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I am a DCS specialist who is well versed in Bailey DCS application in the power industry. I worked for Bailey on a large scale DCS job and got a lot of hands on and troubleshooting opportunity. I got really good at what I do for a living. In 1999, I left ABB and joined an American AE firm for a power plant commissioning project as a contact worker. In my new assignment, I had to do more Bailey work. Two years later, the project was completed and handed over to the customer. I chose to leave the company and started my own DCS service company.
Initially my business focused on Bailey DCS services and consulting. Business was good for the first couple of years. The only problem I had was constantly having man power issues coz I am the only guy who knows Bailey in this region. Due to the market situation, the business later evolved and I started to move into the OPC part of the business. OPC is the technology for the end users to invest, today. I believe it is here to stay. OPC business is good and OPC is easy to configure for the standard protocols e.g. modbus and modbus plus. But the problems come in when OPC is applied to legacy systems e.g. Honeywell, Foxboro, Emerson, ABB, GE and Alstom.
Most of the legacy DCS systems have OPC servers readily available in the market. The problem is the legacy DCS systems also needs special hardware for the OPC interface and these hardware are usually expensive and hard to get. Even if the hardware can be obtained, the configuration and installation is another problem. As a Bailey DCS guy, I can easily set up a Bailey OPC interface but when it comes to other legacy DCS systems, I am complete dummy (coz every product has its unique configuration and one wouldn't know the configuration unless he is at one time a DCS specialist himself). Hence my business area gets narrowed down to only facilities with Bailey products.
If we can form a league of freelance DCS specialists with different DCS systems know how, the business scope will become bigger. My question is if this league becomes strong one day, what would the DCS companies think of us? A friend or a foe? I still hope to be able to get hooked up with freelance DCS specialists all over the world so that we can exchange DCS product know how, configuration skills and business opportunities. Is anyone out there with me on my vision?
Initially my business focused on Bailey DCS services and consulting. Business was good for the first couple of years. The only problem I had was constantly having man power issues coz I am the only guy who knows Bailey in this region. Due to the market situation, the business later evolved and I started to move into the OPC part of the business. OPC is the technology for the end users to invest, today. I believe it is here to stay. OPC business is good and OPC is easy to configure for the standard protocols e.g. modbus and modbus plus. But the problems come in when OPC is applied to legacy systems e.g. Honeywell, Foxboro, Emerson, ABB, GE and Alstom.
Most of the legacy DCS systems have OPC servers readily available in the market. The problem is the legacy DCS systems also needs special hardware for the OPC interface and these hardware are usually expensive and hard to get. Even if the hardware can be obtained, the configuration and installation is another problem. As a Bailey DCS guy, I can easily set up a Bailey OPC interface but when it comes to other legacy DCS systems, I am complete dummy (coz every product has its unique configuration and one wouldn't know the configuration unless he is at one time a DCS specialist himself). Hence my business area gets narrowed down to only facilities with Bailey products.
If we can form a league of freelance DCS specialists with different DCS systems know how, the business scope will become bigger. My question is if this league becomes strong one day, what would the DCS companies think of us? A friend or a foe? I still hope to be able to get hooked up with freelance DCS specialists all over the world so that we can exchange DCS product know how, configuration skills and business opportunities. Is anyone out there with me on my vision?