6 Mistakes to Avoid When Upgrading

Upgrades Can Be Risky Business

You know your outdated plant system could pose a risk to your business. Itʼs not as secure as leadership is asking for, and itʼs getting more difficult to find both parts and qualified people to work on it. Unfortunately, it will only get harder –  and cause more downtime – as time goes on.

At EOSYS®, our solutions come from technical experts that know the Process industry inside and out. We give you more modern, secure systems that run more consistently, are easier to maintain, and lessen your business risk - helping you avoid lengthy downtime that costs you money.

That's why we've outlined the most costly mistakes you can make when upgrading your system. Avoid these, and avoid making your system a risk to your business.

1: Never Assume Your Control System Is Ready to Be Upgraded

It is always good practice to keep your controls code clean, but a running plant has operational needs that donʼt always align with good coding practices. Maybe youʼve had to make software changes at 2AM to keep the plant running and intended to clean it up when you had some spare time, but never actually got to it. Now is the time to find and remove any dead code or abandoned I/O - before you embark on a significant system upgrade.

Now is also the time to investigate new features the upgrade brings. Donʼt assume the way youʼre doing things now is the way you will still want to do them in the upgraded system. Enhanced block features are one of the reasons to upgrade, so take advantage of them!

Conversely, donʼt assume that the new system will work exactly like the existing system. We've encountered conversions where pre-existing code compiled and ran, but the pre-processor directives changed so it was no longer doing exactly the same thing it used to, in the same way. Itʼs always a good idea to talk to someone whoʼs been through the process to hear lessons learned you can benefit from, and avoid any unintended "gotcha" moments.

2: Never Assume Your Network is Ready to Be Upgraded

It will be important to create good documentation of what you already have, and outline exactly what you want. Look at your OT network as three sides of a triangle - Security, Reliability, and Functionality.

Security is more than logins, it starts with the network. Your network design will determine if security is easy to implement, or a jumbled patchwork of exceptions. Reliability is critical to plant operations and good network design takes this into account; meaning topology and hardware selection are critical. Functionality means not only will it work effectively with what you have now, but how well does it scale if you need more capacity in the future? Make sure you take all three of these items into account as you upgrade your network.

3: Never Assume You Are in Compliance with the Latest Safety Practices

Safety requirements around Burner Management, Process Safety, Machine Safety, and more have evolved. Not only should you check to make sure you are in compliance with the latest safety requirements, but now is an excellent time to re-evaluate the need for and use of Controller Redundancy, Safety Processors, I/O Redundancy, Intrinsically Safe I/O etc.

Continue to part two here, or download the full guide here!