, there is an upfront investment and cost while increasing quality, there is
to define the project properties and a strong case for using a standards-based
parameters, specify the tag formats, automated solution to generate docu-
create user roles and permissions, and mentation in automation projects. 
create detailed records for all devices in
the project. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Vilas Desai (d.vilas@
In a well-designed automated solu-
softbrains.net) is
tion, this is a one-time activity. There-
a member of ISA
after, generating any of the required
and has recently
project documents is instantaneous. been invited to
Because of the centralization of data, join the ISA20
there is far less work validating infor- committee that Expand your under-
mation across documents produced promotes unifor-
standing of automation
from the same centralized source of mity in instrument
information. specifications. Desai is the inventor and process control by
of the software tool Plantworx for
In comparison, users applying con- gaining practical,
Instrumentation Engineers and the CEO
ventional methods spend significant of SoftBrains, an engineering services real-world knowledge
amounts of time generating and regen- company for process automation based
erating project documents as changes in Bangalore, India.
of process control
arise, as well as validating the informa- systems, as well as their
tion across these documents. Steve Mustard, PE terminology, principles,
(steve.mustard@
A well-designed automation solution au2mation.com), and applications. This
can execute a project with 1,000 I/O
with 60 percent less effort compared to
is past president book is ideal for
of ISA and the
using conventional methods. This saving CEO of National students of process
grows as the I/O scope increases due to Automation, Inc.,
control and individuals
efficiencies in the automated process. in Houston.
Considering the potential to save time looking to expand their
skills and knowledge in
REFERENCES
this field.
ISA-5.1-2009, Instrumentation Symbols and Identification, https://www.isa.org/
products/ansi-isa-5-1-2009-instrumentation-symbols-and-iden
ISA-5.4-1991, Instrument Loop Diagrams, https://www.isa.org/products/ Order your copy today at
isa-5-4-1991-instrument-loop-diagrams
ISA-20-1981, Specification Forms for Process Measurement and Control
www.isa.org/pcbasics
Instruments, Primary Elements, and Control Valves
https://www.isa.org/products/isa-20-1981-specification-forms-for-process-measur

INTECH APRIL 2022 23 WWW.ISA.ORG/INTECH