Escalating challenges experienced in control facilities prompted Industrial Design Solutions (IDS) to provide 10 free hours of support in conjunction with the company’s new rapid response program. The initiative was developed to help alleviate the issue of long support wait times typical in the industry.

With the rapid response program, IDS engineers are actively addressing support issues within two to four hours, if necessary, on-site within 24 to 36 hours.

IDS, a U.S.-based engineering firm, is an advanced solutions provider and integrator for process control systems with decades of distributed control system (DCS) experience. The company saw an opportunity to fill a need for this type of support. Executive vice president Andrew Rohde said, "We understand letting someone new in to support your control system can be a scary time. Facilities need to be able to count on the response time and quality of the consultants they hire. Let us show you first-hand the high-level of support IDS provides."

The 10 hours of free remote/phone support is available to 20 qualifying facilities for a limited time. The program includes:

• Support related to the DCS network including logic and graphics issues, tuning and networking
• Dedicated phone-line to an IDS engineer
• 50% off one week of on-site support in the U.S. if the issue requires an in-person response

Qualifying facilities are power plants running supported platforms; oil and gas, LNG, and chemical process facilities; and water and wastewater treatment facilities.

Supported systems are Honeywell Experion, TDC 3000; Emerson Ovation; and Allen Bradley PLC.

When IDS-assisted facilities in Texas were among the thousands without power during the 2021 arctic blast, the team led by Cody Gratas, IDS senior control engineer, quickly reestablished all systems. "We are proud to partner with control facilities and plants and work with them to overcome these types of challenges. Our control engineers are dedicated to ensuring plant support needs are fixed right away," Gratas said.