CSense for Wonderware is a sophisticated range of diagnostic tools designed to extract data from Wonderware's IndustrialSQL Server in order to optimise production processes or to pinpoint the source of problems through easily-defined dynamic models. By rapidly homing-in on the cause of problems, CSense for Wonderware eliminates thousands of unlikely causes and presents operators with the most likely scenarios. This helps operators make informed and rapid decisions on the best course of action.

"When one considers that over 85% of regulatory control loops are ineffective in automatic mode, less than 5% operate properly and that 50-60% of all loops have equipment and/or design problems, the importance of an effective process diagnostic tool becomes obvious," says Mike le Plastrier, director of Futuristix, a member of the EOH group of companies and principal SA distributor for the Wonderware range of industrial automation solutions. "CSense for Wonderware allows engineers to rapidly isolate the complex cause of process problems, irrespective of their complexity, from a myriad of alternatives. Something which is virtually impossible to do on a purely intuitive basis and impossible to do rapidly to any degree of certainty."

Crusader Systems is a South African high-tech company providing software for process applications to the international process industry. In six years, Crusader has developed a niche technology that is being successfully exported and that has grabbed the attention of leading local and international industry professionals. CSense applications have an enviable reputation of being a robust suite of solutions that have been tried and tested on process solutions internationally by global engineering companies and end-users. CSense solutions have successfully been applied in the hydrometallurgical, pyro-metallurgical, minerals processing, food and beverage, petrochemical and chemical industries.

"Now that we know how to successfully build realtime process control solutions with more than one million I/Os," says le Plastrier, "it is time to focus on how we can help optimise the use of that kind of complexity through solutions like CSense, OEE (overall equipment effectiveness), downtime analysis and others."