An economic recession may be the perfect time for smart engineers to upgrade their plants and plan for recovery. While the sales staff works on finding new business控制工程网版权所有, operations and design staff can take the make the most of relatively idle time to retrofit existing machines. Here are 10 steps to success for wisely using a system integrator to help with the hard stuff.

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　　EliminateCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, virtually overnightCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, problems you have lived with for years with a well planned drive and control system upgrade.
　　1. Run the retrofitting numbers. Determine the cost-benefit of upgrading your existing equipment vs. buying new. Often the existing machine is sound and you can realize significant benefits with an intelligent control system upgrade. I regularly see throughput benefits of 30%-50% and savings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars after updating control hardware and implementing a better user interface. You can eliminate — virtually overnight — problems that you have lived with for years with a well-planned drive and control system upgrade. Retrofitting a machine will extend a proven asset’s life while improving production rates and reliability.
　　2. Involve the integrator early. Good partnerships build success. By involving the integrator early in the evaluation processCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, you have a better chance of getting the best solution for your production challenges. Good integrators look at the big picture and suggest cost-effective improvements to the entire production line that your team may not have realized were possible. Choose an integrator that you would like a long-term relationship with. They will look out for your best interests and help you achieve your budget targets through effective and experienced design efforts early in the project, instead of cost-cutting and features reductions when the money runs out.
　　3. Get the whole package. Make sure your integrator is providing the PLC/motion programming, HMI software design, drives控制工程网版权所有, control hardware, panel building, field acc